The unfailing power that restores lives

NICOLA NEAL

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Copyright Nicola Neal 2014

All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America

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Previously Published by:River Publishing & Media LtdUnited Kingdominfo@river-publishing.co.uk

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Contents

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Chapter 14 Love Without Walls 124

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Dedication&^:

Thank you for walking life with me, both through the mountain z>Ksour family and I thank Jesus for the day he joined our lives with

yours. Thank you for encouraging me to pursue the things of the Kingdom above everything else; thank you for believing in me

/z&/d

book is dedicated to you.

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AcknowledgmentsThank you to my amazing team in Africa you inspire me every day to press in for the more, I love you all. dZ>who we are called to be. Your friendship is priceless; we love you! d:parents and for loving us always. d:: allowing me to quote your song ... it will always be a favourite of mine. As will you! Thank you to our family and friends who have loved and supported us through all the highs and lows of missionary life. To my husband, Simon, for living the dream with me and for never giving up, however crazy it got! I Love you now more than ever. James and Chantelle, I love you both more than words can say. Thank you Deverything to help us love the poor. You are my heroes of the faith!

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Haura is walking! , , , d / /,/ Some of the team with me, as they understood what I was screaming about, began to join in laughing and dancing around the room too, while everyone else in the room just stared at us as we tt, /away to a dark corner of the room, fell onto my knees and wept, tz z, t, ^

Journey Into Love

10

D , / ,^child whose photo would appear on poster campaigns, in magazines or on mantelpieces. She has no real hope for her future, being born into a slum family, living in extreme poverty, severely disabled and totally dependent on those around her for everything. E /d/ / / t/,/ She brings a purity of light into my world. When she smiles, it illuminates everything around her and the sound of her crackled She has the most incredible eyes, and as you gaze into them, you of love. When I look into them, I feel as if I am looking into the eyes of Jesus himself. / and worth nothing, yet to Jesus she is a treasure. She is priceless, a precious jewel hidden away in the dirt of the slums. E, ^ done, but in the end they all said that they could do nothing. Cerebral malaria had done its worst and she was paralyzed from the neck down and blind, with no hope of improvement. K//>/ , /

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11

A Journey Into Love

^ //could believe. So we decided that every day a member of our team would go , : d d broken body. The only thing we had to give her was the love of Jesus, knowing t^ two years. Whatever the weather, whether we felt like going or not, we went and poured out his love over her life, just as it had been so graciously poured out over ours. I remember the day that Amy came home from the slum saying ,/she had turned her head towards the person who was holding her and talking to her. It was such a small thing, but it was real, it was a miracle, and oh, how we celebrated. / ,been smiling not only smiling, but also laughing! It had been celebrate her life. The house was packed full of our team, her family and friends and most importantly, love. She had actually smiled, and then she laughed! I have never seen my team as happy as they were that day. We were so thankful to Jesus for yet another miracle , ^, >her family, and in the midst of it all her Muslim mama found Jesus.

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Journey Into Love

12

^ d ,was all around them and it was wonderful to be part of it. Then early one evening in November 2011, I was in a youth h ^ came down and restored me, taking me from a place of brokenness, this is how we now have the privilege of having our lives used by '

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14

My Heart Amy

/I want to be one who dreams the dreams others are too scared to hope for. I want to allow problems to become my springboard into the glory of God. They will only push me deeper, make me run faster.

//I want to see the value in the hundreds who cross my path each day. I want my opinions to be formed not by the world, but by what God says. I want to love.

/ I want to surrender everything. I want to run hard. I want to go wherever he whispers. /I want to be unfazed by danger, to count my life as nothing. I want to feel only the longings of his heart.

I want to understand the cost. I want to see him bleeding on the cross, his eyes burning for me, for them. I want to feel the love that led him there, I want to see only him, to care only for his desires. d/

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I remember Christmas 2000, when we had all my family coming K / ///this night would change the rest of my life. In the early hours of the morning I had a dream... In it my older brother and I, just children, were walking around Kt>&//hand and dragging me forward. We were searching every shop, in desperate pursuit of this toy he was so determined to get me. &he handed it to me. Instantly in my dream I was transported somewhere else and //

Chapter Two

A Night To Remember

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A Night To Remember

idea what for. I was scared and confused and knew that my life was in danger. Suddenly from behind her back she pulled out a huge //////that was full of potholes, faster and faster. My heart was pounding and I felt as if I could hardly breathe, but I could hear her footsteps //me. I kept going, with no idea where I was running to, just knowing D/ // /I fell. The pain in my feet by now was unbearable and I grabbed my d/not only covered in open, weeping, infected sores but that maggots dturned my stomach. As I sat there in the dirt, staring at my feet, in terrible pain, the footsteps of my mother came closer and closer. In fear for my life, I //> / Then I woke up... / asleep. My husband Simon was quietly snoring and as I lay there I began to weep. If you had asked me then what I was weeping for, ///felt as if my heart was breaking. There was a pain deep inside of me /

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Journey Into Love

/ /,^ /,& something, but I had no idea what. E : / / moment to think about what had happened that night, but deep // tt: The movie was poorly acted, with a weak storyline about a z//broke down and began weeping. ,/what he had done to make me cry. But the more I wept, the more '/^ also began to weep! This was truly remarkable. At this point we had been married for seven years and had known each other for many more than that. //had actually seen Simon cry. Yet here we were, weeping together ' dstronger his presence came, the more we wept. d

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A Night To Remember

exhausted and all cried out. We quietly made our way up to bed, unable to talk about what had happened or what any of it meant. We just knew that Jesus was up to something and whatever it was he was doing in us, we wanted. The next morning we woke up and went downstairs to make we started talking about the night before, it all began again. Right most ordinary things, his presence came. The weeping began and of us breaking down. Dthe middle of the street or in their homes. They would just pick up &^ /d he would feel the tears beginning, or disappear into the bathroom / what his colleagues thought of that one! / t her house late one evening as I told her all that was going on. I t >Every day I see a child in this street who is sad, or I see a mother yell at her baby, or I see a teenager lost on the street corner, and I just d/ / /// /&/his heart, more than anything. But I need to know what to do in

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Journey Into Love

20

ttt / >/her. My house was silent. Simon and James were asleep upstairs. It was about 2am and I sat down, pen in hand and waited. As I waited for him to speak, this is what I wrote:

March 2001 baby in her arms, so my heart aches towards my children. As she watches the life slipping away before her, desperate for someone to intervene and save them, in anguish crying out, so I cry out: Who tWho will rescue them from the evil grasp that wants to rob, rape, t D fashion accessories. They have been pushed into a corner and only bought out when cute or convenient, both in the world and in the church. That is not my plan for them. It is for them to be radically Time is rushing by and all the while they are dying before your eyes. The very life and spirit that I have placed inside of them is /EE ///:^/d

As I sat at my kitchen table, I knew what my response would be.

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21

A Night To Remember

d///^either. The answer was simple: yes, yes and yes again. Whatever it looked like, whatever it meant, whatever the cost, journey truly began.

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The King Who Washes Feet Adam

//

/ But something crazy has happened to me here in Uganda.

There is an area of Kinawataka slum called Katogo 2. It is extremely poor.

Whenever we go there, we are met with more

Yet Katogo 2 is home to the most fun kids in the world. ^

d

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through the passageways. Despite my dislike of feet, for me this felt natural.

/seen as the lowest in society.

Children are the lowest of the low, with no rights, and no one to care about them.

t

Everyone wants to be your friend, to be associated with muzungus.

The contrast between us and those living in slums is stark and frightening.

So we got to our knees and washed the feet of every child who came forward.

Some older kids had gathered and pushed to the front quickly. Some very familiar faces also appeared. It was overwhelming to look up at them,

while gently pouring clear water over their muddy, cracked feet. Their faces were a mixture of excitement,

disbelief and thankfulness. d

some mamas came forward, holding babies who could not make their own way to us.

Our team humbly took handfuls of water to wash the feet of even the smallest ones.One by one the children came and went.

They sat down on the mat and then we handed out hundreds of pairs of new shoes.

&more than some free shoes. It was a statement of intent.

It was a commitment to rebalance the

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These children are no less important than those who go to school, or who eat every day,

t

important than those who struggle every day to provide for their babies.

dthe least of society, washing dirty feet, restoring dignity./

/:/and our voices high and to declare that we will do anything, go : : tD/ Our own heart response to Jesus in that season was real and & three-fold....

E^ /d 'that, but the request could not have been clearer.

Chapter Three

From Declaration To

Application

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Journey Into Love

I would like to be able to say that we were so full of faith and trust in '^and resigned right there and then. But no! ^ every month, the car loan that has to be paid, the child who needs / : d / not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about ^ D///one of them! Although the Lord told us very clearly that Simon was to give up his job completely, we thought what he probably meant was that So Simon went to see his boss and asked for a change in his working hours. Not surprisingly the answer was no, so we had to think again. We decided that instead Simon would quit working there and d / But when I got home and sat at the kitchen table, highlighter in > to me. In no uncertain terms he told me to take the newspaper outside and burn it! ^/ d /one. The same thing happened again! I sat at the table, newspaper

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From Declaration To Application

> /Then again the next day I went and bought another! I really am a , / ^ >' W / / / ^being asked, I walked straight into my garden and struck the match. We had no idea what the next step was, but knew we just had to choose to trust in him. ^ d us was way below what Simon had been earning before, so our monthly income would not even cover our monthly outgoings, but & by we began to tangibly experience that our God truly is faithful D':W ddin our life here in Africa. Although there really are far too many to K^ /and asking her why she wanted to know. She quickly got out her cheque book and wrote a cheque for that exact amount, gave it to me, smiled and walked away. / /

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Journey Into Love

d four days to clear and I have no money to buy food for my son // d>, /totally astounded! d dss brand-new bed, toys for the children and so much more.

E'KJames was just over one year old then and we had already been t and it took a while to get used to the idea. My deepest fear in it all was whether I would be able to love an /, /&he was more than able to fully equip me with everything I needed to be a mummy again, including enough love! d/months of interviews, home visits, assessments and medicals and that was just to get us registered as adopters. It then got even more matched with a child. Every month a magazine would land on our doormat with pictures of hundreds of children, all in need of a Mummy and a Daddy. Our job was to go through this paper and decide which

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From Declaration To Application

children we were interested in, then phone the number listed It felt like catalogue shopping for children, or even worse, like looking at the local property paper. Each month I would dread its arrival as I knew it would mean reading about more of these lovely / >our own. Words fail me when I try to describe what the journey of t /> ,,tt :ttabout to give up on the whole thing and to try to get pregnant again, when the Lord spoke. t guest speaker had been invited for the day. We had never met this z ^ ^ t prophesy over us both. d'to parent a child that is not from your own womb. The world says & ^&

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Journey Into Love

^ /&^tthey had in their care called Chantelle. Six months later she was at home with us. t > ,them out of a place of hopelessness and despair, of loneliness and and into hope. d Elives and grows up in Africa and helps us in the slums, we get the joy with us and loves the children who have nothing and simply shows them Jesus.

Ed t^^ We had no idea, but knew the Lord would make it clear in his The impact of these life changes would be huge and far-reaching. We knew that as we said yes to Jesus in each area, we would once again be laying down our own agenda for life and picking up his. t

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From Declaration To Application

a great cost, but that there would also be great joy. What could we possibly lose if we were giving it all up for the one who is

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^,

I have been back in the UK for almost a month now./

in Africa and why I moved there./

//d/

/&and how much he wants to bless me.

When I moved to Uganda, I never expected to fall in love so quickly.

Yet maybe it was inevitable that my heart would be wrecked for the broken and unlovable.

//

/And yet I fully realise that I would never be

:d//

otherwise, and this new love hurts. /

slums and the harshness of poverty./ /z/

When you tell God you want to give up your heart and lay down

the words and have nothing to show for them. /:

I would give up my family for. Z/

:I miss friends and family like crazy

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and my heart is bruised by goodbyes.When Jesus told us to come and follow him,

,So I am climbing the mountain and enjoying

the view yet walking a narrow path. >h

It has brought me to life but also opened my eyes to the cost of truly following Jesus.

///:

me and help me glimpse his journey./

/

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& E husband Simon were part of the Senior Leadership Team at Bath City Church where they were responsible for the children and youth ministries. Their deep, extravagant love and pushed them to pursue God wholeheartedly. /'h/ds d & dto see the people of Uganda raised up, trained and released into ' z

About the Author

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