Hope Does Not Disappoint Us
A running theme of this week has been Hope. Here are a couple stories of the true hope God has revealed to His dearly loved children this week. I ap...
A running theme
of this week has been Hope. Here are a couple stories of the true hope God has revealed to
His dearly loved children this week. I apologize ahead of time for the
scattered nature of this blog. Have grace with me and my random thoughts.
Last week I
blogged about a man I was privileged to share the gospel with, Patrick. Patrick
came to our worship service Sunday morning. The message Sunday was from Luke 15
where Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost
son. Patrick said for the first time after hearing that message, he could
understand the bible and identify with it. After the service Patrick talked
with
Charles Kaye, a full time missionary here in Granada. On Wednesday Patrick enrolled in a
Christian rehab center called Pinniel. He is living there now and for the
foreseeable future. When I first met with Patrick, he cried of desperation and
at one point in our conversation he got on his knees and begged for help of any
kind. What a cry we all experience! The complete brokenness of this world comes
to all of us, and our only hope is in our Savior Jesus Christ. In your prayer
time please give Jesus an extra shout of praise for revealing His hope to
Patrick.
On Tuesday we
had meeting after meeting about the ministries we are going to be involved in
this semester. There is too much to say about the plans God is putting together
for our team, but let me just say that God is going to do big things this
semester. Our hopes and visions are becoming a reality and that is only through
the power of Christ. I will blog more about these ministries as they get in
action. It's going to be good.
dump where 200 families live. Wednesday we had the opportunity to spend the day
there. It is going to be hard to put into words all that God revealed through
the community and life at the dump, but bear with me as I attempt.
by the foul aroma of burning rubber. The air in the dump was thick and dirty. When a breeze came in ash and smoke rose and got in our eyes.
By the end of the few hours in the dump my clothes had a tint o
had a headache from all the smoke. The average life expectancy of people who
live there is 40-50 years old due to the damage done to lungs breathing in
polluted air for a lifetime. Everywhere throughout the community fires were
smoldering. The streets we walked and drove on were just paths cleared of
trash. Families live in shelters composed of garbage they found. Families earn
their living by sifting through mounds of trash to find anything of value. We
walked up one of the several mountains of trash where fires were going on, and
fathers were diligently searching for trash that would be useful for to their
families. There is a school and clinic in the community built and run by
mission organizations such as Love, Light and Melody and others.
poorest of poor in this community are just normal people though. The children
and adults we met were joyful, content and dignified. The children wanted to be
loved and played with, the adults were friendly and conversational as anywhere
else. It is as if they did not even know they were living in absolute garbage.
Isn't this a picture of our lives? We live surrounded by garbage; corrupted
media, skewed morals, excessive possessions, confused politics, the garbage
gets piled up more and more each day. Yet we treat all this trash with
contempt. We accept it and live in it. The community who lives in a trash dump is a mirror
image of our lives more than anything else. Here is the catch,
just like the people who live at the trash dump, WE HAVE HOPE! Through the
blood of Jesus Christ we are not going to forever be stuck in our trash dump lives. Our Savior promised to come back to earth and He will take His own to
spend eternity with Him. Praise God for that! He does not leave us out here to
dry, but met us right here on earth. Feeling every temptation and taking on all
our pain, Christ died so we are now redeemed and have hope for a better life- a
life with Jesus Christ. He is our hope! Can I get an AMEN? (I've always wanted
to say something that I could ask for an AMEN after)
"Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured
out His love into our hearts." Romans 5:5
to hold me in your prayers. Christ is definitely doing a work in me and the
fires of revival are being lit within this city. If there are specific prayer
requests any one reading this has, please e-mail me at Lauraovers@comcast.net. I desire a 2
way relationship with all you who support me and I apologize for being
neglectful in that so far. May the God of
heaven and earth bring you hope this week and forever more.
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