I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to review Living Hope. Living Hope is a story of three individuals who devoted their lives to serving the poor and needy in South Africa. This film is about how the lives of tens of thousands of lives were changed by the faith of a few! How exciting is that? Over the past several years I have seen the passion of our family lean more towards missions, so we enjoyed watching this together as a family night.

John Thomas is a pastor that is leading a church to serve the needy and the sick. In Cape Town 1 in 3 women have HIV/AIDS and 1 in 4 men have HIV/AIDS. With that big of a need in a community, it is so important to be the hands and feet of Jesus. He had the opportunity to apply for a grant when President George Bush initiated help for the HIV/AIDS epidemic. President Bush believed that if a person has a means to do something to meet a need, they have a moral obligation to do so. John made sure that on every bit of paperwork he wrote that the main goal of Living Way is to share Jesus with everyone. Living Way received the grant and 1.7 million lives were saved through the HIV/AIDS program.

Joey Lankford was a wealthy business owner in America. It appeared that he had everything that he could ever want, but he could tell that he was becoming increasingly more discontented with life. That is when he decided he needed to steal away and just spend time alone in prayer to find out what God had for him. He spent several days secluded and God spoke to him and told him that he needed to surrender. Such a simple word…but hard to always walk out. God spoke to his heart and asked him to surrender everything instead of making his whole life about himself. After much prayer he felt called to South Africa, and he and his family moved and got involved with Living Way.

Leonie Rustin is a single mom and nursing assistant that struggled for years with addiction. She had tried to quit using drugs on her own, and she always seemed to go right back to it. One day she gave her heart to the Lord and knew that she had to keep herself from going back to using drugs. She decided that since Friday night was the hardest night for her to resist the temptation to use, she asked if she could clean and set up the church on that night. That was just the ticket!! Now she helps others break the chains of drug addiction and prostitution.

I absolutely loved this film! I’m not sure who loved it more…my 22 year old daughter or myself, but it really was personable and interesting. I would say that the main thing that I got out of this film is the importance of prayer. How important it is to surrender everything you are to God. We need to stop living our lives for ourselves, and live our lives the way we were intended to…..for Christ! That is when we will see lives changed for eternity! That is when we will see God’s kingdom advanced! Leletu! (“The Lord is my hope.”)

-Product review by Barbette Yingst, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September, 2016