The above bracelet got broken through a series of events that I won't detail here but included it being thrown across the room by its owner in a desperate moment.
Each girl who comes into our care receives a welcome packet filled with personal necessities and special personal items, including a bracelet saying either Amor (Love) or Esperanza (Hope). The girls usually put on those simple little bracelets the first day and they remain a constant accessory to any outfit for any occasion. The reminder of a new start in life is priceless.
When I first held this broken bracelet in my hand that night, the power of what this represents struck me to the core and, already drained from the ordeal, I almost broke down crying.
When Mr. B. and I first talked about Destiny Rescue opening up in the Dominican Republic, over a year ago as I was getting ready to leave Guatemala, he told me something I'll never forget, "Rose, prepare to cry a lot."
In that moment of staring down at that broken bracelet, I didn't cry, but I felt like I was bleeding inside - like my heart had just been ripped apart.
These precious girls: I won't quit talking about them as long as I'm a part of their lives.
They have been through hell. They know desperation. Been on the streets from as young as 11 years old. Experienced more personal heartache than I'm sure I will ever encounter. Met motherhood in their early-mid teens. Any grasp at hope has been snatched away again and again and again and again, and yet again. Abandoned, separated from family. Deceived and abused at the hands of those they thought they could trust.
Uprooted and handed off to yet another caregiver, in a moment of desperation, taking ahold of the closest object available and flinging it on the floor thinking, "I never ever have any hope of ever being loved."
Broken Hope.
The bracelet can be glued back together, actually with very little notice of it ever being broken. But a heart is much harder to heal and restore.
As I've reached this point of literally not having enough knowledge inside of me, enough of my own strength to go on, I have encountered, in a deeper way, the beauty of reaching out beyond myself for the strength, and peace, from a God who never grows weary - a Father who loves unconditionally and has a very special place in His heart for the broken and abused.
There is simply nothing else to do but to live life with open hands, giving of myself and receiving from Him. Receiving His Strength, His Wisdom, His Love, and renewed Hope in all that is broken.
The day I die I want to know that I poured out everything I have ever had in me for the purpose of showing who Jesus is in the most desperate, hopeless, and darkest situation.
Because there is a Way for Broken Hope to be made new. The true God restores and makes all things new. And that's what makes it all worth it.
"Fighting for these kids is no easy job; if it would be, more people would have a crack at it."
