The below is from guest blogger Michele-Lyn Ault. She is a wife of 15 years and mama to four, including the daughter she had at 16. She recently traveled as a World Help blogger to Guatemala in October 2012 and hopes to bring encouragement and stir passion to pursue God through writing on her blog, A Life Surrendered. Her heart breaks for what God’s beats for, and desires to share with the world–His redeeming love.
And you and I can too.
I heard about World Help for the first time in the Spring of 2012. I had the privilege of meeting some of the amazing people behind World Help when I went to Guatemala with them in October. I walked and talked with those who keep the incredible, world-wide work going. My heart has long been broken for the nations, and I’ve wanted to be part of a work that was reaching the world — one I could trust. I desired a heart-and-hand connection, and I wanted the people who worked for it to have that too. The people behind World Help — they have that heart-and-hand connection.
That week in Guatemala for Operation Baby Rescue, we wrote our stories. I walked with people from World Help, down the dusty Guatemalan roads. We interacted with the impoverished, and we became broken for the broken world together. The more I talked with them, and listened to their stories, the more I realized how real they are. I saw Guatemala’s suffering, people living and dying in poverty. But I also saw the people’s compassion; the ones who represent World Help — people helping save and restore lives.
I met Noel, the Vice President of World Help, who lives the words she’s written: “Just an everyday wife and mother trying to change the world.” In one of the villages, while sitting in our parked bus, she told the story of helping Margarita, a nine-year-old girl who needed extensive surgery to reconstruct her insides after being brutally assaulted. Hearing it, I was overwhelmed. I could hardly walk off the bus that day.
Noel writes, “One life . . . completely changed. One life . . . saved. I know what wrecks me, and I can’t be numb to it anymore. It is just too hard. I want to see the needs. I want to feel the needs. I want to touch them.” The same Noel; one who sat in the back of the plane with the rest of the group on the way home. And I wondered what other vice president would sit back there, instead of first class. That made a difference for me.
I met Jane with World Help, who said it well: “We find where God is working and join Him there.” The same Jane, while choking back tears, told her story about a boy who couldn’t hear. “He once had hearing aids, but the older boys in school took them and crushed them. I decided I wanted to provide hearing aids for him.” With help from others, she did. And moved with compassion, is one who made a difference for one.
I met Tiffany, whose words about a baby rescue’s loss, left me breathless the first time I read them. “I would have written Kevin’s story differently. Because I don’t understand. And the ache doesn’t just go away, it sits . . . it simmers in my heart, making me ever aware of the desperation of it all.” And I knew she was different and lives to make a difference in this world. We sat face to face and talked about baby rescue, and she said it: “I call it ache.” I didn’t know then, but I know now what she meant, because the ache is still there even months after holding those babies we rescued in our arms.
And there are many more people I hope to meet, and others that I’ve asked all kinds of questions to, wondering if they really are who they said they are. And I am still amazed at how graciously they answered.
I am the worst of skeptics, and find it hard to take anything at face value. I need to know an organization doing what they say they are. God did not scold me for my skepticism. No, He met where I was, and showed me the fruitfulness of the work and the genuine heart of the people doing it. And they are doing so much more than I can wrap my mind around. God knew I needed to see. God knew once I saw, I’d be all in.
After watching and listening to this video testimony of Vernon Brewer, the President of World Help, I am even more convinced. And you can watch it here. I am compelled to share about the work and honored to be a small part of it.
They are real.
They have heart.
And they are World Help.
They truly are helping the world, and doing it well.
And because of the them, it makes it easy for us to help too.
In over 70 nations around the world:
They rescue babies,
provide clean water,
feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
and give the Word of God to those who don’t have it.
Help sustain lives, by doing so much more than a few hundred words can tell.
When we help, we are too.
If you think what you have to give is not enough because you are just one and are limited, think of the 5,000 Jesus fed with a young boy’s five loaves of bread and two fish. (Matthew 6:41)
What is it that is on your heart to do? No matter the doubt, do it.
What’s in your hands? No matter the size, offer it.
Because once you do, there is no limit to what God can do with it.
Michele-Lyn spends most of her days at home with her children in Florida country. She hopes to bring encouragement when she shares her stories — both trials and triumphs — of living out her days as a business owner’s wife and mama of four, in pursuit of God. She is also a World Help blogger — advocate, and a voice for the voiceless. If you were blessed by this post, would you considered sharing it? You can visit Michele-Lyn at her blog, A Life Surrendered. Find her also on Twitter and Facebook.