How Do You Build A Bridge Of Hope?

In 1 John 3:17-18 it states "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth."

About a year ago my family and I were lead to sponsor a child from Gospel for Asia's Bridge of Hope program.  We had talked about sponsoring a child before but never really felt a conviction of the Holy Spirit until Jason read the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  In the book he talks about some of the clearly stated commands of God in regards to taking care of the poor and how we should act now instead of later.  When Jason first brought the subject up it was during a lengthy lay off from his job and we were both a little reluctant to put more money out of our budget at a time when it was already spread so thin.  We had no idea of how it would turn out but we took a leap of faith that God would provide and that we would not come up short, and to our amazement that is exactly what happened.  God showed us His glory again and again by not only providing what we needed during that time but also blessed us in many other ways as well.  As a family we all participated  in the process of choosing which child we were going to sponsor.  Our daughters spent a lot of time on our computer going through many profiles of children until one in particular really stood out to them.  Together we came to a unanimous decision about a certain young girl and the sponsoring process started.  We were so excited!  We couldn't wait to get the materials from Bridge of Hope with all the information about our child and how we could correspond with her.  It was a very exciting time and we all felt very joyful to be able to help a child in need and to be obedient to God at the same time.

Here we are a year later and we still have that same joyful feeling that we had from the very beginning.  Whenever we see a Bridge of Hope envelope in our mail box we wonder if it is another letter from her.  We really enjoy hearing from her and about how God is working in her life as well as learning about her culture and day to day life.  I remember the first letter we received and how interesting it was to see her hand written language and how different it was from our own.  Our children thought that was really cool to see how different another language looks when it is written.

As we continue on our journey with our sponsored child we believe that one of the greatest benefits that we have from the whole experience is to be able to pray for her and her family on a regular basis.  The power of prayer can have an amazing impact on a persons life even if that person has no idea that you are praying for them.  We believe that God will use our monthly gift and our prayers to bring hope to a child in need and that she will come to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior.