PRIDE, FORGIVENESS & RESTORATION

On Friday night, November 8, nearly 170 people gathered at our newly renovated Event Center for an inspiring evening together. Guest speaker, Tim Goeglein, spoke profoundly from a place of humility about his personal experiences in life. He was once an affluent politician, but pride caused him to fall into repeated plagiarism. When he was caught, he thought his whole world was falling apart. In an act of true grace, President George W. Bush forgave him when he didn’t deserve it and had disgraced the White House. Tim  felt the love of Jesus through the forgiveness extended to him. His open and honest testimony is a reminder to all of us that we can show radical grace to others. Today, he is using his words in a different way. No longer seeking to promote self, he is seeking to lift high the name of Jesus! His genuine heart is pointing others to the saving grace of Jesus.

 

 

Doug Isch, LSM’s president shared another story of grace that night. From places of hopelessness, ultimate healing has come through the loving gifts of many just like you. For single mothers like Mahret* living in the slums of Ethiopia, the journey was particularly tough. Mahret had nothing – and ultimately, made some pretty desperate decisions to survive. Her little girl was born in the midst of those difficult years. Mahret was scared, and now she had a little one to provide for. At times, they would not eat for days. There was not adequate shelter and they were extremely vulnerable on the streets. Those were long dark years and they barely survived. It wasn’t until LSM was able to come alongside them that Mahret began to see what true hope could look like. That was in 2010.

 

 

Today, Mahret and her daughter are living a fully restored life. Her daughter is going to school, has plenty to eat and they have a bright future ahead. With the business skills Mahret learned in LSM’s programs, she’s been able to start her own small business selling coffee and injera, a local bread. They aren’t rich in material things. However, Mahret and her daughter have been introduced to the saving, forgiving grace of Jesus! They know that they are truly rich in things that can never be taken away!

 

 

On this special night, we were reminded that our Healer can bring restoration to every situation. We are grateful for that powerful knowledge – and grateful for every person who sat at those tables and gave generously to the work of LSM. Because of you, we were able to exceed our matching grant goal!  Now, we can reach more vulnerable families like Mahret and her daughter with the Gospel of Hope. Thank you for being part of this beautiful redemptive story!

 

 


GET INVOLVED

 

  1. Don’t miss future events like this! Sign up for our emails.
  2. Pray for vulnerable families who have never heard the Good News of forgiveness and hope. Help us bring that transformation by becoming an Ethiopia Family Sponsor.

 


*name changed for privacy

REDEMPTION

excerpt from page 35, Glimpses of Hope, a collection of devotionals

Doug Isch, LSM President


 

Rose’s day started out like any other on January 10, 2010. But unlike the rest of the routine days of her eight-year-old life, this day would change the course of her life forever. At 4:53 pm the walls began to shake as a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook Port au Prince, Haiti and the surrounding regions until an estimated 300,000 people were killed and over a million people were forced from their homes. Tragically, Rose’s parents were both killed in the earthquake. As her world turned upside down she was moved nearly five hours away to live with an aunt.

 

Rose doesn’t talk much about the events of that day or how she dealt with the grief that had to grip her. How does an eight-year-old process this kind of devastation and loss? For many living in extreme poverty this would have been one more chapter in a life of disappointment and loss, but Rose’s story takes an unexpected twist. Unbeknownst to her, thousands of miles away a young man named Zach Bertsch was diagnosed with terminal cancer at almost the same time she moved in with her aunt.

 

Zach’s heart and passion was to redeem his cancer for God’s glory. Rose is one part of that redemption story. Rose was selected to become a part of the Moriah Home of Hope family on the Redemption Campus. Rose is now going to school, attending church, growing up with a new mom and dad and has 11 sisters to live life with.

 

To redeem something means to free it from what distresses or harms it.

 

Major steps have been taken in Rose’s life to free her from the pain and distresses she has experienced. But her past is still her past and she will always have tragedy as part of her story. As we have seen many times, God uses the pain of the past to help us become more like Jesus. Rose’s story won’t fully be redeemed until Jesus returns and God finally wipes all the tears from our eyes. What we see now are some of the first fruits of that redemption story. I am so excited for Rose to see her parents again and introduce them to the couple who raised her in their place and to meet Zach and share with him the beauty that was brought from the tragedies of both of their lives.

 

Revelation 7:17 – “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes.”

 


GET INVOLVED:

  1. Order your copy of Glimpses of Hope here.
  2. Learn more about the ongoing work of the Redemption Campus and our Homes of Hope here.