Unforeseen Kiss

Kenny Bristol here… Today we were honored to provide some very intimate worship times for some of the elderly up in the community called Titanye.  It was such a meaningful time of worship for our elders and a lot of our team.  At one of the stops we decided to sing the song, How He Loves, which contains the lyric, “And Heaven meets earth with an unforeseen kiss”  store that in your memory bank as I tell you a story:

One year ago, part of our current team had the honor to bring a child to Grace Village for the first time.  She was in a low place, treated as a nobody, and enslaved to her masters.  I remember that day so vividly still, watching this little girl set free and coming to live in a place called Grace.  On that same day, we had planned baptisms for some of the kids and staff.  It turned into a beautiful day of worship, the deep and emotional kind.  And then we baptized 37 people including the kids, some Grace Village staff, and this little one on the same day she entered “Grace”… A beautiful picture of a death, burial, and resurrection to a new life.

One thing of note, before we left that day she began calling me her God-Father, maybe because I had the privilege to baptize her and lead the whole gathering in worship.  I was honored to carry that title in her life.

Fast forward to yesterday.  We came again to visit Grace Village.  And I soon found this great little girl, now so filled with joy and life.  It brought all the emotion from last year back to the surface.  I spoke with her to see if she remembered me.  As our translator recounted the events of the previous year and reminded her about baptism day, she lit up and gave me the tightest hug ever.  Then she said it, “You’re my God-Father”

We spent the afternoon doing a little singing and just hanging out with all these great kids.  It was a really fun, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  As it was time to leave, we were giving a few hugs and saying our good-byes.  I was the last one to hop into the truck, but before I did this beautiful little girl again squeezed me so tight and as I set her down, she turned and gave me a big smooch on my cheek!

…And Heaven meets earth with an unforeseen kiss!