According to the calendar, it is the middle of summer, when generous Mother Nature encourages us with warmth and amazing riches of color and smells. In this mother’s heart, it is the end of one season and the beginning of another ~ but neither spring nor summer. On June 11th, the final school bell sounded for the 12th grade students in Arad, and for two girls in particular at Ana’s House. We celebrated alongside Oana and Sanda as the high school closed its doors once more.

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American humorist Erma Bombeck made a beautiful observation about raising children:

“I see children as kites. You spend a lifetime trying to get them off the ground. You run with them until you’re both breathless…they crash…they hit the rooftop…you patch and comfort, adjust and teach. You watch them lifted by the wind and assure them that someday they’ll fly. Finally they are airborne, they need more string and you keep letting it out. But with each twist of the ball of twine, there is a sadness that goes with the joy. The kite becomes more distant, and you know it won’t be long before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that binds you together and will soar as it is meant to soar, free and alone. Only then do you know that your job is done.”

This fall, it will come time for us to begin letting go of the string. In June, Oana Kis and Sanda Chis will become the first children at Global Hope to graduate from high school!

As we drove each morning to the Hope for Orphans Rehabilitation Centre, or HOREC, we saw
countryside green with recent rain. A striking feature of the landscape is the acacia tree. One
morning, one of the mission team members mentioned that it is believed that Christ’s crown of
thorns was made of acacia tree thorns. It was poignant that as we drove toward God’s orphans
who have seen much suffering, we were escorted along the way by a tree that played a role in
Christ’s own suffering.

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Anxious anticipation filled us as we turned onto the dirt road. After a 40-minute van ride, we were now just minutes away from meeting the children living at the Global Hope sponsored Rescue Center (HOREC) near Ruai, outside of Nairobi, Kenya. Dressed in their best clothes, the children greeted us by singing, “Welcome, we are glad you are here!” as we pulled into the drive. A sense of calm overcame each team member and we knew this is where God wanted us to be for the week of Jan. 25 – Feb. 1st. Moments later we were hugging the 21 smiling children and getting to know each by name.

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Sometimes I get to work each morning, pull into the parking lot and realize that I’ve been on autopilot for the last 10 miles…just driving down the highway, thinking about something probably not so important as the road in front of me. I park my car, pull the key from the ignition and wonder how I made all those left-hand turns without even thinking about it. Am I the only one who does this?

I was challenged lately to think about how many ordinary miracles happen around me each day; things I miss simply because I’m not paying attention—like on my drive to work. The sun rises every morning, flowers grow, birds lay eggs that eventually hatch into little birds that instinctively know how to flap their wings and fly away. They seem like ordinary things, until I remember that it is God who “commands the morning and causes the dawn to know its place.” He tells the seas: “Thus far you shall come, and no father,” and it is at His command that “the eagle mounts up and make his nest on high.”

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Over forty golfers joined us on a beautiful Saturday in August to play a fun scramble tournament and raise over $15,000 for Global Hope. The Vista Ridge course was in great shape, but it couldn’t keep the Ball team from winning their fourth straight championship, this time by only two strokes. Congratulations, Darrell Perry, and Bruce Doelling on their fourth straight win.

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Congratulations Roni!
by Jacci Knight

Our house dad, Roni Stephan, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social work this summer! I had the privilege of working side-by-side with Roni for four years. His hard work and dedication to the children of Global Hope have always been an inspiration to me, and perhaps more importantly, an encouragement during the times when I was ready to give up.

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Child abandonment, a grave social phenomenon, is above all things a painful story; a destiny marked by the lack of a father and mother’s love. “Learn to be lonely,” they tell you. At first, the answer might appear to be an institution, or an orphanage, However this answer doesn’t meet individual needs and aspirations, but instead leads to the loss of a child’s individuality altogether. And this is where we must intervene.

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Lisa is the only daughter of her biological mother, who was also abandoned as a child and grew up in an orphanage in Ineu, a city close to Arad. At 18 years old, her mother was obligated to leave the orphanage and presently lives in a nighttime shelter. She’s now 25 years old, and works as a janitor for a local business.

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