So with my special tie to this country I know God has a special plan for this month to reveal what hope can look like upfront and significant. Since the moment we arrived at the Addis airport my heart was in tuned with new emotions. The country was a different category of beautiful. The faces mark a familiarity that tug at my heart strings. I'm reminded of the hope of making people family simply because of love.
This month we're working with HopEthiopia an amazing organization that is demonstrating the hope they have for restoring this community. We are living on a compound that is being constructed for widows and orphans. The land was given from the president of Ethiopia to assist and renew this community. As I run through the vast countryside we call home, I'm stopped (literally) in my tracks because of children running alongside but also because of the humility that hits when seeing a slice of the life lived out here. As we paint my heart is filled with joy because of the love that will be bursting within the walls of these homes. And as we cart stones on stretchers made of wood, as if we were Israelites, I'm filled with deep hope for the future of this organization and the long lasting opportunities this place will provide.
Another way I've experiences Hope in a new way is through this new role. Being a squad leader I had ideas and desires for the squad to grow as a whole. And this month God has shocked me by the depth we have already gone just one month later. We have five teams living and working alongside one another. It's a beautiful and strong depiction of community as we are living, cooking, worshipping, celebrating, and laughing together. Whew, my hope for our squad has gone greater depths and I laugh filled with Joy while imagining what God will do.
God has also shown his authentic faithfulness through hope-filled prayers. Throughout the last few weeks I've gotten the chance to pray while looking over the beautiful mountains. Being stranded, hours away from Internet, and surrounded by beautiful vast land; our communication with loved ones has been pretty much non-existent. As a doer, it was difficult to accept this in the beginning but then God kindly gave me the reminder of the power of prayer. So what I'm learning is that hope-filled prayers are bold, calling out things that are contrary to our world, they are raw and they proclaim the faith I have in what God is capable of doing.
There's a few more ways God is revealing the depth of Hope this month. I'm excited to continue practicing what it looks like to act on it and see Him make tangible differences in my life as he's working on my heart. I Hope today you can reflect on the vast possibilities He is capable and wanting to do in your life.
