THERE IS HOPE - Dec 27, 2008
After checking off four dozen items on our Christmas gift list, dispatching hundreds of pounds of products in our Mom and Pop business, staving off the perils of unemployment while the economy went down the tubes, appearing in court, preparing for an Agriculture Department audit, re-checking the Christmas list to make sure we didn't forget anybody, and choosing between a yellow bulldozer with a black wheel and front loader for one child and a yellow bulldozer with a black wheel with a fork loader for another child, getting the car towed to the shop one day before Christmas, and making three attempts at writing a decent newsletter (I saved the drafts for future use in case I run desperate), we finally arrived at: … the day "after" Christmas. I don't think Jesus meant it to be like this. But listen we are not complaining, activity is, more often than not, a positive thing as long as we don't let it unravel into an abyss of disruptive dysfunctionality.
So here we are three days after Christmas and no newsletter. Well that is until my wife brilliantly cobbled together and committed to paper a true story that really counts. A story that makes Christmas. A story of redemption at its simplest terms. This story starts 4,500 miles away in the dusty back streets of Rio Verde, an agricultural back water in central Brazil. Never mind we had a great year, not devoid of some of the most challenging times of our lives (and that is before world economies started to crumble away from under us), yet full of victories and much to thank for. Our many kids kept having more kids, our pets kept demanding more food, our grass more cutting, do-it-yourself repairs more demanding for a less than optimally agile body, and bills more abundant… and, this statement is a sanitized one. More real is something like this: first day of 2008 I received a call that my boss was in the hospital in critical condition, I ran the company I was working for three months while he recovered; in May the company was taken over by new ownership with whom, putting in mild terms, I did not see eye to eye; in September I was out of a job; in October the economy went into tailspin; in November Lynn joined forces with me to pull our business by the bootstraps. Probably not by coincidence to the times, yet not by rational design, I started spending comfortable time reading and maybe studying parts of the fascinating book of Leviticus, a bloody book where the appearance of deathly mess is nothing but the reaffirmation of life in the context of the season with are now celebrating, i.e., Christmas. Parallel though, our son David, found doctors he likes, improved his condition dramatically by learning how to manage his condition, found a job he really likes just half an hour away, and bought himself a computer and a car. Not to mention he runs a b-line to his girlfriend's parents' home every available opportunity. Enough of the every day, every time, I did this, I did that, and somewhat else this year. Now, into the real deal:
NEW HOPE
By Lynn S. Lane
Eight years ago Kristy and Andrew Jennings went to Brazil with a desire to make a contribution to whatever town they ended up settling in. Andrew's job at the time took them to Rio Verde in sun baked central plains of the state of Goias near the nation's capital.
In Rio Verde they discovered a need for helping street children so they opened a home for boys who had been abandoned by their families and who were living out on the streets. They started with three boys. Andrew drove around town at night or early morning and found boys sleeping on cardboards, huddled in corners of buildings or wherever they could find shelter. He went up to them and asked them if they would like to visit a farm and may be live there. Three of the boys accepted. One of them, Bruno was the first one who wanted to live at the farm then called "New Hope Village". He could not read or write his name. Kristy was shocked and grief stricken when Bruno told them his story and of all the abuse and rejection he had already gone through in such a short life – I think he was about nine years old. They put him in school, bought him clothes, took him to the dentist and doctor, and took him to church. They would also read the Bible to him and told him about someone who loves him very much named Jesus. They told him about how Jesus had also suffered and had been unjustly rejected by his people.
Bruno as well as the boys who followed to live at "New Hope Village" thrived in their new environment. They learned to read and write. They took care of gardens, cows, sheep and played soccer. Their house parents, a couple dedicated to looking after the boys, treated them with respect, discipline and love. When Bruno turned ten, the Jennings and the House parents held a surprise birthday party for him. When he saw the cake he was so shocked it was for him, he turned around and ran out of the room. Andrew ran after him and convinced him to come back which he did.
Bruno is now eighteen and getting ready to live in town and go to a local technical school whose leaders have agreed to provide free tuition for the boys from the "Village of Hope".
So that is their story. There are many more. Andrew and Kristy have struggled with scarcity of funds, currency ups and downs and various trials. They don't have many venues to raise funds. Right now they don't even have a phone line and computer in their house. Nevertheless there are twelve boys whose lives are being fundamentally transformed. They now have hope whereas on the streets they were hopeless.
I hope you have a wonderful New Year. With love and greetings from,
Edward and Lynn S. Lane
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www.freshcoffee.blogspot.com
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