Real Hope: Service & HospitalityIhe Atụ

Look For An Opening

My childhood home was typical of post-WWII: a war-veteran father and a protective mother, so we never had strangers to stay in our home. When I married, my wife and I set up home a little differently and we enjoyed having friends stay over.

When we moved to Central Africa, we were asked to host a man overnight who was going to an alcohol rehabilitation centre. He sneaked some alcohol into our home and ended up quite drunk. When I rebuked him and confiscated the bottle, he was so enraged I sent him to his room. The next morning en route to the rehab centre, he thanked me. Nobody had ever disciplined him like that before. As a result, I was able to lead him to Christ. See also Hebrews 13:2.

In 1992 in Latvia, I visited two orphanages caring for children with no families and under a new government that couldn’t support them. I was asked to provide 350 children with food, clothing and medicines. Transforming our ministry structure into a charity, I promised to support them for two years until they found the ‘real hero’ that God would provide. Two years later, we were supporting three orphanages. Nobody else turned up to take over this support, so we just kept on. This has now grown to many orphanages caring for 6,000 children, including two orphanages with disabled children.

From this, doors opened to preach the Gospel. One Eastern European official said, ‘I heard you supported our orphans for no reward, therefore I trust you with the lives of all those in my jurisdiction.’ What a wonderful opening to share the Gospel with thousands.

Written by DAVID SMETHURST