Hope found in our Children

This is photograph taken one week prior to the first Sunday at Watershed.  It's without a doubt, one of my favorite pictures of all time of my daughter Jyoti (right), at age 5, with one of her BFFL's Emma Hofert (left), also age 5.  Our core team of 18 people, who helped start Watershed, had decided to meet at Actor's Theatre to practice a weekend prior to actually having a weekend at Actor's Theatre.  After it was all said and done, we gathered in the parking lot to pray and ask God to do something beyond our wildest expectations or imaginations.  (Wow!  Looking back I'm floored at the numerous ways he's answered this prayer over the past 6 years.)

The reason I chose this photo this morning was because of yesterday's Transit.  I was so moved by the entire morning at Watershed yesterday.  I always get emotional when I am reminded of the legacy we leave in our children the future they represent for our world.  I was overwhelmed with encouragement as I stood next to so many high-end parents and families on stage.  I was reminded of how much our community has developed in Green House, thanks to incredible leaders like Laura Barker and Scott Miller.  Not to mention the 50-plus volunteers that make this area jump and thrive.  I was reminded of the weight of fatherhood as I stood next to my fellow fathers/brothers in arms.  Realizing that we have come so far and have so much farther to go to become the dad's our kids desperately long for and need.

THEN... if it couldn't get any better, I was informed through the tear soaked voice of my wife that Emma and Ethan Hofert, (Nel's and Naomi's kids) spent the last month or so raising money through chores, car washes, etc, to help their friends, Jyoti and Sulley bring their new future brother Mez home to our family from Ethiopia this summer.  She described how they could NOT wait to get to Transit this Sunday to present the fruit of their labor as their gesture of support and solidarity for our family.  We've been overrun with generosity since starting this endeavor in January.  But I have to tell you, out of the several thousand dollars that have come in to be put towards the overwhelming $20,000 it takes to do this, the $75 that Ethan and Emma presented was the sweetest and most precious gift we'd yet received.


All of which brought me to this place of experiencing tremendous amounts of hope through the children of our community this past weekend.  In looking at the 16 brand new lives that (I hope) will grow up immersed in a transforming conversation about life, faith, love, justice, mercy and Jesus.  In standing with fellow fathers.  In standing next to brand new parents, ready to take on the daunting task of being the compass, provider, vision caster, leader and lover of their children, and in the beautiful and generous gesture of two children, coming along side of the friends they care for so much,.... there was so much hope, so much good news.  What a great day!