The poor live in a constant storm of fear.
Following a severe, spring storm, it’s difficult to see anything but broken tree limbs, scattered trash, and even damaged cars and homes. But underneath the layer of devastation, new plants continue to push up through the soil, searching for sunlight and growth.
That’s a little bit like the communities where Bright Hope works.
Under the severe storm of extreme poverty, many communities feel trapped under the fallout. They have hopes, dreams, intelligence, and the desire to work hard. Sometimes, they just need help to see the value of the resources God has already supplied and the right tools to maximize them.
To help uncover these blessings, Bright Hope conducts Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) training with our partner churches around the world.
Through storytelling and group activities, these workshops create fun and engaging environments that help pastors, church and government leaders, teachers, businesses, and landowners to recognize that God is already at work in their community. They are taught and encouraged to do all they can with what they have before receiving outside assistance.
Asset-Based Community-Driven community workshops are the ultimate resource to empowering a community to take the reins in establishing their independence and self-sustainability.
You can learn more about how these ABCD training sessions have transformed many communities and families.
A Poor Pastor’s Transformation
Pastor Joseph and his family felt trapped under the debris of extreme poverty. But despair gave way to hope after he and his wife attended Bright Hope’s ABCD training!
After Pastor Joseph started working for the palm oil plantation in his community, his young family sank into poverty when his income didn’t cover all their basic needs. But after attending the ABCD training, Joseph learned that he could use his resources to raise his income. So, he started growing tomatoes in his garden.
Pastor Joseph explained: “I am an employee of the palm oil plantation company in Buvuma. But after work in my spare time, I work in my tomato garden. This is a fruit of Bright Hope’s training.”
Not only did Pastor Joseph receive agricultural training to nurture his tomatoes, he and his wife learned the tools to plant seeds of love and mutual kindness in their marriage and family.
Joseph shared: “I had just married my wife when Bright Hope began training us. We had grown apart because of poverty but the Marriage Fellowship worked wonders. We communicate well, respect each other, and make decisions together. With Bright Hope’s ABCD training I learned that I could improve my family income by working hard with the resources available. I went back to work in my tomato garden every evening after work. Last season I was able to earn one million shillings ($268). Had it not been for the training that empowered me to earn this money, I would have struggled to pay the hospital bills when my wife gave birth to our first child.”
Partner with Pastors Like Joseph
Bright Hope’s training has helped Pastor Joseph and his church to embrace the wholistic gospel. Now, church leaders visit vulnerable families in their community, meeting their physical and spiritual needs. As a result, ten people have come to know Jesus as their Savior. In addition, two others have returned to the church. We join with the heavenly choir as they rejoice over these lost sheep who have come home (Luke 15:10)!
You and I want to help the world’s poorest communities leave behind hunger, fear and isolation. To do that, struggling families need a reliable way to put food on the table, pay for their children’s education, connect to a church community to grow their faith and find a path out of poverty. The problem is that generational cycles of poverty are hard to break.
At Bright Hope, we have a proven plan to help people stuck living on $2 a day to increase their incomes, escape extreme poverty and discover eternal hope in Jesus Christ—our Bright Hope Model.
The Asset-Based Community Development training is the first step in the process toward financial and spiritual self-sustainability. You can give one church an opportunity to take this first step with God on the path toward hope.
