The Fruits of "Team Hope"

I want to send a shout to all "Team Hope" members and hopefuls. I know that some of you have started your training for the Cleveland Marathon already and perhaps some of you are still thinking about it. Well, I want you to know that as someone who participated in all three events last year I couldn't have been more excited to be at the place where the tangible results of your efforts having been felt the most.

Last Sunday during my sermon I told the children about "Team Hope" and the efforts made to raise funds that allowed them to get the beautiful pavilion they were sitting under. There were visible sighs of amazement as I told them the story of how people raise funds to participate at running events to help rescue more orphans from a live without hope. The were truly amazed.

The facility you helped build holds hundreds of people in the same place -- they now have a church going there, called "Hope Fellowship," under the leadership of Pastor Savorn Ou, the Cambodian Director for AH, and they are reaching not only the children but also people from the neighborhood. This is not a small feat in a country that is still 95% Buddhist and where the only other religious group that seems to be making itself known with apparent success is Islam. Every night, starting perhaps as early as 4:30 a.m. we could hear the sounds of the call to prayer from the loud speakers at the major mosque in Battambang. What a joy to know that not only our children can all get together in one place to worship Jesus but that this work is also reaching other people in that neighborhood for Christ.

I was so only to represent every one of you who is a part of "Team Hope." I told the children about Diane Tirakis and the first time she came into my office with an idea to run for a cause and how God has blessed that effort beyond our wildest dreams. I asked them to pray for you as you prepare for the events this year. I could look at their faces and see the expression of satisfaction present in everyone of them. And I know that these kids know that the place they are meeting at now was built with not only bricks and mortars but with lots of love and sacrifice on behalf of the "least of these."

So if you are tempted to give up, if the training is not going as well as you had planned, if you are troubled by injuries or if the weather is just not good enough to get you running, remember these precious little children and the impact you've already had on their lives. But better yet -- try to imagine the faces of the ones who have yet to be rescued. Pastor Savorn told us that they have a long waiting list and that at 200+ children rescued he is still far away from his dream of rescuing 1,000 children from a life of desperation throughout this great nation.

Please keep your eyes on the prize and like Paul run for a prize that will last forever --the lives of these precious children (1 Corinthians 9:25-27).

Pastor Ivanildo Trindade
itrindade@woostergrace.org