“Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these’”(Luke 18:16).
If you ever get a chance, ask Mary Jo to tell you the story of how she ended up in Rwanda. It was literally a miraculous journey, and one that she never expected. Mary Jo is one more striking example of how God is at work on so many levels—graciously leading us to places we never expected to go!
Mary Jo recently served for an entire month at Hope Haven Rwanda. She invested deeply into the lives of our community—reading to children, coaching staff, organizing resources, helping set up our new library space and generously sharing the love of Jesus!
Her host teacher, Topista, enabled her to dig in with a specific group of kindergartners and Mary Jo walked away with a life-long friend. She also left with one student touching her heart so profoundly that Mary Jo committed to invest prayer, authentic relationship and generous financial resources to help this young lady grow into everything that God wants her to be. Now Mary Jo is a Hope Angel!
As she concluded her first tour of service at Hope Haven, Mary Jo reflected, “These children are gifts from God—they are pure joy, innocence and love, and I’m so grateful for the education that they are receiving! I know it’s changing lives every day!”
Topista and Mary Jo both know that the heart of Jesus’ message is love. The message is that we are all on equal footing at the foot of the cross. No matter where we come from, what we look like, what we smell like, what our educational background is, how much money we have, what our profession is, we are all desperate before God. Without Jesus, we all experience desperate, dry places in our souls—but there is hope in Jesus!
As followers of Jesus, we can be a voice for the voiceless. We can bring hope in the midst of hopelessness. One of the most incredible things about our walk with Jesus is that He modeled what it was like to go deep into the desperate places, and He modeled what it looked like to deliver hope. Jesus didn’t run away from desperate places—He ran to them!
What an honor to serve God in the most desperate places. God is present in very special ways in struggling communities, and we are so grateful for women like Topista and Mary Jo who lovingly follow Jesus deep into the lives of some very special children. Let’s challenge each other today to deliver the hope of Jesus in the most desperate place we can find!
DON’T FORGET: There are still seats available for our Fabric of Hope Event! Visit hopehavenrwanda.org/fabric-of-hopeto join us on April 24thin Denver with Priscillah Kembabazi, six Hope Haven Students, author April Graney, our Hope Haven Rwanda team and hundreds of other characters in this incredible story. Join us and learn how you can become a Hope Angel!