It was 1999 when we produced our first-ever Hope Center video. Of all the videos we have created, it’s still one of my favorites. Hope had very few programs up and running, but we were ecstatic! After thirteen years, we still are.
There’s always been the sense that God is the One who had the desire for Hope to become a reality. He found a
The most important thing the Hope Center can do is to…stay open. If the Hope Center closed, it would fill the orphans’ hearts with new levels of abandonment, loneliness and despair. Their hearts would be flooded with questions like, “Where do I go now after school?” “Will I ever see Pastor King, Miss Deb, Misty, Alyssa, Will…again?” “My daddy left me and now Hope has too.”
In some ways, I’m less busy today than 12 years ago. It’s a crazy thought and reality. Today I’m responsible for so much more than back then. 12 years ago, my children were 12, 10, 8 and 6 years old. Those are great ages. As a matter of fact, I’m realizing that no matter how old your kids are, each season has it’s “greatness”.
My son Tyler, the one represented by the 8 above, was wonderfully impatient in those days. Especially late afternoon. I can still see in my heart what he looked like back then; the smile, the ahead-of-schedule vocabulary, hours of basketball on the Little Tykes hoop in our family room, and a passion for snuggling. My wife Terri,
I have four children, a son-in-law and a grandson “on deck”, due to go public in mid-February. Each of my four children cause my heart to sing. Each of my four children no longer live at home. My wife and I are “empty nesters”. Call the “prayer chain”.
So in this blog, I want to brag/tell you about one of my kids…Annie/Ani/Boo Boo. She lives in Austin, Texas. She’s going to school there, working and missing her boyfriend Nick who is in Boston, attending Harvard’s Graduate School for Architecture.
I miss her and her siblings so much that it hurts. Like it really hurts. Nobody told me ahead of my kid’s time of moving out that it was going to be this hard
. But here goes.
So what movie was that song from? I really don’t know. My wife is the movie-knower. So, am I a “rich man”? Depends on one’s perspective. If you ask Warren, I’m not. If you ask someone from Haiti, I am. Rich in terms of cash-money? I feel blessed beyond belief.
But when defining “rich” in “relational capital”, I’ve might have the upper hand on most. This is not boasting in anything about me. It’s me recognizing the beauty and depth of my relationships. It’s because of the people who have let me into their lives. A treasure chest opened for me to enjoy. Rich.
I think “BFF” means “Best Friends Forever”. When it comes to my marriage to the former Terri Alexander, she is for sure my best friend…forever.
How great is that?! My wife is my best friend. Like, I can’t get enough of hanging out with her. I’m pretty sure she feels the same way about me…atleast I hope so.
When we’re together, which is a lot, we: laugh, eat, process our thoughts, feelings and emotions…go to movies, get a cone at McDonalds, walk around at the mall, drive through neighborhoods looking at homes, eat, laugh, call our kids, work at the Hope Center, carpool as much as possible…to name a few.
So, I’ve been working with youth pretty much my whole “adult life”, assuming you place me in the “adult” classification.
My understanding of the deadly power of “hopelessness”, feeling stuck, began to become clear when the Lord exposed my heart to the hearts of kids living in the inner city. They seemed stuck with nowhere to turn, no outlets, no options, no bright future. This “feeling” causes them to live for the moment and not consider the results of their choices. This “feeling” allows them to not care about their own hearts and the feelings of others. Their little hearts became numb to caring, feeling and hoping. Dead boy walking. Dead girl crying. Stuck. Suffocating. No future. No hope.
What’s crazy is that I also work and invest in the hearts of youth in the suburbs, and I see and hear that similar “stuckness” come out of some of their hearts. Different faces. Different neighborhoods. Same hopelessness.
There aren’t many Pastor Edward King’s in the world. Which probably why our world isn’t doing so well. The phrase, “one in a million” fits my friend and fellow Hope Center staff member of about 13 years. Our world needs more “Kings”, the title many youth at Hope use when needing hisattention.
Ed loves. He loves his wife of over 25 years, Juanita, as if they just got back from their honeymoon. He has loved his 3 children persistently and consistenly from the day they were born. He is an amazing grandfather to his grandchildren, to say the least. Continue reading “Amaz-King Man and Friend” »
