Friday, August 08, 2008

Hope for Hope

We got an email from our friend Hope last week. Hope is a great guy - full of potential, leadership skills and charisma. Hope got a full scholarship to study business & economics at a university in the USA. Hope also got a visa to the USA, which is a minor miracle. All he had to do was raise $2200US for his plane ticket from Zimbabwe. When we left Zim, he was in great spirits about this opportunity, but last week he wrote to us saying that his family was not able to raise the money, so he would have to forego the scholarship. This did not seem right at all. He was $1200US short, and his parents are very hard-working Salvation Army officers (meaning they would need to work for about 1200 months to raise this kind of cash!)

I thought about what it would feel like if I were a parent, dreaming of my children having an education and a better life, and being so close - yet so far - from giving him this opportunity. Hope's parents are great, and so he's sort of like a nephew as well as friend to us. Of course, we want him to go to university. Also, it's hard not to want to help someone named Hope! So, we've committed to coming up with the $1200US. Some friends have already given us some money, but we still need about $620 Canadian. To be totally honest, we're a bit broke from our moving-back-to-Canada-we-haven't-made-money-in-years situation but we've promised him the money. We can't stop buying groceries either, because our doctor is thrilled that I've put on 22lbs (!!) and says I have to keep on eating...

So, if you want to give Hope some hope, just contact us. That's what makes a difference in this world - one changed life at a time.

No comments: