Lebanon Reflections from Tiffany Love

Lebanon was a place I had only rarely ever heard of, and almost always when I did hear about Lebanon it was not good things that I heard.  I didn't really want to go to Lebanon, in fact I had many other plans of my own on how to spend my time and money.  However, God had other plans and continued to tug at my heart that I needed to go to Lebanon.  I half-heartedly signed up to go, but still wasn't sure about my purpose in going.  Then in planning, Tim asked me to share my story with the kids.  I was nervous about this, and thought there were better candidates in our team to speak than me. 

Once the kids arrived, I knew why God sent me.  For an entire week I was able to love kids that are created in God's image.  Each one of them had something unique to offer, and even with twins and sets of brothers there were no two kids alike.  I treasured every moment of spending time with the kids each day, and looked forward also to getting to know the house moms.  I was able to help one boy learn to float on his back. I learned how a 9 year old views the world and what roles he sees Russia and China playing in his own life. The time spent was meaningful, and then I had to share all about the chaos thatnhas been my life. The boys really identified with that, and had lots of questions because many of them were trying to make sense of their lives too.  God used all the junk in my life to impact the lives of others. After that, the conversations got even deeper and more meaningful.

The last night there, one of the house moms, Ferdita, chose me out of so many much more deserving folks to say thank you to. This touched my heart as I felt I had not spent nearly enough time investing in the lives of these wonderful women that serve daily in their committment to helping these boys grow up. Ferdita spoke to me about the impact I had on this trip and on the boys.  Each of my team members were so much more deserving of this personal thanks as they had taught the Bible stories, sang and played with kids just as hard as I had and in most cases moreso.

God had a plan that was bigger than what I could see.  I couldn't understand ahead of time why me, why Lebanon in 2012, but God knew and to God be glory for the work that was happening in Lebanon before we went, and for the work that will continue after we are gone.