Lend Your Support • Bright Hope

Undergirding the U.S. office

Working in the operations department for Bright Hope, I spend a lot of time behind the scenes or under the scenes. “Undergirding the U.S. office” is a term that my team uses quite often to describe our efforts to provide a good foundation that supports and shoulders the needs of those at the forefront of ministering to the poor.   

Generally, Bright Hope is all about undergirding. That’s what I love about the work of Bright Hope—their readiness to meet people on the surface through Hope for Today programs, but also the immediate willingness to stay behind the scenes and begin foundational processes through Hope for Tomorrow programs.   The process is completed through the indigenous church which not only cares for the community needs of today and tomorrow, but also cares for their spiritual needs by giving Hope for Eternity.   

Hope for Today, Tomorrow, and Eternity

There’s a family in Zambia that has stuck in my mind.  Each day they had no resources which filled each day with hopelessness.  As the church approached them and helped with their immediate need, for today, they began to talk about how they themselves could become active in making their tomorrow hopeful.  Through a farm program that loaned the couple two piglets, they were able to care for them and soon had multiple piglets which had multiple piglets and so on.  After returning two piglets to the church for the next couple in need, they are now pig farmers caring for their own tomorrows.  Additionally, since the process begun, they have joined the church and are learning about the Hope they have for eternity. 

I never imagined, yet here I am.

I never imagined I could be a part of helping a child learn to read in Kenya or help a farmer bring bacon to market in Zambia or help organize a men’s small group Bible study in Uganda or organize pastor conferences in Bolivia or begin literacy programs in Haiti. But here I am, involved in these and many such programs every day.  Who would have thought that buying someone two piglets or six chickens would turn their life around? But it does. It’s amazing how God can use the little things to provide the greater.    

Although I’ve only been to the field once, I continue to be a part of field work every day.  My undergirding support indirectly contributes to each step taken in the field, as does the contributions by our allies and the work completed by those churches in partnership with us. The Holy Spirit working in all of us gives us the desire and compassion that God wants us to share with others, especially those who have come to dedicate themselves to Him. We don’t all need to be out in the field to be at the forefront, we just need to undergird those who are.  

If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
1 Corinthians 12:26

‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Matthew 25:40