Hope Does Live!

If you haven't already figured out... you will soon! From my Facebook statuses, Twitter tweets and blog posts, you'll invariably notice that I am following the Compassion Bloggers who are in the Philippines this week!

Inspiring stories... the ones that they have been writing!

Kat from Inspired to Action is one of the bloggers. Please watch these two very short video clips which are footage from Kat's blog:




The house in the video is about the size of a typical North American bathroom!
The front door is three planks of wood fashioned into a baby gate!
The floor space is about the size of a king-sized bed!

That's it... it's home for this family!

This is the reason why ministries like that of Compassion International are so vital, so important! They exist in order to release children from poverty in Jesus' name... giving them HOPE for the temporal, and more importantly, HOPE for the eternal.

Would you let God use you to give HOPE? Will you be a part of the story that God is writing for a Filipino child's life? Will you sponsor a Filipino child through Compassion International?

As many of you already know, our family is going to be on a missions immersion trip this summer... to the Philippines! As part of this trip, we are going to visit our Compassion sponsor child. We are oh. so. excited.

In preparation for our trip, we are doing a Bible Study together as a family. It is truly a resource sent by God! It is during moments like these when I marvel at God's attention to detail.

You see, our church is launching a summer initiative called Summer Splash designed to encourage people to choose for themselves a lifestyle of compassion. I was browsing through the Bible Study resource list on the website and one of them caught my eye.

Hope Lives... that's the title. And, it wouldn't let me go.
Something inside me said, "Buy a copy!" So I did.

When it arrived, I quickly saw that it is produced by Group Publishing in partnership with Compassion International. Didn't I say that God cares about little details?

Well, our family gathered together one night last week to start this Bible Study. I flipped to page 6 where the Introduction is... and these are the words that met my eyes:

"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
- Micah 6:8

I was overcome with emotion... just reading that very first paragraph. I knew, right at that moment, that God is going to use this Bible Study to prepare our family for this trip!

We've done almost a full week's worth of study to date. Each one has been thought-provoking to say the least. At one point, I was so choked up that I had to pass the book on to hubby to continue reading.

I have since realized that HOPE LIVES. It does live!

It lives for Rose Ann and her family --- they live in the house that's in the YouTube video above.

But I have also come to realize that hope lives for someone else too.

Hope lives for me.
In my brokenness, hope lives.
In my selfishness, hope lives.
In my inadequacies, hope lives.

Hope lives... and I am forever grateful for that.

Unwrapping more of His love in this world.

Act justly.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly with God!