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Two girls on the beach front that impacted my life.

One in Amsterdam. One in Fortaleza. Two interactions which marked my life; one full of hope and new life. The other void of future and dreams.

I was driving back from the city centre last after praying with a team that was heading out to evangelise on the beach front. Driving along my thoughts wandered to two beautiful women I’ve had the privilege to get to know on my journey in ministry, and how meeting with them on the beach front meant such different things.

The first was Anna. When I first got to know her she was a bubbly 12-soon-to-be-13 year old who came to our open house for street children in Fortaleza around 2003. She quickly connected with us, and we celebrated her 13th birthday during one of our times. A few months later I remember the same girl come to our door in quite a different state. Her hair bleached blond and tangled, and her body bruised. I remember sitting in the office listening to her story of finding herself in a taxi on her way to a client, deciding to get out on the way, only to be beaten up by her friend for not following through. Listening to this scared, young girl, as she poured out her heart, I remember holding back my own tears and quietly praying for the strength to be strong for her... Six years later I am at the Beira Mar beach front. A group of women walk past and one of them says: “Oi tia Elisabeth.” It was Anna. The young girl, now young woman was, stood in front of me, and yet my heart sunk as I saw how dead the expression in her face was and how ragged her body looked. We sat down there by the sea and talked. At first her answers were affirming that she was doing fine, yet the fake smile and lack of life in her eyes shared a different story. As I asked her if she was doing programas her response was: ”I won’t lie, tia, I am. But I like it!” We talked a little more and I prayed for her, before she went off to join her friends. Seeing her go I realized that she might even believe what she told me at some level. A girl so lost she believed she was living in freedom.

The other beach moment brings a smile to my face even as I write it. It’s the story of Isabel and the setting is a beach in Zandvort aan Zee, just outside of Amsterdam. The story of a woman I met in a window whose life changed forever when she met Jesus. The beach part of her journey was her baptism. And the baptism “pool” was the North Sea in May. I remember the joy and celebration of life, and I remember the coldness of the water as we ran into it to baptise her. Yet, what I remember most was her testimony of how she was stuck in darkness and Jesus came and gave her life. The memory of that moment almost a year ago means even more knowing that she continues to walk day by day with God. Knowing that as people are out ministering to women who are where she was, she is interceding on their behalf; asking God to meet them and change them, the way He has her.

I don’t know what happened to Anna. It’s been 7 years since that encounter. But I still pray for her from time to time when I think of her. I hope that the future she was walking into when I met her has changed and that maybe, just maybe one day I’ll meet her again and she’ll not be so lost anymore.

As I am remembering; the recent and the distant, I realise that this remembering is also part of processing this journey. Facing a moving on is also about looking back and realizing what my journey has been. And as these memories trigger other memories, and many many faces return to my mind and heart, I realize that although I haven’t lived that long, my life even to this point has been so rich. Rich because I’ve been allowed to love so many amazing people. Rich, not just because of the happy, joyful moments, but also because of being allowed be to share in pain and hardship. And I am even richer because I find that the same way I carry so many in my heart, there are others who in the same way carry me in their hearts. And that brings me joy.

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