Bright Hope has found a new friend. I’d like you to meet Water4. They’re an awesome organization with the mission to bring clean water to the extreme poor. Did you know 200 children die every minute from water-borne diseases? But with a $20 copyright-free pump that can be made in any country and hand drilling technology Water4 is beginning to change that statistic.

With kindred hearts for the extreme poor, Bright Hope and Water4 became quick friends and quickly found ways to work together. In Zambia, Samfya Community of Care Providers (SCCP) is using the technology to create jobs, drill wells and install pumps that will water the kitchen gardens being planted with Bright Hope’s micro loan. In Haiti, the $20 pump will be installed in hundreds of wells that were destroyed by the earthquake. Working together we are accomplishing powerful acts of love.

We’re always excited to connect with others working on behalf of the extreme poor. We are certain, day by day, we are making an impact in the lives of those living on less than $1 a day.

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!

Congratulations to Chad Ware for his 1st place win in the male division at the Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon on August 2nd, 2009.
Chad will be running this year’s Chicago Marathon where last year he took 18th place, with Bright Hope International’s Team.
To see Chad’s time click here!

Bright Hope’s marathon team is busy training and raising money on behalf of the extreme poor.
You can be apart of the team by praying for the members: Chad Ware, Dwayne Kennemore, Henry Chu and Mike Wiersema as they prepare to run 26.2 miles!

If you would like to donate to his Firstgiving fundraising page please click on this link.

Collin Alto Baptist church has opened up to the community by adding over 20 new people to jamming project. The church was overwhelmed when the church filled up one Sunday morning with people interested in being part of the program.

In past, evangelistic efforts they had been happy with two to three visitors. This day they had over twenty, so needless to say the project has seen fruit in numerous ways… Click Here to Read More!

When my plane left Haiti in November of 2006 and landed in Florida, the first thing I did was press the knob that gave me all the clean drinking water I would ever desire.  At home, I hugged my wife and wept as I told her about Haiti where children worked on one meal a day with little opportunity for an education, where there were broken wells, and houses made of sticks and mud.  Yet, I had made many dear Haitian friends even with the Creole/ English language barrier.

I had recently retired from teaching high school and it had always been our my wife’s and my desire to find more avenues to use God’s gifts, talents and skills.  When Mike Rutter from Bright Hope asked me to go to Haiti, I was excited about the opportunity.  I had many soul searching questions including whether Bright Hope and individuals could make a difference in what to me seemed a hopeless situation. 

One of the first things we did in the town of Pignon was to help deliver Hope Packs (small gift boxes) to the children.  As a former teacher, I was deeply moved because all I saw were children with pencils and spiral notebooks. In Haiti, there were no textbooks, and the only tool the teacher had was a worn out blackboard and a piece of chalk.   The children laughed with delight at receiving their Hope Packs, which contained school supplies, small toys, a tee shirt and even a Bible.  Later, a rotary club sent a shipment of Creole/English picture dictionaries that thrilled the teachers.

As I toured the village, I met a man who was doing carpentry work and I handed him a donated hand tool.   Delighted with the gift, he invited me into his tiny Haitian home to see some of his work and meet his family.   There is no welfare system in Haiti and the people are looking for opportunities to improve their lives. 

Our team stayed with Pastor Jephthe Lucien, Bright Hope’s Haiti partner.  Pastor Jephthe is well respected in his church and among the villagers.  He gave me the job of building school desks with the Haitian men.  We communicated through pantomiming and laughter. As a result, God knitted our hearts together.

Another time, returning from a walk in the village, I encountered a woman coming back from a spring with a wheelbarrow full of water containers.  I insisted on doing the job for her while she and her friends chattered and laughed to see an American man doing what in Haiti is women’s work. I’m inclined to agree with my wife who said, “Laughter like music is a universal language.”

On the last day I was there, Pastor Jephthe asked me if I would consider working with him to help build a trade school.  I now have a vision that by partnering with Bright Hope, I can make a difference in what I had at first thought was a hopeless situation. 

By: Larry Schuerr, Bright Hope Volunteer and Supporter

Below - Larry Pictured with some of the new friends he is seeking to help.

Dorsilien has four children and one two-year old grandchild.  Their youngest child Jesunie became very sick and the family had to spend most of their money on her medical expenses. 

“The help we are getting now shows me that I really find my family in the church,” he said.  “I was forced out of the community where I was living because gangsters came to my house and beat me in my head.  They stole everything I had.  Our main work is farming, but as you know, depending on farming can cause you to die of hunger as you wait for crops to grow and mature.  With our micro loan money, we bought seeds but as we wait for seed to produce, we have the rice to eat.”

“I call each bag of rice a “savior”, because it is saving our lives and those of our children.”

If you have spent any time on our website in recent months, it is likely that you will have seen our project called, ”Dirt Cookies.”  Because of drastically escalating food prices in Haiti, many of the country’s poor have resorted to eating cookies made of dirt as a way to manage their hunger pains until other food can be found or purchased.  In response to this crisis, Bright Hope started a relief and development project aimed at helping some of the poorest people in Pignon, Haiti.  A micro-loan was provided to 280 families to pay for seeds and gardening tools.  It is our hope that within three months, the gardens will be producing food for consumption.  While families wait for their gardens to grow, they receive bags of rice to sustain and nourish them.   Little did we know how much hope a simple bag of rice could bring to a struggling family.  

Submitted by Annie Farrell,
Bright Hope Team Member

Last week, I took a vacation from the poor.

It’s hard for me to even write that sentence, but it’s the truth.  My husband and I had planned carefully for a full week off to travel to Michigan.  We put it on the staff calendar, socked some money away and packed our bags with excitement.  It had been several years since we had a “real” vacation, and we were looking forward to it. 

We had a beautiful time visiting family, sleeping late, eating out, walking along clean, beautiful beaches and doing a lot of nothing. 

While I did spend a little time on a few family laptops (mostly checking email and downloading photos), I found myself actively avoiding BBC World News and other places that would bring me face to face with what we see every day here at Bright Hope…

The starving children with their wide eyes and raggedy clothes, the refugee families living in cramped, unsanitary camps… the devastation of families living through the cyclone in Myanmar… the earthquake victims in China  …  It’s as if I couldn’t bear to look at them, just for a week…

And even though I knew this, of course, it struck me in a new way, that the poor — the people I get to serve in my job here at Bright Hope, never ever “get a vacation” from the poverty and desperation they live under.  They never have a reprieve from the daily struggle to come up with a few bites of food, or shelter from the rain, wind or sand.  Most of them will never in their lives stroll a clean, safe beach and stop for a cold drink or an ice cream cone.  

Most will never ever wake up in a clean, safe hotel room, take a long hot shower and then saunter downstairs for breakfast.  They’ll never wake up with absolutely nothing pressing on their mind for the day, and the freedom to go where they want, when they want, and how they want. 

I enjoyed my time off.  I do believe it allowed me to refresh my spirit, my soul and my marriage and I thank God and Bright Hope for providing it for me. 

But I came back to my desk here this Monday feeling an incredible sense of “privilege” that I get to be one of the people here who serves the poor, in my own small way.  Our team here starts our day with morning prayer, praying for our partners overseas  — the people in country who are face to face with the unrelenting daily needs of their families, communities and villages.  Then we ask God to show us how to serve them best -  how to raise support, how to develop programs and campaigns to engage people here in our own country, and how to create new and challenging opportunities for more people to partner with us in reaching people who desperately need our help.

I would not want to be any other place than where I am right here, as part of this team.  Before I got here, I knew about the poor. I had been to places like Russia and Cambodia, on short term trips, to “catch the vision” of serving the poor.  And now, I am trying to share that vision with everyone I meet. 

But I’ve changed since I got here.  I can’t forget the poor any more.  They have become part of my mind, my heart, my spirit, my soul.  And I thank God for that.  I wouldn’t want it any other way. 

Today I met with my fellow team members.  We made plans to get help to the people of Myanmar and a few other places in very desperate need.  It’s good to be back.

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!

Andy is a unique boy and stands out among the rest of the boys in the Recreo program. We never see Andy smile among the rest of his peers who are always laughing and smiling. At first we thought he was a rebel and/or indifferent to everything around him, but as we have gotten to know him, we are slowly coming to realize the story behind this young boy’s angry face.

Even though it is hard for us to understand why he is so removed and indifferent, there is something about Andy that has caught our attention. Andy never misses a day of the program; he is always there on time and ready to get started. We also noticed that he strives to keep his personal life in order with his special way of writing in his notebooks.

At the end of the year, there is an award giving ceremony in order to motivate the kids. This year Andy was the winner of the “Best Attendance Award”. He won a soccer ball, which is one of the greatest gifts you can give to a boy who lives in a poor marginalized neighborhood. That day was the first time that we saw his smile, and found out what a beautiful smile he really has. His smile has impacted us and shown us the incredible transformation that is going on in Andy through the Recreo Program.

Submitted By: Anne Farrell, Bright Hope Team Member

This man’s name is Odeya John. He lives with his wife, sister and grandchildren in a rural village in southern Uganda, where Bright Hope serves. I met him this past summer and I still find myself thinking about him and his family quite often.

He may look a bit “scary” or ominous, but that’s probably due to the fact that he’s losing his sight, and his eyes don’t focus very well as a result.

The truth is, Odeya is one of the kindest, most thoughtful men I met during my time in Africa. He was my “tour guide” when we made some home visits to people in his village. We were sent out in twos with a local man to ask the people of this village one question: “How has receiving a micro loan changed your life?”

Odeya walked along the dirt paths with me and my friend and introduced us to three families. Ducking under thatched roofs to enter mud huts, or sitting on the ground, we talked with three of the families (mostly the mothers) through our interpreters. We soon learned that a very small loan (even $40) can help a family begin their own little business and start their upward climb out of poverty.

Our last stop was Odeya’s home. It was a bit roomier than the first three — instead of mud hut with a thatched roof, his home was a rectangular room made of bricks. Odeya invited us to sit down, and proudly explained that the crude, rough edged wooden furniture we sat on came from the profits of their new business of selling fish in the local market. We complimented him on his home and his furniture, and then sat down to talk.

As we talked, my friend and I learned that Odeya was having cataract problems and his sight was failing. We learned that he and his wife and sister were caring for eight grandchildren, because all of their adult children had died of AIDS.

Because the village school had just closed for lunch, the kids began spilling into the home, shyly checking out these strange white people sitting with their grandma and grandpa! The kids’ clothing included something in bright pink —the boys had pink shirts and the girls had pink jumpers. Odeya told us that this was their school uniform. He also humbly remarked that the reason their clothes were so raggedy was because they were basically the only clothes they had… “These are their uniforms, their night clothes, their everyday clothes,” he explained.

I asked Odeya if the kids had eaten today. (It was about 1 p.m.) Odeya looked slightly embarrassed and said that “they will eat something today.” Translation: They hadn’t eaten yet. I reached into my purse and pulled out a Nature Valley granola bar packet with two bars in it. I asked him if I could give a piece to the kids. He said yes, and told the kids in their language that they would be getting a “bisquette.” So I broke the bards into little pieces, quickly calculating how far I had to stretch it. As I walked up to each child, they cupped their hands and lifted them to receive the piece. They never said a word, but their gentle spirits and eager eyes told me the story.

I had enough left over to give the adults a piece, and everyone ate it together. It was now time to go, and Odeya walked us out of his home and onto the dirt road again. As we walked along, he confided to me that he was afraid of losing his sight completely, because then, how would he possibly be able to care for his family? He said he knows that the Lord will look out for them, but still, he’s scared. I didn’t’ have any money on me, and I don’t know if he would have even taken it from me. But I did tell him I would pray for him and his family.

As we were getting ready to leave, he turned to me and said, in English, in his gentle voice, “I knew that when I met you today, I would be blessed.” I was floored, and deeply touched. told him that I, in fact, was the one blessed, more than he could ever imagine. I asked him if I could take his picture, and he gladly agreed. I wont’ forget you, Odeya John.