The Power of One
Julianna is a young, beautiful, country girl hailing from Jasper, Alabama. She was on a trip earlier this year that we led during New Years (remember the video of the kids opening the gifts??) and like so many others, she fell in love with the children of Life is Hope Orphanage.
During our time there, one of our little guys Ken-Ken had a bad knee infection. I worked on his leg for about 30 minutes, cleaning and dressing his wound. However, I barely made a dent in the infection. Thankfully, a few nurses from our team continued to clean out his leg for the next two days. I am so thankful that they were on our trip and cared enough to put in such a large amount of work on his leg. By the end of the second day he was feeling much better and his fever had subsided.
When Julianna arrived home, she gave of her own money to get Ken-Ken to the hospital for further treatment.
One of the great parts of our job is that we get the privilege of doing the footwork for these kind of donations. When you give to PPM, we give with 100% intentionality. So Eric, Marlo and I loaded up in the car and headed out to Life is Hope. But you know how things can go when you have a lot of children in one space, its never just one who remains sick. So we went to the hospital with 3 children in tow the first morning.
We went to one of our partnership hospitals and the children received check-ups, tests and medicine in one fell swoop. Since we’ve worked with this hospital in the past, they gave us a great deal and Julianna’s donation covered 3 children!
Throughout the remainder of the week, Eric and I had to take off to lead trips, but Marlo took the orginial 3 children back multiple times for testing results and shots. As well, she took 3 extra children with her to get checkups, tests and medicine near the end of the week.
So in total, that’s 6 children who benefited from Julianna’s donation!
Just goes to show the incredible power of one person giving a little of their time, money and heart.
Julianna is just a normal young girl…a girl who loves to wear sparkly jewlery, takes a lot of pictures, has long talks with her friends and laughs with her whole body – no different from you or I really. But, she recognized that the Lord can do extraordinary things with our ordinary lives. And through her faithfulness to His call and scripture, she gave and the Lord’s name was glorified and these children were given the gift of medicine.
There are so many other people who are donating toward Life is Hope, Haiti partnerships, Missionaries and orphans all over the world. To you all I want to say thank you. Thank you for not always being recognized. For trusting that your $40 a month is getting where it is supposed to be. For allowing the Lord to work through your sacrifice, whatever it may be. For being a blessing in more ways than you can know.
If you are interested in giving to Life is Hope to support children like these, go to lifeishope.org or prayingpelicanmissions.org/donate.
Do you prefer to make a donation and get something physcial in return? Check out lifeishopesouth.org for purchasing freshly roasted coffee! The majority of the proceeds go to Life is Hope! Their promise is as follows:
“To bring shelter, love, food and hope to the children of Life is Hope orphanage, one cup at a time! We roast, package, market and service our coffee 100% with volunteer labor, We purchase our coffee beans using separate ear-marked donations, to insure that the majority of your coffee purchase amount goes to feed, clothe, and house the children of Life is Hope orphanage.”
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world – James 1:27
-Bethany
