Closed Door and Open Windows
Our children had the blessing of attending a Christian school. One of them from 5th-12th grade. One of them from 2nd-12th grade. One of them from Kindergarten-2nd grade. This school was very small. It was a school where our children were nurtured in the Word and ways of the Lord. It was a family. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was perfect for us during that stage of our lives. Our daughter was a member of the last graduating class in 2008. Closed doors.
My husband was a member of the Board of Directors for this school. Making the decision to close the school was not easy, but it was wise. The economy in our area just didn’t support a school such as ours. For a few years, a local preschool program rented the building from the Board which brought in some income as the Board was trying to decide what the future held for a Christian school such as our humble little one. In 2013, the preschool organization decided they wanted to buy the building. Open windows.
The bylaws which the Board of Directors needed to abide by stated that any money left in the account when they disbanded was to be given to Christian organizations that had something to do with education. Each member of the Board was allocated a certain amount and given the freedom to choose the organization that they wanted their portion given to. My husband chose Compassion International.
Compassion International’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) to be exact. Compassion’s LDP is an amazing program! I had personally met some LDP students while on sponsor tours and at the Advocate conferences I attended. I desperately wanted to have the chance to pour into the lives of these dynamic young adults as they studied in University to become all that God intended them to be. But I needed a major act of God.
And God did it.
My husband was given a check with a sizeable amount written on it. All we had to do was choose our students. It was fun to read through so many biographies of so many deserving students. To pray and ask God which students He wanted us to have in our lives. We knew we were going to Colombia that year, so we chose Reyner from Cartagena. Ecuador also held a deep place n my heart, so we chose Marco from Machala. We were able to help these two fine men through their entire college career. And we still had money left over! So, we chose Elkana from Kenya, who only had a little over a year left. And we still had money left. So each of them got money to use for a laptop computer or another necessity for their classes.
Recently, Reyner made the choice to leave the LDP. It was his choice. We were disappointed. Closed door for him. We hope he remains in school to finish out his dream, but that is a decision he will have to make. We know that we poured ourselves into him through a visit with him and many letters. We showed him Jesus every chance we could. We love him still. That will never change. But we had some funds left over from his account that needed to be allocated somewhere else. Open windows.
Again we looked through biographies and asked God who He wanted in our lives. That is when we chose Rebecca and John, both students in Uganda. They both only had a few months left. Then another open window.
We learned that Marco, our student in Ecuador, would be finishing his studies MUCH earlier than anticipated. Open window.
Back to the website to look at more students. It was then that I saw Pablo from Nicaragua. I could hardly believe my eyes! Just a few months before seeing his picture on the website, I had met this young man. I was on a sponsor tour in Nicaragua, and Pablo was one of the students who addressed our group. To say he was a dynamic speaker would be an understatement. I knew that we had to use the extra funds we had to sponsor Pablo. So we did.
Never in my wildest Compassion dreams, did I ever expect to be able to have even ONE LDP student in our Compassion family! But God, in His Ephesians 3:20 way, saw fit to add SIX of them to our hearts!
Sometimes closed doors can be really hard. Even heart-wrenching. I am so thankful that God opens windows to soothe the pain and heart-ache.
Reyner
Marco
Elkana
John 
Rebecca
Pablo (in white shirt)“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask for or imagine…to Him be the glory, both now and forevermore.” Ephesians 3:20
Teri Gerdes blogs at https://iamgivinghope.wordpress.com
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