Join HOPE in celebrating the clients featured in this year’s gift catalog, men and women using the gifts God has placed in their hands—talents, dreams, and hard work—to provide for their families and give back to their communities.
Luis has always considered himself an entrepreneur, selling construction materials while also working as a repairman and construction worker. One night, in a dream, his pastor challenged him, “Why don’t you start a business right in front of your house?” With his understanding of the materials needed for construction projects, Luis felt confirmed in his vision to open a hardware store. He would need startup capital, but he knew God would provide—He’d been faithful before.
Faithfulness and forgiveness
Luis grew up in a batey—a settlement of predominantly Haitian migrant laborers—working alongside his father in the sugar cane fields around San Pedro, Dominican Republic. When he was 6, his mother left their family. Often neglected by his father, Luis prayed fervently, “God, I need to leave. … Please help me.” At just 11 years old, Luis left to apprentice as a construction worker in a nearby town. He worked hard and learned to survive, but life changed completely when, as a young adult, he became a Christian. As his faith grew, he felt God calling him to find and forgive his father, now blind. Luis attributes this to Christ’s work in his life, saying, “It is God who allows us to forgive.”
Hard work coming to fruition
With experience in construction, plumbing, and carpentry, Luis began to dream about opening a hardware store. A friend told him about Esperanza International, HOPE’s local partner, and he saw the opportunity he needed. Today, after four loan cycles, Luis’ hardware store is a growing business attached to the front of his house. With each loan, Luis expands his inventory, from sand and cement to iron rebar, which he bends into spacers for reinforced concrete building projects. Soon he hopes to buy a freezer to sell ice and ice cream.
Through Esperanza’s training and Bible studies, Luis’ faith has deepened, and he enjoys the fellowship he has with his community bank. He says, “I like Esperanza. … It helps people who feel hopeless.” Seeing how God has provided for him and his family through Esperanza, Luis says assertively, “We have to use everything God gives us. The only thing that is 100 percent good is God.”
Share Luis’ story with your loved ones by buying representative items through HOPE’s gift catalog.
![Before Eveness Mulungu joined the Walusungu (“mercy”) savings group through our church partner in Malawi, she faced days where she and her family ate animal feed because they couldn’t afford human food. But that changed when she joined the savings group. Eveness used her first group loan of about $1.70 (U.S.) to start a business selling doughnuts and beans.
“By the end of my first cycle I made $140 (U.S.),” Eveness shared. “My life is no longer the same now; [I] was regarded as no one in the community. ... This was the first time in my life that I ever touched and owned big money like this!”
Pictured: Eveness, with her husband in front of their piggery—a third successful business that she operates.](https://blog.hopeinternational.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)