Dear Hope,
I’ve only spent a few days inside of your joy filled walls, but oh the impact you have already had in my soul. I can’t begin to explain how much my heart goes out to your children, Hope. So many of the conditions that your kids go home to are heartbreaking. Knowing this, it would only make sense for me to wonder how you fill your children with such joy, and after three days within you I’ve already found the answer. You see, walking into your walls is like walking into another realm, a realm where victims don’t exist, but only children made whole by God. You teach your children that not one person in this world is better than them, that even though they aren’t always shiny and clean, they are always loved. You teach your children that the one person that will always love them and lookout for them is God. Hope, this is great, because under their circumstances learning a dependence on God, such as this, is the only way to make it through. You do not treat your children like victims, Hope, because you know and fully believe that Christ has made them new and He has made them whole.
Most of this month my team and I are working at Hope School. All the kids attending this school are either infected or affected by HIV/Aids.
All of these children have a story of deep hurt.
AND
Most of them are still living through it.
Some kids are abused physically, some emotionally, some both. They have a lot of hurt in common, but this school has given them something else in common, something good – hope. These kids share a hope in Christ. A hope that Christ is going to bring them out of their affliction, that He is going to make them new. He already is. At Hope School children are taught first and foremost about God and they are taught general education too. It is so awesome that God is held as top priority because some would think that kids living in these conditions would need just a mainstream education. Wrong. They need God. In fact, Hope is doing it better than most schools anywhere. Hope may not look beautiful on the outside, but Christ’s body didn’t look beautiful when He was beaten and then crucified. Just as we see the beauty behind the ugly Christ had to go through to save us, Hope has beauty, also. It’s just beyond what the eyes can see.
Hope does grow here,
and very much of it.
Prayer Requests: My team and I are heading into Lesotho for a week with the local church, First City Baptist. We are excited to partner with this church. They have told us that this will be one of the hardest but best weeks of our lives. We fully believe them. Pray that our team will be a tremendous blessing on these people. Pray that we wouldn’t go in and impose our way, but go along with the existing ministry in harmony. We just want to be a blessing. Pray for Hope kids and teachers. God is very involved and in love with this school. Pray for continued blessing and for needs to be met as they arise. Pray for my team in our growth. In this first week we have learned so much about one another. This team that I was so nervous to be a part of is becoming my family. We have been very intentional about “team time,” which are meetings to talk about our day, our issues with one another, have prayer, etc., but one thing we have struggled with is being intentional about staying in the word. Pray that even though our days are filled and busy, time in the word would be a priority. This is for our personal walk and our walk together. Lastly, pray that all the other teams are walking out their full potential on this journey. Though we are apart every month we think of each other often.
Thank you so much for all of your support so far. Things are going amazingly well. God has called us all to something great, and with that call in us He has provided the peace to go along with it. This all feels normal. This isn’t a trip it’s life. We are doing life together.
