Goats provide a practical way for believers in poor countries like Nepal to earn income. The goats provide milk and over time their offspring can be raised to sell to bring in more income. Our ministry partners know that the gift of a pair of goats can make a huge difference in the lives of believers there. Goats can be purchased for $70-$120.
Will you buy a share?
Gift of a Goat: $120
Share of a Goat: $30
Hundreds of children like those pictured here go to bed every night in India by laying a blanket on a cold concrete floor and going to sleep. They are not complaining. They were once unwanted, abused and neglected before being brought to Christian homes run by our ministry partners there.
Nonetheless, for about $100 these children could be provided with a bunk bed, a new mattress, sheets, a pillow and a warm blanket. These children are being raised up to love God and his kingdom. They will grow up to become teachers, medical personnel, farmers and missionaries to their own people. What a great way to bring joy to their Christmas by giving them their own bed to sleep in.
Deepika and her sister Chandrika were born into danger. After having two girls, her mother was abused by her alcoholic father who wanted a boy. In his anger her father burned her mother to death in front of Deepika. The girls were rescued by their grandparents who brought them to Compassion for Orphans. Today the girls are receiving love, a top quality education, and, best of all, finding out that there is a God who loves them. Your sponsorship gift of $30 a month enables more Deepikas to find a loving home. Your gift of $100 will provide enough rice to last 100 children for a month. Your gift of $1000 will buy a cow for Deepika’s orphanage that will provide fresh milk for the children.
Many will agree that one of the great joys of Christmas is sharing it with children. Our family tradition is to tell the story of the Lord’s birth and then combine that with personal stories of how the Lord has blessed our family over the year. Then we have the gift giving. This atmosphere of sharing brings joy to all.
Would you join us in magnifying that sharing by making a special gift this year for the children that our overseas partners are reaching out to?
There is such great need in the world as we consider those children suffering from the civil war that is raging in Syria to the abandoned and unwanted little ones of countries like India and Nepal to those who cannot get clean water to drink in the beleaguered island of Haiti. Their stories are found in our banner displays.
With love for you and them,
Lance & Christie Thollander
“Let the children come to me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven…”
So said the Lord Jesus when the disciples started to push away the young ones being brought to him for his blessing. He knew that their young, believing hearts were the best soil for the good news of his love. Statistics show that those between the ages of 4 and 14 provide the most fertile ground for the good news of hope in Christ. It should be no surprise then that the Lord stirs up the hearts of our overseas partners to reach out to the children around them. The ministries that we work with make it a priority to rescue and care for children, many of them abused, abandoned and marginalized by cultures that do not value them.
India is a prime example of such a place. As many as 10,000 Indian babies die every day due to preventable diseases. Over 500,000 Indian children are forced into the sex trade every year. One out of six female babies die due to gender discrimination and 50% of the girls are malnourished. Two thirds of them cannot read or write. Nearly 20 million children sleep on the street every night, hungry and unprotected. One third of the world’s malnourished children live in India. Statistics like this move the hearts of all our Indian partners. That’s why they start orphanages, build schools, organize feeding and literacy programs, set up medical camps and introduce the children in their care to a God who loves them and is their Savior.
There is hardly any more noticeable difference than between the children of India’s streets and those who have been saved from those streets by caring Christians. The faces of the orphaned boys above, whose picture we took at the children’s home where they live in one of India’s poorest districts, mirror the hope that is now theirs. We have seen the rescued children’s faces, watched them dance, heard their songs and listened to them pray. They are being taught that they are special in God’s eyes. They are learning that God has a plan and future for them. They are worth saving! Will you help us?
The situation in Haiti is equally bleak for children. Nearly half of Haiti’s 10 million people are under the age of 18. It is a dangerous place for many of them. Roughly 500,000 live in camps and slums lacking social and police services. They face the continued threat of exploitation and abuse. Nearly 10% of babies die at birth and up to 30% of children living in the provinces die due to lack of medicine and proper care. Only 20 out of one hundred attend primary school and only 2% finish
high school. With an unemployment rate of 65-70% there is little hope of finding a job even for those with education. Haiti has the highest percentage of orphans in the Western Hemisphere. Even before the 2010 earthquake which killed over 200,000 people, the U.N. estimated there were 430,000 orphans in Haiti. Given those numbers, is there hope for Haiti? The answer is Yes!
Cebien Alexis has been reaching out to children on that needy island for many years. Besides his ministry’s 175 churches, he and his team have established 89 schools, a medical clinic, an orphanage, Faith Christian University, and Love in Action Ministry, which is a foundation that supplies education for 8400 children. Under their care multiple thousands have been given a safe home, good medical care, an education which extends all the way through vocational training and the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Your support of Cebien’s work with children brings hope where it is desperately needed.
Perhaps the most urgent situation now being faced by children anywhere is that faced by the children of Syria. Fleeing daily bombings and brutality from both sides in the ongoing conflict there, children have not been spared from the violence. Men, women, and children have been systematically massacred in their own homes by rogue protestors and militia backing the government. Children have watched their mothers being raped and their fathers killed while trying to stop the attacks. The chaos has left half a million displaced Syrians who have nowhere to turn.
Thousands of refugees have fled to the border areas of Jordan. There are scant resources to care for them and they wait in hopelessness for help. The children, in particular, arrive disoriented and in shock. Our partners in Jordan are there, reaching out to as many as they can, offering them life saving food and medicines. Only $20 will provide for one refugee child for a month. $100 will provide for a whole family. Will you help us invest in the lives of Syrian refugees in a way that brings them hope in the midst of despair?
Together we can make a difference for children around the world. Our partners offer both immediate relief and long lasting support. Monthly sponsorships are needed as well as one time gifts. A picture and profile can be provided for sponsored Indian children. Please join us in this effort.
Imagine that you were born in a remote place in India and that you have never heard the name of Jesus. You long for peace and forgiveness of sin, but years go by and the emptiness in your heart only increases. Finally, you can’t bear it any longer and you walk away from your family, your possessions and your village to devote the rest of your life to the worship of a multitude of gods. You own nothing except for the saffron robe you wear and the stick in your hand. You wander from temple to temple in an endless search for ultimate answers.
Years come and go but you hardly notice. People respect you as a holy man and seek your wisdom. But you alone know that in spite of all the rituals you observe, the offerings you bring and the prayers you recite, your soul is engulfed in a a blacker darkness than when you started your journey. One day you are sitting in a temple courtyard with two other holy men when a young man walks up and gives you and your friends little leaflets. You start to read and your heart begins to pound. Could it be true that a God named Jesus can forgive sin? Could the message on this piece of paper hold the answer to the longing of your heart?
You call the young man over and ask him a multitude of questions about this new God and what it means to follow Him. He patiently and politely answers each question. As he shares about the love of God and salvation through Jesus, your heart deeply yearns to know Him. Finally when the young man courageously asks if you want to receive Jesus, you and your friends decide to call upon His name for salvation. As you do, you experience how Jesus cleanses you from all sins and delivers you from darkness. Immediately your heart overflows with joy and peace and you know that from this moment on, you will live for Jesus alone.
This is not a make believe story. It happened in a western Indian state. The man who led these “holy men” to the Lord was a Bible student in the Bible school of one of our ministry partners. What a victory for the cross! And it all began with a few little Gospel tracts. Millions of men, women and children across India have never heard the Gospel story. In fact, they don’t even know the name of Jesus and have never seen a Bible. Just like these former holy men, their lives are filled with heavy burdens, darkness and unforgiven sin.
A simple Gospel tract in their native language can change their eternal destiny. And people in India receive these tracts eagerly, then pass them along to family members and friends to read. Many times, as they travel from one person to another, these tracts end up in remote villages where the Gospel has never been preached. Along the way people open their hearts to Jesus and receive the gift of eternal life.
Right now, our ministry partners need to print at least two million Gospel tracts in various languages to sufficiently supply their native missionaries and churches for outreach work. Amazingly, they can produce each tract for about a penny so the cost for that massive amount of tracts is only $20,000. Through the distribution of these tracts thousands of men, women and children will have the opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of their lives through these materials. To help provide this much needed Gospel literature, visit our Contribute online page and designate your gift for “Gospel Tracts.” For more information on this and other fine ministries that you read about on this site contact us at info@hope-builders.org.
