The Hope Quotientনমুনা

Hope is the fuel that makes the world better. Hope lets people believe they can make a difference, regardless of circumstances. Our teams often go to the slum of Dandora in Nairobi, Kenya. The streets are dangerous, but the people are warmhearted, and the church is amazing. Despite its poverty, the church has an AIDS center, runs a jobs program, and houses a school for three hundred children—all in completely inadequate facilities. This place is transforming their community. Why? Because of one dynamite woman named Hilda who has hope. On one trip, Hilda led me to an unusable “worship center” that had walls and a ceiling, but no windows and only a mud floor. For fifteen years, every day she had walked onto that muddy floor and prayed for a miracle. Our teams were captivated by her hope. Hope unleashed compassion. Our teams finished the building. On a later trip, the nation had just suffered riots. Hilda showed me her burned and blackened neighborhood where angry mobs torched almost everything—except the church. “When the riots broke out,” she said, “everybody hid in their houses. But when the mobs started to approach the church, the women of the community ran out of their houses and stood in front of the building. “‘You will not torch this church,’ they insisted. ‘This is where our children get help.’ “The mobs walked right by the church, and it was left untouched.” I looked in that warzone at a woman with few resources but a huge heart and even greater hope. Her hope infected her neighborhood, encouraged her destitute community, and, in turn, emboldened its members to seek ways to spread that compassion. Adequate resources don’t change the world. People with hearts strengthened by hope change the world. Think Up: How could an infusion of hope help you today? Do you have the resources you need to fulfill your dream? Do you have the hope you need? (Read on).