What Does it Mean to Give the Gift of New Hope Series #2

This year has been such a tough one for all of us!! We can only imagine how many times your plans have changed since March… We are so grateful to have met you and wanted to share a story from someone who knows exactly what it is like to be in your shoes.

All of us want to make an impact but it can be so difficult to know where to start. We hope this story inspires you to consider how you can give the gift of New Hope this month and partner with us as we finish 2020 strong.

The middle of the night, sitting on the floor, tucked into the corner, making some kind of horrendous, wet, wheezing, sobbing noise. This is a lovely visual of myself about three and a half years ago, in the New Hope Girls home.

I was 19 when I first stepped foot outside the Santo Domingo airport. 19, in my flannel and ponytail, ready to take on this fight. 19 and wholly unprepared for what I was walking into.

Many of you are around the age of 19. By the time you are 19, you might think that you have been burned once or twice. Maybe more than a couple of times. By the time you are 19, you might think that you have a reason to live behind some ‘walls’.

Personally, I had labeled my walls a fortress. I secretly brandished them with a certain kind of pride, knowing their absolute strength and formidability. They were my life’s work, thank you very much.

Then I was welcomed into these girls’ home. And I became ashamed of that pride, of thinking I was the ‘strong one’. 

These girls — they are living proof. They are living proof of healing, of resilience, of faith, of belief. They are living proof of what it truly means to be strong. Carrying memories a little girl should never have to know, she still chooses love. She still chooses His promise. 

I have seen their scars — physical, emotional, spiritual. Too, too many of their scars. And yet, curled over myself in the corner of the office floor, I was not crying because of their broken past. My tears were for the New Hope that they have chosen. 

Becca Kinheart, New Hope Girls Intern

We know it isn’t possible for each and every one of you to hop on a plane this very moment and enter into our home and see the scars with your own eyes. But we also know your life is created for more and you have the potential to create waves of impact that last for generations.