Jessie's Well Blog

Investing in Hope

 

 

Investing in Hope

 

Our son Robert was 12 years old in March of 2007 when Jessie was diagnosed with a very rare stage 4 cancer.  Jessie had been admitted to Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City and was undergoing treatment to subdue the excruciating pain she was experiencing as a result of the spreading cancer.  Robert and I went for a walk in Central Park so we could talk about the present and the future.  Wanting to facilitate an open and honest conversation with Robert about our situation, I turned and asked him if he would tell me what he knows about Jessie and the current situation. Without hesitation, Robert simply said “well Dad, what I know is that Jessie has been diagnosed with a very rare cancer that nobody really knows how to treat and that we don’t really know how long Jessie will be with us.  But the way I see it, it won’t be long before we are all together again one day in heaven so it's going to be okay.”  I was startled by his quick and succinct assessment, but I was also proud and gratified that Robert possessed the hope of eternity because he knew the One who holds eternity in His hands.

During our vision trips with Compassion in 2013, we witnessed oases of great hope in the midst of abject poverty.  So I pondered the question: “What is poverty?” and determined that the definition of poverty is the absence of hope.  Ephesians 1:18 records the Apostle Paul’s prayer that “…the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,…”  That is the hope Robert expressed 8 years ago at age 12 and continues to express today at age 21 in his daily walk.  We are blessed beyond measure to carry this same message of hope to thousands of children in the Dominican Republic as we invest in the delivery of clean, fresh water for health and Living Water for life.  Please join with us as we invest in Hope.