I hope you join me in thanking God for the many blessings that HOPE worldwide and the church have received during 2013 and how these blessings have been used to relieve the suffering of so many around the world. Your support of HOPE worldwide's work was crucial to our success during 2013 and we are very grateful for our partnership with ICOC churches around the world. May we serve the Lord and the poor together in even more profound ways. Please consider joining us for our annual HOPE worldwide Global Summit in Long Beach, California May 16-18, 2014.I wanted to share some of the highlights of HOPE worldwide's renewed partnership with ICOC Churches during 2013 and our reasons for encouragement and hope for 2014:
1. Community Services
- Tremendous advances were made in HOPE worldwide's Community Service Division (CSD) team with a growing number of Chapters in local congregations full of enthusiastic volunteers.
- We are experiencing a nationally recognized reputation in disaster relief through our partnerships with the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities - USA who have awarded large grants to us because they value our incredible volunteers.
- In December 120 CSD managers and Chapter Leaders gathered in Atlanta, Georgia for the CSD Think Tank. The ties between the work of CSD and our sponsoring churches continue to grow and we believe God will be greatly blessing these efforts to serve in local communities during 2014. Churches and HOPE worldwide programs in other countries are seeking to replicate the Chapter model.
- Due to the success of the Sihanouk Hospital of HOPE in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a German philanthropic organization asked HOPE worldwide to operate a new, state-of-the-art Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital in southern Cambodia.
- Great strides were made to fund the opening of a HOPE worldwide Medical Center in Bolivia and program funding continues to grow in South Africa.
- The self-sustainability, pro-poor model of hospital and medical clinic management has reached the "proof of concept" stage and funders are responding with large donations of support.
3. Community Service Brigades and Procurement- The Community Service Brigades gives disciples a brief, but powerful experience of providing medical services and educational opportunities to the families of poor disciples in Central America and other members of their communities. The Brigades expanded successfully during 2013 beyond Honduras and Guatemala to Nicaragua and plans are being made now for a new Brigade in El Salvador in 2014.
- HOPE worldwide is committed to this principle: Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith -- Galatians 6:10
- The recent typhoon in the Philippines highlighted the importance of HOPE worldwide's role as the disaster response agency of the International Churches of Christ. More than 60 families of disciples who lost their homes during Typhoon Haiyan received a powerful beacon of hope through relief and recovery services that are being closely coordinated between HOPE worldwide and the churches in the Philippines. Due to this response, additional disaster relief grants are being applied for to further expand our efforts.
- Because of your years of support, HOPE worldwide is able to be on the ground serving the church and the community when these disasters strike.
- Because of our great volunteers from the ICOC, corporate funders have been attracted to our disaster response work.
- The HOPE Youth Corps provided special encouragement in 2013 as 320 participants served the poor around the world, a dramatic increase over 2012 participation levels.
- A special advisory committee of Youth and Family-focused ministers are providing inspirational guidance for a plan to expand the Youth Corps to 500 participants in coming years.
- The commitment to serving the poor exhibited by members of the National Youth Advisory Council in the United States is one more example of an upsurge in service by young disciples in the campus and youth ministries of ICOC churches.
- A very important step was taken to tie together Disciples Today and HOPE worldwide's communication teams. As a result, we are working toward a seamless mechanism for better communications between HOPE worldwide and the church.
- International Day of Giving church donations exceeded $1.4 million and included participation by 29 churches who had not given during the previous year.
- Donations to Typhoon Haiyan relief in the Philippines are now approaching $600,000.