Hope is Life to the Soul

 

says Ania Noster, who I had the privilege to meet a month ago. She works with Heidi Baker  in Mozambique where she started a prison ministry.
She is an amazing woman, absolutely fearless. She said, she prayed and asked God to send you to the darkest places, where nobody wanted to go. And He sent her to Somalia. She went twice. It is her dream to build playgrounds in Somalia and teach the children how to play again.

 

Here is an excerpt from a post by Benjamin Church with whom she went to Somalia. I found it here :

In December of 2011 I walked through the hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia where I witnessed indescribable suffering among the people – the results of war, famine, poverty and disease. But the human being is resilient. She can survive even those things. As a lead doctor gave me a tour through the hospital he turned and said “there are people who come here in time to receive treatment to survive and live. We give them what their bodies need, but they don’t live, they die.” As I heard his words, thoughts ran through my mind, “But it doesn’t make sense”, I thought. “They should live. They are getting treatment. They are receiving what they need.”

A moment passed as I contemplated these thoughts then I asked, “Why?”

The doctor hesitated briefly then, with a deep sorrow in his eyes, responded, “they die because they have lost hope.”

They die because they have lost hope.

War, famine, poverty and disease. These a person can survive. A loss of hope, no one can survive. People need hope to live. I think Ania was right… hope is life to the soul.

So today I bring good news.

There is always hope.

Whatever the circumstance in life, no matter what it is, that circumstance can only be seen accurately when seen in the context of knowing that it can get better. That it can be restored. Knowing that it can be redeemed. And that is what hope is – to actively and confidently expect everything to become better.

Everything must be viewed through the lens of hope. Your family. Your health. Your finances. Your city. Your nation. Take a few seconds right now and slow down. Fix your thoughts on the close and personal Holy Spirit who loves and accepts you above and beyond your wildest imagination.  …and breathe in the hope of heaven coming to earth.

There is no place too dark. There is no place too dangerous.

There is hope for every person, every situation, every nation.

Myself and my dear friend, Ania, have had the opportunity to see hope being restored to a nation. We have seen the very beginning of what hope restored to a people group looks like.

And it is beautiful.

The first time we visited Mogadishu, Somalia, was in mid August 2011. We had heard of the despair from famine and war that was mercilessly gripping the land. So we went there. We didn’t have anything. We didn’t have any money. We didn’t have any contacts. We didn’t have any plan. Neither of us had been to Somalia before and we had close to zero knowledge of the land or the culture.

But we did have compassion for the people that were suffering, a discontent in our hearts for the injustice taking place. And above all, we had a belief in the power of the Gospel.

So we went.

When we arrived, the city resembled a chilling, bombed out, war-zone, ghost town under a blanket of death, hopelessness and fear more than an actual city. Because of famine, hundreds of thousands of starving Somalis, who had nothing but the air in their lungs and the tattered clothing on their backs, were risking their lives to venture into the city, seeking help. Try to see that and you may begin to get a small picture of what it was like.

So we began to pray and spread the word. And many of you began to pray. And the Holy Spirit began to move over the land. (You can read more about our first visit to Mogadishu in a previous blog that I posted)

Shortly after our departure we began to make plans to return to Mogadishu. Our hearts had been deeply moved from our first visit and we wanted to help the people in any way that we could. So we organized another visit to the city and this time we would bring food for those dying from famine and anything else we could bring that would save lives and help those in need.

Upon our arrival to the city, we were surprised to see how dramatically it had improved since our previous visit. Among the first things we recognized was a very noticeable change in the attitudes of the people and in the over all spiritual atmosphere. There had been a marked shift. The amount of violence and war clashes in the streets had decreased. The people were less paranoid and fearful. There were many more smiles More shops and markets were doing business and the level of activity in the streets had increased.

A city had begun to be transformed. Hope had begun to dawn within the hearts of the people.

Advertisement