Day 20:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The children’s stories do not always end as we want them to—as we pray for them to end. Luis Roberto was a bright, sweet kid who saw his father shot down by drug traffickers. Worried for his safety, his mother convinced the authorities to send him to Hope Mountain. But even at Hope Mountain, Luis often expressed the heaviness he felt of needing to fill his father’s shoes and provide for his family—and so he ran away.

Now, Luis Roberto— runaway, age 13 —is dead. Shot by, well, who really knows? But in his death, we understand even more how much the work of Hope is needed. It’s needed for children like Luis and for children like Golbery and Weverton, whose lives were much the same as Luis’s, but who found a path out through Hope, truly becoming new creations in Christ.

Father, even as we cry for Luis, we rejoice in the changed lives of Golbery and Weverton. We call for your mercy and grace and the promise of new creation for every child in our care.