Merely His Vessel...

She said these words facing the rolling camera... 

God has used gifts and interests I already have to bring hope to dark places. ~ Alyssa.

I listened to my girl say those very same words as I watched the pilot video clip a few months after that segment was originally filmed on that beach where oceans rise, and this mama couldn't help but weep... deeply grateful for God's grace which truly is a beautiful thing!

Watch that same video segment with me here...


This motherhood gig, it surprised me... it surprised my man! And while many might say we did good raising this girl and her baby brother, I can't hardly even start to agree.

Because you see, their Heavenly Father did good as it's only purely solely by His grace alone and He. is. always. good.

This motherhood gig, it wasn't really my gig to start with. I am merely His vessel.

It was His gig all along! 

And by His amazingly wild grace, He's allowed my girl to be a huge part of this amazing project called "True Story: What God wants us to do about poverty" --- a video-based curriculum made available for free by Compassion Canada to churches, schools, ministry groups, families... and anyone who wants to use it, really! And everything, I mean everything --- videos and accompanying resources --- are all downloadable for free from the website!

Earlier this month, True Story officially launched!

The week it launched, I had the honour of writing about it on the blog, Compassion Family. And that weekend, my girl and I embarked on a road-trip to represent Compassion Canada in promoting True Story at three youth conferences!

#1000gifts ~ Road-tripping with @_godsgal4ever on this long weekend and driving through old downtown Cambridge. We are headed to three youth conferences where she will be speaking about Compassion Canada's #TrueStorySeries! #proudmama

A photo posted by Aimee Esparaz (@mama2greatkids) on May 16, 2015 at 9:02am PDT

First Event: Pitch and Praise

#1000gifts ~ Super proud of this girl as she speaks to her peers this weekend challenging them to live a life of Biblical justice & compassion! #TrueStorySeries

A photo posted by Aimee Esparaz (@mama2greatkids) on May 16, 2015 at 11:48am PDT

Second Event: All Ontario Youth Convention

Third Event: Overflow Youth Conference

I prayed and she bravely shared her story to 4,000 of her peers... 
Of once living a boring check-list faith kind of life and then experiencing an overwhelming helpless faith and of finally discovering the beauty of living out God's story of redemption and being empowered to spread His love, light and hope to this broken world.

#1000gifts ~ God is good! @_godsgal4ever did awesome sharing her story at #OFLO15 this morning. A few @compassion children sponsored already! Yay!!! #TrueStorySeries #proudmama

A video posted by Aimee Esparaz (@mama2greatkids) on May 17, 2015 at 9:06am PDT

And God used her greatly over that weekend... 
More than what we asked for or even imagined... not only did many youth groups express interest in True Story, we had the immense joy of seeing 76 children, yes seventy-six!!!, released from poverty in Jesus' name at those three weekend youth events!

I am humbled. Floored. Deeply grateful for grace.

On that same weekend... 

The men in our family were on a road-trip of their own for my boy to compete at the National Capital Region 2015 speed-cubing competition where he got his very first FIRST PLACE podium finish since he started officially competing!

Here's the video of that first-place solve {wearing his Compassion shirt and lanyard, no less!}:

You know that quote I started this blog post with above?

God has used gifts and interests I already have to bring hope to dark places. ~ Alyssa.

It isn't only true in his sister's life. It is also true in this boy's life.

God's goodness and His faithfulness truly never cease to amaze me. I am continually awed that He would invite us to join Him in life-changing Kingdom work. 

I am awed that He can use something such as speed-cubing to build His Kingdom!

In recent days, God has allowed my boy to be a part of an amazing initiative --- helping out at a Rubik's Cube club in an inner-city community, inside a local public school, through the ministry of UrbanPromise Toronto, a ministry that our family has long loved and supported!

And it is UrbanPromise Toronto's hope that such clubs can be established in all three communities where they minister at --- to help them "reach a child, raise a leader, restore community." And they would like my boy to be a part in making that a reality!

To reach children in Toronto Community Housing with the love of Jesus, and raise them into leaders, who restore their community.

Don't you just love UrbanPromise's mission and vision statement? I do!

I am excited for what this next season holds for our family in terms of being Jesus' hands and feet. God has been intensely showing us, in more ways than one, how He would like us to continue joining Him in His Kingdom work.

And as He's clearly shown us in recent months and days, He is actively using gifts and interests that my kids already have to bring hope to dark places.

And for that, this mama is deeply grateful and is thoroughly enjoying this wild ride. 

After all, it's His gig and not mine.

I am merely His vessel...

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!