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HOPE Intl

May 30 2015

HOPE Intl

 News Stories we love
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What matters most

Marya

Each year, HOPE celebrates clients who demonstrate HOPE’s values of perseverance, compassion, character, and creativity by announcing the Thurman Award. Established in honor of HOPE’s first CEO and his wife, the Thurman Award celebrates clients who have not only experienced change in their own lives but have also extended that transformation to others in their community. We’re excited to share the story of Marya, this year’s honorable mention from Eastern Europe!

There came a time when Marya Wozniak had to ask herself, “How much is enough?” For a number of years, her hard-working instinct, coupled with her circumstances as a single mother, led Marya to pursue business growth wholeheartedly. After all, when her husband abandoned the family, she was left to feed, clothe, house, and educate their three children on her income alone.

Marya worked diligently in the market of Drogobych, Ukraine, selling embroidery thread from a small table. After much hard work, she expanded from a table to a rented room. With small loans from HOPE Ukraine, Marya purchased her own storefront and transitioned to a confectionary shop, where she sells both homemade and purchased sweets and candies. Her income helped her children attend college and even become established in businesses of their own.

Redefining success

Since Marya became a HOPE Ukraine client in 2008, she’s developed deep relationships with staff members. “HOPE Ukraine staff is my family,” she says of the support she has found in her loan officer and others. These relationships opened the door for more than just business support.

Marya always considered herself a very moral and religious woman, but as she built relationships with HOPE’s staff, she began to hear them speak about a relationship with Jesus Christ. They shared that each one of us needs a Savior, regardless of our good deeds. Since she respected and cared for HOPE Ukraine’s staff, Marya reflected on their words and their lives. She began to contemplate salvation and started attending services at a local church—where she offered her life to Jesus and was baptized.
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HOPE Intl

Jun 12 2014

HOPE Intl

 Stories we love
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Elena: the nurturer

Each year, HOPE celebrates a client who demonstrates HOPE’s values of perseverance, compassion, character, and creativity by announcing the Thurman Award winner. Established in honor of HOPE’s first CEO and his wife, the Thurman Award 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 honorable mentions and overall winner.

When Elena Borisenko speaks, people listen. Throughout her community in Kamenka-Dneprovskaya, Ukraine, she’s seen as a woman of influence, not only because of her charismatic personality but also because of the changes she has seen as a successful businesswoman and a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

Hungry to learn

As a child, Elena loved the land and enjoyed tending her family’s garden, where new life was always sprouting. She moved to the city to attend college and continued living there after graduation. But when her mother was diagnosed with cancer, Elena immediately moved home to care for her. Together, the two women cried out to God. In time, Elena’s mother grew healthy and strong again, and the answered prayer left Elena hungry to know more about Christ.

While living with her mother, Elena met and married her now-husband. She soon gave birth to a son. With her husband’s encouragement, Elena left her job at a local post office and began growing tomatoes. She and her husband built a greenhouse using income from his job at a feed mill, and Elena says her family had everything they desired.

In 2006, Elena’s husband fell seriously ill. Doctors offered little hope, and Elena again put her hope in the Lord. She prayed fervently for her husband, and from his hospital bed, he dreamed that a powerful ray of light ascended from Elena to the sky and then entered his body. “From that moment I got better,” he testifies. After this, Elena’s faith was strong, but she still hungered to grow spiritually.

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HOPE Intl

Feb 21 2014

By HOPE Intl

 Microfinance News
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A renewed call to pray for Ukraine

In light of months of unrest in Ukraine, and especially with this week’s escalating violence, Ukraine weighs heavily on the hearts of HOPE’s staff and partners. Ukraine is the place where HOPE’s work and the Tomorrow Clubs first took root, and we know this instability will undoubtedly impact the 14,000+ individuals served by both ministries nationwide.

Because HOPE Ukraine does not serve clients in Kiev, we’re thankful that those we serve are not living in close proximity to the violence. Throughout this time, we’ve been in regular communication with our staff and have been conducting business in normal ways. We will continue to closely monitor political developments in the capital as they unfold.

Amid uncertainty and hopelessness, HOPE Ukraine’s leaders rejoice that we have an incredible opportunity to share our experiences of hope and eternal assurance in knowing Christ. We eagerly invite you to join us in prayer for Ukraine and for our work there in the following ways:

  • Pray for a quick and peaceful resolution to the unrest. Pray that a recently announced agreement, brokered with the help of European Union representatives, would hold and bring an end to the crisis.
  • There have been serious fluctuations in Ukraine’s currency exchange rates in the past two months, and this may result in Ukraine defaulting on national debt. These fluctuations may also trigger rising inflation and an increase in business costs for HOPE Ukraine clients purchasing goods from abroad. Pray for wisdom for Ukraine’s leaders and solutions to ongoing economic challenges.
  • Pray that God would provide for clients’ needs as they manage disruptions to their supply chains, transportation, schedules, and business operations in the coming months.
  • Pray that God’s presence would be made known in the midst of uncertainty, and that the local Church would find many opportunities to share the love of Christ with their neighbors.
  • Pray for the political, economic, and civil future of Ukraine.
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Erin Longenecker

Dec 12 2013

By Erin Longenecker

 News Spiritual Integration
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Protests, prayers, and market vendors in Ukraine

When I traveled to Ukraine last January, I was unprepared for several things. The first was the below-zero temperatures, as the country experienced its coldest winter in years. When I arrived bundled in the warmest clothes I owned, I was roundly scolded by our local staff for not listening to their advice to bring warm clothing—as they loaned me something more suitable.

The other surprise came more gradually as I talked with staff and clients and realized the impact of widespread corruption and fraud on people’s perceptions of the future. That the government and its laws would actively obstruct its citizens was expected, a given, and it changed the way people spoke about their dreams.

Oksana

When I talked with Oksana, for example, she proudly told me of how she had used HOPE’s loans to successfully expand her small market stall selling coffee and tea. She now had two stalls and employed one person, and she’d used her profits to send her daughter to college and make improvements to her home.

But when I asked her about the future, she said she’d have to move to another country in order to fulfill her dream of opening a small coffee shop. Ukraine’s current economic and political situation, she explained, would make opening her own shop nearly impossible.

I’ve been thinking of this lately as I read about the protests in Ukraine over the government’s decision not to sign an agreement with the European Union. HOPE has a long history in Ukraine—it’s where we first started distributing loans 16 years ago. We’ve seen men and women exhibit ingenuity, determination, and hard work as they seek to provide for their families despite the corruption and uncertainty.

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David Wasik

Aug 7 2013

David Wasik

 Staff / Travels Stories we love
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Glimpsing God in the greenhouse

As we approach the town of Kamenka (KAH-men-kuh) on a busy two-lane road, we pass dozens of trucks going the other way carrying fruits and vegetables. Some of these trucks are transporting produce to local and regional markets in surrounding cities like Zaporozhye, but there are larger refrigerated trucks that are traveling as far away as Kyiv and Moscow.

I’m traveling with Andre Barkov, the managing director of HOPE’s microfinance institution in Ukraine, and Natasha Kurilenko, the director of marketing for HOPE Ukraine. We are traveling to Kamenka to visit our local branch, witness the greenhouse economy that has developed, and understand the ways that HOPE Ukraine’s loans are providing a catalyst for economic development in the region.    Continue Reading…

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HOPE Intl

May 31 2013

HOPE Intl

 Stories we love
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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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