Nosi Shows Us God’s Heart for His Kids

18 years ago, during an AIM staff retreat, God spoke to me. I had been fasting 19 days and was sitting in a pew in the back. Clint Bokelman was leading worship up front.

Julie Anderson had just adopted Nosi in Eswatini. I sensed God asking me this question, “Who will be her family?”

“Well, I guess we will be,” I responded.

“Yes. And who will be family for others like her?” He said. “You must father the fatherless.”

“We’ll do that too.”

“Yes. They must have access to your homes – to your kitchens and porches.”

I was overcome. With this message came a weighty sense of how deeply God feels about his kids. He was asking us to care for them on his behalf. And at the same time, I knew we had no experience caring for orphans.

None of this mattered – I sensed that I was to share this message with the staff.

But my spirit was jangled – I felt weak and didn’t think I could. Stepping out of the pew uncertainly, I made my way to the front.

A couple of rows before I got there, I slid into a pew to pray. “Lord, I don’t know how to do this or what to say,” was all I could pray.

And then I began to feel an overwhelming sensation. It was the love of a father for children he’d lost and wanted back. It came bubbling up from inside – an incredible grief that consumed my spirit. It was like God was borrowing my body to express what he felt.

I began to sob. My body shook. It consumed me entirely and went on for minutes. I just wanted to get control back. I’m usually in control of my emotions – nothing like this had ever happened.

As the feeling subsided, I was able to get to my feet. No doubt the staff was wondering what was wrong with me. Clint was still playing worship music, waiting for me to come to the front.

Once I had the microphone, I repeated what I sensed God had shared with me: “I believe God spoke to me just now. I sensed that he is asking us to care for his children. We are to bring them into our homes and onto your porches and kitchens. Now I don’t know how that’s going to happen, but God is going to show us.”

The staff seemed to grasp what I was saying, but of course, there was no plan. I was declaring a future reality without any evidence. A skeptic would have found what I shared easy to dismiss.

Later, when our team returned to Eswatini, we began reaching out to communities that needed help feeding their children. So many of them were desperately poor and malnourished. And as we shared their stories, funding showed up.

Years passed and we kept caring for more children. Eventually we were feeding 8,000 of them in 40 community carepoints. We began expanding our ministries to care for them in other ways. And today the ministry is bigger than ever. It’s run by Swazis. We do leadership training. Many of our ministry leaders were once kids at our carepoints.

This past week, Nosi graduated from high school here in Gainesville! She has grown up. We talked about what was next for her. She wants to go to school for costume design. Who knows how else God will use her in life – it’s been a great start!