In Japanese culture there is an art form known as kintsugi. When a delicate dish or cup is broken, instead of discarding the fragments, the pieces are picked up. These pieces are then welded together again with gold.

The dish is whole again. It can function again, but the scars from its damage are forever visible. Instead of hiding the dish’s brokenness, the gold draws attention to the fractures, creating beauty with the flaws.

During her most recent Gospel Outreach Trip to Zambia, Josie experienced the beauty of this artform first-hand.

This was Josie’s first GO Trip, and she was a little apprehensive evangelizing in a country she had never been to before.

As her team began sharing the Word out on the streets, they met a young man. The other members did most of the talking, and he seemed to be receptive to what they were saying. So when she heard them call out, “Sister Josie, come here,” she was a little confused.

What did they want with her?

What could she possibly add to the conversation?

But she started talking to the man. Immediately he told her that he was in despair. That he felt like he was in a pit surrounded by darkness and there was no way out.

Josie could relate.

“I know what you are going through,” she said. “I’ve been in that pit, and I’ve felt that despair. In the past, I have even thought about taking my own life.”

The man was moved. He felt the same thing.

Josie assured the man, “God doesn’t promise that He will take these feelings of depression away from you. But He does promise that when you feel like you are in the pit, He will be there with you.”

The man smiled when he heard this and gave his life to Jesus. This was the kintsugi. This man was able to see the golden welding in Josie, the light of Christ in her and the golden Word of God. Through Josie, Christ was able to begin the beautiful repair in this man’s life so that others can see what God is able to do. What God wants to do for the people of Zambia and around the world.