Reload Love

Lenya Heitzig

Description

Will we try to forget all the things we've seen? Or will we see, really see, and then let our emotions lead us into a new way of living?This is the story of one woman who refused to look away from atrocities on her television screen. Lenya Heitzig allowed her heart to break at the plight of refugees and the deaths of innocent children, and then she begged God for a job to do.In this gritty, passionate story, Lenya details the epic way God answered her prayershow a spark came to life turning weapons of war into something beautiful. Experience the hope found in a children's playground as you journey with her through the jungles of Burma and the war-torn streets of the Middle East.Though the shape of your heart and passion may look very different, you will find hope and inspiration in ordinary people who go to incredible lengths to share God's life-giving love.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers
• Date de parution: 04 septembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736970365
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version . Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Cover by Jason Gabbert Design
Cover photos Petr Bonek, siraphat, Ekaterina Zimodro, Photo Boutique, donatas1205/Shutterstock
Backcover Author Photo by Matt and Tish Photography
Published in association with William K. Jensen Literary Agency, 119 Bampton Court, Eugene, Oregon 97404.
Reload Love
Copyright 2018 Lenya Heitzig
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97408
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-7035-8 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-7036-5 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Heitzig, Lenya, author.
Title: Reload Love / Lenya Heitzig.
Description: Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018000690 (print) | LCCN 2018018070 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736970365 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736970358 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Church work with children. | Missions. | Reload Love (Organization) | Heitzig, Lenya.
Classification: LCC BV2616 (ebook) | LCC BV2616 .H45 2018 (print) | DDC 267/.13-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018000690
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
Contents
Dedication
With Gratitude
Turning Battlegrounds into Playgrounds
Part One-Terror No More
1. The Girl with Pink Ribbons
2. When I Could No Longer Look Away
Part Two-To Every Generation
3. Through ISIS Tunnels
4. The Ministry of Presence
5. Run into the Roar
Part Three-Into Hard Places
6. A Bullet and the Heart of a Girl
7. The Long Trek
8. The Black Banner
Part Four-Forgiveness in the Rubble
9. The Gift of a Small Wooden Cross
10. Mafraq Is Not to Be Trifled With
11. To Sinjar Almost
Part Five-On Top of Mount Sinjar
12. A Trail of Sorrow
13. Let Your Legacy Be Love
Afterword
Notes
About the Author
Reload Love: Ready. Aim. Free.
About the Publisher
Dedication
To Aram, the eight-year-old boy, who escaped the brutal attacks of ISIS on Mount Sinjar. Despite losing several family members, he found hope and healing on a playground built by Reload Love. It is for him and millions like him that we bring beauty from bullets.
O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart;
you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth
may strike terror no more.
PSALM 10:17-18 ESV
With Gratitude

To my husband, Skip Heitzig, thank you for marrying me and embarking on the journey of a lifetime where God turned a little home Bible study into a megachurch with eternal impact. You embraced the vision God gave me to impact children caught in the crossfire of terrorism. Because you opened your heart and great doors of opportunity, Reload Love has armed children with hope across the globe. Team Heitzig for life!

To Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan s Purse International, I will always be grateful for your gutsy approach to reaching the least of these with the gospel of Jesus Christ and encouraging me to do the same. Skip and I have been privileged to join you where devastation hits-whether the killing fields of Rwanda, the frontlines of the conflict in Iraq, or the battered shores of Japan post-tsunami. Can t stop, won t stop!

To Dave Eubank, director of Free Burma Rangers, thank you for taking Malibu Barbie and teaching her how to be GI Jane. Your maxim to never make a decision based on fear, comfort, or pride challenges me to the core. Your example gave me courage to run through the jungle, crawl through ISIS tunnels, and summit Mount Sinjar to place playgrounds on top of battlegrounds. Never surrender!
Turning Battlegrounds into Playgrounds
I n 2015, streams of Yazidi refugees, escaping the atrocities of ISIS in the Sinjar region, found their way to a place called Khanke Camp, a sea of white tents provided by UNRCH, a United Nations organization. All around them in the Kurdish wilderness, unseen and uncharted, were live land mines and discarded IEDs (improvised explosive devices) left behind by ISIS from when they had fled from advancing coalition forces. These fields, stretching for miles all the way to the mountains, were not places where anyone could simply wander around. Children could not run through the tall grass. Certain areas had been cleared, but the camp was an island in the middle of an abandoned battlefield.
It was early in the long and winding journey of Reload Love, and my husband, Skip, scouted out potential partners for us in the middle of those windswept plains of Kurdistan. We were a young organization still trying to figure out how to help children impacted by terror, and we wanted to team up with others already doing that kind of work in the region. Providing playgrounds had just begun pinging our radar as a possible way of alleviating the pain and trauma inflicted on children by terrorism.
Skip was shown around Khanke Camp. He saw one-room tents housing families, some of which held more than ten people. Four tents shared one toilet, and there were eight tents for every one shower. Do the math-that s more than 40 people sharing one toilet, more than 80 people sharing one shower. Eventually the camp would house 45,000 people inside those barbed-wire fences, while another 20,000 squatters surrounded the perimeter, looking for safety, food, and shelter. That s 65,000 people, practically the population of a city, and every single one of them was displaced. No employment. Barely enough food and water. And for the time being, nowhere to go.
As Skip was led through the community, he passed a group of kids and noticed they were in the midst of an elaborate game of make-believe. Their play reminded him of his childhood in Apple Valley, California, the home of western movie stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Skip and his brother had often reenacted the Wild West, with one of them impersonating the sheriff and the other wearing a black cowboy hat, taking on the role of the bad guy. They had spent many afternoons like that, chasing each other around the backyard, wielding their pretend six-shooters, facing each other in duels.
Ohhh, Skip and his brother had groaned, collapsing to the dirt in mock agony, clutching their gut. You got me.
What are those boys doing? Skip asked the interpreter, intrigued by the children s game.
They re playing, the interpreter said.
I can see that. But what are they playing? Can you ask them?
The young Kurdish volunteer called the kids over. They approached, laughing and chatting, each one pushing to the front of the group, simultaneously excited and bashful to speak to the tall, white American. After a rapid-fire, back-and-forth conversation, the boys ran off and continued their game in the narrow alleys between the long rows of white tents. In moments, they disappeared, but Skip could still hear their shouts. The interpreter turned to give Skip the explanation.
They told me they are playing war. They are fighting each other. Some of the boys are the Iraqi army or Peshmerga, and the other boys are pretending to be ISIS.
Children will always play with what they re given, won t they? They will create their own toys if they don t have any. Cardboard boxes, sticks, rocks: A child s imagination can take anything and use it. In the Khanke Camp, the black cowboy hats of Skip s childhood were replaced with black ISIS flags. Killing was the game the children knew, and it was the game they played.
They were pretending to be ISIS, the very group that had displaced them.
Because they had nothing else.
We see images these days on our screens or in our newspapers, and when the images are too painful or horrific or sad, most of us turn away or change the channel. Few of us look at these images for more than two or three seconds. It s too awkward, too uncomfortable, too jarring. They hurt too much, and we are left with a feeling of helplessness, something we don t know what to do with. So we look away.
We ve become used to averting our gaze. In essence, we ve become blind. I think of one particular blind man s interaction with Jesus.
So Jesus answered and said to him, What do you want Me to do for you? The blind man said to Him, Rabboni, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, Go your way; your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road (Mark 10: 51-52, emphasis added).
What can we do to be healed of this self-inflicted blindness?
Even if we see the images on television and don t look away