hope
/h??p/
noun
-
1. a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen; a feeling of trust
This month in Ethiopia our ministry was with an organization called Hope Ethiopia. Hope Ethiopia has many projects, the main one being a children’s village for orphans. Ethiopia has 4.5 million orphans. 4.5 million…how do you even begin to help that number of children? Hope Ethiopia took a plot of land and built a village. They built homes with house mothers who raise the children as their own. Hope currently has a little over 30 children with the hope of adding 20 more over the next 10 months. I can’t even express how much joy the last month held with these kiddos. It is so evident that they are loved and cared for. They have such open hearts to us and to each other despite their crushing histories.
One of the little boys Luhele was born with deformed legs. He is scheduled to be fitted for prosthetics soon. It was adorable to watch him scoot around- his inability to walk did not slow him down at all.
Another of the boys, Robirra, was dropped off at the village in a comatose state. They are unsure what happened to him but he has obvious cognitive deficits. However I can tell he is making huge progress when I see him point at the swings indicating he wants to swing. Or when he smiles when he sees us coming to his house. Mostly he needs to be carried everywhere but this last week a few of my amazing squad mates pieced together a walker out of sticks and couch wheels and Robirra now has a way to practice walking. Amazing!
This month the kids have truly shown me what it means to have hope. They are now able to attend school and grow up in an environment that encourages them and shows them they can achieve anything. I fully believe that the future leaders of Ethiopia are in this children’s village. God is so present on the compound and his presence is overflowing to the village that surrounds it.
Another project we got to be a part of was a dental and eye clinic. Ralph (the founder of Hope Ethiopia) brought a couple of teams from Canada the last week we were there. In 1 day we were able to see ~170 people receive dental care from polishing to cleanings to extractions. They were near creating a mob because they were hopeful that we could help them. People who might normally die from a tooth infection were trusting us to stop this from happening. It was incredible to hold the hand of a scared woman as the dentist speaking a foreign language pulled her teeth. To see my teammates demonstrate correct tooth brushing and hand out what might be the only toothbrush they can own.
The eye clinic was doing screenings this week. I was hopeful to be able to assist in surgery but that wasn’t God’s plan. Instead I got to see the more heart breaking side of hope. I saw patient after patient who had a diagnosis in which the doctor said “there’s nothing we can do”. I saw their faces fall and the hope they had leave their eyes. I saw a woman with cataracts receive the news that she couldn’t have surgery because she couldn’t afford it. When I found out that this surgery that could give her sight back only costs the equivalent of $200 US dollars I began to cry. And to be honest I was angry. I was angry with God that I could in theory help this woman and yet I couldn’t. Why was I here to just observe this woman break down and not be able to do anything about it?
But then I saw a 28 year old woman get scheduled for surgery. And a 54 year old man who the doctor could help. And then I met a man who was 113 years old! And had only started losing his sight in one eye 7 years ago. He asked to bless us before he left and even though I couldn’t understand him, my heart was so full of hope. The same hope that I had lost earlier returned. Because I realized, that the only true hope we have is on the Lord. Without God, nothing is possible. He brought those children out of families who didn’t want them and into a loving home. He brought the clinic teams all the way across the world and gave them the skills to help people. His heart breaks over the poor and the forgotten and the least of these. Christ died for every single one of them.
And his word says:
“Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them.”
Psalms 10:17-18
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
