Trading in a "Picket Fence"

In a remote village in Mexico, cloth diapers hung to dry on a clothesline. Susy McNally, a wife and mother of three young children, reached for the next diaper to hang. At that moment, she began grappling with God. “There has got to be more to life than this! I think I heard You wrong. I want the white picket fence and I want to go back home and live!” Her spirit and body were worn out. 

Home was in Minnesota, the place where she had met her husband on the rooftop of their church watching fireworks. Soon after they were married, they headed down to the remote indigenous village of Oaxaca in Mexico where they learned Spanish as their second language. No one spoke English, so the only person Susy could speak to was her husband. She had left her family, her church, her country, and her language to follow God and her husband. During their work there, they faced hatred as her husband taught about the love of Jesus to the tribal people. But as his work flourished and more people came to Christ, the danger to himself and his family increased. After years of living in the village, Susy had a life-changing moment that not only changed her but countless others. 

During her conversation with God at the laundry line, she heard Him speak to her, “Your husband deserves a happy wife and your children deserve a happy mother so choose.” It was a revelation. After much wrestling, Susy chose to be a happy wife and mother. Her circumstances didn’t change, people were still trying to kill her family or drive them out, but her attitude changed. She never looked back. She knew God wasn’t done with them yet in Mexico. She finally found her place in ministry. Her feelings of weakness became strength to protect their children when her husband was away. And she made their home a place of refuge from the outside world.  

Their obedience to God eventually led them to Puebla, Mexico. Susy’s white picket fence was exchanged for a brick wall and wire fencing on an 11-acre facility overlooking the Popocatepetl volcano. The facility currently houses 86 children. By changing her mindset that day, she allowed God to guide them on the path to Living Hope International, an organization they began in 1999, which rescues children out of poverty and trains leaders for Christ. It all began when God placed an eight-year-old boy living on the streets in the middle of their lives and then into their home. Their desire to protect him and provide a better life for him was the catalyst to the ministry that has expanded to provide help and hope to thousands of children and families. 

From this one boy they could not bear to turn their backs on the hundreds of homeless, orphaned, and abandoned children, many whom, live on the streets amongst drugs, gangs, prostitution, and kidnapping. Susy has now become the “mother” to hundreds of children. By forgoing the idealized white picket fence and instead following God’s leading, a home was created with more children than Susy could have ever imagined on her own. 

Susy graciously shared her extraordinary story and work at Living Hope with Just Between Us.   

JBU:

Tell us about your calling.

Susy: It has always been to “the least of these.” After spending 10 years ministering to the Mixteco Indians of Mexico, we were asking God where He wanted us next. That’s when we found a little boy living in the streets of Mexico. God birthed in both of us that there is a lost generation on the streets of Mexico. If the church doesn’t rescue this next generation of kids, 20 years from now, they are going to be a generation of adults. It is our vision to rescue them and raise them up as leaders.

JBU:

Describe the typical street child in Mexico.

Susy: As a child on the street, they have to steal, use drugs, and sell their bodies just to get by and have food to eat. Some are extremely young—five, six, seven years old—and yet they may live with gangs because they are without a family. They are beaten, abused, starving, and dirty. The average street child is begging and living without hope.

JBU:

What is the greatest heartbreak as you minister to these hopeless kids?

Susy: It’s seeing a helpless child who didn’t choose any of the destruction that is in their life, such as being abused with no escape and no means to receive help. It was heart wrenching when we heard the story of the eight-year-old boy whom we took in. He had absolutely no one in the world who would help him—with the exception of the gang members that lived on the street with him. There was abuse in the orphanages too, so the street seemed like the safest place for him. There seems to be so few safe places for children like him. There is a whole generation and people group that are on the streets or in at-risk situations that desperately need help. 

JBU:

How do you take care of your own heart while hearing the breaking stories and realities of others?

Susy: I really needed to do that in the beginning years because I had my five children and another 15 to 20 kids in the orphanage to care for. One day I was watching them at the playground and felt overwhelmed by the responsibilities required of me. These kids had such horrific stories and backgrounds and I thought, “How am I going to do this?” God spoke clearly to my heart that day. He said that He is the Father to the fatherless and He will be the One that does it. Not me. He will do the healing and give them hope. It really ripped the burden from me to know that God was going to transform their lives of ashes to ones of hope. I still feel their stories, and cry with them, but am no longer overwhelmed because I know that God is in control.

JBU:

How did you love your own children well with the other children you embraced?

Susy: God told me that He would do a work in the street kids that my own kids didn’t need. My kids had a mom and a dad and these street kids have such a void in their lives. They were always searching, “Why wasn’t I loved?” “Why did Mom and Dad abandon me?” God is the Father of the fatherless. I can’t heal these kids. I can be an instrument that God uses, but God has to do the supernatural healing—and we have seen it in the kids here. God is healing them from their pasts and they are excited about their futures. I don’t try to be their mom because, if something happened and I had to leave, I don’t want them to think another mom has left them, so I am “Susy” to them and I pour my love into them. The other adults here are like their aunts and uncles. 

JBU:

How can women offer hope to a hopeless world?

Susy: By being love. Everyone needs love whether it’s through a hug or a word of encouragement or a batch of cookies. It can come in so many different forms. The world is hurting and lacking so much hope. If we can just show God’s love to a hurting world, perhaps it will bring a little hope with it. 

JBU:

How would you encourage women to care about this world wherever God has them?

Susy: Your area of influence can be right where you are. If you were a plant in a garden, your area of influence would be the plants around you. You can look to the fields, to the hills, and to the mountains, but really, you have to start at home, in your garden. Your garden is your family, your friends, your school, and your church. In Matthew 25, the parable of the Talents speaks of those who are faithful with what they are given. “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little I will set you over much.” You begin where God plants you and watch where He grows you. 

JBU:

How can parents instill a desire within their children to serve the Lord?

Susy: Our children need to see that our God is a living God. That it’s not just about going to church or youth group, but they need to see a God living and moving in their lives and the people around them. We used to do “Secret angel” which is blessing others when they are least expecting it. For example, you can go to McDonald’s, buy a meal, and tell your child that: “We are going to find someone on the street that looks really needy and bless them with this.” Once they get used to serving, they become excited to look for other opportunities. It gets them starting to look outside of the box for the hurting people they can help.

JBU:

What advice do you have for women on the mission field?

Susy: You really need to know, that you know, that you know your calling, because the mission field is hard. Perseverance through trials is key. God is a great God and His grace is sufficient, but there will be times when you face very challenging trials and think, “I can’t do this!” It’s not an easy life and there are costs that can be great, but God will lead you day by day and step by step. It’s an awesome adventure this life of faith!

JBU: 

How has the journey impacted your family?

Susy: Our kids grew up on the mission field and I wouldn’t change it for anything. They were missionary kids, they were pastor’s kids, and they were white children in a brown world. We have asked them now, as adults, if they have traumas from their childhood and they said, “We are so thankful for the life we have been able to live.” To hear that as a mom is a blessing. 

JBU:

How did blessing come out of your willingness to choose a different attitude?

Susy: We are able to do what we love to do, and that’s a blessing. Despite all the times that I  threw a tantrum saying, “God I can’t handle this!” God was gracious and patted me on the head saying, “You can get through this!” He is a God of 1,000 chances. If I had my own way, I would have left the tribal village when they were stoning our house and trying to kill my husband. That’s when I had to depend on God. That’s when I made the recommitment to this life He gave me—to being the happy wife and mother, He called me to be. 

About Living Hope International

Started in 1999 by Jerry and Susy McNally, Living Hope International is a ministry committed  to building communities of hope in underprivileged countries, ministering to and providing for children, families, and the local communities. 

Currently, Living Hope International supports numerous ministries in Puebla, Mexico, that provides shelter, nutrition, clothing, education, and development for children and youth who would otherwise be homeless. It’s an opportunity to provide hope and care “unto the least of these.” 

Theses Ministries Include

Esperanza Viva Youth Homes in Puebla, Mexico and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico (which opened in 2006). They are youth homes dedicated to rescuing and restoring underprivileged, orphaned, abandoned, and street children and youth whose families are unable or unwilling to provide for them. The youth homes have provided help for thousands of children and their families, including full-time care for more than 500 children. 

Nations School (Pre-K-12 School). Many of the children who arrive at Esperanza Viva Youth Homes are several grades behind their peers or have never attended school. They average a second grade level—yet many are older than 12. The school provides a well-rounded education where students are encouraged to discover and develop their God-given gifts. Since it began in 1996, more than 500 children have taken classes.

Missions. The goal is to help youth around the world experience the heart of missions in a hurting world, particularly reaching Latin America, Europe, and Asia with the unconditional love of Jesus. 

Nations Church focuses on raising up servants to reach the city of Puebla with the gospel, and fulfill the Great Commission by going into all the world with the gospel and radical love of Jesus.

La Vina Ministry Training Center is a five-month course providing training for the young leaders of tomorrow needed to carry on the vision of LHI to the next generation in Mexico and around the world. 

Life to the Nations is a Mexican publishing company created to provide quality, Christian materials in Spanish. 

Nations Clinic offers medical care to countless at-risk kids and needy families. It’s a fully operational, on-site medical clinic at the Esperanza Viva orphanage in Puebla, Mexico.  

Child Sponsorship program. This is a unique program that provides complete, round-the-clock care for children who have no other safe place to live. This program brings hope and smiles to kids allowing them to be active participants in their lives, meeting both their emotional and physical needs.   

For more information about Living Hope International, contact LivingHope@LoveHopeMercy.org.

~ By Rebecca Hansen