A Gift from Breath of Heaven

The year was 2022 and the event was a fundraiser for Breath of Heaven. It wasn’t that I didn’t

want to go, it was just that I didn’t understand what I was going to. In fact, my main motivation in

going was to show support to beloved members of our missions board.  They invited me as their

guest and I did want to learn more about our mission’s partner in Zambia, Breath of Heaven. 

By the time the fundraiser was over not only had I agreed to sponsor two children living at the

Breath of Heaven Children’s Village but I had also promised to go to Breath of Heaven the

following June. 

Isn’t it so very American to believe yourself to be a gift? To believe yourself to be more fortunate

and to understand your role in the world to include bestowing your fortune on those ‘less

fortunate’? While it wasn’t a conscious thought in my mind, deep down I believed that I was

going to do something for someone else. What happened on that trip was that I received a gift,

and it was far greater than anything that I gave to anyone in Zambia. 

After a mere 24 hours on the Breath of Heaven grounds, it became clear where the name came

from. In the middle of a city stricken with poverty and unemployment, exists a place where the

grass is green, peace flows like a river and anxieties seem to instantly melt away.  The children,

while all being well acquainted with trauma, are full of love, joy, hopefulness and wonder.  It’s

contagious!

God has worked a miracle at Breath of Heaven.  Through the Lawlers and the Breath of Heaven

team, God has built something special.  It’s a place where children can come from the chaos of

being orphaned, into an atmosphere that mimics that of heaven. It’s a place where children can

find healing, safety, and unconditional love, all the while discovering the love of their true

Father.  Breath of Heaven is a gift to orphans and a gift to all who set foot on the property.  

God has a funny way of confirming what it is you are sensing.  As I walked around the grassy

field at Breath of Heaven, I started to count the gifts; the gifts of love and rescue that so many

children had received through the village.  Where the concept of family was destroyed, God

freely gives the gift of sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers.  I counted the gift of what it feels

like to inhale deeply on that beautiful piece of earth in the middle of Lusaka, Zambia and

understand what a breath of heaven actually feels like.  I thought about gifts of a changed heart,

a new perspective, a deeper understanding of God’s love and provision for all.  And as I took it

all in, I looked across the field and saw my “son”, my 3rd sponsored child, and smiled when I

whispered his name, Gift.

Rachel Hanson