{"id":2660,"date":"2012-07-24T13:24:32","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T17:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/?p=2660"},"modified":"2012-07-24T13:24:32","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T17:24:32","slug":"when-dreams-become-realities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html","title":{"rendered":"When dreams become realities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It was just a few months ago that HopeChest was busy selling t-shirts to benefit our sex trafficking prevention efforts in Moldova<\/a>, and providing some needed support for Haiti.<\/p>\n

Tucked in there was the chance to win a free missions trip with HopeChest. Something that Alexandra Warwick<\/a> had been dreaming about. She wrote on her blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I want to go on the trip to Swaziland, not for fun, not for a vacation, but to start something bigger in my life. I want to dedicate my life to educating children and eradicating global poverty and for me, the logical first step is to visit the world and experience communities that do not have the luxuries I take for granted. I want to learn all I can from the people there so I can begin to understand what is needed to create change.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This simple statement reveals a heart filled with wisdom. That last sentence reflects a profound understanding of how change happens–and that it begins by learning and listening to those who are living every day in the shadow of poverty.<\/p>\n

Alexandra did not win the trip giveaway.<\/p>\n

But her sister Aliyah did. And when we called Aliyah, she interrupted to say, “Is it okay if I give it to my sister Alexandra.”<\/p>\n

That was about 4 months ago, and today Alexandra’s leaving on that trip to Swaziland.<\/p>\n

She’s agreed to take a ton of pictures and share her experiences in writing with us as she returns. Thank you for praying for Alexandra and her entire team as they leave today.<\/p>\n

Join me in reading her latest blog post<\/a>, and also encouraging her on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was just a few months ago that HopeChest was busy selling t-shirts to benefit our sex trafficking prevention efforts in Moldova, and providing some needed support for Haiti. Tucked in there was the chance to win a free missions trip with HopeChest. Something that Alexandra Warwick had been dreaming about. She wrote on her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen dreams become realities - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When dreams become realities - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was just a few months ago that HopeChest was busy selling t-shirts to benefit our sex trafficking prevention efforts in Moldova, and providing some needed support for Haiti. Tucked in there was the chance to win a free missions trip with HopeChest. Something that Alexandra Warwick had been dreaming about. She wrote on her…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-24T17:24:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/07\/aliyah-alexandra-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When dreams become realities - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When dreams become realities - Red Letters","og_description":"It was just a few months ago that HopeChest was busy selling t-shirts to benefit our sex trafficking prevention efforts in Moldova, and providing some needed support for Haiti. Tucked in there was the chance to win a free missions trip with HopeChest. Something that Alexandra Warwick had been dreaming about. She wrote on her…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2012-07-24T17:24:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/07\/aliyah-alexandra-300x300.jpg"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html","name":"When dreams become realities - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/07\/aliyah-alexandra-300x300.jpg","datePublished":"2012-07-24T17:24:32+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-24T17:24:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/07\/aliyah-alexandra-300x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/07\/aliyah-alexandra-300x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/07\/when-dreams-become-realities.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When dreams become realities"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2663,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660\/revisions\/2663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}