Selena Hohenstein
Selena Hohenstein's Story
Face to Face with Poverty
This was all that they had ever known. All that they wanted was to be hugged, to be played with, to be loved.
I had never imagined the changes I would experience when I stepped off of that plane and into a new way of life. My upper-middle class suburban bubble was about to be busted, and I didn't even know it. I liked my bubble. It was comfortable... a little too comfortable.
Like many people who grow up in a Christian home, I accepted Christ at a very young age. I don't have a drug history, I have never been arrested, and I was never an alcoholic. For a long time, I thought that, because I didn't have a "bad" past, my testimony, or story, was not very interesting. I have since realized, however, that my testimony is exactly that... MY testimony. And I would like to tell you about one experience in my life that has made a huge impact on my relationship with God. I don't know if you have ever encountered extreme poverty, but it is an incredibly humbling experience. When I was confronted with the opportunity to spend two weeks doing missions work in Costa Rica during the summer of my 9th grade year, I had no idea what God had in store for me.
When I was taken out of my plush comfort zone and thrown into a third-world country, I began to realize just how blessed I am and just how selfish I had been. When I returned home, all I wanted to do was pack up everything I owned and send it to those amazing people. They had nothing, yet they were so happy. I had everything, yet I always wanted more. There was something seriously wrong with that picture.
The thing that impacted me the most was seeing little children with absolutely nothing. They lived in an orphanage with no family, dirty clothing, and little food. The workers did the best they could, but there were simply too many children. It absolutely broke my heart to see innocent children who didn't even know that they were suffering. This was all that they had ever known. All that they wanted was to be hugged, to be played with, to be loved. It was so aweful to feel powerless to help them.
If I had not known the love of Jesus Christ in my own life, this feeling of powerlessness would have been justified. There would have been nothing that I could do but give them temporary human love and a little bit of food to fill their bellies.
But God was obviously working in the situation. He had not brought us thousands of miles from home just to play with some orphans. He wanted us to share with them a gift that would change their lives: an eternal relationship with a Father whose love would never fail them, a Father who would never abandon them.
The greatest feeling I have ever experienced was when we explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those little children and saw the excitement in their eyes. The thought of having a heavenly Father absolutely thrilled them. I had been a Christian for so long that I had forgotten that excitement. I had become nonchalant about the amazing sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for me so long ago. He didn't have to die for me, but he did, BECAUSE HE LOVES ME! My eyes were opened to the fact that, in order to live my life for Christ, I had to have the faith of a child.
Since that time, my life has been full of ups and downs. I'm not going to lie and say that my relationship with God is perfect. I still sometimes find myself growing complacent in regard to my walk with Christ and falling back into my old, comfortable ways. But he is always there with open arms when things get too hard and I have to come running back to Him. Just like those orphaned Costa Rican children, I have a Father that will never leave me and never forsake me.
And for that, I can never be grateful enough.