The Lens We See Through
We love having interns with us in the office at World Hope International and we are thankful for the skills they bring to our team. Our intern, Haven Rhoda, a student at Kingswood University, spent some time on the ground in Sierra Leone this summer before coming back to work in the office with us. I asked her to share a reflection from her experience. Enjoy Haven’s blog!
For most of my life, I have been described as someone who sees the world through rose-colored glasses – audaciously optimistic. So, although ministry to children with disabilities in Sierra Leone was new to me, it was not long before I felt passionate about this marginalized and stigmatized populace. But it’s easy to keep your rose-colored glasses secured when you’re not being jostled by the hurt and hungry in Sierra Leone’s capital city.
So how do you buff out a new scratch in the glass, some sight you think you couldn’t have possibly seen with your own eyes
What do you do when the heavy rain and dusty streets and orphaned children laying naked in hospital beds force you to remove those glasses, polish them, and hope it changes the view? What do you do when it doesn’t?
You give your glasses to Jesus, and He returns them with golden, honey-colored lenses. Lenses you never thought existed – ones that flip everything upside down because they reflect the golden streets of heaven – lenses that offer a reality we do not often choose to see through because we can hardly fathom it. When you look through these glasses, what appears empty is full. Those who are last are first. Those unable to walk, dance. The small in stature, the weak, and the melancholy become the solid, the steady, and the sanguine.
I am different now that I have experienced World Hope’s Enable the Children (ETC) program because God used Freetown to nudge me to hand over my rose-colored glasses for repair, and used World Hope staff to show me what it looks like to love and operate with this newly restored vision.
It is the best thing to look and see God’s chosen one clothed in strength, dignity, and a t-shirt lovingly provided by an ETC occupational therapist.
When Enable the Children seeks out and comes alongside the most vulnerable and misunderstood in their communities, they are participating in a line-up that reflects heaven as they take by the hand those with dragging feet at the rear and gently lead them to the head.
Rose-colored glasses and audacious optimism can only take you so far before you need a hope that honey-colored glasses alone can provide—glasses that focus your eyes and your heart.
Glasses that let the Light in.
You can sponsor children in the Enable the Children program or make a gift to The Hope Fund to help World Hope International make a difference when and where it matters. Contact us to learn more about our internships and how you can get involved with WHI and check out our Vision Trips.
