"Hope is something you have to demonstrate"
Famous words uttered by a humble saint, Mother Teresa continues to mentor others to trust God in loving the hopeless and the destitute.
As we seek to begin our work in Kiambu, Kenya, building a rescue center for victims of HIV/AIDS and violence, we are finding we too must first demonstrate hope.
1 Peter 1:3 says, "You have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ..." As our team has taken on this endeavour we have experienced several hardships for which we thank and praise God.
For it has been in the trials that we have discovered that Jesus truly is our only hope and as we learn to fully depend upon Him and trust Him, we demonstrate to the those around us the living hope of Christ.
God encouraged us with a tangible demonstration of hope against all odds by the visit of our dear friend Dr. Mamisa of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. A medical doctor whose dream it was to always have an HIV/AIDS clinic now years after trusting God for the provisions, is receiving her first shipment of medical equipment from Toledo, Ohio!
Dr. Mamisa encouraged Jody and I to be patient, wait for God's timing, and for His supply. She cautioned us about doing things in our own strength rather than in Christ alone.
A woman who had survived the persecution of Apartheid, didn't own a pair of shoes until age nine, has gone on to mother 10 children, become a well-known Doctor in her country, and now operates a hydroponics farm which feeds her entire community.
She attributes it all to a God who accomplishes all He puts on our hearts to do.
Her example gave us hope to not give up the dream and to continue trusting God. For it is our faith walk that demonstrates hope to the lost and the destitute.
Truly Jesus is our only hope!!
