Stories of Hope

Yvonne Schaad wasn’t much. That’s what most people walking through New Orleans’ French Quarter probably would’ve said—assuming they would’ve noticed her at all. Yvonne lived on the street, panhandled tourists for spare change by day and tried to sleep under freeway overpasses by night. No one, including Yvonne, ever thought she would or could amount to anything special. But then, everything in Yvonne’s world took an entirely unexpected turn. This is a story told in three acts.

Find out how you and your church can help people like Yvonne at SendRelief.org/

Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles is famous for everything a street should not be famous for. Here, there are pimps and prostitutes. Here, human trafficking is out in the open and plain to see. And yet every Friday night, Send Relief missionary Tracy Speers and her team of volunteers are here too. Everyone calls them “the church girls.” This is a story about how girls like that ended up in a place like this.

Find out how you and your church can fight human trafficking at SendRelief.org/

They had no money. They had no expertise. They had no experience. And yet, when pastor Chris Simmons and the congregation of Cornerstone Baptist Church learned their South Dallas neighborhood of Fair Park had been designated a “food desert,” they knew they had to do something. In this episode of Stories of Hope, learn how and why a church started what is now one of the most unique and successful grocery stores in all of Texas.

Find out how you can help strengthen communities at SendRelief.org/

They called it a “mission trip”. But, as it turns out, that seemingly innocuous title doesn’t come close to describing what happened when Sam Rogers and his mission team from Silverdale Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee traveled to Send Relief’s Atlanta Ministry Center. In this episode of Stories of Hope, follow Sam and his team to Clarkston and find out how God turned a one week mission trip into something far more permanent.

Find out how you and your church can get expert guidance and hands-on experience meeting physical needs and sharing Christ’s love with refugees and internationals at SendRelief.org/

Everybody in North Phoenix said it was an eyesore. Everybody said the weed-infested dirt lot at 1827 West Grovers Avenue was good for old burger wrappers, crushed up beer cans and not much else. But then Andrew Bailey and Cross Church moved into the neighborhood and something amazing began to happen. Now five years later, what Andrew and his church have done to this onetime eyesore, and the effect that transformation has had on people’s lives in North Phoenix, has become this community’s Story of Hope.

Find out how you can help strengthen communities at SendRelief.org/

It’s easy to walk past the man sleeping on the park bench. But It’s hard to stop. Marshall Jones and Kirk Overstreet can’t help it. They do the hard thing and stop—every time. This is the story of why these two Los Angeles area pastors can’t help but notice the people others choose to ignore.

Go to SendRelief.org to learn how you and your church can reach out to people who lack the basics of life.

Sometimes, just wanting a better life is not enough. In this episode of Stories of Hope, meet a mother who needed a mother and hear how God miraculously connected her with someone who could not only teach her how to find a job, how to put a roof over her kids’ heads and how to put food on her family’s table, but could also show her how to acquire the better things in life her heart truly craved.

If you’d like to learn more about Cynthia Thelen’s Caring Connections ministry, you can visit them online at https://www.caringconnectionsministry.com

Find out how you can help strengthen communities at SendRelief.org/

What is your church doing that 10,000 other churches aren’t doing? The first time someone asked Aaron Taylor that question was when he was starting a church in his hometown of Powell, Ohio. And the answer that he and his church plant team eventually stumbled onto became their Story of Hope.

Find out how you and your church can meet needs and see God change the lives of families who’re arriving in your community from all over the world at SendRelief.org/

The little girls showed up on Linda Durrence’s front porch carrying everything they owned in one, small trash bag. In this episode of Stories of Hope, hear how what happened next would one day bring TV news crews from all over the U.S. to Linda’s tiny hometown of Glennville, Georgia.

Find out how you can help protect children and families at SendRelief.org/

When Cyclone Batsirai and Tropical Storm Emnati slammed into the island nation of Madagascar within a few weeks of each other, thousands of people were displaced and dozens killed. Navigating the aftermath of these natural disasters, Send Relief partner Ancil Ragoonath shares about the impact of the Global Hunger Relief fund in the wake of tragedy.

Give to Global Hunger Relief at SendRelief.org/give.