May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. -Numbers 6:24-26

The Lord is shining His face upon us. So many good things are happening at our Star of Hope centers.

In Ghana, our six project villages were visited by a mobile health unit. The children and staff were tested for malaria and hepatitis B, among other things. A general health examination and a dental check-up were performed on 1,000 children by doctors and dentists. Parents and guardians attended classes on eating healthy and effective hygiene habits. A total of 20 malaria cases were registered, and the doctors prescribed medicine for them. Several children were malnourished, but now that school is back in session they receive daily meals, and teachers can keep an eye on them. Thanks to you, the children have been properly examined and received medicine and recommendations for a healthier life.

See a video from the health check up on youtube. 

In Kenya, thanks to a noble corporate donation, we gave ten sewing students a sewing machine each. They have been great tailors since they graduated from the Star of Hope Training Institute, but without sewing machines, they will not be able to secure a job or start a business.

In Haiti, 6 new toilets have been built to serve the growing population of children and staff at  Nois Negresse school. This has also improved the hygiene of the school, which is very important, especially during this pandemic.

In Argentina, In mid-March, our children in Chaco Province returned to their classrooms, and our preschool in Nam Qom was allowed to open under certain restrictions. As the new school year began, we inaugurated the new playground at our preschool. There are now, among other things, swings, a seesaw, and monkey bars. At the same time, the inner parts of the preschool have been improved. This is thanks to generous gifts from donors. Many thanks to everyone who donated a gift to the playground campaign we had last July.

In the USA, we need to spread the news of the good work we are doing. We need more committed donors like you so we can continue to make a difference in this world. Please share these stories from our Facebook and Instagram pages...facebook.com/starofhope.org and Tell your friends and family about us. Arrange for us to speak at your church or organization. Because...Together we are making a difference!

We have a new system online where you can see the most recent updates from our countries and sponsor children! The new system is called Novacom and is available to any donors who have a monthly donation commitment. Postage costs are sky-rocketing around the world, so our country reports will now be digital. We will still be sending out our receipt letters and quarterly updates from our Kansas office. If you don't yet have a Novacom account and would like to have one, please contact Sara at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Many blessings to you now and always,

Mark Presson - CEO Star of Hope - 866 653 0321

www.starofhope.us

Greetings,

Children are happy and safe, because of YOU! Happy New Year!

We have good news from Gilbert Ochieng, Operations Director - Star of Hope Kenya...

Schools resumed for all our children on the 4th of January 2021. On the first day of school, we reported a 98% turnout of our pupils across our three school projects. This happened while many public and private schools across the country were recording as low as 45% pupil turnout in the first week of schools reopening. The Ministry of Education in the country attributed the low turnout to high levels of school dropouts brought about by teenage pregnancies, depression, and drug abuse.

Dear friends, our children reporting back to school in large numbers is not a coincidence. These are the results of your dedication to supporting the Pastoral Care Program to help our children deal with their spiritual, mental, and physical needs.

We had four pastoral care meetings in November and December with our children being facilitated by our counselor, Mrs. Lydia Ngigi. We spent time with our children and followed up on the main issues highlighted in their personal journals. These issues included;

1. Handling abusive parents- Mrs. Lydia called upon all the boys and demonstrated to them how to handle abusive parents using positive energy and response to their parents 'abusive behavior. The boys were more than happy to get this eye-opening knowledge from the counselor.

2. Drug Abuse- Mrs. Lydia guides our children on how to respond to peer pressure to indulge in drug abuse. During the Christmas Party of 2020, an ex-student named Duncan was invited to talk to the children. He motivated them with his personal experience. “I decided to join a gang of teenage boys from my slum village. We got ourselves involved in drug abuse, sexual activities, and robbing civilians. It wasn’t long before I was arrested and put in prison for three years. Thank God for Pastor Gilbert who gave spiritual guidance during my time in prison which really helped me reform. I am now a free boy and really look forward to helping others. I, therefore, advise you to talk to your elders about your mental issues so that you can be helped and not find yourself in the same situation I was in."

3. Self- worth- With the knowledge that our children come from very destitute backgrounds, Mrs. Lydia continues to build on the area of self-worth in our children. Some feel insubstantial because of their backgrounds. The counselor reminds them how much God and the Star of Hope family loves and cares for them.

MOVING FORWARD INTO 2021 Since all schools' operations have officially resumed in 2021, we have planned 2 meetings every month for the pastoral care program in Mikindani and Jimba. We look forward to continuing to provide guidance and self-care packages to our children. This program has become a vital part of our children's well-being during this pandemic. We thank you so much for your awesome support in this program.

God Bless you. - Gilbert Ochieng, Operations Director - Star of Hope Kenya That is great news from Kenya! Please continue to support our work. We can all see that it really does make a difference!

Thank you and God Bless, Mark Presson CEO Star of Hope - 620-564-3355

This month I want to talk about a concurrent global pandemic………………...food insecurity. In the US alone, close to 10% of all Americans will experience food insecurity in 2021. COVID-19 has only exacerbated the existing shortage, affecting food chains, supply, and distribution. We pray that these issues will resolve with time, but it takes the coordination of communities, faith-based organizations, food banks, and non-profits, all working together.

Globally, the world is in much more dire straights, as 26% of its population experience some degree of food insecurity. This is unacceptable. Many countries do not have the available infrastructure to grow, store and distribute food to the most vulnerable.

In Africa, there are places where the number is even higher (40 or 50 percent). And in Asia, 30 to 40 percent and so on. Eleven, 11% of the world’s population is undernourished, this means they have a caloric intake below minimum energy requirements. Their bodies are stunted or damaged, that's about 820 million people globally. We are talking about our fellow citizens of this planet, men, women, and children, just like you and I. Moreover, 22% of children in the malnourished column, younger than five are ‘stunted’ – they are significantly shorter than the average for their age, as a consequence of poor nutrition or repeated infection.

Nine percent, 9% of the world population – around 697 million people – are severely food insecure.
One-in-four people globally – 1.9 billion – are moderately or severely food insecure. Remember the number in the USA is One-in-ten!

As for helping those kids, moms & dads, and even grandmothers outside of the USA, that's what Star of Hope International does; we do that. We are the boots on the ground, serving the most basic of human needs, food, water, and education.

If you want to help children outside the US, we desire to partner with you, your generous gifts. We want to give kids school lunch! You see, we educate more than 20,000 children and they need a good school lunch to learn. So we want and need people like you who share our vision to feed them. We want to give kids freshwater to safely drink, cook, bathe and irrigate crops/water livestock.

But that is not the important part, the important part is our kids, all of them, get to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please help us spread the good news, through meeting basic needs, food, water, education, and a gospel message of HOPE.

BE THE HOPE they receive! Please give HOPE!
Join us, we want you.

Mark Presson

Together this year, we experienced the joy and accomplishment of changing children’s lives and spreading the Gospel.

We also kept feeding programs open, feeding kids and families. 

We were able to restart closed programs. Some helped the kids with emotional and psychological pressure due to the pandemic.

Most of our schools found a way to keep the educational process going.

Our donors have kept our budget above the water line, thank you so much as we know this was never to be taken for granted. You are not taken for granted and we bless you!

More wells were drilled and funded.

This year our year-end giving will be used primarily to shore up our budget where it is most needed, for new much-needed water wells in Haiti and for supporting our new Awana International project and opening AWANA in Kenya. 

Your year-end gift is not a one time deal, it is a hand up, and together with others like you, your gift has the potential to make thousands of boys and girls happy and feel the love. 

Giving them joy by showing them love can create a positive change in the children and ultimately a whole community. It will, I bet, make you feel warm and fuzzy inside too.

Please consider Star of Hope for your year-end giving, just click here.

Do you use Paypal scan or visit HERE

Rich Blessings and thanks!

Mark Presson CEO

Friends, in the United States, February brings gifts of Valentine flowers and candy. Valentine’s Day spending in the United States is expected to reach approximately 22 billion dollars this year. The gifts exchanged in love are a testament to the fact that we are financially blessed far beyond most of the world. In places like Ghana, Kenya, Haiti, and others, food is in dire need; flowers would be a terrible waste of money when they need food.

People like you make it possible for us to help the children we do every day. Our kids need to be fed and educated so they can hear the good news of the Bible, and thanks to you, Star of Hope is still supporting and helping children hear the Gospel.

The year 2020 was challenging for many organizations, and we were blessed, so we continue to be a blessing to others. We have been fortunate, but we are just barely covering our expenses. Our man, Tony B in Haiti, who oversees 3600 children and their education reports,

“Due to currency shifts, Star of Hope Haiti has 22% less money to work with than a year ago. Food prices have risen by over 20% during 2020. Star of Hope sponsored schools in Haiti have never had to work so hard just to be sure the children’s basic food needs are met. This increase is not the same old inflation. It is above and beyond that due to Covid and politics. The costs are astronomical.”

January and February are typically the most challenging months for us to raise funds. Funds are needed to continue feeding and caring for the children.
Please show your love for the children this Valentine’s month. Step into the post-Christmas giving gap. We don’t want to get behind in our funds for the schools and feeding the students. They are too precious to us.

Step-in and fill the giving gap. You are needed.


God bless you and thank you again for everything you do!

GIVE HERE

Mark Presson
CEO Star of Hope - 866 653 0321
www.starofhope.us

As you consider the charitable gifts you will make to close out the year, I ask you to please remember Star of Hope and our work on behalf of children across the world.

Now 2021 is quickly coming to an end, and 2022 will be here before we know it. We get caught up at the end-of-year activities and we forget about making year-end gifts that we wanted to make. These gifts, large or small, are important to us as it allows our work to blossom and the return on investment is seen in the children's eyes.

Looking over your charitable giving plans between now and Dec. 31 can help assure maximum benefits for you and your family as well as Star of Hope's children. Giving may help you meet personal goals or perhaps spiritual goals we are all different, one truth is your altruism is needed by the kids.

New to Star of Hope? 

Star of Hope and Tent Mission, a 50-year-old organization has the aim to help children far away with their lives right now by giving them hope and the message of love from the Gospel of Christ.

The pandemic has reduced our income drastically. To provide just the basic needs like food, water, and evangelization to our 20,000 kids and their families is a strain. We want to still do Christmas for the children. We are hoping you through this Christmas campaign, will fill in the gaps to provide a year-end surprise to the children. You can make it a reality.

Providing bible-based missions to marginalized children is so very vital to who we are as Christians. It is our mandate, a biblical mandate as well.

Send your bread across the water? We are facilitating you by sending your bread (gift) to them. Not prosperity by any means, though; Ecclesiastes 11:1 & Galatians 6:9 show us clearly to send it. I usually think, time, talent, or treasure. This work is what we at Star of Hope and Tent Mission do, missions as directed by scripture. We ask and need your help; every single gift is precious.

I am very happy you are here, your decision is yours and also in Christ's hands. 

Toba girls in Central Argentina, 3 kids of 20,000

What to think about.

There are many ways you can make a gift before the end of the year that will provide you with valuable benefits and help further the work.
These benefits include tax savings on this year's return and bypass of capital gains tax on the sale of your property.
Here are three options for year-end giving:

A. Make a deductible gift of cash

While all gifts mailed or hand-delivered by Dec. 31 qualify for the charitable deduction, gifts of cash are the most common and the easiest way to give. If you itemize your tax deductions, gifts of cash are deductible up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI).

B. Make a deductible gift of securities
Making gifts of stocks, bonds, and/or mutual funds directly to Star of Hope can bring extra tax savings. If you have held such assets for longer than one year, the gift can be deducted at full fair market value, not just the original cost. Giving this way enables you to bypass capital gains tax. Gifts of securities are deductible up to 30 percent of AGI. Please ask your expert too.

C. Make a deductible gift of real estate and avoid taxes
If you own appreciated real estate that you no longer need, consider gifting this property to Star of Hope for the benefit of your personal cause whether it be; education, health, spiritual leadership, or other. Star of Hope will sell your property tax-free, and you will receive a charitable tax deduction for the fair market value of the property and avoid paying capital gains tax.

 D. Now is also a good time to review your estate plan as well, will you leave a legacy?

Many want to make an impact on the world, to leave it in a better state after we are gone. A bequest is one of the easiest ways to have a lasting impact on the people and organizations that mean the most to you. You can create a bequest of any dollar amount, gift specific property, or designate a percentage of your estate in your will or trust.
Ten percent can make a big impact. Your generosity will make a difference for years to come.

These are but a few examples of what we plan for the New Year;

• Get more youth bibles in children's hands

• Bible-based missions

• Water wells in Haiti and Argentina

• New building in Argentina

• Enhanced nutrition for our kids

• Training and services to families caring for children with disabilities - Romania

• Teacher training

• Economic opportunities for people in Haiti and Argentina

• Alpha classes all over the world

• Lunch program needs a refill

If you are intrigued or interested, contact Mark Presson on 620 204 186five {mark.presson AT starofhope.us} for more information on year-end gifts or legacy gifts

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God Bless you and Happy New Year

Mark Presson

Star of Hope

You may donate by clicking here