The Children of AHOPE

Ethiopia has been the trip of a lifetime. Along with a team of 17 other students from Southeastern, as well as my favorite professor of all time, we were blessed to be a blessing in this incredible country.

When we arrived in Addis Ababa, we didn’t necessarily have a set agenda. In fact, I don’t think any one of us knew what we were going to be doing for the next 2 weeks at all. But I think the Gospel took over from there. If you want to know what we ended up doing, read your New Testament.

For the week we spent within the capital, we had a few different focuses. We worked with Beza International  Church the whole time, and our ministry spread out like branches, touching several organizations the church partners with.

Our most frequent stop was called AHOPE: a chain of orphanages around the city for children suffering from HIV/AIDS. We spent time at multiple AHOPE campuses, but held a consistent presence at one particular home.

Working with kids affected by HIV is exactly what it sounds like: emotional. But I think that what we were doing was less like working and more like playing. Playing foursquare, playing football, playing with sidewalk chalk, playing with bracelets and face painting and bubbles. Playing with Bible stories the kids would act out themselves. I can’t tell you how much fun I had with my team and these kids – there were so many moments where I had to sit back a minute and appreciate the hilarity and joy that bubbled up around me; these children played hard, and I could just stand there and observe their talents and antics forever.

There was a moment at the campus we visited most frequently where I was holding a baby and sitting next to my missions professor, or grandpa Bob as he’s known in these situations. He leaned over to me. “So how many kids do you want to have?” he asked with the ease of someone who had asked the same thing to countless young people, and always gotten a certain response. “Four,” I said confidently. It’s just always been the right number in my head. He was taken aback, and laughed. He has two kids himself, and raised them on the missions field in Japan, qualifying him to give me a short lecture on how expensive children can be. But as I sat there and smiled at his stories of international school and homeschooling attempts, I felt like a new person from the inside out.

God has drastically changed my heart towards children. Growing up, I was always awkward around kids. I saw them as bratty hassles who were burdens to their parent’s existence. It’s so horrible, I know! But I was never the one to willingly snatch up the newest family baby, or fight for a chance to babysit for my parents’ friends. It was another one of those situations where I was worried that I didn’t have a heart.

But God changed things in me, and it all began with a prayer. It was a simple prayer, the date and circumstances of which I do not remember, but the content is vivid in my mind. As I came to know Jesus more and more, I’ve learned a little bit about how He views children.

Jesus loves children more than anyone I’ve ever heard of! More than Barney the dinosaur, more than Walt Disney, more than those couples you know who have 13 children and seem like children themselves.

In fact, He gave all believers an ultimatum: either be more like a child, or you will not see the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom, He taught, belongs to the little boys and girls of the world. Jesus embraced children, literally and spiritually, more than anyone else.

So I asked God for a Grinch-like transformation. I asked Him to grow my heart three sizes towards little kids. And I watched it grow.

Since then, it’s like I can’t contain my joy for the little ones!! When I’m at school, I work at a local Baptist megachurch in the preschool department, teaching 2 and 3-year olds on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, and it is some of the most fun I’ve ever had.

I used to be one of those people who got queasy when thinking about the prospect of having kids, and was okay with the idea of not having them at all. But now I see Heaven in the eyes of children.

Fun with bubbles at one of the AHOPE campuses.

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And the children of AHOPE were brimming with it. If you want to learn something about joy, something about fun, something about living, and maybe even something about yourself, spend time with children. When they are like the children of AHOPE, and the stakes are so much higher, the lessons are magnified. You don’t know the length of their time on this earth. You don’t know whether the medicine will run out, or if they will ever be adopted, or if they will miss you when you’ve gone, but one thing is certain…


...the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to ones such as these.

Our team with the children of AHOPE - sons and daughters of the King!