Let me tell you about a young man named Yuri. Abandoned by his parents, the teenager lived at the garbage dump gathering a few meager belongings and finding warmth in the decaying trash and the simmering landfill fires. He was bitter and depressed and found himself asking, “What do I have to live for? I might as well die.”

But Yuri found a pocket New Testament someone had thrown away. And someone else’s trash became to Yuri the most precious treasure! Over the next few weeks, Yuri read the pocket New Testament from the rubbish, and, like countless others who encounter their Creator and Savior, darkness gave way to light, despair to hope, and bitterness to a grateful heart.

Like rain and snow which water the ground and bring forth fruit, God’s “word does not return void” (Isaiah 55:11). Yuri had found the truth. He had found the Lord. And he learned that this present life, with all its hardship and frustration, is not all there is. Yuri discovered he truly had something to be thankful for – something to live for! In fact, he went on to leave the landfill and eventually enter full-time Christian ministry!

- Mark Cadwallader, Creation Moments Board Chairman

Photo: Unsplash. 1222

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