In April 2024, I wrote about TELLING HIS STORY THROUGH YOUR STORY. It is important to CONNECT our stories to how God is using us to fulfill the Great Commission.
I have almost seventeen years of STORIES from Uganda, where I serve as a missionary. Our non-profit organization, Raining Hope is making a life-long investment to raise up a generation of people who will be used by God to change Uganda and the world.
In any organization, the focus can be on reaching the end goal. We do celebrate accomplishments and successes, but when we understand what the person has lived through, we can appreciate the achievement even more.
We wouldn’t pick up a book and only read the beginning and end. We would miss out on all the best parts! The end of the story makes more sense when you read the WHOLE book. The heart-stopping action is found in the in-between chapters! What they have overcome makes God’s testimony even more powerful. The REAL STORY is about who they are in Christ.
God drew me in when I first began hearing STORIES from the people of Uganda. I began paying attention and listening with my heart.
(For security and privacy issues, the following student’s name is anonymous. He is referred to as “A.”)
“A,” as a young child in 1994, traveled with his father to Rwanda. Yes. Rwanda in 1994. They were there when the Rwandan genocide broke out, when “Every Tutsi citizen wished that the heavens could swallow them.”
“A” and his father tried to flee. After three days in hiding, “A’s” father was killed trying to find “A” food and water. “A” survived because he fainted, and they thought he was dead. “A” ended up in a refugee camp. His uncle found him, and they safely returned back to their country.
“A” dreamed of becoming a lawyer “to stand in a courtroom to justify all those who were unjustified.” “A” became hopeless because it seemed impossible. He thought, “I am going to be a street boy begging and becoming a public burden. Little did I know, God was on my side!” Raining Hope gave him the opportunity to finish school.
After graduating from secondary school, “A” moved and put himself through law school and graduated with top honors. “A” notes, “…genocide has an expression of hatred, and in order for one to fight it, he should instill love in his heart and move on with life.”
Godfrey, our manager of Raining Hope in Uganda, has a moving story. Both his parents passed when he was nine years old. His stepmother abused him both physically and psychologically. Godfrey retreated to the streets begging for leftover food and sleeping in abandoned buildings. He ran with youth groups that were notorious for doing unlawful things. Godfrey, however, found Christ at age fifteen, and his life began to change. The more he got to know Christ, hope was restored for the first time.
God gave Godfrey a heart for orphans and other less-privileged youth because of what he suffered in his own story. Godfrey is instrumental in bringing hope to the once hopeless.
“Once less privileged, now helping the less privileged through Raining Hope.” (Godfrey)
Doesn’t knowing the “in-between” make their stories more powerful? Raining Hope gives glory to God alone, who does the miraculous and gives hope to the hopeless.
There is a powerful song, “God Is In This Story” by Katy Nichole & Big Daddy Weave. “There’s torn up pages in this book. Words that tell me I’m no good. Chapters that define me for so long. But the hands of grace and endless love, dusted off and picked me up. Told my heart that hope is never gone.”
“God is in this story. God is in the details. Even in the broken parts, He holds my heart. He never fails. When I’m at my weakest, I will trust in Jesus. Always in the highs and lows, the One who goes before me. God is in this story.”
STORIES BEHIND THE STORY. Bestsellers. Find them. Lean in. Listen with Love. Care. God may use someone else’s story to impact yours.
HE is IN our story. HE IS OUR STORY.
Read “Telling HIS Story Through YOUR Story” by Eydie Miskel
To learn more about Raining Hope Incorporated, visit: https://www.raininghope.org/
