Written by: Isabell Bowling
The phrase “hindsight is 20/20” really applies to every area of life. But looking back on the Summer of 2008, I am almost flabbergasted at the intentionality of the Lord. That was the summer Mom and I went to Ethiopia, and God set her heart on fire for babies. I was seven years old, so my outlook on the trip was very different. Here’s what I do remember.
In the months leading up to the trip, Mom had told me there was a very small chance that we might be in danger. She asked me: “Pray and ask the Holy Spirit if you are supposed to come with me.” Now, I don’t remember every word I prayed, but I remember that I wanted to go so badly. I also wanted to make sure that if something did happen while we were there, I was covered, you know, heaven-wise. So, I told her I wanted to go, but I wanted to get water-baptized first. Lucky for me, the next water baptism at our church wasn’t scheduled until after we’d gotten back from Ethiopia. I can remember that this was the first time when I had to learn to have big faith in God and trust Him with my safety. Sweet, innocent little Isabell, what a wild ride you were about to have.
When we were in the country, I remember there was a shift.
We had gone to look for places for Mom to dig wells for clean water, but the moment she met Sara and Ruth, things changed. Sara and Ruth were twin baby girls, and our hosting orphanage didn’t have the resources to care for newborns. But we’d come with a licensed doctor, a ton of medical supplies, and people who could sit with the girls while the other workers cared for the rest of the children in the orphanage. Soon, that group of children being minded by the orphanage workers included me!
Context: When I was very young, we had a member of our church who everyone thought was trustworthy behave inappropriately with one of the girls in our close circle.
This incident shook my mom deeply. Whenever we traveled, she was hyper-vigilant about my safety. I was always supervised — there was always someone on the team who was “assigned” to watch me when she couldn’t. But the way this trip was structured, there were many times when she and I were not with the rest of the team. During those times, she felt a tremendous peace from God to stay with Sara and Ruth and to leave me in the care of the locals. For the first time in my life, I was running around, playing with kids my age while the orphanage workers watched from the sidelines. I was having the time of my life, while my mom was encountering the heart of God for the twin baby girls.
Ironically, we both talked about this years later and remembered feeling so safe at the orphanage. I trusted my new friends and the women around me who fed me spicy food and then laughed as I chugged down glass after glass of milk. It was the first time my mom and I did separate things and then came together to debrief at the end of the day. We slept under mosquito nets and prayed together. We read our Bibles together, and overall, we just had sweet times. I also remember that one day, I was playing with a friend, and I slipped and skinned my knee. When I went to the doctor on our team, he said: “I’m sorry, I gave the last of my ointment to the twins!”
At this point in the trip, I had an almost reverence for these two girls. My mom explained that babies need extra care, more care than us “big girls,” so we might need to help the babies a little more. I knew I was making a sacrifice for these two girls and was happy to do it.
What a beautiful start to my relationship with Saving Moses.
It’s hard to explain to someone not in ministry the complicated set of emotions that come with sharing your mom with a bunch of babies. I think the best thing my mom did was involve me in the process. I was with her in Cambodia. I made friends with the older kids of the sex workers while she held the babies. The moms helped me learn how to hold babies. I remember we were visiting a slum, and there was a little newborn that I wanted to hold. The mom showed me how to cradle the head and support the body. I was at the first NightCare center. I helped paint the walls, I walked through the dump, and I prayed for there to be lots of babies.
When I was in middle school, my youth group wanted to raise money for Saving Moses. Now, I’m not trying to be prideful, but I was pretty popular in middle school, especially in my youth group. I convinced my friends that we had to sell whatever we could and go door to door and raise as much money as we could. I made bookmarks and sold them to my friends at school for 50 cents. I took my allowance money, my babysitting money, and all the spare change under the couch cushions. By the end of the month, we had raised $400. That’s a TON of money for a group of maybe 15 middle schoolers. But because I had met the babies we were helping and caught onto the vision, I had a heart for the ministry.
Zechariah 4:10 says, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…” (NLT)
When I was in Ethiopia with my mom, I had no idea that by playing with other kids in the orphanage, teaching myself Amharic (the main language they spoke), and finding my own lunch every day, I was enabling my mom to spend time with twin baby girls who would nestle their way into her heart and birth the incredible ministry of Saving Moses.
Nor did I ever imagine, when I was helping the first NightCare director wash onesies by hand, that one day I would help lead a trip of more than 20 people to Cambodia, and we would be serving in four different NightCare Centers. Or, when Mom brought us back t-shirts from Angola, and when she came back with a heavy heart and needed extra time to hold us and watch us eat until we were full, that one day I would be sowing my own money and my own time, into a ministry that I believed in with my whole heart. But God did. He had a plan for me, a plan for my mom, and a plan for Saving Moses from the very beginning. And it’s been a joy to watch it unfold.
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Isabell Bowling
