Yesterday was a day of fun at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home Palmetto, Georgia campus. It was a day that that Lord had made, indeed, for me and for the children, as His Holy Spirit filled it with His blessings.

~”This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”~Psalm 118:24, English Standard Version~

One of the staff of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home gave me a tour around the campus. I did not realize, until she shared with me, that the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home Palmetto campus is 400 acres, filled with many, MANY buildings and lots and lots of land! The teacher staff shared with me that the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home rescues girls, who have been through sex trafficking, as well as houses pregnant mothers  who are not financially stable, until their children have been born. These were facts that I did not know and that I thought to be very interesting. She also showed me a retreat area that is in the back of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home Palmetto Campus, where missionaries come if they need a break from doing their missionary work or if they need a safe space to refuel and get spiritually re-charged. This area was very calming and I could feel the peace of God in the atmosphere as the teacher staff shared this with me.

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After I was given a tour of the entire Georgia Baptist Children’s Home Palmetto campus, I was given a very tedious task. Me and another intern were assigned the task of organizing paperwork concerning the children in big, big binders. Even though I thought this task to be very boring, I did it anyways because I knew that He would bless the works of my hands for completing such a task as this. This was ministry, at its finest, as this task prepared my hands for a task that was coming ahead of me that would be bigger than this assigned task today.

~”So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”~1 Corinthians 10:31, New Living Translation~

After I completed this task, one of the teacher staff of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home and me helped to organize for the field day that would be for the children. I assisted him by putting together a water slip and slide for the children,which they thoroughly enjoyed. The water slip and slide consisted of two blue mats with a water hose that poured a spring of water and soap onto the water slip and slide so that the children could slide down on the water slip and slide mats. The end of completing this task was very fulfilling because it gave me a sense of purpose and direction for these hands that I used to work to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the children who were at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home.

I went inside immediately following this task and assisted the teacher staff of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home with the indoor field day activities. I was assigned to stand at a game area that consisted of a mat with ball darts that the children could throw and score points. I distributed lollipops to all of the children and cheered them on as they threw the ball darts at the mat. It was fun and very encouraging, indeed!

Towards the end of the day, the children had a water ballon fight and I was the ONLY teacher who participated. One of the children managed to toss a water ballon on my head. I laughed and I giggled as she yelled, “YES!!!,” and I laughed and giggled outloud and alongside her and at what she did.

It was fun to see the children laughing and playing. It was fun to see the children running around, innocently and as God intended for them to be. It was fun for me to see the Gospel of Jesus being put into action as the children ran around and around and around the field area and I joined in on the fun. It was a new day. It was a new day, in the Name of Jesus Christ. It was a new day indeed, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

~”Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”~Matthew 19:14, New International Version~

~”And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”~Romans 10:15, English Standard Version~

God bless you! Thanks for reading! Grace and peace unto you and please share and follow! 🙂 ❤

**Please note:  The blog posts that I write for my time at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home will be mentioned in this blog, Sarah’s Spiritual Walk. I forgot to mention in my previous blog post that from May 17th-August 16th, 2019, I will be writing entirely about my time as an intern at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. No other posts will be written about other topics except about my time at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. After the dates mentioned, I will write about other topics that target youth, both boys and girls. Thanks everyone for understanding and enjoy reading my posts!! 🙂

It was a beautiful and hot Summer day at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home yesterday.

Yesterday, I went on a nature hike at the Sweetwater Creek State Park in Palmetto, Georgia with the children and teacher staff of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. Throughout the Summer at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home, I will be going on many, MANY field trips with the children and this just happened to be one of them. It is the first of MANY field trips that I will be going on many fun adventures with the children! 😉

Anyway, I went nature hiking with the children and led a group of children with one other teacher while other staff were divided up into teams to lead other children on the nature hike. Me and the other teacher led about 10-12 children and hiked for about 1 mile on the nature trails of Sweetwater Creek State Park. I looked above the tall, tall hills of the sites in front of me. I gazed upon the streaming rivers of water that flowed about like milk and honey mentioned in the Bible. I marveled when me, the other teacher, and the children reached the end of the nature trails.

~”On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands.”~Ezekiel 20:6, English Standard Version~

It was a marvelous site that was spectacular to behold!! I took in the fresh air of the nature day, admiring the beauty of the hill tops that was like a mountain top that we reached from the nature trails that was the valleys. Praise the Lord for majesty!!

“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”~Psalm 46:10, New Living Translation~

~”Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.”~Mark 11:23, English Standard Version~

It was in that moment that I was admiring the majesty of God that I found Jesus with my two eyes in the streaming rivers of water. My eyes marveled the clear, blue skies that was the nature God created, from the beginning to the end. I looked upon the rocks, which are like a firm foundation and symbolic of my salvation that is found in My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is my hope that each boy and every girl will find Jesus this Summer. It is my hope that they will have a firm foundation in the Word of God this Summer. It is my hope that every child here will have a firm foundation in Christ Jesus alone and worship Him as their Cornerstone this Summer, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

~”For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”~1 Corinthians 3:11, English Standard Version~

The teacher staff, children, and me had lunch by a picnic area near the lakes of the Sweetwater Creek State Park. It was beautiful to behold the sites of the lake around and about us. The touch of God’s hands left His mark and His fingerprints on the lakes, as I could see and admire with my own two eyes.

One of the children came up to me as I was marveling and taking in the nature sites of the lakes. I cannot mention her real name, but for the sake of this blog post, we will call her Harmony. Harmony, who is a middle school aged girl, opened up to me and shared things with me about her past that she did not tell the other teacher staff of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home ( I know this because after we had this conversation, she explained to me that she did not tell any of the other teachers this). She told me that when she was about four years old, she got in a car accident and as a result of the car accident, she had some bones fractured on the neck area of her body.

I could tell that by the way she interacted with me that she felt safe and comfortable. This gave me a chance to put my Pastoral Counseling techniques that I learned from Liberty University into practice as we interacted with each other. I was quiet and listened to her tell me her story. After hearing this story, I said to her, “Sounds like you had a horrible accident (Pastoral Counseling listening technique of acknowledgement.—in this case of her situation). I hope you get well soon and I will be praying for you and that God will heal you.”

After I told her this, she thanked me for telling her that I will pray for her. Shortly after our interactions, I confided in one of the teacher staff in what Harmony told me about her car accident so that they would be aware and that they would know better ways to witness and minister to her. The teacher staff, who I told, thanked me for sharing this with her and told me that Harmony has a hard time opening up to other children and feels more comfortable around adults. She also told me that the children shun Harmony because of the rash marks that are around her lips. This gave me more insight for how to pray for Harmony and that God would heal every part of her, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

I thanked God for opening up the opportunity for me to interact with Harmony for I know that this is the first of many, MANY interactions that I will have with the children of which God will open up doors for me to actively engage with the children in conversations that enable me to utilize my Pastoral Counseling listening techniques this Summer. Let us pray now! 🙂

Dear God,

I thank You for the beautiful nature that you allowed for me, the teacher staff of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home, and the children to admire yesterday. I thank You that You alone are the Creator and Beholder of nature and that You are present (everywhere), in the Name of Jesus Christ. Thank You that Your promise still stands, even when the ground is sinking sand, that You will never leave us nor forsake us. I also thank You for giving Harmony boldness to interact with me and that Your Holy Spirit will give her and the other children empowerment to interact with me as this will be healing for them as You allow them to enter into Your healing presence. You are a God who heals and You are Harmony’s Healer. I lift up Harmony as well as the conversation that You opened up a door for me to have with her. I thank You that You even allowed this conversation to take place and that You divinely orchestrated it, for such a time was this time. I pray that Your Holy Spirit will touch Harmony and that she will experience healing, physically in her neck, and spiritually, so that she will come to know Jesus through me and the other teacher staff of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. I thank You that You blessed the conversation that You allowed us to have and pray that You will guide Harmony in her interactions with the teacher staff and children. Bless Harmony and the children, who You allowed me to lead today at the Sweetwater Creek State Park. Thank You Jesus! We give You the glory, the honor, and the praise.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen!

Please share this article. Thank you for reading and God bless!! ❤

The past two days at the Palmetto, Georgia campus of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home have been such a blessing!!

~””When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.'”~Luke 10:5, New International Version~

It was a hot and beautiful Summer day. I remember when my Lyft driver dropped me off at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home that morning. I went inside of one of the buildings of the home and was warmly greeted by one of the co-workers. Shortly thereafter, my supervisor entered into the building and she directed me to another building at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home—-the gymnasium.

While in the gymnasium, my supervisor assigned me a great task. She wanted me to create four advertisements that would attract the children to the Summer clubs that would be happening at the Palmetto campus of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. I thought and thought about this task she assigned and agreed to do it. I explained to her that I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication and that because of this qualification, that I can do this task. I thank God for granting me favor and stature with my supervisor, just at God granted Jesus favor in the Bible with Himself and man.

~”Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.”~Luke 2:52, New Living Translation~

My supervisor admired the advertisements that that created and complimented them. She told me that I did a great job! Then, I cleaned the closet of my supervisor’s office as well as a the science classroom closet of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home gymnasium. Even though I was not expecting to get a task such as this one, prepared the works of my hands for these tasks that were ahead of me and cleaned away! I thank God for giving me the strength to clean these rooms of the gymnasium because it gave these rooms divine order as well as a sense of peace so that the children can enjoy the gymnasium to the fullest and thrive under the shade of its roof. 🙂

~”But godliness with contentment is great gain.”~1 Timothy 6:6, New International Version~

~”Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”~Philippians 4:6-7, New Living Translation~

Towards the end of the day, I led a prayer walk with one of the volunteers of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. This was my FAVORITE part of the day!! I walked, and walked, and walked around the campus with the volunteer, blessing every part of every house, every boy, and every girl, who resided in the cottages of the Palmetto campus of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. I even prayed for the counselors, social workers, psychologists, and co-workers of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home and that God would bless them and guide them in their interactions with the children. Overall, this was a very fruitful part of my day!!

~”We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^[d] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.”~Colossians 1:3-12, New International Version~

~”For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”~Luke 12:12, New International Version~

And that was my first day at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home! Let us pray!:

Dear God,

Thank You for this incredible opportunity that You gave me to serve at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. Thank You that You are blessing the works of my hands this Summer so that I, in turn, can be a blessing to staff and the children of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home. I pray that Your Holy Spirit will touch the lives of every boy and every girl here so that they know that Jesus is Lord. I pray that they will experience healing (mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, as You prepare their hearts in that secret place to receive Jesus this Summer. I pray that You will make every a part of this time that I spend at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home, such as this, special as You show me how to encourage and inspire the children in a way that empowers them to love You and themselves, more and more, grace by grace, and day by day. We give You the glory, the honor, and the praise.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen!

God bless you!! Please share and comment below for prayer. Your prayers and comments will be read, blessed, and appreciated!! ❤

~”We love each other because he loved us first.”~1 John 4:19, New Living Translation~

God is love. Jesus is love. The Holy Spirit of God is love. Therefore, the Trinity is Agape Love, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Dear reader: Do you believe in love? Not just any love, but Agape Love. The love of Jesus Christ is Agape Love that is through the Holy Spirit of God.

The love of God can be found in nature. This past weekend, I went to my graduation at Liberty University and saw the LU Mountain. It was beautiful and through that mountain, I had the opportunity to witness the splendor and majesty of God that was in this piece of nature that is God’s creation. The Agape Love of Jesus Christ was definitely present in the LU Mountain because His Agape Love drew me straight into the heart of God as I drove past the LU Mountain.

~”Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. “~Jeremiah 31:3, New Living Translation~

I remember climbing the Freedom Tower of the Rawlings School of Divinity. It is a very, VERY tall building (about 22 stories high) that reflects the splendor and majesty of God that is the Agape Love of Jesus Christ. When I got to the top of the building, I remember looking above and beyond the horizons of Liberty University. What a magnificent site it was! I saw the LU Mountain from the very top of the Freedom Tower. The Agape Love of Jesus Christ was definitely present within the confines of the Rawlings School of Divinity because every building of Liberty University and nature piece of creation (such as the LU Mountain), drew me straight into the heart of my Abba Father.

On May 11, 2019, which was my graduation day, I could feel the Agape Love of Jesus Christ surging in and through me. As I walked across the stage to shake Dr. Rice’s hand on the stage at the Degree Presentation ceremony, tears of joy swept across my eyes. I could not believe this moment. Yes. It was real. And yes. It was really happening. I was graduating with an M.A. degree in Pastoral Counseling with a focus in Dobson Center Marriage and Family Studies. I worked hard to earn it and I did it!! Finally!!

It was in that moment of my life that I could feel the Agape Love of Jesus Christ surging through me as I walked across the stage. Even though my parents did not show up to my graduation, that did not matter to me. This was because the Holy Spirit of God removed the spirit of approval of me from my parents. Praise the LORD!! I don’t need my parents’ approval for doing the work of God nor for my calling. I am a child of God, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

About one week before my graduation, I asked one of my friends to pray that God would remove the spirit of approval from me. And surely, God did it!! Even one of my Christian friends from Syria made a comment on my Facebook page that encouraged me to not think about what my parents thought of me, but to rather be thankful to God that His will for me to graduate was possible.

Dear reader: did you know that you too can walk in the will of God? Do you believe in faith? Do you trust in Jesus, if or if He is your personal LORD and Savior? Do you love Him with the same Agape Love that He freely gives to you in return? These are all questions, dear youth, to consider as you reflect upon what God’s calling is in your life. For me, it is to be a Pastoral Counselor figure in the lives of children and I believe that as I do my internship this Summer at the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home that His will for my life will become more and more clearer as I give counsel and spread the Agape Love of Jesus Christ to these precious children.

Now, dear youth: Are you ready? Let us pray!:

Dear God,

Thank You for our youth. Thank You that Your hands can renew the hearts and the minds to every youth boy and girl, who is reading this page. I pray that Your Spirit will give the Agape Love as well as the sound mind of Christ to every youth boy or girl, who is reading this blog post. Let him or her know that he or she is unconditionally loved by Christ and that it has no limits. There is power, in the Name of Jesus Christ, and there is power in Your Agape Love. Let Your purpose be made known to every youth boy or girl reader so that he or she knows that You have a purpose and a plan for every reader’s lives. May Your Spirit teach them to glorify Jesus today, in His Agape Love. We give You the glory, the honor, and the praise.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen!

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