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HOPE Intl

Jul 18 2013

HOPE Intl

 Staff / Travels Stories we love
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Unexpected generosity

I’m currently sitting on a plane, flying back from a week of experiencing Rwanda and all the beauty that is held in this land of a thousand hills. It has been a week of experiencing “beauty over poverty,” as my colleague Chris Horst describes it.

Behind Rwanda’s surface-level reputation for genocide and desolation is a thriving and ambitious country full of hard-working people and innovative ideas. Rwanda is blossoming; it is being restored. It is a beautiful thing to witness. In the folds of poverty, individuals are finding dignity. They are experiencing fullness of life. Continue Reading…

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HOPE Intl

Jul 10 2013

HOPE Intl

 Staff / Travels Stories we love
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Journeying with our God

I am on a plane approaching Nashville after spending a day interacting with clients of Esperanza International—HOPE’s partner in the Dominican Republic—in their businesses, in their homes, and on their streets in the Dominican Republic.

Yesterday I found myself walking down a muddy road from a bank meeting where we listened to clients lifting their voices to God in worship and reading from Scripture. We made the commute to one client’s business. A 10-minute walk and we had arrived at Anita’s corner store. Anita called to her daughter to open the store as we approached and soon we were peering into the small part of her home that doubles as a shop where people on her street pick up snacks and cold drinks. She explained to us with a joy-filled smile how business had been that morning. The customers had just kept coming, buying bread and milk powder for their children’s breakfast. From 6:50 a.m. until she closed up to make her way to the loan meeting, she had served customer after customer. Continue Reading…

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HOPE Intl

Jun 17 2013

HOPE Intl

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A full house

Each year, HOPE celebrates a client who demonstrates HOPE’s values of perseverance, compassion, character, and creativity with the Thurman Award. Established in honor of HOPE’s first CEO and his wife, the Thurman celebrates clients who have not only experienced change in their own lives but have also extended that transformation to others in their community. Over the previous few weeks, we posted the stories of this year’s winner and four honorable mentions to the blog. Today we celebrate the final honorable mention, Lelah* from Central Asia.

In a cramped, 10-by-16-foot room in Central Asia, Lelah worked tirelessly to provide for not one family but three. After her husband’s two brothers died in wartime conflict, she took in her widowed sisters-in-law and their eight children, caring for them along with her own four children. When her husband’s chronic shaking and loss of muscle control left him unable to work, Lelah found herself the sole provider for 16 people.

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HOPE Intl

Jun 13 2013

HOPE Intl

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From sales to salons

Each year, HOPE celebrates a client who demonstrates HOPE’s values of perseverance, compassion, character, and creativity with the Thurman Award. Established in honor of HOPE’s first CEO and his wife, the Thurman celebrates clients who have not only experienced change in their own lives but have also extended that transformation to others in their community. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting the stories of this year’s winner and four honorable mentions to the blog. Today we celebrate Antoinette Aisha Uwimana, honorable mention from Rwanda. Antoinette Aisha Uwimana of Musanze, Rwanda, wakes every morning to the responsibility of supporting 10 people—among them three orphans and her widowed sister—and to do so, she runs not one business but three. The proud owner of a retail store, dry cleaner, and bridal clothes and wedding decoration rental store, Antoinette models entrepreneurship and determination, having built her business from a small, home-based operation selling tomato sauce. She recalls how she got her start traveling across the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo to buy two bags of tomato sauce at a time—all she could afford with her limited capital. Continue Reading...
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HOPE Intl

Jun 6 2013

HOPE Intl

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First Things First

Each year, HOPE celebrates a client who demonstrates HOPE’s values of perseverance, compassion, character, and creativity with the Thurman Award. Established in honor of HOPE’s first CEO and his wife, the Thurman celebrates clients who have not only experienced change in their own lives but have also extended that transformation to others in their community. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting the stories of this year’s winner and four honorable mentions to the blog. Today we celebrate Evangelista Osoria, honorable mention from the Dominican Republic. Evangelista Osoria rises well before the sun in Los Alcarrizos, Dominican Republic. The 52-year-old dreams of someday sleeping past 4 a.m., but for now, her elderly mother, three children, three grandchildren, and five employees are counting on her and her business, Yenis Empanada. Evangelista sells popular Dominican dishes directly to customers and sells flour and prepared dough to local vendors who rely on these products to run their own shops. Continue Reading...
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HOPE Intl

May 31 2013

HOPE Intl

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Planting the Seed

Each year, HOPE celebrates a client who demonstrates HOPE’s values of perseverance, compassion, character, and creativity with the Thurman Award. Established in honor of HOPE’s first CEO and his wife, the Thurman celebrates clients who have not only experienced change in their own lives but have also extended that transformation to others in their community. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting the stories of this year’s winner and four honorable mentions to the blog. Today we celebrate Denis Hrystychenko, honorable mention from Eastern Europe. Denis Hrystychenko was only 9 years old when his father died, leaving his mother to support 10 children on her own. Many of Denis’ older siblings went to work to support the family, and when he turned 14, Denis joined his brothers in the construction industry, proudly using his earnings to help meet the family’s needs. He planned to make a career of construction, moving over 100 miles from Berdichev, Ukraine, to the capital city of Kiev and sending money home to his family—but God used a documentary film to plant another seed in his heart. Continue Reading...
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