Hope...it's a beautiful thing.

My friend Linda, who was also the photographer on my Russia trip this summer, took this photo of me overlooking Moscow. I'm just now really starting to process my experiences in Russia.

I've written several articles and shared my experiences and the vision of Children's HopeChest with departments at Focus. Something that struck me as I talked to people in Russia was the general lack of hope. I've grown up with the mantra, "If you dream it you can achieve it." This seemed to be a foreign concept to many I spoke with, especially orphans. Many of the teens I talked to preferred not to think about the future...because their dreams will likely not come true.

Against this gloomy backdrop, Children's HopeChest shines brightly, offering resources, education, help, love and ultimately the hope of Christ — a precious commodity in a place where opportunity is scarce. And that hope is changing things! How exciting to see former orphans ministering Christ to children still in the orphanages! The gospel is being preached freely in one of Russia's most hopeless places. And perhaps because they have had no hope, these orphans, so precious to the Father, grasp onto Him in a way you or I could never understand.

"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." —Ephesians 1:18-19