No Hope at all!
Ah, to dream the impossible dream. I have dreamed since I was a kid. It was pretty much daydreaming when I was a little guy. I would pay good money to remember some of those dreams. It just so happens that I do remember many of my teenage dreams though. Animals were always a favorite of mine so I had this ‘Pet farm store dream’ that I had all drawn up. This one never got off the dream pillow.
Not long ago I started putting quotes in the Bridgebuilder newsletter. Dale Carnegie’s quote recently caught my eye. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all”. I can personally relate to this quote and the ‘no hope at all’ journey that we have experienced at Bridges For Youth.
You talk about excited, I was energized in February of 1994 when God gave me the vision for Bridges For Youth. It turns out I was the only one excited though. The best I could get out of anybody I showed the vision to was a smile and a pat on the back. Things didn’t go as I expected, and no youth center was opened in 1994, or 1995, or 1996 or 1997.
I dealt with disappointments and the unmet expectations much the same as Theodore Roosevelt’s quote: “Do what you can, with what you have, were you are”. Things didn’t look good 6 months after the vision was birthed, in the summer of 1994. July saw the introduction of the Bridge Builder newsletter to kids. It was published weekly for 3 years and reached over 800 kids at its peak. There was only an occasional donation back then, so Kathryn and I funded the postage and printing out of our own pocket. Then in the fall of 1994 we invited 18 middle school kids to our home and started meeting on Monday nights. We did what we could with what we had, were we were.
It took us four and a half years to get to a place were we had an opportunity to get an actual youth center and we still had only one hundred dollars to our name. God opened the doors for us to proceed, otherwise we would not be were we are now. We have had no worldly hope or provision at all to get were we are. This is why I get so excited about what God has done and how He has provided for these youth centers. I know above anyone else that it was absolutely impossible. In fact, guess what, it is still impossible right now.
There may seem to be no hope at all, but we boldly go forward with confidence in our God.
Pastor Steve hare