Shine the Light Matching Challenge
Your Impact in Africa DOUBLED!
Your December eNews begins with an update on the matching challenge: thanks to friends like you, we are seeing good progress … but the 12/31 deadline is approaching fast, and there’s still far to go. As you read the December stories of your impact here, keep in mind …
A gift of forgiveness … Renata’s story
In the heart of Venezuela, 16-year-old Renata’s life was overshadowed by family struggles and school difficulties.
The weight of her home life pressed heavily on her young shoulders, leaving her feeling isolated and defensive. Sadness and anxiety became her constant companions, and her relationships suffered as she pushed others away with her harsh responses.
But then, something extraordinary happened. Thanks to your generous support, Renata experienced a OneHope Lumo Project Film, and her world began to change. As she watched Jesus’ story unfold, a spark of hope ignited in her heart. She realized that with Jesus’ help, she could find the strength to love and forgive, even when it seemed impossible.
In a moment of faith, Renata invited Jesus into her life. The transformation was remarkable. Peace replaced her anxiety, and the sadness that had plagued her melted away. She discovered the power of forgiveness — not just for others, but for herself, too.
Today, Renata’s family marvels at the change in her. Your gift has not only touched Renata’s life but is now reaching her entire family as they see Jesus’ love at work in her.
Your shoebox gifts for Zambia shared Jesus with children… and helped plant a new church!
Pastor Richard from Kitwe, Zambia, reports on the results of OneHope’s partnership with Operation Christmas Child, the “shoebox gift” outreach of Samaritan’s Purse. Millions of children are receiving God’s Word each Christmas season with these shoebox gifts, and this is leading to changed lives, like among those children Pastor Richard serves.
In Kitwe, Pastor Richard’s church received 150 shoebox gifts to share with the neediest children. He says:
We were so overwhelmed to see the children coming in numbers to learn God’s Word. We would hear the kids say, “We are here not for the gifts, but we are here for God’s Word, and we want to learn.”
We can see children so committed to the three outreach events we had held at our orphanage and at church here in Kitwe.
We had 24 who were very committed to be discipled and learn from The Greatest Journey. They were so excited and testified that they previously thought disciples were big people and not smaller ones.
They realized who are disciples, and this was so encouraging even to me as the facilitator.
Thank you for sending God’s Word to help churches like Pastor Richard’s share the power of God’s Word with children in their community!
Lead Today inspires Christian to lead children in his village to Jesus!
We partnered with leadership expert John C. Maxwell’s EQUIP organization to create the Lead Today special-edition Book of Hope.
It empowers teens to lead by showing them a leadership model built on biblical principles and the ultimate example of servant leadership, Jesus Christ. Lead Today shares the life-transforming power of God’s Word and helps build teenagers into Christian leaders.
It was this book that inspired Christian, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to organize a Bible study for children in his village after he completed the Lead Today program.
The chapter about initiative touched me so much I had to take the initiative and gather the children,” Christian reports.
You reached out to him through Lead Today, now he’s reaching out to younger children in his village. Thanks for sending God’s Word to lead to transformation!
Lead Today even reaches children and youth in majority-Muslim countries of Africa, as well as places steeped in animism, tribal religions, and Voodoo. Children and youth in all these nations desperately need to receive God’s Word and discover the gift of salvation in Jesus.
But the challenge is for a limited time only — please prayerfully consider a significant gift today — to be DOUBLED in impact — before the December 31 deadline. Thank you!
