Church Wide, Current Events New Hope Church Wide, Current Events New Hope

Stocking the Shelves for Neighbors

Christmas at New Hope – Stocking the Shelves for Hope for Her and ECHO

For the last fifteen years, New Hope has been involved in the Gift of Hope, a partnership between ECHO and area churches to provide food, gifts, and spiritual support to needy families during the Christmas season.  Over the years, fewer churches have participated and the bulk of the work has fallen on a smaller group of churches while need in our community has increased.

 

This year, our Gift of Hope team, which consists of representatives from ECHO and several North Brandon churches, decided to make a shift.  With less participation and feeling the strain from the two recent hurricanes, the team decided to take a hiatus from Gift of Hope in 2024.  Each participating church will now lean into whatever they feel God calling them to do for this season.  Next year, we hope to come back together with a renewed sense of energy and passion to empower local families during the holiday season.

 

At New Hope, we feel like the greatest need right now is food. We have families in our community that are feeling the crunch after the storms and the increased cost of food is not helping.  Thus, during November and December, we are stocking the shelves at ECHO and Hope for Her.  Instead of gifts, we will be collecting peanut butter, jelly, pasta, spaghetti sauce, ramen noodles, cereal, canned fruit and vegetables, basic toiletries, and $10 gift cards to help families purchase meat.  Our goal is to literally restock the shelves for our local mission partners who have been feeling to pinch of increased grocery prices and increased need.

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Backpack Hero Day - Donations Needed

 

Backpack Hero Day

New Hope has pledged 100 backpacks for the event. Donations can be dropped at the church office Monday through Thursday from 9am to 4pm or in the lobby of the main sanctuary on Sunday mornings.

The purpose of Backpack Heroes is to create a much larger positive impact on families in our community by consolidating numerous smaller back-to-school events in the East Hillsborough area. This event is geared to provide school-age children with backpacks in time for school and educate parents on the resources available to them in the East Hillsborough community.

Through Backpack Heroes families learn about tools and resources available to them in the community to assist them in their mission to provide and succeed.

Looking for more information on Backpack Hero Day or details on how to register? CLICK HERE

 
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Church Wide, Current Events New Hope Church Wide, Current Events New Hope

Zoe Empowerment Group Update

Dear Vicki,

The Zoe Empowers group partnered with New Hope has entered their third year and final year in the empowerment program.  Due to your financial support, prayer, and trust in their abilities, the youth-led families have made great strides to overcome the suffering and challenges of extreme poverty.  

During their second year in the Zoe program, the youth continued to put into practice what they had learned during the intense trainings of the first year.  They worked hard to expand their businesses and/or create additional income projects as well as improve their agricultural endeavors.  At the end of this email are some highlights provided by the program facilitator.

 We appreciate that you have stood behind these young people for the past two years so that they could create the foundation on which they will continue to build a better future for themselves, their families, and their community.

With gratitude,
Laura  

As an example of what all the youth have achieved, we have the following video report to share with you

I hope you find this video encouraging and inspiring.  Please feel free to download and share.


Better Life Group Highlights

·         The group is running a chicken broiler and nutrition garden project. They used some of the profits realized to assist a member who lost her grandmother to purchase a coffin and groceries during the funeral. They also bought kitchen utensils and shared among themselves.

·         The group is still doing its table banking. Each member is contributing $5.00 per month. Group members are taking loans which they are using to improve their businesses as well as to start other businesses for their siblings. From their savings they assisted 2 members to buy livestock after an outbreak of a disease that affected their traditional chickens. They bought 10 chicks for each member. 

·         Households grow different crops such as maize, round nuts, beans, sweet potatoes, millet, and cowpeas. They used their own resources to purchase the seeds. Their harvest has increased to an average of 15x 50 kg of maize.  Quantity and quality of meals have improved; they can now eat at least two meals a day. 

·         Achievements made by the group members include diversification of projects, sibling re-enrolled in school, and construction of protected wells for clean and safe water.

·         The households are saving through livestock, individual tin banking, and table banking.

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