A New Year, A New Hope

It’s now 2012, and the New Year brings many new beginnings.  Many people state ‘new year resolutions,’ that may fizzle in weeks or act as a catalyst for change and direction in the coming 365 days.  Some people don’t make resolutions come the New Year, but are happy to wash their hands of the previous years troubles.  Either way, the coming of a new year signifies optimism and a fresh start.

I carry this new kind of hope for BLOOM Africa, Lesotho and humanity in general.  I know I can be overly ambitious and a bit of a dreamer at times, but I can’t help but get excited about the possibilities in the year ahead.  How can I not get excited about our growing organization and the potential to touch even more lives in Lesotho?  How can I not be thrilled to know we have a larger network of supporters to spread the good news about the Mountain Kingdom in the sky?  We are currently in the development stages of our new vision as an organization, something we feel will catapult how successful our impact can be in Lesotho.  We now have, more than ever, people wanting to become socially engaged with BLOOM and their communities.  There is just so much to be optimistic about.

Of course when the New Year starts, we grasp on to the hope that our dreams and desires will become realized.  Without hope, what are we as human beings?  Who was Franklin Delano Roosevelt without the hope of a prosperous and successful United States?  Who was Nelson Mandela without the hope for a free and democratic South Africa?  What would a farmer do if he did not have hope in his newly planted seeds?  It is clear that hope is central to so much of what we do and who we are.

We are dedicated towards creating a hope that is concrete, everlasting and full of love and justice.  The word hope has been thrown around lately much like other words that seem to diminish their importance.  But for children who are parentless, hungry and lacking basic resources, hope may be their only resource to escape poverty. 

Join me in sharing this fresh, rejuvenated hope for the orphans and vulnerable children of Lesotho.  Let us have hope for a better tomorrow through our mutuality with our brothers and sisters thousands of miles away.  Yes, hope is not something that can be counted, graphed or collected.  But it is the resource that is most important…the resource that has the power to change the world.

-Andrew