Rewrite the Story...

I love stories.

As a child, I spent my summers at my grandfather's law office. I would find a quiet spot under a desk or behind a file cabinet and read voraciously. Some days, I would bring back ten books from the library, only to return them the next day.

The characters became my friends, and in my mind, they took on a life of their own.

To this day, I love stories--both made up and true. However, in order for me to read a book or even watch a movie, I must have some assurance that the story will have a happy ending.

I'm a cheater--hopelessly impatient. 

I read the endings first.

So life is a little hard for me. You have to do life a page at a time. There is no fast-forward to see how things will turn out, no Netflix summary, no Wikipedia.

In Christ, we do have the assurance of an ultimately happy ending. I'm convinced of this truth.

But as I do a lot of work now with the poor and suffering, I am constantly reminded that many believers who will have a happy ending don't have a happy story.

Life is hard. It's not fair. People get sick. They go hungry. They suffer abuse. They are exploited. 

I want to share with you one of the great secrets of God's Kingdom: 

Jesus left His people here to make life a little more fair.

Consistently, Jesus modeled that when you see a need, you should meet it. His ministry wasn't all standing on a mountain preaching. It was rarely that. It was mostly one person at a time, healing, raising, restoring, and blessing.

Today I heard some stories. They are about some little ones who didn't have a very happy story.

But their story changed--because someone decided to live like Jesus and right wrongs.

For some time, I've been speaking up for the Your Kingdom Here Child Development Center in Joconales, Honduras. Compassion opened a new program there March 1, and our vision trip is set to visit the project on July 17. We have a goal of finding sponsors for all 200 children.

A fellow Compassion sponsor felt led to sponsor one of these children--I'll call him "H"--because she saw him in a dream. 

Later, she felt drawn to little "K"...

...and then to miss "A".

Today, she visited these three children, and she shared a little of the stories that she heard...

"..they are absolutely precious. They stuck out profusely among everyone else, and all three of the children had completely rotten teeth. "K's" mother told me that they used to sleep in a field until Compassion came along and now they are building a wooden house. "K" also looks somewhat malnourished. "H" is TINY. His grandmother had no work and feeds four grandchildren. None, not even the adults, had ever been to San Pedro Sula. None of the children had ever eaten in a restaurant, eaten ice cream, or owned a toy. "A" had never received new clothes. Kim, they just seem like they need physical needs met more than anything."

It all seems so wrong. I don't like sad stories.

But today the story changed.

"K" will live in a house.

"H's" grandmother will have help feeding those four grandchildren.

"A" got new clothes.

All of them, including the adults, adventured to the city, ate a meal at a restaurant, enjoyed ice cream...

And they will go home, back up into the rural mountains, feeling loved and valued--feeling like God has seen and answered their cries for help.

These families don't have to wait for their happy ending. Their stories are being rewritten because ONE person chose to respond to their needs.

ONE person wasn't willing to let their stories be sad stories of neglect, waste, and poverty.

ONE person, through the ministry of Compassion, is providing for the basic needs of these children--education, clothing, food, shelter, spiritual discipleship, medical and dental care.

Will you change the story of a child at HO416? These precious children, each with a story, are waiting for someone just like you.

Neidy

Meilyn is SPONSORED!!

Aylin is SPONSORED!!

Yeilin

Genesis

Edwin

Caleb

Jairo

Axel

Jesus