Lennart Eriksson Star of Hope Sweden and Mark Presson Star of Hope USA.
One student gives his business idea.
Mark says, “Yesterday, the air raid sirens lasted 12 hours, no impacts, but a bit stressful. In the church basement, which also serves as a bomb shelter were about 220 fourth through sixth graders took shelter.”
Children in basement during air raid, blured image.
(Star of Hope, based in Ellinwood, Kansas, is now 54 years old. Since 1966, Star of Hope has followed Christ’s command to aid the needy, focusing on education, health, and breaking the cycle of poverty.
Today is 1322 days since the war started in Ukraine. Without a doubt, it’s a war of attrition, and it is causing so many huge geopolitical conversations, problems, and suspicions. But for the common person on the streets, it is causing fear, and it is so saddening to see people with no glimmer in their eyes and no smile on their lips. I tried to imagine how the children feel, and it breaks my heart. At the home where I’m staying, I asked the host’s children how they felt. One girl, eleven years old, says it’s ok, but the six-year-old boy said it was “so-so–– it didn’t feel good, it just feels so-so.”
Mark says, “During a class break yesterday, we visited a place where a bomb splashed into a canal in a neighborhood, and because it landed in the canal, the water made the explosion much less horrific, but still the houses were damaged, and it gave me an idea of how destructive these drones are. Having just visited the children in the basement and then looking at the impact of the bomb, I became very sad and thought about how senseless this war is. And the stress level is so high because one never know if something will happen to you or your family.”
Bomb impact site.
Star Of Hope has helped to deliver food and emergency supplies to Ukraine directly after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, so we had already established connections in the country. It has been very easy for us to deliver bread and medical supplies in the last three years.
The Focus Business School is designed to make entrepreneurs out of people who will start with very small-scale businesses in entrepreneurship and we are teaching them how to do this. The curriculum is Bible based and gives Christian principles for doing business.
If you would like to help supply food and emergency supplies to the people of Ukraine, please consider giving a donation and mark your gift “Ukraine.”
If you would like to get involved in helping entrepreneurs with micro financing, please also get in touch with us because we do need start-up capital to help make the program grow. It’s a lot of fun to follow the young entrepreneurs on their way to success.
Mark Presson 10-8-2025
