Expanding Their Horizons

Hope.

In many ways, it is the CPR of the soul. No matter how choked out, suffocated, or dead your life might feel, as long as you have hope that things can change, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, then your soul can be resuscitated and you can make it through just about anything. But, remove that hope and the life just seems to drain from you. The darkness becomes overwhelming. The question, then, is where do the chest compressions of the soul originate? Where do we find hope when life seems to be squeezing it out of us? I believe that hope comes from the realization that there is something bigger out there, something beyond our circumstances that not only gives meaning to our current predicament but can also carry us through it. Hope comes when we are able to look to the horizon beyond our situation and believe we are heading towards something we have not yet experienced.

This sense of hope is one of the tasks we take on within the Vallado Project. We partner with organizations around the world who are meeting the immediate needs of children who have found themselves in some of the most hopeless of situations. Life is being squeezed out of these precious boys and girls and they are very much in need of a larger vision of life. These kids need to see the horizon beyond their circumstances. One of the most practical ways to accomplish this is to help these children see the world, and what life is like, beyond the borders of their neighborhoods and towns. When they see there is a different way of living, different types of opportunities that exist, and a greater purpose for which God has designed them, then suddenly their current circumstances shrink and their hope expands.

To that end, The Vallao Project helped to fund a recent trip for the children of Casa Vallado in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. One of the house moms, Mama Isabella, recently needed to return to her hometown of Veracruz for a medical check-up with her Oncologist. Veracruz happens to be on the  East coast of Mexico so the Casa Vallado directors, along with our team at The Vallado Project, thought it would be a great encouragement to Mama Isabella, as well as an amazing opportunity for the children if they accompanied Mama Isabella on the trip. We were correct on both accounts.

None of the Vallado children have ever been to the beach. So, for the first time in their lives they were able to feel the sand between their toes, the fizz of crashing waves against their legs, and the taste of salt water as they splashed one another with the crystal clear ocean water. The ocean just brings the greatest joy out of a child regardless of their current circumstances. Something about the grandeur, the majesty, the immenseness of the ocean sets their hearts to singing. For a few days, these kids were able to live life beyond the borders of their pain and insecurities and get a glimpse of what life can be. They were confronted with the vastness of the world in which we live and for a moment in time the possibilities were endless, hope brought life back into their lungs.

I know to you and to me, a trip to the beach is simply a vacation, a time to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of our daily responsibilities. But, for the Vallado children, it was so much more. To them, it was life-giving. This is what we are about at The Vallado Project. This is what your partnership accomplishes. It’s not just paying for the necessities like food, shelter, clothing, and education, the support our partners give each month is providing the hope of future possibilities, it’s broadening the horizon in the hearts of boys and girls who one day shape the future of our world.

Thank you for investing in them, and for believing that there is light at the end of the tunnel they are walking through.

Give hope to a child in need. Come, join the project.