Emmanuel Navarro is a sixth-grade student at a ChildHope school in Cienaga, Colombia. Cienaga is a town of about 100,000 on the Carribean coast. The main economic activity in the city is fishing and banana farming. Emmanuel lives with his mother, Navidad, and with his grandmother, Mariana.
Cienaga is not a small city of just a few blocks. His family lives on the opposite end of the city from the ChildHope school where Emmanuel studies. He has been in the school now for six years and has walked back and forth to school every day in the scorching heat of the Colombian coast.
Navidad and Mariana comment on the growth and development of Emmanuel. They are happy not only with his academic progress, but also with his maturity as a person. They see his Christian testimony and his moral values and attribute all this progress to his time in the school.
They also share that their own commitment to Jesus Christ began and has been strengthened because of Emmanuel and his testimony. Emmanuel not only shares with his family, he interacts with others as he walks to and from school every day.
Yesterday we looked at the biblical story of Philip the Evangelist in Acts 21. Philip also had a family that was committed to Christ.
ChildHope is fully committed to children like Emmanuel. He is in a single parent family, living on a very meager income. Economics and education are not the only ministry of ChildHope. Emmanuel is an example (as is the biblical Philip) to the importance of healthy families.
Mike Lawrence
ChildHope Country Coordinator, Colombia
Prayer Focus
Lord God, today we pray for Emmanuel, his mother, Navidad, and his grandmother, Mariana. We also pray for the thousands of children in the ChildHope network who, like Emmanuel, carry what they have learned back to their homes. Father God, let our children be used to reach and minister to their family members and to their communities.
See other devotionals in this series.
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.