The loooooove project!

I LOVE visiting Robersy’s family! Out in the village, surrounded by loved ones. With no electricity the stars just shine brighter. Then to wake up to the voices of whispers that echo off the tin roof. It is most definitely one of my favorite places on earth.

There are a lot of things and people I love… but this week (especially yesterday in the quiet of the country side) I’ve had a lot of time to think about this word LOVE.

I looove LOVE. I love TO love. I love to BE loved. I just LOVE love!

But as I sit with prostitutes and homeless kids in the street it is heart-breaking to hear their stories regarding love.

One young lady I meet with regularly tells me about her 10 “boyfriends.” They include a Korean, an Italian, a German and many more. She “loves” them… each one of them. And they “love” her.

Another young lady changed her appearance because she wasn't feeling “loved.”

A young boy shared stories of his father abandoning him and his family, which resulted in him leaving the home and living on the streets. He feels un-loved!

Another boy in “looooove” with a girl he’s met twice.

A 4yr old and 7yr old raped… their minds forever changed towards “love.”

I have been accused before about preaching on love. “Sarah, you need to preach hell, fire and brimstone!!! These sinners are worthy of eternal damnation.”

Yes… and so am I. But it was LOVE that changed it all!

Everyone can say John 3:16 backwards and forward, but wasn’t it LOVE that caused God to send His Son? (“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”)

It’s Christ that even gives us the definition of LOVE in 1 John 4:11-12 (“Since God loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”)

1 John 4:19 says we only love because He loved! (“We love because He first loved us.”)

1 Corinthians 13 shows us the importance of love since everything we do is like garbage if it doesn’t include love. (“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful…”)

To love is the greatest commandment and it’s our mark as a Christian. (1 John 4:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”)

Love is mentioned 551 times in the Bible (NIV) as opposed to hate that is mentioned 80 times.

Then why is it that we are all “messed-up” in our views towards love!!!???

I know people that preach hate to homosexuals and spit at prostitutes… but isn’t it a lack of love that brought these precious souls (THAT GOD CREATED!!!) to the place where they are now.

Isn’t it an act of LOVE that will bring them to the cross?

I am not minimizing the penalty of our sin or the eternal consequence of rejecting Christ, but I know it was LOVE that saved me, for Christ IS LOVE… so shouldn't we LOVE?!

These thoughts that have weighed on my heart have led me to plan the “You are LOVED!” project.

For the next few weeks I will be collecting love letters to pass out to the girls working on the streets and the homeless children too. They do not have to be long, but we want to express TRUE LOVE! This means verses that express true love, tell them that you’re praying for them (and then REALLY do it), tell them how you experienced true love, and even how TRUE loved changed you.

If you live here in the Dominican or will be visiting the Dominican soon, then I’d love you to write them yourselves and give them to me. If you live in Bermuda you can give them to my parents or sisters and they will give them to me while I’m in the States.

If you do not, then you can send me a private message with a love letter in Spanish or English (I can translate) and I’ll print them out.

I plan to take these love letters out before August 21^st (and many times after if there is a big response!).

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us…”

Love changed your life… Love will change theirs too!!!