Hope

Recent headlines caught our attention of a church shooting in South Carolina where 9 people were killed. Our Facebook  newsfeeds were filled with images of the victims and prayers from those around the world for the families and community affected.  Although saddened to hear the news, our attention quickly returned to the violent bloodshed that daily affects our own backyard.  In the month of May alone athere were 641 homicides in El Salvador. Just to give you some reference, El Salvador has an estimated population of 6 million people and our home state of Ohio has an estimated population of almost 12 million.  Ohio, a state with almost double the population of El Salvador, experiences an average of just over one homicide a day while El Salvador experiences just over one an hour.  Recent homicide rates mimic those of the civil war in the 1980s and they are only getting worse.  What is the answer? Is there hope?

The beginning of our mission statement says "Fearlessly reaching the forgotten youth of El Salvador with Christ's love, restoring hope to their lives.."  Love and Hope. The very things that are lost here in El Salvador and were missing in the shooter's heart in that South Carolina church.  Psalm 71:14 says, "But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more."  When the world seems to have gone mad and the news seems more than what we can bear, there is hope.  As Christians, we always have it and Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that hope, along with faith and love, will always remain.  So, what do we do? We continue to run the race marked out before us, loving those who are, by the world's standards, unloveable and forgiving those who are, by the world's standards, unforgiveable. We are able to do this because it is Christ who lives in us and not ourselves.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  2 Corinthians 4:8-9  We believe that a life filled with Christ's love and restored hope is a transformed life, which leads to a transformed family, community and nation.  We continue because we believe in our core that Christ truly is the hope of the world. 

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end...Hebrews 6:11