Hope For Every Day
While I am still over five thousand miles away from my assignment in Spain, the Lord continues to display His heart for reaching and encouraging His people. I wanted to share with you all some of the wonderful things the Lord has been doing on the Arapahoe/Shoshone reservation in Wyoming. To many of you, this might sound somewhat random, but this Thanksgiving week was my 4th consecutive annual visit to the children of the Arapahoe Elementary School on the Wind River Reservation. Our team from Colorado Christian University (CCU) has been making the drive up to the rez for at least 8 years now to pass out donated food to the locals for the Thanksgiving holiday and more importantly, to spend much needed quality time with the students of the elementary, middle, and high schools. This year, I got a peek at the heart of God in an unexpected way.
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Financial Support Goals:
- I have reached my monthly support goal to be able to live in Spain for the next two years! Thank you to all who have pledged to support my ministry through monthly financial giving, allowing me to live and work in a place that so desperately needs full-time Christ workers. All that lies ahead financially is the initial funds to cover the visa fees and the plane ticket to get me there.
* If you or someone you know are led to help further with the financial need, please follow the link on the right titled “Support my ministry” where you can set up a one-time donation.
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One reason for going to the rez, goes beyond the typical “service project” operation that is common with many mission trips. Our timing is just right to fill a tangible need that arises every year among Arapahoe families. Many of the families on the rez don’t have enough income to feed their children when they get home from school, so many of them survive on the free meals provided through the school system. This turns out to be a huge problem especially on long school breaks (like the Thanksgiving weekend). That is one reason why CCU students go there with food in stow, sacrificing their own precious break time away from the books.
Another reason we go there is to spend quality time with the kiddos and offer them hope. The statistics surrounding education on the rez, especially higher education, is pretty bleak. Of the 50 kids in my 5th grade glass, less than half will graduate high school. Many won’t even finish middle school. We are some of the only college students they will ever come into contact with. Not that college is this indisputably necessary thing in life, or that it is a savior to all peoples; we offer the kids a differ and positive attitude toward education that they don’t get even from most of those in middle school.
What comes out of the quality time, however, is something that I almost can’t quite put into words, though I may try. The Wind River Reservation, like many Indian reservations around the US, is one of the darkest places on earth. Many of the children come from broken homes as a result of the alcoholism and drug addiction that plagues much of the rez. In addition, the teen suicide and teen pregnancy rates alone would make our grandparents shudder.
Few know the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope He offers. The Gospel is often mingled in with other religions and pagan spiritualism. Few know of the redemptive relationship their God wants to have with them. We are some of the only Christians that many of the children will encounter. So our mission is one of great importance, and this year was one that has left me speechless and praising God still…
Throughout thanksgiving week and over Facebook in the time since, I have been privileged to have opportunities to share the good news of Jesus with three of my 5th grade boys! The relationships that I had invested in over the past 4 years had come to a point at which the Lord wanted them to hear the truth about Christ. I will share one of these stories briefly.
Young Hope
This year, our goal of sharing the good news of the hope we have in Jesus succeeded in tangible ways. One of my boys opened up to me on the bus about his living situation and I was left speechless. Both his parents, as well as his aunt and uncle, had problems with alcohol and fighting, which has left the boy with two options: live a life surrounded by violence and substance abuse or leave all of his family and friends to live in an orphanage. I have known this little boy for over four years now, keeping up with him on Facebook and visiting for three days at a time each year. Simply knowing that children are going through this kind of thing anywhere in the world is heartbreaking enough, but having a name and a person to tie to such a grim circumstance cut me straight to the heart. The hopelessness of this situation meant that even the strong cultural values of family fell short of saving this little boy. What is one left with when all their family and friends are stripped away. The cause of all of this, we learned as this young boy told his situation, was alcoholism and violence.
By the grace of God, we got to talking about Jesus and it all came into perspective for me as well as for this eleven-year-old boy! We need a savior, we discussed, someone to come and make a way for us to live apart from the sin that so easily divides us, hurts us, and leads us astray. And that is what Jesus came to do. For the first time, this young boy got to hear the truth behind all the pain and suffering he has experienced in his life. Both the cause as well as the cure. The hope for everyday life.
With all that lies ahead, it is going to take a miracle for this boy to truly know the hope in front of Him, just as it takes an act of God for each of us to draw near to hope in Christ on a daily basis. I feel for this youngster, and love him dearly. Though he was open to hearing all this and actively asking questions, He has yet to grasp the hope he has in Jesus and still seems bitter at the world. Whatever it will take, it will be the work of our God “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2: 4).
I will close with the words of Pastor and author Jeff Vanderstelt:
“I am more certain than ever that apart from belief in the gospel, sinners will suffer everlasting punishment and saints will fail to live lives that bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ. So it is my hope that more sinners will be saved from condemnation and more saints will be set free to overcome sin, fear, and insecurity in their everyday existence” (Gospel Fluency, p. 24).
This is the power of God at work and He is doing it every day. Let us respond to the hope we have in Jesus and help others to respond as well.
Pray with me:
- For more on the Wind River Reservation to know the hope offered in Jesus
- For the continued support of the saints for the mission to make disciples of all nations.
- For this warrior to get to the field without delay and to continue to trust the Lord in all of it.
*To support this ministry through financial contribution please see the green link on this page: "Support This Ministry"
** For More information on my specific assignment, see the following link to Avance España: https://gocorps.org/tracks/placements/n/9087556?platform=hootsuite