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HOPE Intl

Mar 27 2024

HOPE Intl

 Microfinance Spiritual Integration Stories we love
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What does faith have to do with poverty? These three stories tell us.

Jocelyn standing with her merchandise in the Philippines

How deepening a relationship with Jesus empowers families to break out of poverty

At HOPE International, we believe that without Christ, none of us can be truly free from poverty. One of our great joys is seeing people come to know Christ and experience the abundant life He offers.

Today, we’re celebrating the stories of Alphonse, Dominga, and Jocelyn, three people served by HOPE who have experienced spiritual transformation and poverty’s grip loosening. From learning how to pray to sharing the joy of salvation with family to finding hope for the future, these stories illustrate how God is at work—and why sharing the love of Jesus remains integral to our approach to alleviating poverty.

Alphonse Nsengumuremyi: learning to pray

Before taking out a loan from Urwego Bank, HOPE’s microfinance institution in Rwanda, Alphonse says he didn’t have the capital he needed to expand his family’s small business of selling cooking oil. Without enough income, he struggled to pay school fees for his children.

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HOPE Intl

Dec 5 2023

HOPE Intl

 News
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Economic empowerment keeps children out of orphanages

HOPE International alleviates poverty through economic development

By Elli Oswald, Executive Director, Faith to Action Initiative

For Neema, life was a struggle in rural Tanzania. She and her husband were grateful to have just had their first child and found it difficult to even put food on the table.

Like millions of others living in poverty around the world, Neema’s family was especially vulnerable to being separated from one another. This is because poverty is the most common underlying reason children end up in orphanages.

Surprisingly, 80% of children in orphanages and children’s homes have at least one living parent, and almost all have other family members. The reason most children end up in orphanages is not because they do not have family, but because their families are struggling to care for them. Continue Reading…

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HOPE Intl

Jan 24 2023

HOPE Intl

 News
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Why these students and graduates chose HOPE for their internship

by Katherine Gish, 2022 Marketing Communications Intern

Every summer, HOPE International welcomes interns and fellows to serve with us both in person and remotely. From a unique staff culture to learning how to connect with others, some of last year’s interns and fellows share their experiences for anyone considering if a HOPE internship or fellowship is right for them. 

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HOPE Intl

Feb 3 2021

HOPE Intl

 Stories we love
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A Moldovan farmer’s spiritual principle to live by

Living in a rural area of southern Moldova, Tudor Boboc owns one of the largest farms in the region, yet he still knows each of his 150 goats, 30 sheep, and 15 pigs by name, chatting companionably to them as he goes about his daily chores.

But several years ago, Tudor was one of the estimated 1 million Moldovans leaving the country to find better employment opportunities elsewhere. For three months at a time, he lived and worked abroad as a home caretaker, caught, like many Moldovans, in the Catch-22 of leaving his family so he could better provide for them. Continue Reading…

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HOPE Intl

Aug 28 2018

HOPE Intl

 Spiritual Integration
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Week 4: What does it mean to “walk humbly”?

By Dan Williams, Director of Spiritual Integration

A weekly series from HOPE’s director of spiritual integration

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

As we continue to dive into God’s requirements of us in Micah 6:8, let’s look at what it means to walk humbly. This may be the hardest one, but stick with me.

In all of my travels, one of the most fascinating historical sights I have visited is La Citadelle in northern Haiti. After Haiti won its independence from France in a slave rebellion in 1804, the first Haitian king of the North built an enormous fortress on the mountains overlooking the sea to protect the island from a French return. It may be one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever visited. The tragic irony of this fortress is that the Haitian king built the fortress using slave labor—enslaving 20,000 of his kinsman for its construction, with thousands perishing during the project due to overwork.

Why would a king, who was granted his kingdom through a rebellion of slaves, turn around and enslave his own people for a huge construction project? At a certain point, that king became so concerned with protecting his kingdom that he didn’t care what it cost the people he was supposed to be protecting. Continue Reading…

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HOPE Intl

Aug 14 2018

HOPE Intl

 Spiritual Integration Staff / Travels
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Week 2: What does it mean to “act justly”?

By Dan Williams, Director of Spiritual Integration

A seven-week series from HOPE’s director of spiritual integration

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

As we dive into God’s requirements of us in Micah 6:8, let’s start by looking at what it means to act justly.

My first job with HOPE was split living in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. As I regularly traveled across the island of Hispaniola, I got quite familiar with the border crossing between the two neighboring countries.

On one trip, I got stopped at the Dominican border because I had overstayed my tourist visa. I was pulled into a small room that had a single desk staffed by a lone Dominican officer, and a line of people, entirely Haitian, who had also overstayed their visas. I watched as each person negotiated the fine they would have to pay to exit the country, noting that each person paid different fines. Without any definitive scale, the reasons behind our varying fines were based on arbitrary reasons. One person paid more simply because the officer deemed his passport was too dirty. When I received my own fine, I realized that I paid less than every Haitian before me.

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