What is the motivation for creating Abogar International Ministries?
Honestly, there are a few different motivating factors. God is the greatest motivator of my heart and life, as I know His heart is for children, and that He looks after the orphaned child. I feel very driven and called by God to be a voice for those who find themselves voiceless! I am also motivated by my own past – a childhood in which I was tormented and abused beyond most people’s imaginations – in which I had no voice to seek freedom, stability, safety, prosperity, or hope for myself. Another motivating factor that I am going to speak to is the hope of family!
First, let me just say that all these factors (and I am sure there are more) are complementary and push me forward to be hugely compassionate and driven to advocate for, love on, and minister to orphaned, at risk, and street children in Latin America. God, who is my rock, fortress, strength, and main motivation in life, has a heart of love, compassion, and advocacy toward all children. In the Word of God (James 1:27), it tells us that the religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphaned children and those who are widowed or are in distress! So, because I want my heart, mind, soul, and life to emulate that of my Lord, I too believe that looking out for the orphaned child and those in distress is a significant and important aspect of godly living. I am predominantly motivated by the love and passion that God has placed in my heart for these children. I have asked Him to let me feel His heart, and oh, how His heart longs and hurts for these children!
As I reflect on the motivators that my past and the hope of family are to me, it reminds me of the empathy Jesus has with us and our sins. He felt and related to what it means to be human; living in a family and facing temptations, pain, tears, laughter, humility, joy, etc. His experience was sacrificial and something He was committed to personally, to be able to relate to humanity. Though my childhood and past were very difficult, my past has allowed me to be able to relate with where some of these children come from. I long for family, and I know many of them do as well. It is a great hope, and I want to see futures changed where these children have good families, and can break cycles of poverty, neglect, abuse, etc.
Not all the children living in orphanages or on the streets are true orphaned children, at least not in the sense of both parents and all family being deceased. Many have been abused, abandoned, or neglected; while others have just been born into families and cultures of such poverty and economic inequality that their parents, who genuinely love them, have had to leave them in an orphanage in order to offer them the best chance of survival. My heart specially is drawn to those who have been abused, neglected, and abandoned, as I personally know those experiences in my own life.
My heart breaks for the children whose parents literally are unable to provide for them, because there probably can be no harder thing than to be separated from loving parents; And my heart goes out to the parents, as well, for their hardship – to let go of a dearly loved child, even if it is to offer them a brighter and better future than you yourself can provide, it must be heart-wrenching, defeating, and almost unbearable.
As I reflect over all that I have just sat here and written, I guess the best way to sum up my motivation for starting Abogar International Ministries is this: to offer the love and hope of Jesus Christ to children who so desperately need it, as well as to seek to provide physically, emotionally, spiritually, and opportunistically for these children!
I humbly ask you to please pray how you can become involved. Ask God what HE wants for you and from you. May HE always be our first motivation, in whatever we think, feel, say, or do! God bless you!
Blessings and peace always,
Jesse Rivers
Founder and President of Abogar International Ministries