Memories & Hope
I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. Psalm 89:1
One trip, shaped by boyhood memories held deep within my husband’s heart, turned into an abundance of hope.
From one generation to the next we traveled with our family to the root of the memories – the country where the best were held.
We walked in the markets where he walked when he was our son’s age.
We traveled the same roads and experienced the same sights, sounds, and tastes.
Together new memories were created…
As we hiked the Mt. Kilimanjaro 1st base camp trail, our muscles burned and fatigue set in. Hope, found in the struggle, kept us going to the end.
Our children saw life, hurt, and love with their own eyes, and through seeing, they began to understand…
Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD. Psalm 31:24 (NKJV)
They began to understand a love passed down through generations, across continents… from the beginning through 25 Days of Family.
They began to understand a love for people and life different from what we can see.
A love for animals different from what they have ever experienced.
A beautiful love, from the beginning of time, now resting in a beautiful hope.
For my husband and his mom and sister, old memories meshed with new ones…
Don’t you know that day dawns after night, showers displace drought, and spring and summer follow winter? Then, have hope! Hope forever, for God will not fail you! Charles Spurgeon
Hope is changing our perspective from how we see life to how He sees life.
On Christmas morning His presence surrounded our presents.
After a time of devotion and celebration, we left for the next leg of the journey, where he was laying beside the road less than a mile outside of our camp…covered with flies.
The animals know there is always a lion right around the corner…
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 (NKJV)
Or, he could be seen as Aslan from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe… the One who came to save and give life.
Regardless, we know, the life we live is not easy and care-free. Difficult times come and fall hard – often when we least expect.
They could be waiting right around the corner, in the same place hope is hiding.
Hope wants to be found by you.
We spent time with these children, whose lives were filled with hard times, yet hope was found in the struggle.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 (ESV)
These orphans and at-risk children are familiar with hardship and loss. They have experienced more hunger and pain than we can imagine, yet their hearts are now filled with hope (tumaini in Swahli).
A faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time. Titus 1:2 (NIV)
Under the shelter of His wings, the children have found rest…and tumaini in His presence.
Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39 (NIV)
And that is what they learned on their end-of-year celebration day…with praising and rejoicing we celebrated all God has done for them this year.
How would we have known how much a trip created from old memories would shape such beautiful new ones within our hearts and the hearts of our family forever?
The gift of our time in Africa is over, and leaving made our hearts heavy, yet full.
However, the memories and the tumaini we experienced will endure forever. They are so much larger than we can see or imagine…
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:16-21 (NIV)
With tumaini we continue on – to the next leg of our journey…
Basking in His Light
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