We are so grateful for your partnership with us at Bright Hope. Your gifts and prayers are such a blessing and they are bringing hope and help to the poorest people in the world.

Last week, I had lunch with a friend and we talked about the different ways people can help the poor. Some projects or activities provide food, others water, some shoes, others medicine, there are many new organizations that have popped up recently. We talked about which ones seem the most effective, and how not all of them offer the kind of holistic support that Bright Hope offers. “The real test,” I said to my friend, “is to ask where the poor you are trying to help will be twelve months after you start helping them.” Will their living conditions be improved? Will they be earning more income? Will their children be in school? Will they have moved toward a relationship with Christ?

My friend had an immediate response. “Then make sure you don’t chase the shiny penny!” he said. He went on to explain that the saying was popular with the people at his office. They didn’t want to chase the shiny penny because although it’s attractive and catches the eye, it’s still just a penny. It may cause you to stop in mid step, maybe even change direction just to pick it up. But in the end, it is not worth much and won’t make much of difference.

What my friend was saying is that Bright Hope’s mission of serving people holistically is so important and life changing that we can’t risk the eternal goals for activities and ideas that are just temporary gains — even if those efforts seem to be succeeding for the short term.

Wow! What a great moment that was. I felt like I was seeing our ministry with new eyes –eternal eyes that burned away the temporary challenges in light of what we are really gaining.

That’s why I am so passionate about what we do here. We are still focused on:

1. Meeting the immediate physical needs of people who must have that help.
2. Meeting long term needs through income producing programs.
3. Meeting eternal needs by connecting people to a local church and to believers who can lead them to Christ and disciple them.

Here are a few ways we are achieving our primary ministry goals:
In India, we are helping a group of 20 churches reach out to women with HIV/AIDS. These churches are teaching the women sewing skills, and as a result, 75 families are earning enough to meet their needs. It only costs $80.00 for each family to get started on their way to a more promising future.

In Haiti, we are helping 13 village churches start schools for children in their area. About 2,000 children are being educated and given one hot nutritious meal every school day. It costs $75 per student for a full school year of meals – the only meal that many of these children will have.

In North India, we are helping to start a new church in a very impoverished rural village. Forty people have come to Christ, and now, the leaders want to help the orphans and vulnerable children in their village in new ways.

Our goal is to help poor families break the cycle of poverty and start on a path that helps them on every level. If we have to “leave the shiny penny” beside the road, so be it. We want our holistic ministry to change lives immediately, for the long term and for eternity.

Thanks again for helping us. We deeply appreciate your support and kindness toward the poor. We are moving into the summer months and it is our time of greatest need, so your gift this month is extremely important. Please help us if you can.

Your gift through www.brighthope.org will be a huge help and blessing to someone in great need. May the Lord bless you and encourage you with His love and peace.

In His Service,
Craig Dyer
President of Bright Hope International

P.S. A shiny new penny can look really enticing, but the hard work of helping the poor out of poverty with relief aid, economic opportunity and into relationship with Christ will always be Bright Hope’s charge. Can you affirm our calling by writing or giving and letting us know?

If someone offered a truckload of anything you wanted and delivered it to your front door at no cost to you, what would be on your “wish list?”
Maybe you’d ask for a houseful of new furniture, new appliances or a newly remodeled kitchen. For the poor around the world, their wish list is quite different. For many, it’s a simple request for the most important gift of all… their very own Bible. Some would rather have this gift before any shipment of food, clothing or even shelter. Because our focus in serving the poor has always been care of the body, mind and spirit, Bibles have always been included in our Med Pack and Hope Pack gift boxes to children and families. We’re told that they are one of the most treasured items received.

For a poor mother in a rural village, basic medical supplies are what she most wants to see on that truck. Things as simple as a band aid or antibiotic cream could mean the difference between life and death for one of her children. For the doctors and nurses trying to provide basic medical care, life-saving medical supplies and equipment are the most desirable items. This past March, our partner in Zambia, Africa, joyfully celebrated the shipment of an entire year’s worth of medicine, including much-needed malaria medication for distribution through a hospital in Samfya. These supplies will help an estimated 40,000 people in the area at a cost per treatment of 31 cents!

The best news of all?

The total cost for shipping over one million dollars of donated medicine was only $12,500! These supplies are now being distributed to grateful families in the region. For a teacher who is barely earning a living wage and often doesn’t have access to simple items such as pencils and paper, imagine watching hundreds of textbooks, computers, school supplies and even food for your students appearing from the truck. For a hungry child, we are sending entire containers of nutritious food to our partners for only the cost of shipping. These shipments are providing tens of thousands of nutritious meals to hungry children per year.

For the children we serve, we’re not only helping to feed hungry bodies, but hungry minds as well. Bright Hope was recently able to ship a million dollars of textbooks to school children in Zambia — for a total cost of $10,000!

Your help with our shipments of food, shoes, computers, bicycles, Bibles, textbooks and gardening tools will continue to pour out blessings to tens of thousands of people in need. Plans are now under way to ship a container to the Philippines with all the contents for an entire medical clinic, including new equipment and supplies obtained at a drastically reduced cost. This new clinic will be associated with the local church. Christian doctors will provide the kind of basic care that has been needed for a very long time in this impoverished community.

However, we need your help. We can purchase all the contents for this clinic, rent the facility and ship it for a total cost of $57,600. Please help today. Every donation of any size will help us accomplish this goal. The impact of your gift will be multiplied tenfold through our Relief en Route container shipments.

For more information about this project or to make a donation, click here.

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.

In developing countries, the opportunity to attend school means much more than classrooms and textbooks. First and foremost, it represents a glimpse at a future outside the grip of poverty. For many, it means clothing on their back and food in their stomachs, and most important, the chance to experience the love and saving power of Jesus Christ.

The majority of Bright Hope’s projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America include an educational component for children. This is vital in giving children hope and a sense of purpose for their lives. With your help, we are buying textbooks, paying for uniforms and school fees, supporting teacher’s salaries, building dormitories and classrooms, and opening up promising new possibilities for some of the poorest children in the world. These children are no different from our own, except for the opportunities they will or will not have. They have the same kinds of dreams for their future that any child has.

When we speak to them, they talk about becoming doctors, nurses, engineers and teachers. Through their schooling, they start to feel that they may one day accomplish something that will help them to break out of abject poverty and provide for their loved ones.

With your support of our work, we can continue to assist our partners, who frequently operate as the hub of the local school. Children in countries like Peru and Haiti are receiving a midday meal, often their only meal of the day. This meal is critical in keeping children alert enough to learn.

To give to the ongoing work of Bright Hope International, click here.

To watch the Bright Hope Channel on YouTube, click here.

The first thing Oscar planned to do was to put on his “arrow-proof” vest.

I’ve heard of a bullet-proof vest, but this was a new concept to me — a vest that would keep the sharp edges of arrows from penetrating the skin. I first heard about it through our partner in Peru — a man by the name of Oscar Tello who spends his days and nights reaching out to the “hidden” people of this country - those living in remote jungle villages.

Oscar needed a vest like this for his mission. He planned to take a 20 hour bus trip from the city of Lima, followed by a canoe trip, to the outskirts of a Peruvian village in the jungle region known as Pucallpa. The people here are members of the Shipibo tribe.

Oscar planned to slowly walk up to the outskirts of this village and place a gift of food, cooking tools or other useful items on the ground. Then, he’d carefully turn around and walk away, praying that an arrow didn’t follow him.

This is a very dangerous mission, and one that calls for extreme care. “The people in these villages are not only defensive of their homes” Oscar said, “but on the offense as well toward any stranger who approaches them.” But he was up to the task. He’s done it before.

If the villagers accepted Oscar’s first gift, he planned to present another one in a day or so. Once he had gained the trust of the villagers and they determined he meant no harm, they may allow him inside their village to speak with them.

Oscar’s goal in this entire process was this: to gain the trust of the people in this “hidden” village so he and his team could share the love and truth of Jesus Christ to people who have never even heard His name.

I just learned that this time, by God’s grace, just as Oscar was about to embark on this mission, he met up with a native man from inside the tribe. This man was able to bring Oscar and his team safely into the village.

“After our initial visit, we spend time with the people, showing them unconditional love and acceptance,” Oscar explained. “Once they get used to seeing us, they begin to ask us why we are there, which leads to our talking about the love of Jesus Christ and His gift of eternal life.”

“You have to be willing to give your life if necessary,” Oscar stated matter-of-factly. “It will be worth it if the people learn about Jesus and the Bible.”

Last month, I told you about a “modern day Apostle Paul”, who took similar risks in a spiritually hostile place in India. Oscar is our “Modern Day Jim Elliot”, reaching out in a similar way to the unreached in Peru.

When asked what Oscar most wanted to share with you, the people of America, I thought he may want to appeal to us for financial support for his work in Peru. His answer surprised and humbled me…

“There are many tribes and villages here in Peru who need someone to come and serve them,” he said. “We all have something to give to God while we are alive. God has given us only a short time here on this earth, and we need to be willing to share greater levels of love and sacrifice toward others in the days we are given.”

Oscar, his wife and their six month old daughter Brianna plan to spend even more time living among the “hidden” people of Peru and sharing the Gospel with them. He and his team also help to meet basic needs for food, clean water, education and other daily essentials. With your help, together we can bring the Good News and physical aid to more families in these remote villages and towns.

To read more about the Segadores project in Peru and/or make a donation, click here.

To see additional Stories of the Month, visit the Bright Hope Channel on YouTube.

There is a group of roughly one hundred women, living in a remote jungle area in northern Uganda known as Apac. Most of these women are widowed.  They’ve lost their husbands to war, disease or AIDS.  Many ended up in a nearby refugee camp when they fled for their lives to avoid a violent rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army.  Most of the women have children in need of food, clothing and shelter.  They have very little opportunity to earn a daily living.  Most live in small mud huts with roofs of thatched grass. And, in addition to these overwhelming challenges, most of the women are HIV-positive.

This group of women is served by Eagle’s Nest Ministries in Uganda. To read more about Eagle’s Nest and/or make a donation, click here.

To see additional Stories of the Month, visit the Bright Hope Channel on YouTube.

We shared with you the exciting news about how your generous support reached the people of Haiti following Tropical Storm Hanna. Bright Hope’s Haiti partner was at the Bright Hope headquarters recently and shared his experience with us.

Bright Hope is reaching out to a group of people known as the Mapuche Indians, who live in a rural South American town in Chile.  Over the years, some have unfairly tried to characterize these families as “lazy and without initiative,” but Mark Lennox, Bright Hope’s Latin American Partnership Developer, told us the exact opposite after he visited this area.  He found a community of people (all centered around their local church) with a strong vision and an impressive start to two new job creation initiatives that are impacting over 600 people in the area.  All they lack are a few simple tools and materials to develop and expand their ventures.

The woman pictured here is Marta Cheque Marin.  She is 41 years old and lives in this community. While her husband finds work works wherever he can, Marta gets up every morning, puts on a pair of rubber boots to feed the chickens and pigs, cleans the house, prepares the family meals and works in their vegetable garden. “I work hard so my children have bus fare to go to school every day,” she said.  “Sometimes they need to buy a book, but I cannot help them with that.”

The families have beautiful fruit trees growing on their land.  “The fruit falls from our trees here, but we don’t have what we need to make the jam, so what we don’t eat just goes bad and we have to feed it to the pigs,” Marta said.  “If we had sugar, jam jars and a few other things, we could make and sell the jam.  This would help our children and improve our living conditions,” she concluded. The timing of this funding is very important, because the fruit is ripe for jam production each year in the months of November and December.

The Mapuche men have their own hope for a business enterprise as well:  First and foremost, they want to be able to stay in town with their families, but the need for work often drives them out to surrounding areas.  They are currently helping the women with the start-up jam business, but their vision is to develop a woodworking and furniture making enterprise using available wood in their area.  They have the wood but not enough tools and equipment to grow this enterprise enough so they can work locally and remain in their own homes.

Your gift will help propel this community toward their goal of getting their new enterprises established and strengthened.  These new ventures will strengthen the local church, the families and the entire community.

Click to hear learn more and make donation to this project

Craig Dyer, Bright Hope President

I met two boys this summer in Nairobi, Kenya and I can’t get them out of my mind. Their names are Vincent, age 16 and his younger brother Kevin, age 10. They also have a 14-year old sister named Unis. When I met them in their makeshift shack of a home in the center of a slum, I learned that they had lost their grandmother — their only living guardian just two weeks prior to our meeting.

Their parents had both died years earlier. The boys were obviously still reeling from this loss, and they were both in shock.

Vincent looks like a strong, able mature young man. I had to remind myself that he is just a frightened, grieving teenage boy. While I was with them, Vincent was just beginning to come to the full realization that now, he was the sole guardian for himself, his brother and his sister.

This family of children now has no income, no means of support and no one to guide them in the everyday decisions of their lives. They were alone, afraid and overwhelmed.

I asked them on that day if they had eaten anything. It was early afternoon, and their answer was “no.” As a matter of fact, I learned that it had been days since they had eaten last, and they were very hungry. When our visit ended, I found myself overcome with their deep sense of loss and the acuteness of their grief. I was also very concerned for their future. Their home is surrounded by violence, criminal activity, drunkenness and despair. And yet, Vincent told me he wants to be a pilot one day. How, I thought, would these children be able to overcome all they now faced and find their way toward a real future?

With your gift to our project in Kenya’s Mathare Valley, you can help boys like Vincent and Kevin right away.