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Unconditional Love My Story Africa


My Girls in Africa

About 2 weeks before the mission’s trip to Africa, Sept. 19th to be exact, this phrase entered my mind as I was working around the house, “Love is free” and then “Love Don’t Cost A thing by JLo”. And I thought, “That’s not true”...

Love is NOT

Priceless

Love cost God

His Son, Jesus

Love cost Jesus

His Life

It is free for us

To obtain God’s love

Because of Jesus’ sacrifice

It is free for us

But it wasn’t free for God

God’s agape love

Earthly love

Is not priceless

It costs time, energy, and

your right to be right.

If we are to love

As Christ loves,

Then it costs us our lives.

“Deny yourself,

take up your cross and

follow Me”, Jesus said.

He also said, “ lose your life for Me and you will find it.

Hold on to you life and you will lose it.”

It’s a sacrifice.

So Love costs.

But it is a cost,

An expense that pays back with

Double returns,

Triple interest added

And it doesn’t cease to satisfy.

The deposit of love

Cannot compare to the love

That pours back to you

In overflowing amounts.

So the cost

Cannot compare to

The dividends.

The incoming Love

Surpasses the outgoing

cost of love.

So love deeply

And fully

Without holding back

So it returns to you

Sevenfold!!!

2 Corinthians 9:6 says whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously/bountifully will also reap generously/bountifully.

In 1 Peter 4:8 God tells us to love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins/faults

And in Gal 6:9, He tells us to not to become weary or give up in doing good because at the right time we will reap a harvest!

He also said, “ lose your life for Me and you will find it.

Hold on to you life and you will lose it.”

So love is a sacrifice.

God’s Love

When I was a little girl of about 7 years old, I used to have visions of going on a mission trip and giving all of my stuffed animals (which was then my prized possession) away to the poor children and they being so happy and hugging me.

Well, about 33 years later, I got to realize this heart’s desire and my only expectation was to see those happy faces, love on them and getting those love hugs.

On the 3rd day of our mission trip to Africa, I fell in love with 3 girls: Lindelwa, Nosizwe, and Simmele. They were between 11 and 12 years old. From the first day, they just wanted to hold my hands, be close to me, hug me. They asked me questions, compared our skin color, touched my hair, showed me their games, taught me and some others some siswati, their language. They even made up a song so I could remember their names and eventually included my name in it too, so I was part of them.

God revealed to me His great love, starting with the love of a father through these 3 girls. I also had my heart set on this quiet, observant young boy about 10 years old, but I never got to see him again.

Well, they were attached to me and we just played games. And they wrote me a letter sharing their love for me and desire for me to keep in touch and return to visit next year.

I teared up once again.

Every night when I returned to the hotel, I cried. Just weeping before the Lord. Every time I thought of who I could sponsor I cried, because I couldn’t just choose one and I didn’t know how to go about it. Crying it out and giving it to the Lord was the only way I could express what I was feeling, this overwhelming feeling.

I have a bit of OCD with my hands and sterilizing stuff. I’ve def gotten better, as I no longer carry around hand sanitizer and really just trust in the Lord to sanitize whatever when I cannot. Like I’ll seriously pray over whatever it is and for protection.

Well, when we arrived at the Care Point, we are flooded with loving greetings from the young children, pre-schoolers. They just want to be touched, hugged, and loved. So this mutual exchange is so beautiful. Here we are to show them love and they have opened those gates to receive this love by loving on us. How do you turn away love? It pretty hard or only if you heart has turned into bitter stone.

So back to my girls.

I’m at the hotel, spending my alone time with Jesus and pouring out my heart to Him. I mean I couldn’t stop the tears from coming down. I started to think how they may have lice or they, not just my girls, but the children, may have some skin infection, or disease and here I am loving on them, hugging them, they are all over me. They played with my hair, hugged me, grabbed my hands and arms and neck.

Well, I had this overwhelming feeling of I DON’T CARE if they have lice, or a skin issue or any other type of sickness that was contagious. It wasn’t going to stop me from loving on them. It wasn’t going to stop me from hugging them. Not them nor my sisters from CT eSwatini and the Care Point, who I had now grown to have this deep affection for.

I recalled my young precious sister missionary, 20-year old Gabby Ayala, who has been answering the call on her life for years, going on some intense immersive mission trips, living amongst those she served. Her mother shared with me that during one of those trips, where she served in an orphanage, they had an infestation of lice, which led her to get it multiple times. She would get rid of the lice and then it would come back. It came to a point where she decided to remain with lice until she had completed the mission, understanding that this was going to continue to occur.

I never asked her why she chose that but I felt like now I understood it.

This sacrifice spoke volumes to me now. I recalled it.

And here is what I was now feeling.

I didn’t care what they had and if I got it or not. Of course, I had prayed for protection and healing for me and my team before even coming to this trip.

But all I could think and feel was this

overwhelming feeling of

I don’t care what illness you may have,

if you have it, I’ll have it!

It’s not going to stop me from loving you.

If you die, I’ll die.

We are ONE.

I no longer felt amongst them,

but a part of them,

my CT eSwatini Fam and all the children that came to the Care Point.

It was this overwhelming, rushing, intense love that I could hardly contain.

I could only express it through my tears.

And every time I would begin to talk about my girls, I would begin to cry.

So I didn’t speak of them.

The only person who saw me cry was my beautiful, por dentro y por fuera, roommate, Mery Mustafa, that night.

Most nights were filled with silly and delirious tired laughs this night I shared this all with her.

I couldn’t hold it back.

Because God had revealed to me

HIS LOVE

His great agape unconditional

incomparable,

sacrificial,

overwhelming,

coming in like a rushing river,

Fighting for you,

I got you,

I’m with you,

I’ll die for you,

LOVE!!!

And this is the love God placed in my heart the day that I chose him to live in me, believed in Him to walk with me and be my savior.

God says,

I don’t see your dirty.

I don’t mind your sickness.

I don’t care if you are diseased.

I see your beauty, your love,

All that you can be

And all your wonder.

God sees all that He placed in you

When He created you

All the COLORS of HIM.

Love One Another

So, He tells us, “As I have loved you, so love one another”.

How difficult this is on our own strength/might.

You may say,

“God how can I love like that

Being willing to die for someone

and love someone I just met?”

Cause You also say,

“No greater love has someone than this

That he lay his life down for his friends.” (John 15:13)

But I realized

It was not my strength that opened my heart

to love in this Unconditional way.

It was His Holy Spirit

And me Allowing the opportunity

For His Spirit to work through me.

We all have this great big unconditional love

Deposited in our hearts the moment we accepted Jesus into our lives as Lord and Savior, surrendering to Him.

He doesn’t ask us to be equipped, when He tells us to do something or calls us. He says he will equip us (Hebrews 13:21)

And it is

“...God who works in and through you to fulfill His good purpose.” Philippians 2:13 (for it is God who works in you to will and to act to fulfill His good purpose.)

He seeks a heart that is available and willing to do His will.

A surrendered heart

Whose eyes are fixed on Jesus

Listening and seeking intently

Readily prepared to obey.

So,

“Deny yourself

Take up your cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24)

Becomes a verse that is greeted with hopeful and joyous expectation!

Because when we follow Jesus

He takes us from glory to glory

Better to best

So Love

As Christ loved us

Deeply

Unconditionally

And

Without end.

  • “As He has loved us, so love one another.”

In John 13:34 Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

  • Because Jesus says, “ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:35)

  • “ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.” 1 John 3:14

We are one!

In the Body of Christ

  • Jesus prayed for his disciples and also for those who would believe after...us, saying, “...I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one-as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me” John 17:21

  • And again In John 17:11, Jesus says praying to the Father, “I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one.” That name is Jesus.

  • John 17:23, “I in them and You in Me-that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.

So, we are to proclaim/share to others what we have seen and heard, learned, so that others may share in the fellowship and joys we have with the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son. 1 John 1:3.

  • “He who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:17

Grafted In

There were 3 girls God had placed on my heart and 1 boy around the age of 10.

But my 3 girls had a friend. And so the 3 became 4.

Now, God bless this child but she was not given to me but because she was my girls’ friend, she too received the love I gave to them and every small significant detailed gift she too received the same from me.

Because they loved her, I loved her. She was grafted in by love, their love.

It reminds me of us. Salvation came for the Jews but we, Gentiles were grafted in to the family. (Romans 11)

And also when God tells us in Matthew 5:43-48 that He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and the unjust. He tells us to love our enemies, showing we are His children and so being perfect as He is perfect.

Prayer

As a whole church

Lord, I surrender my life and my will to you.

Here I am.

Purify my heart with your precious blood and

Give me the grace and love to love You and love others

Deeply and unconditionally.

I bring every thought and submit it to the truth, Your Word.

Teach me your ways.

Give me the strength and courage to obey.

The wisdom to carry out your plans.

And bind us all, Brothers and Sisters in Christ

Together in one mind, heart and purpose

For your glory to be revealed

To draw all people from every nation

To Jesus Christ, Your Son.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Love & Worship in Any Language

We are One

The last great highlight I want to leave with you was on our last day at the Care Point. We had blessed our CT fam there with needed items. I captured and we joined in on their worship and praise offering to the Lord. Worship Videos:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0oxcc0X2s85MjhBEYLx3zNZmA#Manzini

Love in any language

Love with no limits and all possibilities

Love that recognizes the Spirit within

On a mission of Love!

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