I want to share with you an experience I had on Friday, October 15th that was amazing. I was called by God to go and talk before 800 people at a local event about child sex slavery. It was a five minute talk with slides, and it had to follow the format that was set up. There were other presenters that evening, too. I was in the second half of the evening, so I watched the others go before me. They were all fantastic. I grew a little more nervous as my time approached. I drank two bottles of water backstage before my talk trying to keep from getting a dry mouth out on stage. My time came. I walked out on stage and started out a little nervous. During my first slide I froze after I got out my first two sentences. Finally, the words came back into my mind. I began speaking and I felt my mouth getting drier and drier. I wished I had brought another bottle of water out with me. I felt my tongue get bigger and I felt I could barely talk. I got through all my slides and left the stage feeling I had let God down.
Then the most amazing thing happened. I had people coming up to me, telling me how great my talk was. They told me they could feel my passion for these teens. I had a couple of ladies tell me that they cried. Another woman approached me and invited me to be on her local talk show. I had a college professor of journalism approach me, and wanted to talk more about the subject. She is looking for something for her students to do an in depth story on. I don't tell you this to brag about myself. Quite the opposite. I want you to know that this was not me. It was a miracle. That is the only way I can describe that these people were touched. Out of obedience I did as God asked of me, and opened my mouth. He did the rest. He poured out the words. He made the words passionate and understandable. I still am so amazed as I think on that night. I did nothing at all except walk out on the stage a willing vessel to be used. I want to encourage you, if God is calling you to something big, don't be afraid to take that step. He will do what needs to be done. If He needs to be your voice, He will. As long as you surrender to Him, He will do something amazing with you. It will be something you will not forget.
I am so glad that I experienced this, because I know God is not done with me yet. I know that He is calling me to do more to help end child sex slavery. I know that some of it will be scarier than speaking in front of all those people. But, now I also know that I have nothing to fear, because my Almighty, Amazing Father will be there with me. He will protect me, show me the way, and be right at my side. I learned that as long I step out in obedience, He will take care of the rest. That is an awesome feeling to have. I pray that all of you will have something like this happen in your life so you can experience it first hand.
