I held Jerry. All of us did.

Jerry’s mother was a prostitute. Unable to care for him, she abandoned him when he was only two years old. Without help, he had little, to no chance of survival. For Jerry, help came. There I am with him at Destiny Villages of Hope Children’s Home, a World Help partner.

I love this picture of me holding Jerry, because on his face you see peace, joy, and no worry for his life. He is full of potential, and opportunity is ever before him.

And what’s behind us in this photo is also full of potential — the potential for more rescues like Jerry’s. What looks like rubble, are the building blocks of a new baby rescue home — the third of three phases.

It will be a baby dorm with enough room for twenty babies, and the potential to have thousands come through its doors. Adjacent to it, you see Phase 2, a home for ten more babies. It’s a bit further in the construction progress, but still incomplete.

We are working to raise money for Phase 1 of the Rescue Homes Project which will also house ten babies, and we are halfway there.

While we were at the hospital on Friday, I held another rescued child that had been abandoned by his grandmother. He is 7 years old, and when he first came to the hospital he weighed 7 pounds. He’d been in the hospital a few months being nursed back to health, but was ready to be received into Destiny’s Villages of Hope that day.

He’s doing so much better than when he first was brought to the hospital, though you can still see in his face he’s not fully recovered. He doesn’t have the same sparkle in his eyes that you see in Jerry’s, not yet.

But, his rescue is for life. Rescue isn’t where it ends, it’s where it begins. This little boy has a chance for a new life. Seeing his tiny frame, it’s hard to imagine he’s already lived seven longs years of his old one. At Destiny Villages of Hope he will be well fed, receive medical attention, an education, and the Gospel of Christ, which is the greatest hope for life.

The reality that we cannot escape is that it costs real money to rescue lives, to feed hungry bellies, to build homes.

Each brick that lies on the ground is just a brick. But each brick — laid one upon another and another — joining together becomes a wall. And four walls and a roof can become a place to be made a home.

So often we think what we have to offer is so little, it wouldn’t make any difference at all if we gave it. But, it doesn’t have to be a few of us, giving a whole lot. It can be a whole lot of us giving a little. If we come  — offer one small gift laid upon another and another — together we can build these homes. 

Click here for a Jerry’s story on Vimeo. 

P.S. Do you see that necklace I’m wearing? It says RESCUE. A portion of the proceeds are attributed to the building project. Click here to go to the store.