Committed to Hope

Recently, my pastor has been teaching from Romans 8 and waiting expectantly for the Kingdom to be brought to
fullness. He spoke about the longings we have in life – living with the recognition and frustration that the world isn’t fully the way it is meant to be, and yet yearning for things to be made right. He talked about how Creation groans from brokenness. And it all hit me like he was perfectly exposing and articulating exactly how I feel, every single day.

You don’t have to go Africa to know that something is terribly flawed with the world. And you don’t have to tap too deeply into anyone’s heart before you expose the brokenness within. I’ve found that leading Blood:Water Mission often brings me to that almost paralyzed feeling of being overwhelmed by the enormity of poverty and suffering and lack of human dignity. I stand within overcrowded refugee camps in Northern Uganda and wonder how a small organization like ours can truly make a difference. I absorb the realities of the statistics from AIDS and feel as though the cynics who say there is nothing that can be done just may be right. The more I learn about how complex injustice and brokenness truly are, the more reason I have to want to give up fighting.

Yet as Christians, we have something deeper and fuller to live within than the frustration of a groaning planet. The longing for shalom and fullness that aches deep in our hearts should lead us differently. We believe that creation was good when God made it, and though it fell, God is redeeming it. And that redemptive process compels us to HOPE.

My prayer for you, for me, and for the mission of Blood:Water is that we can continue to live out that hope in the midst of difficult realities. It is our responsibility to be agents of light, exposing the beautiful and redemptive ways that God uses broken people like us to do His work in the world. It’s amazing to see what something as simple as clean water can do for a community of people. It’s breathtaking to witness the process of Americans and Africans joining together to walk in faith and in the hope that God works all things for good. And it’s exciting to explore more ways to authentically carry people from the paralysis of defeat into the process of living out Christ’s hope in the world.

Please pray for me and for the Blood:Water Mission team, that we can fully demonstrate and live in that hopeful anticipation of the Kingdom that is coming and the Kingdom that is now. Most everyone can relate to suffering or hardship, but not everyone is familiar with the good news of God’s redemption, and that is what I pray we will clearly and powerfully live out in our organization: in our words, in our relationships, in our work - one person and one community at a time.

Jena