THE FACES OF…..

by inmate Timothy Espinoza

Faces, what amazing things. With them we smile or express anger. They can be read like a sign, or the cause of intense scrutiny. They express the soul and set us high above the animal kingdom. Human faces laugh and cry and show bewilderment.  We beautify them and obsess over them. They represent us like no other member of the body. Human faces are truly a wonder to behold.

I’ve thought a lot about them since this COVID thing descended upon us all. I felt sorrow when the many faces that God saw fit to create were, one by one, covered up by cloth. At least the eyes remained visible. It’s going on two years now and I still ponder often about a human face.

If you are asked what a prisoner’s face might look like, what is the first image that appears in your mind? Angry, menacing, maybe with visible tattoos? What about an orphan? Is it a solemn, pallid child, perhaps staring out from a crib in a gray room full of others? Isn’t it always a face that you imagine in your own mind?

Prisoners and orphans have some things in common. For one, they are often stereotyped. They usually live in congregant settings and for certain, it’s hard for those on the outside to really understand them.

Those imagined faces will never be the same.

For me, if I was asked 10 years ago what I thought an orphan looked like, I would have answered with something close to the above, maybe the outside volunteers involved in Visions of Hope would have thought in a similar vein as well, concerning image of a prisoner. All this changed when Visions of Hope brought inmates and orphans to the front of some people’s minds. Those imagined faces will never be the same.

Having been a sponsor now for about seven years, and seeing countless videos of the children of Otino Waa, hearing them speak and even meeting some, my mind’s eye is forever changed. Now I see joyous faces, smiles, singing and hope.

Full of hope – and it’s the real thing!

Hope, that intangible thing that is stronger than Gibraltar. That’s what I see now when I think about the orphans of Otino Waa. They are full of hope and it’s the real thing. It is a hope born of knowing their Father in heaven is for them, loves them and has moved upon the hearts of others continents away to minister to their needs. To clothe them, feed them, educate them, and most importantly teach them about Jesus who is the face of their invisible God.

I hope that after visiting this website, or hearing visions of hope presentation in person, or reading this blog, or even visiting a prison, you will view prisoners and orphans in a different light. I hope that in the place of the Hollywood caricature there now arises the faces of men and women softened by God’s touch through Visions of Hope, and the smiling faces of the children of Otino Waa.