When God Defends

The Storyweaver is always at work. He moves long before we even know our need and uses our story lines generations later. Each of the stories you hold now in your hand started long before the events I recorded here. Yours and mine did, too! I had great-grandparents who were both pastors and supporters of missions. They raised my grandmother and her brothers to be in ministry, and our reunions were always full of hymn singing and people asking each other, “How’s it going with your soul?” All of that played a part in my serving as a missionary.

Sometimes God uses the good in our stories to prompt us to do more good, and sometimes he uses the hard, to show us there is another path. Either way, we can be confident “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). One of the hard parts of my story is I lost my dad to cancer. This loss is not necessarily any easier today than it was when it happened, but I have seen God use it as I talk to fatherless children around the world. It’s just one example of how he uses all of our story, all of the time.

And there are so many story lines happening at once! I have story lines as a writer, wife, mother, missionary, friend, sister, daughter, aunt, and the list goes on and on.

You have lots of story lines going on as well, story lines at school or at co-op, story lines in your family, in your neighborhood, in your church, on your sports teams or in your music groups. God is also weaving you into the lives of children around the world, with each prayer you utter and each dollar you share!

There aren’t just story lines we can see today, but story lines from the past that brought your parents together, that brought you to the town you are in, or to the school you attend. There are story lines in the future—people and places you will visit and be called to serve or share with.

With all of that epic storytelling going on, it’s a good thing there is a Storyweaver we can trust to keep it all straight!

Just take a closer look at some of the story lines of the people you met in this book.

The people who gave Jorani a home during her healing and restoration from slavery were from a group founded in 2001, back when Jorani was still living happily with her parents as a little girl. God saw her need ahead and stirred his people to action in preparation for Jorani’s story and many others like her. Lots of relationships went into her rescue and restoration. Read the following real-life letter she wrote to her sponsor who helped pay her expenses while she was learning about sewing . . . and Jesus:

How is your family? I am very well. I was very, very happy on Christmas day. I know that your family was also happy on Christmas day. I am going back home in January 2012. I am very excited when I knew that I am going back home soon.

The reasons that I am very happy to go back home are:

• First: I can look after my grandmother.

• Second: I can open my small sewing business.

• Third: I am very very happy because I can help my family.

I want to say thank you for you to be my sponsors. Thank you so much for your love. I love your family so much and I am going to remember all of your love that have given to me.