Fifty Days of Pentecost Devotional Series — Saturday, April 17

Our devotions this week have focused on the miraculous healing of a lame man at the Gate Beautiful near the Temple recorded in Acts 3. We also saw that the Holy Spirit is still dealing in the miraculous in our ChildHope schools in Venezuela. In addition, the Holy Spirit is sustaining our ChildHope leadership and alumni who continue to powerfully serve despite incredible challenges.

While we would all want to acknowledge that Jesus is the Healer, the Acts 3 account also reminds us of the powerful difference an encounter with Jesus through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit can provide. The impact of that powerful encounter can change the way we see the world around us. The account of Peter and John testifies to how even everyday encounters, like the account at the gate, can be altered from the mundane to a transforming event.

Are you experiencing a noticeable difference in the way you see the everyday world because of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life? If not, what hinders you from receiving hope-filled answers to the roadblocks in the way of spiritual victory?


Thanks to the care and compassion of his ChildHope sponsors, Alex (right) is now a medical doctor who serves God and his community, too! He is pictured here with Pastor Alexis Mora from the ChildHope church school he attended.

The changes that occurred over the past 20 years in Venezuela are stunning. Regardless of a person’s political evaluation of how this change came about, the result has been starvation, increasing limits on access to human services (like medical attention) and an overall spike in violence. People live very desperate lives and that yields chaos. The El Paují community is not exempt from this reality, yet light continues to shine from the ChildHope school led by Pastor Alexis Mora. Hope still is evident in the life of a young ChildHope student whose dream of being a medical doctor is now a reality. The simple explanation is that the Holy Spirit keeps Pastor Alexis from despair. His hope filled life is a beacon to all who live in El Paují. Only the Holy Spirit can take a student from the barrio through medical school and motivate that young doctor to give back to the children and families from the community he grew up in.

Thinking of the current tension in our own nation, what changes will you ask the Holy Spirit to work out in your own life that could yield hope rather than fear and tension?

Byron Klaus
Vice President, ChildHope

Prayer Focus

The daily grind in Venezuela is not for the faint of heart. ChildHope President Mary Mahon knows this well. Her regular communication with Venezuelan leaders like Pastor Mora provides updates that show just how tenuous these challenges can be. Pray for our ChildHope efforts in Venezuela. This is not the first nation nor era of political upheaval that ChildHope has ministered through. Our ministry began over 50 years ago during the civil unrest that ravaged Central America. The Spirit-empowered courage and ministry of ChildHope personnel has been a beacon of hope and strength. Pray for all our leaders, teachers, students and families to be strengthened as they daily face the violence of communities caught up in social upheaval.

See other devotionals in this series.