This past Sunday afternoon we drove out to a nearby campsite to join our good friends, Gerardo and Carola, for a little while as they finished up a weekend Camp for recently diagnosed children with diabetes and their parents.
It was cool to see them and their team as they tried to be a blessing to the lives of some 25 families in crisis. I felt so proud that they are my friends—so impressed with what God is doing through this group—so hopeful to see this light shining in a dark place.
As they have done six times in the last couple of years, they and a growing group of about 30 professionals (nutritionists, psychologists, educators in diabetes, doctors and social workers) offered an invitation to children who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes. They invited the children to bring a parent and spend a weekend being pampered, being shown how to care for themselves, being educated about their illness, being listened to—generally being blessed by others who know what they are going through.
There were special workshops being offered for both the children and the parents—covering all the relevant subjects and questions that these families are experiencing. We met many parents and children—saw looks of tiredness, fear, stress…but also glimpses of hope in the eyes of the parents. We saw kids having fun!
One of the things I love about this is the way God has helped Gerardo and Carola discover this ministry out of their own life experience. About 4 ½ years ago, their 10-year old daughter, Melanie, was diagnosed with diabetes. Their world was turned upside down as they faced an illness that threatened to change and destroy all their hopes and dreams for their daughter. Yet out of this crisis and the salvation God provided for them, they were drawn by God to notice and try to help others who now find themselves in a similar crisis. The telling of their story has become healing for others. They began the Hope Foundation for Children with Diabetes—Mexico’s first and only non-profit foundation for children with this disease. They are presently serving over 200 families with this disease.
I think of the Apostle Paul’s words of praise to “…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Another thing I love about this is the way others—young professionals who hear about what is happening with these kids—are begging to get involved in this project. They are finding purpose and satisfaction beyond the materialism and “success” that is being advertised to them as professionals. While very clear about their own faith and about how God has been at the center of this story, Gerardo and Carola are partnering with many who are at various stages in their walk with God. Gerardo and Carola see it as a way to plant seeds and build relationships with all kinds of people—to allow God to plant and nurture the seeds in hearts as those hearts become ready.
At a coffee shop this week, a young fellow asked me about my life and my reason for being here. As I told him about some of the things that are going on around us—and mentioned the Hope Foundation for Kids with Diabetes, he stopped me and asked: “Could somebody like me get involved in that as a helper?”
Gerardo calls this their proyecto de vida—their “life project”—a God given mission that springs out of one’s own design, one’s own pain, one’s own experience. It is a mission that brings life both to the one on mission and to those who are being served.
He has lots of people wondering about what their own life project might be.
I wonder where all of this will go. I wonder what God will do with all these seeds being planted in so many different hearts.
It sure is fun to watch and imagine!
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