Faith plays a big role in times of trial because it gives someone a fighting force behind conquering whatever they are going through. In the articles read in class, through all of the times of trial, faith came shining through the storm.

In the article “The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier” by Ishmael Beah, Ish becomes a child soldier and goes through years of death and killing without even really knowing it. One day on his road to recovery he started befriending a nurse named Esther. At first he did not want to hear a word she said, but she soon started to grow on him; “At first I detested her intrusions. But slowly I came to appreciate them, even looked forward to them. It was like at the center; most boys found a staff member whom they eventually began to trust. Mine was Esther.” (Beah-9). Ish’s family had been killed when he was a boy and he had nobody for a family, he fought for himself and had no one. So when Esther came along he naturally did not trust her but it took faith to branch out and connect, and after he did he became reunited with his uncle.

Another example of faith is in the article “Rwandan Genocide Survivor…” by Bob Simon. A woman by the name of Immaculee hid out in a tiny bathroom for three months with six other women. Reading the paper chills to the bone about her experience and the fear she had of being found. When Bob asks Immaculee how they escaped she told them that “‘We stood up first of all, never really much standing up. I remember fixing my knees, like i couldn’t walk.’ They managed to walk, and run, concealed by the night to the french compound.” (Simon-4). Immaculee and all of the other women had a ton of faith running out of their hiding place into the world of murder and destruction in hope that they would make it to the french base safely. They ended up making it and their faith and hope pushed them to live.

Lastly, in the autobiography “Broken Glass, Broken Lives” by Arnold Geier, the SS have just went around and broken windows and shops and they started rounding up Jews for deportation. Arnold's Father is trying to get a visa so he can keep his family and himself safe from the SS and Gestapo. He has to evade being seen so he rides a series of busses to look like a commuter and he ends up getting to the US embassy on time and when he finally meets the leader of the facility he begs him to to give him a visa; “With tears in his eyes, he told him of his visa number and begged the official to have our number changed into an actual visa there and then...Motioned to an assistant ‘See this man now’” (Geier-37). This took true perseverance and faith that he would make it to the embassy alive. After all the fighting he did he had saved his family and was able to not be deported.

In all of these stories, faith and hope can be seen as the driving force behind someone doing something risky in their time of trial. They decided to step up to the plate and take a chance that only would be propelled by a hope that something good will come out of their efforts. In all, when someone is being pushed and tested, faith is what is really driving them.