If You've Given Up Hope...Read this

If you've grown cynical in 2008...

If you are still sick that your 401-K is now half what it was in 2007...

If you're upside down on your mortgage...

If the human resources person at your work keeps staring strangely at you...

THERE IS A REAL-LIFE GOOD NEWS STORY GOING ON IN KITALE, KENYA.

Meet Emmanuel...no last name...babies who get abandoned at Sister FREDA'S COTTAGE HOSPITAL don't really have luxuries like clothes or last names or birth certificates or moms or dads or a family...one day, you just notice there's an extra baby in the nursery and he's very sick...

As you can tell, Emmanuel was SO sick that his ribs showed through his tiny chest. His body had sores all over...he couldn't hold down the smallest amounts of fluids...death was as present as a circling buzzard.

But there is this sweet Ukrainian missionary named Tanya.

She came from Ternopil, Ukraine, to teach Kenyan children about Jesus Christ.

She and 4 other Ukrainians who come and volunteer at Sister Freda's couldn't get Emmanuel out of their minds...so they started doing what they COULD do...praying for him...and rubbing his little body which was smaller than their hand...and trying to feed him with a dropper and a mini spoon.

Well guess what...prayer and love conquered cynism and death...

Sick baby Emmanuel has become THRIVING, and GIGGLING baby Emmanuel.
Tanya's unending prayers and love and care for this one child are a perfect example of the power of one person refusing to focus on what she couldn't do, but concentrating on what she COULD. Tanya became a living ADVOCATE for a child that couldn't speak up for himself.

You don't have to sell your house in Orange County and move to Congo or Ukraine or Oaxaca or Kitale to be an ADVOCATE for the hurting of this world.
Just decide to do SOMETHING for someone...

2009...it just could be a good year to reach beyond ourselves...

If you want some ideas on where to start...look over some of the past year's blog and ask yourself (or the Lord) where you could begin in a tiny way.

Plant the seed...

water it...

watch it grow...