Restoring hope! Not only is that the theme of this year’s banquets, but it is also the daily goal of this mission. Every day we have the blessing and opportunity to make an eternal difference in the lives of the men and women that we serve here. But have you ever asked yourself the question, how? How is it that we can help restore hope to the hurting? The answer to that is really quite simple. Love is how we start to make a difference.
The apostle Paul wrote, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” The love that we share here is not your candy hearts and flowers type of love. Instead it is the love commanded in 1 John 3:18. “…let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” We seek to love in deed by providing to those whom God b rings through our doors the basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter all at no cost .
We seek to love in truth by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. We want those who come to us to know that they do have an intrinsic worth, that there is a God who loves them and has made a way of reconciliation for them. We want them to know that there is a better, more abundant life available for them. We want to see them flee from themselves and instead cling to the cross.
As all of this happens, we have the privilege of being ambassadors for Christ. Our clients are watching our lives. They are seeing and hearing the hardships that we all face, and in the process they get to see how God is providing that hope for us. And as they see and listen they themselves begin to have hope. It is then that we get to see God’s miraculous hand. For as their hope grows, so their faith grows, and as their faith grows, their love grows. As their love grows they have the opportunity to share the hope they found in Christ Jesus.
How do you restore hope? One soul at time.
Jason Hubbard
Assistant to the Chaplin
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