Located in the heart of one of Santiago’s poorest communities our partner, Fuente de Vida Para Las Naciones (Foundation of Life for the Nations) is a light in the darkness. They have seen the love of Jesus heal the wounds of a suicidal father, break drug and alcohol addictions, restore marriages and reunite families.

The church, with a new outreach idea, came to Bright Hope for help. They were very excited and explained their vision for a community center. It would be a safe place where the abandon and hopeless could find love, acceptance and even a hot meal.  They would bring in the elderly, the teenage alcoholics and the drug addicts. They wanted to provide classes, skills training and entertainment. They wanted to provide an alternative, a place of warmth and unconditional love. They wanted to be the manifestation of Jesus’ love.

Today, we’re very happy to report the community center is receiving its final touches. Their dream is becoming reality! Bright Hope is proud to support their outreach to the poor and outcast. We also just heard their church has doubled in size since the earthquake. They truly are shining the light of Jesus. It’s an undeniable love! We’re proud to call Fuente de Vida our partner, for more information check out their profile.

Daiwik and Anshi had been huddled in the corner of their one room shack for two days. The downpour was unrelenting, Cyclone Laila was destroying everything.  Anshi worried about her family, how was she going to feed her five children after they lost everything? But in the middle of her despair she remembered a Bible verse she had learned in sewing class at Emmanuel Handicrafts.

She started to repeat the verse aloud, over and over, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Her husband, Daiwik, got angry as he heard her, “Where is the God you are speaking to? He is the one making this attack by cyclone!”

But Anshi continued to have faith and prayed that God would have mercy. Several hours later the rains began to slow and the winds calmed to a gentle breeze. As Daiwik and Anshi stepped out of their house they saw an amazing site. All around them there was devastation and many of their neighbors’ houses were completely flat. Their house was far better off than most.

Anshi told her husband that she wanted to believe in this God that protected them. She ran to the local Christian family and told them her story. Her husband could not deny the goodness God had shown his family and prayed to know God as well. Now their whole family has a new relationship with Jesus!

With the help of Bright Hope, our partner, Emmanuel Handicrafts has been able to bring relief to this cyclone ravished area. With encouragement, counseling, with food and medicine, with prayer meetings and Bible studies Emmanuel Handicrafts has been able to minister very powerfully to their community.

13 people have seen the love of Jesus displayed through their cyclone relief efforts and began their personal relationship with Jesus. For more information about the exciting work of Emmanuel Handicrafts with the extreme poor click here.

Bright Hope is gearing up to send a team to Mathare Valley from Hope Community Church in Springfield, IL. Jennifer Young is on that trip and wrote us these encouraging words about God’s vision to get her on this trip…

“In January or February of 2008, I went to a movie called “The Invisible Children” that our church was showing and it was about kids in Uganda. God, just really started tugging on my heart. I ended up going to an informational meeting on Haiti and then in February my husband was served with papers to go back to court for more child support and post-secondary education for his daughter.

This meant no Haiti Trip.

God took me out of my comfort zone while on a mission’s trip to an Indian reservation in Minnesota but I kept hearing “Mathare” in the back of my mind. Then when the trip happened last September, I went and heard their excitement about what had taken place. It kind of lit the fire a bit.

Months went by and then there was a little blurb in the church bulletin about an informational meeting coming up on “Mathare”. I thought, what the heck, I’ll go. I went and the fire just started to consume me. I was so excited and then I saw the cost was close to $4,000.00. I thought “no way” but stepped out in faith and filled out my application. It was a huge leap for me!

I prayed about it and left it in God’s hands, telling Him if He wanted me to go He was going to have to help me. In March my daughter gave me my first $100. I sent notes to a few people. In less than a month, I had all the money that I needed to go on the trip and to pay for my shots!!! It blew me away.
God just told me – You have My Love in your Heart, my Holy Spirit – that’s all you need.

I was told at the first meeting to pick a name for myself that represents what God would have me do on this trip. I was thinking encourager but then while praying, God brought me Isaiah 61: 1 “He has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners set free.” My new name: COMFORTER. God told me “You will comfort the brokenhearted.”

Well here’s the end or should I say the beginning of my journey. I was told after I gave up on going to Haiti – “don’t ever let money stand in the way of you going on a mission trip, if you are supposed to go, God will provide!” I believe that now. I still stand amazed. -Jenni”

You can support projects opportunities like Mathare Valley and more by clicking on our Project Map!

Many of you don’t know Laurie Teper but all of that is about to change.

Laurie’s passion for running began in 1985 through short distance triathlons. She was hooked from the start and has competed in many events since then. Laurie has taken her love of running to the next level when in 2009 she served as the Co-Race Director for Bright Hope’s Run For Hungry Children in Woodstock.

This year Laurie is competing in the Ironman Wisconsin race on September 13th, 2009. She has been training for 8 months and did we mention she’s doing this at the young age of 52?

With her passion for running comes her connection to Bright Hope. All of the money raised (and her goal is $3,000!) will go to our 62 World Wide Projects. To access Laurie’s First giving page, you can click here to read more about Laurie or donate!

At Bright Hope, we partner with people we call “Extreme Heroes” — people who are willing to put their lives on the line to share the Gospel, serve the poor and stand beside the most rejected, marginalized people in the world.  These are the people you directly support when you partner with us.

Juana Choque Copa is a young single woman in Bolivia who left her well-paying job in the city to return to her grandparents’ home village “in the middle of nowhere,” so she could share the love and hope of Jesus Christ with the 200 people living there. She has single-handedly established a church,  feeding center, educational opportunities and community services to help the people in need.

Jephthe Lucien, our partner in Haiti,  grew up in this severely impoverished country but refuses to leave it behind.  Every day, he and his wife stand up to the challenge of overseeing their network of 23 churches.  He fights for funding to feed and educate the hungry and malnourished children in these church communities.  Jephthe battles daily against this country’s overwhelming poverty and despair.  Yet he never gives up.

Then there is our partner in North India.  He tells me that his life has been seriously threatened nine times, because he dares to stand up to religious extremists who wage war against his pastor training centers.  Yet, he continues to proclaim the Gospel to crowds of people,  hold Bible training classes and visit with his pastors in the rural villages.

Our heroes also defy the traditional definition of the word. They are the grandmothers in Kenya, living in 7×7 foot shacks in large, overcrowded slums.  These elderly women struggle every day to provide for their young grandchildren, following the early deaths of their own children through diseases such as malaria and AIDS. And they are the children all over the globe who come to school in the hope that they may someday become doctors, engineers or teachers. They are the rural mothers and fathers who wake up every morning to farm the little piece of land they have, in their daily attempts to feed their families and hopefully have a little left over to sell.

Our ministry leaders and those they serve are our Extreme Heroes, and hopefully yours as well.  They are our partners, in every sense of the word.  We stand beside them in their battle to survive one more day. Giving them support, encouragement and resources is the driving force for everyone here at Bright Hope.  It’s what ignites us, compels us and stirs us to reach out to you, our allies, to stand with us.

To learn more about our projects around the world and the people who make them possible, click here to visit our Project page and select a Country or Project Category.

Our North India partner is meeting new believers, discipling them in the Lord and training the ones who want to become pastors and teachers so they can spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone they meet. This is how an entire nation will be transformed — through the sold-out lives of people excited by their faith.

Through the sacrificial work of our India partner and those they train, God is bringing Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists into full relationship with Jesus Christ. The stories of these transformations are happening every day.

Bright Hope is helping our India partner to build the pastor training center in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, in the capital of Lucknow. The land has been purchased and plans are under way to build the training center. It will replace the small six-room house that is now home to the groups of students who live in its very cramped quarters. Once this center is built, more teaching and training can take place. Hundreds of these trained pastors will go out into their home communities to serve the physical, economic and spiritual needs of their people.

This center will provide the foundation for these dedicated people to go out into the surrounding communities and meet the physical and economic needs of the people there — most of whom are destitute and in great need.

We’re committing to help build the center’s lecture hall, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and dorm rooms for men and women — a total of 6,754 square feet. This building will be basic and sparse, but a great blessing for the people who are giving their entire lives to serve others.

The cost per square foot is approximately $25. Your willingness to help now will change lives for eternity in India. How many square feet can you build?

To learn more about this project and make a donation, click here.

A commentary on the article, “Expecting Miracles” by Paul Gifford in Christian Century, July 10, 2007.

Submitted by Bright Hope Staff Member, Aaron Subich

In his article, Paul Gifford really brought to light an interesting dynamic of what’s happening in African Churches that are experiencing growth. The congregations of these churches are expecting miracles… Gifford says, “Africa’s various and growing Pentecostal churches have on thing in common: a focus on success.” He goes on to reveal that the success they are focused on is most strictly material.

It’s a sad reality that the preaching of ‘gods blessing’ and ‘prosperity found in blessing’ is extremely appealing to those in abject poverty in Africa. Especially as many Muslim communities are able to give incentives and subsidies to their community members due to external funding, many poor Christian churches sometime struggle to remain relevant. These Sub-Saharan Africans need material goods as much as anyone in the world today.

While I found that the article by Mr. Gifford was very revealing, I was rather saddened by its conclusions. At Bright Hope we believe that truly effective ministry is holistic. While it is exciting that the church in these African countries is addressing the poverty and the lack of basic necessities, it saddens me that the content of this report suggests: they are so singularly focused.

One of the most basic commitments at Bright Hope is to ensure that our projects are holistic in nature. Bright Hope partners with churches and communities that address the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, familial, and material needs of their community. I believe that in order to achieve lasting growth and development, balance needs to be found among these goals.

As incidents of AIDS, Child led households, Orphanages, Starvation, and Ethnic conflicts continue to increase in much of Africa, I want to challenge others to seek to holistically uplift and support the church in Africa. For we, too, are seeking Miracles! It is my desire to seek the miracles that bring the Kingdom of God to stay, particularly the kind of miracles that change a person’s life from the inside and enable them to offer the same to others in need of the life-giving hope of Jesus!

Submitted by: Manette Monteclaro

On my trip to the village of Nagasi, I met a young lady by the name of Josie Montoya, who has been a part of the Nagasi Baptist church for eleven years and is now serving as a nurse aide in the clinic. Here is her story:

“My name is Josie Montoya, I am twenty years old and I started going to the Nagasi Church at the age of nine when Pastor Levi started it. I grew up with my parents and three other brothers. I am the second to the youngest and the only girl. Like most of the children in our village, I grew up in a poor family. My father works at the sugar cane plantation, chopping sugar canes, loading them in to a truck and bringing them to the sugar mills. His work day begins at six in the morning until four thirty in the afternoon. With this back-breaking job under the heat of the sun, he earns P200 ($5) a week to provide food and clothing for his family of six. He gets paid every Friday. My mother stays home to care for the family especially one of my brothers who has epilepsy.

“Together with my family, I started attending church at the age of nine. When I reached the age of fourteen, I accepted the Lord as my personal Lord and Savior. I began to understand what He did for me and how much He cares for the people of the world. With my faith growing stronger everyday, I became involved in the ministries of the church especially with children. I helped with the preschool kids. Later, I became very interested in the youth ministry during my high school days and even started singing in the choir.

“Since my parents cannot afford to send me to college, I began to pray for God to supply my needs. I got a scholarship from the Nagasi church and went to a nearby school and studied midwifery. It took me three years to finish my course. Being grateful for the opportunity of getting an education, I am now very much involved in church ministries. When the Family clinic opened as the result of Bright Hope’s support, I assisted the head nurse who was in charge of the clinic. Together, we do basic health care education especially for expectant mothers and mothers with very young children. With the limited supply of medicines, we help those who cannot afford to buy pain medicines, allergy tablets, cough drops, and antibiotic ointments for minor bruises. The clinic provides basic health care services for the village since the nearest medical center is still an hour away.

“I am so grateful to Bright Hope for its support to the Nagasi project without which the clinic would not be made available for the people in the village. I am a recipient of your kindness and generosity. I am able to help others and use the gifts God has given me to make a difference. You have given me hope and the many children who are part of our school and church. Thank you and may God bless you all.”

Truly, Bright Hope has made a difference in the lives of the people of Nagasi.

Our partner in Uganda tells us this story about his visit to a refugee camp in the northern part of the country . This camp is home to thousands of destitute men, women, and children displaced by decades of civil strife and oppression.

“I had just completed a training seminar for pastors and church leaders in this region, followed by an open evangelistic outreach. During the outreach, I shared the love of Christ with the people, who had suffered for so long. I told them that God cared about them and that He would bring them hope for their future.”

After sharing the Gospel message with a large crowd of people, I was preparing to leave the camp. Suddenly, one of the camp leaders placed a small box in the middle of the crowd. He asked the people to come forward and give me whatever they could to show their appreciation of my visit. “Butch gave us the Word of God,,” said the leader, “and now we need to give something to him.”

“I didn’t want to take anything from these people, who were in such obvious and desperate need themselves. I was greatly humbled in my spirit and I couldn’t even speak, as I watched them come forward one by one to drop whatever they could into the box. I remember seeing an elderly woman, crippled and hunched over, as she dropped 100 shillings (about a nickel) into the box. A few people carried their chickens (one of the few they had) and placed them near the box as their gift.”

The total of this collection was about $58 U.S. dollars, which doesn’t sound like much, but considering it was given by people in this kind of poverty, it t was a remarkable gesture indeed.

“The people in these camps are not beggars,” Butch said. “They want to work and earn a living. They want to take care of their families. But they have very little, if any, way to make a living, in their current situation.”

Your gift to Bright Hope’s projects in Uganda and with refugee families will help people like these to gain a foothold to a better future. Thank you for remembering them.