Monday, December 6, 2010

Who is Keziah?

"Who is Keziah?  Why did you name this project after her?"  Well, we are glad that you asked.

Many of us know the story of Job.  I cannot imagine having so much taken from me.  When we read Job we see that he remains faithful and everything is restored.  At one quick read it is easy to miss the emotions that he felt.  Sure, we read them, but read them quickly.  I've read his pain as if he only felt it for as long as it took me to read the page.  The truth is, for years Job's life was destroyed.  Then, the Lord restored the fortunes of Job.  Everything that he lost was restored twice as much.  This restoration didn't take the experience away.  Keep in mind, that wasn't God's point.  His new children didn't replace the old.  They didn't wipe away all the pain, but they were God's promise restored.

Job's middle daughter received a name that made it to the pages of Scripture.  Many daughters of the people of faith go unnamed, yet she has a wonderful name.  Her name is Keziah.  Job 42:15 says that "in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters."  After all that loss comes Keziah, her beauty, and her full inheritance.  Job lived another 140 years and died "full of days." (Job 42:17)  We don't know much about Keziah's life, but we know that she saw the promise of God fulfilled and saw her family restored.

Our friends in Ethiopia have lost so much.  Some of them lost hope generations ago.  Some never knew their value.  Some lost sight of their worth along the way.  The project that we are beginning over the next few months will diligently work to see this hope restored.  We pray that we will have the honor of hearing these women's stories and seeing God's goodness reshape them in ways that man could never imagine.  We want to stand strong for them and believe when they are too weak to believe for themselves.  We want to cry with them when they first begin to grieve and cry again when they become self sufficient.  We want to see generations live as the "beauty of the land."

We will share this week how we plan on going about this, but we wanted to invite you into the foundation of the project first.   This project begins with the desire to see Keziah's story retold in the lives of our friends. This is a story of redemption, restoration and hope.

2 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see how this story is told years from now... it's easy to "say" our hope is in Christ, but to experience it through the lives of totally broken and hopeless people is living beyond the edge of comfort...

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  2. I adore this new project you'll be working on. After hearing Matt speak at Valleybrook on Christmas Eve, my family and I continued to talk all weekend about your amazing name choice (could it be more perfect?!), these beautiful, beautiful women and the hope they now have for a future.

    So many prayers and hopes for this project. Talk about being a conduit of blessing. :)

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