Give Hope International Ministries

   Give Hope International is a ministry dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the homeless, orphaned, and abandoned children of the Philippines. We will do this by providing food, shelter, clothes, a good education, and most importantly by teaching the love of Jesus to these children.

   As an organization, we will also be doing weekly outreaches to the surrounding communities. These will be all day events where the children will have games and prizes. There will be some type of food for everyone in attendance and most importantly we will have an opportunity to preach the gospel for everyone to learn of God’s love for them and the importance of having a relationship with Jesus. Our main objective here is to give them the opportunity to accept Jesus as their savior and see lives changed for the glory of God.

   In May 2008, my wife went to the Philippines to purchase property for the children’s home and church building. We thought we had found the perfect property. We both prayed and asked God that if this location was His will then everything would go smoothly with the transaction. There were 3 separate pieces of property joined together with 3 different owners. The first piece of property was my favorite but the owner’s wife decided she wanted to double the price and that was well over the value so we had to decline. The next property had improper documentation and too many uncertainties in the paperwork so again we had to decline. The 3rd piece of property was actually too small without at least one of the other properties so it was also a no go. It was so obvious that this was not the place God wanted us. Discouraging? Yes very, but we knew God had other plans.

   One week before my wife was to leave the Philippines she decided unexpectedly to visit with a friend in a city about 5 hours away from our initially planned location. She traveled by bus to a city called Baguio. She met her friend and went with him to pay for some property he had purchased. While she was with him she also met the people he was buying the property from. They told my wife about their properties. The problem was that these properties were small and nothing we could even think about buying unless just for our own personal home. The price was good and we knew we would be able to do a lot of ministry in this area so she decided to buy a small lot. I was very skeptical but somehow had a peace about the whole deal. I told her to share with the couple of our true desire for a children’s home, church, and eventually a school. She said that about 15 minutes before she was to catch the bus back she told the owners about our true purpose for property in the Philippines and they were surprised because they had the same desire. They went on to explain to her that they have different properties and would be willing to donate property to our ministry for the children’s home, church, and school. My wife called me at 3am that morning and told me the news. I booked a flight and used most of my vacation time and flew there to meet these people the next week.

   After I arrived and got a rental car we traveled to meet with the proposed donors. We looked at 3 different properties and one location really stood out. The location consists of 3+ acres on top of the highest mountain in the city. This place is known to be holy ground. The locals say this place is called HEAVEN throughout the Philippines because it is close to heaven and people come here to pray. On the sides of the road are statues depicting the judgment of Jesus and the crucifixion. I told my wife that in front of our property we will have a statue of Jesus when He was resurrected.

   It would have been easy to get very discouraged when we were not able to purchase the planned properties in the beginning but God is so great. He took away the land we had found and gave us HEAVEN. What an awesome God we serve.

   Now that we have the property and all of the paperwork for being an established children’s home is almost complete we are in need of the funding for the buildings. As soon as we are able to raise the needed funds we will be moving permanently to the Philippines and get everything up and running. The school will come later when we are fully staffed and have at least 40 children. As long as we have the funding we have no limits on the number of children we can truly help.

   The children of the Philippines are our heart. We have a burning desire to see their lives changed for the better, for them to be able to live life in all its fullness.

   We realized about two years ago that we could stay at our current jobs and save money and retire someday and just live life for ourselves. OR we could realize that God has a bigger plan for our lives to help the poor, and help those who have nothing. There are so many more important things in life than just living the so called Good life. What about the kids who don’t have anything? What about those who will never have a chance if someone does not step in and help them to be all that they can truly be. What if we said no and just go on living for ourselves? How many lives would be lost and how many children would grow up with no hope and no future. I can’t stand the thought of just living life. I want to make a difference. I want to see lives changed and hearts mended. I want to see the joy in those kids' eyes when they realized that they are loved and that they do have a purpose in life. For me seeing these things is living the good life. I feel so blessed that God has called me and my wife into this ministry. With God on our side we can make a difference.

   The proposed children’s home is approximately 5,500sqft and the church is approximately 1,500sqft The children’s home will consist of bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and staff rooms. The church will consist of a sanctuary and 2 class rooms. The sizes are only approximate. We hope to go bigger if possible. The bigger the home the more children we can take in. We are currently working on the building plans.