HOW A RICKSHAW CHANGED EVERYTHING {One Christmas Gift, Many Blessings} M onsoon-driven winds howled outside, and rain poured into the tent. Inside, Josep and Hanifa Masih desperately tried to keep their makeshift dwelling from blowing over. The cots where their four children lay sleeping were already soaked, and it felt like the tent could collapse at any moment. In the midst of this nightmare, Hanifa cried out to heaven. “Jesus, I believe in Your name, and You know I am Your child. Help us! Help us come out of this condition, help my children and help my husband to believe in You,” Hanifa prayed. After the storm passed, Josep sat in the quiet of his waterlogged home, humbled by his own sin, which had brought his family to the desperate point of living in a tent beside a busy road. He had previously rejected Jesus and His offer of salvation. But after the terrifying storm, Josep bowed his head and thanked the Lord for sparing his family and asked Jesus to forgive his sins. “That night I started to believe in Jesus Christ,” Josep recalls. Josep’s life today stands in stark contrast to the fear and desperation he experienced during that storm. Josep is no longer a hopeless alcoholic, drinking his family deeper into poverty. Instead, he is a businessman who owns and operates a cycle rickshaw. He no longer lives in a tent. Instead, he is a homeowner. And rather than chasing after the things of the world to numb his pain, Josep is a child of God.