Hope Spot 10 – Nailed It!

you might wonder why my fingernails are rainbow colours …

The answer is easy.

My two-year-old granddaughter wanted to paint them.

She got out her polish. Showed where I should sit. Even put a piece of paper under my hand.

And given it was her second birthday that day, how could I say no?

It’s amazing the things you do for love.
And I do mean you.

You might not call what you do to help people through ALWS ‘love’. Maybe not even kindness or compassion. Those words can feel so … ‘intense’.

Yet, there is no reason for you to help the people you do, apart from the goodness in your heart.

In a world where there is so much pain,
and so much hate, you are a witness to love.

Looking at my painted fingernails, I am reminded of Anisa, a young woman I met in a refugee camp in the Horn of Africa, supported by people like you through ALWS.

Anisa is Muslim, and asked that I not photograph her face …

… and when she told me what had happened to her, I could understand her not wanting anyone to see her pain:

“There was attacking and killing,
and I saw many people I know killed,
and many buildings destroyed.
I saw a big building destroyed
with many bodies lying there.

It was like a city of ghosts.

Before this, life was normal.
People go to jobs, children go to school,
young people go to university.
Now everything has changed.
I never went to college again.

The circle of my life got smaller and smaller.”

Anisa reached safety at a refugee camp supported by ALWS.

She was safe, but that didn’t mean her trauma was gone.

“When I arrived, I was crying most of the time,
just sitting there, doing nothing.
I never imagined this life could happen to me.”

Your ALWS partner, LWF, employed Anisa as a Community Child Protection Assistant, finding and helping children with special needs, or who had been separated from their parents.

“Before, I was just sitting in the tent,
comparing my life from before to my life now.

I had to get out of this box.

I try to adjust myself so I don’t just look
at the bad side of being in the camp.
I try to think of the good – I am working,
I am seeing many people, I am helping.”

Right now, in another refugee camp – this time in Bangladesh – there are people like Anisa who have lost everything, and face despair.

They are Rohingya people from Myanmar, and they have been in camps in Cox’s Bazar for six years. The world’s governments have turned their attention elsewhere, and these people are in danger of being forgotten.

ALWS has secured a new partnership with churches from the Czech Republic that can TRIPLE your impact for these refugees in Bangladesh.

I will tell you more about this in coming days – about how you can provide pigeons and chickens, support drain-cleaning to protect against malaria and disease, help set up home-gardening to provide veggies for children of war.

DONATE TRIPLE NOW

You’ll see how you can provide jobs for people with disabilities, like Elias, to plant trees to restore the environment …

… and you’ll see that it’s not just the environment that’s restored:

“Before, I was living as a burden to my family.
Now I can contribute.

“If this kind of beautiful initiative is taken,
people with disability like me,
who people think are backward,
will get a chance
to be established in society
and come to the ranks of the front row.”

This is what happens when your love comes to life …

… and you ‘give a hand’ to the people you help through ALWS. Your impact is amazing.

The polish my granddaughter put on my fingernails is looking a bit chipped and raggedy now, but you can see in the smile of Elias that your impact goes on and on.

Which is why I want to give you a ‘hand’ for your kindness and compassion and love – you are a blessing ALWayS!

PS: Next week I will tell you more about the people you can help with your TRIPLE impact donation. For now, let me leave you with a Bible verse that came to my mind when I met Anisa, and now when I see Elias:

Most of all, love each other
as if your life depended on it.
Love makes up for practically anything.
Be quick to give a meal to the hungry,
a bed to the homeless—cheerfully.
Be generous with the different things God gave you,
passing them around so all get in on it…

from 1 Peter 4:7-11 (The Message)