The choices we make determine the course of our lives.
It is said, “two men looked through prison bars – one saw mud and the other saw stars.”
We live in a world where challenging situations, poverty and need can overwhelm us. The way we respond will determine it’s outcome. We can choose death resulting in defeat, or life resulting in our leaving this world having made it a better place for all.
When the seed that has grown to be Project Hope was planted in my heart 17 years ago I said these words on opening the bank account:
“Today I am planting a seed in this office that will grow into a huge tree bringing shade to many in need. It will be a place where healthy babies are birthed in the safety of the ‘nests’ in its branches.”
We create with our mouths and I spoke those words with heart faith and a conviction that with God nothing is impossible. I chose to look up and see stars, to see possibilities when mud was at my feet rising up into a seemingly insurmountable mountain. It is often when faced with the biggest challenge that vision is born.
Every child has the right to hear the good news of Jesus and His love, every child must know that they are valued and precious, they need to become secure in who God has made them and have a vision for the future planted in their hearts. How to accomplish this was the real challenge.
Walking across the car park of our church one morning God placed a blueprint of how to achieve this in my heart.
Money to do this was not available, but when God is in a plan He always provides.
That day I set out on an adventure of the miraculous. There were many “bold asks” but the miracles God performed to lay the foundations of where we are today were astounding.
God’s uses people to supply as stated in Luke 6:38:
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.
God used people with the same vision for change and so non-profit organization, Project Hope, was born. I will forever be grateful to the team of excellent workers of vision who came beside me and carried the load.
Project Hope has been the vehicle God has used to impact and change the lives of thousands of children living in squalor and poverty and the success stories and great leaders – with the passion to live life the way they were taught and to teach it to others – that have emerged over the years leaves me overwhelmed with gratitude.
At our first board meeting we “saw” – had become a reality. Children being exposed to places, experiences, equipped to see farther, and do better than the prison walls of failure that faced them. They saw what they could do, and that excellence is a reality.
Our Home Work Club, our Camps, our providing them with nourishing meals, solid teaching in God’s Word and godly values, life skill workshops, basic skills training and so much more is taking place daily.
We are trusting for our own building where skills development can go to a new level and we believe it will become a reality.
Nothing happens without a seed being planted. This seed is from the heart of God and His promise is that we are the blessed of the Lord and everything we do He will make to succeed.
Much love,
Pastor Mariana Crompton