Long time veteran BYH facilitator and speaker, Alice Lewallen, said that her group of Czech women in their twenties were open and eager for “more” throughout the weekend. Alice experienced the power and glory of nurturing combined with community.
As I affirmed them in who they are as beautiful , beloved children of God, and their DESIRE for MORE and their willingness to come for four days to listen in English, read and respond in English to have “more” (and how humbling that is for me as an English-only speaker) – they could hardly take it in.
They glowed! Their faces like those of children, bright smiles, hardly believing I was speaking to THEM, that I saw all these good things in THEM. They received as happy children, but so very adult in their serious, single-minded commitment to surrender to God. They were being spurred on by the power of being believed in through my words of affirmation. As they called each other’s glory out throughout the weekend, each woman expressed that this power of community was something they were tasting for the first time.
During my time with these young women, I caught a glimpse of what’s at stake in these Czech women’s choices to follow God – not only their own parts in the Story, but possibly the future of a country whose next generation is finding LIFE and HOPE and the power of community.