Monday, May 01, 2006

In the fold of God in Old Town

So, on Saturday night we had the Invisible Children camp out thing in Old Town where we simulated the commute children in Uganda make from their village to a city to evade captors that would make them soldiers against the govt. in their civil war. Anyway, since it was Saturday the party people of Ft. C's were also out. Crystal and Julie from RSS and Whitney - a new Summitview sis and I were chilling out in our sleeping bags right near Zydeco's. It was maybe not the best move, but time would show that God allowed it for a reason. That reason came around 12:00 when a bunch of guys kept giving us a hard time and flirting with us when we were trying to explain to them the predicament of the children in Uganda. Mike and Brad from RSS came over and were basically our body guards. We were able to sleep while they stayed up and guarded us. Mike had to back into and push out of the way some guys that were harrassing Whitney and Crystal and I.

Earlier that evening, Loren, the Joels and Tim had walked around handing out tracts and sharing. Loren gave us RSS / SVCC sisses tracts to pass out to people. Before Mike and Brad came over, I was laying there holding the tract and praying and trusting God for protection. The line from Come Thou Fount about 'The fold of God' came to my mind. I imagined us sisses (Julie, Crystal and Whitney) all asleep in 'the fold of God' under His protection. I lay in my sleeping bag at timed dozing off, all the time clutching to Loren's tract as a tangible reminder of my salvation - protection and security in Christ.

When the guys came over (otherwise known as our RSS Posse) it was like an answer to my prayer. What's interesting is that the guys were there from God, but it was really God through them that was still protecting us. I think it was so cool how that worked out like that. Julie and I were talking about the guys having a strong protection orientation. She said it was strong because God may have given that to the guys at Creation, but also because we really were One in Christ and a family, the guys protected us like how biologcal family members protect each other. That made sense because we were an eternal family.

I'm listening to the song We are One by Switchfoot as I was thinking about this song when I was writing this blog. As I lay down next to my brothers and sisters (from left --> right if someone were at our feet looking down at us, we went like this: Brian, Mike, me, Crystal, Whitney, and Julie), I realized that I would give almost anything in gratitude to our guys because they were willing to get jeered at, and pushed by drunk guys - basically, they were laying down their own safety so us ladies could curl up at their feet and sleep safely. I realized that this was only a small snap of how us sisters will feel when one day, God reveals to us the man whom He picks to give his life for us - to provide for, protect, encourage, and become one with us. How deep will that love be then. Right there on the ground, with two wiggling sleeping bags next to me, I prayed, "God, if I can trust You for brothers to protect me for one night, how much more should I trust you for someone who will lay down his life for me to mimic what You did on the Cross for all of us."

Us sisters owe the guys some mad amounts of pizza or cake or something.... :)
Praise God!

No comments: