We invite you to come be a part of the story of God’s redeeming HOPE!
We are so thankful and humbled to look back on this past year and witness how the Lord has used GIASHOPE.org to share HIS love and HOPE with the world. We always say, we are only the Vehicle…. this is God’s mission, and we are praying to be good stewards of His heart!
GIASHOPE.org (Also known as Live Gia Grow Forever Foundation) has experienced a beautiful year of vision casting, growing and expanding its borders in ways that have been so amazing to be a part of.
As many of you know, Giving TUESDAY is here and we wanted to take this opportunity to share with you both a recap of 2023 and our vision and hopes for 2024! I hope you will take a few moments with us to celebrate all God has done and possibly pray about being a part of all He will do by donating to our 501(c)(3).
We can’t do any of this alone and truly believe that miracles, hope, and change happens when the whole community gathers together to lock arms around those who are most vulnerable, hurt, weak or needy! It is our mission to be a vehicle of God’s love to the world, in honor of our daughter Gianna Lilyfaith.
You can donate right here on our Giving Tuesday Page
I want to take this opportunity to highlight the beautiful ways God has used your donations this past year to bring hope to others around the world and into our local community! Thank you for the ways you have all supported, encouraged, gave donations and prayed that GIASHOPE.org would be a light in the darkness! What an honor and humble privilege to watch God work! We pray for more opportunities to shine His light!
- Because of your generous support, GIASHOPE.org was able to give 4 adoption grants on our Gianna’s Birthday month of January 2023, and an additional grant on April 22 to honor our Gia’s heaven day. Praise God! Your donations help us to help families bring home their child so they can be an orphan no more!
- This past year, we were able to send funds overseas to the 10/40 window areas to help fund missions to spread Gospel Hope to the unreached groups. Your donations help bring the gospel of HOPE and LIGHT to the lost!
- Because of your support and generous donations this past year, we were able to send funds to two special families at Tesoros de Dios (a special needs ministry In Nicaragua) to help fund needed surgeries and medical procedures for children who are getting cared for by Tesoros Ministry. We were able to serve at Tesoros a couple years ago when we did a family missions trip to Nicaragua. This ministry is a beacon of LIGHT in NICA and we hope to get to go back soon to serve again! Special Needs ministries is a huge part of our mission at GIASHOPE.org! Your donations help bring hope to families who are trying to Provide for their special needs child in a poor country with no public/governmental support for families with disabled children. Your gifts bring HOPE!
- Because of your generous donations, we also were able to fund the freedom of a dear girl, Sara (through Ting Ministries) who was being held under terrible slave labor conditions. Here is a note we got from Ting Ministries: “Freedom! Freedom 2X Freed from eternal death by faith in Jesus Christ and Freedom from a lifetime of Slavery on the Brick kiln. John 3:16-17 Praise God and thank you to everyone who has helped through your gifts and prayers. Sara, a teenage girl, was born into slavery in Pakistan. She was forced to make bricks from the time she was old enough to walk and help make the bricks. Her family was a generational slave family with no way of escape. Until your gifts helped set her family free. Sara and her family are now free and are under the care of Ting Ministries, where they will be assisted with finding work and housing needs. Sara dreams to work alongside one of the Ting Pastors to share the Gospel and her younger brothers will be able to attend school for the first time in their lives.” Your donations help bring FREEDOM to the oppressed!
- Because of your generous donations, we were able to send gifts to encourage families who have gone through deep tragedy, loss and grief. Our hope is for these precious families to feel seen and loved and held in their own storm and season of dark valleys. Your donations help bring LIGHT to the darkness!
- Because of your generous donations, We Were able to help fund a heart-saving surgery for a dear little girl in a poor area of China through the ministry “Love without Boundaries”. Family preservation is a huge part of our own heart at GIASHOPE.org. Many families are forced to give their child/children to social institutions so they can get the medical help they so desperately need and can not afford. Can you even imagine being in such a dilemma as a mama who wants to save their child but may not be able to keep their child so their child can live. What a huge sacrifice that SHOULD NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN! Your donations help us to help families stay together!
- Another praise! Our Book “Hope’s Garden Song” is officially launched. You can purchase it on Amazon! And there are multiple formats available (ie: Kindle and Audible book) Your donations help bring this story of HOPE into the hands of families who most need a fresh word and visual of our Great Gardener’s Promise to bring LIFE from death! It is our vision to continue to send these books to grieving families, funeral homes, hospitals, nursing homes, refugee camps, libraries, counseling offices (free of cost), etc! God will lead the way!
- Hope’s Garden Song is now available in a Ukrainian translation! This is a dream come true and a prayer of our hearts since part of our hearts (who feel like family) lives in Ukraine. As everyone knows, Ukraine has endured much devastation due to the war and our hearts break for the collateral losses, trauma and grief that has emerged from this beautiful land and its people. Our older kids did missions in Ukraine a few years ago, and fell in love with the country and also bonded deeply with the amazing family who hosted them. So, when the war started this family asked us if their son, Alex, could come live with us for a season so he could be safe. So, we had the blessing of hosting Alex in our home for the past two summers. Our families have come to care deeply for each other. We have heard first hand stories from them about their homeland that have broken our hearts. We ache for Ukraine. We ache for our friends and their friends. This past summer, God laid the vision on my heart to get my book translated into the Ukrainian language so our dear friends could give out our our books in their communities and to the various ministries and organizations that care for those who’ve been devastated by the horrors of war. In September a dear missionary friend took the first shipment of books to Ukraine! May God use them to spread HIS hope! You can purchase the UKRAINIAN VERSION HERE!
- Because of your generous support, we are able to (for the third year in a row) sponsor a little girl named, FuYin through Hope Station Hope Station is a vital ministry that strengthens families of children with special needs in China through therapy, education, medical care/equipment and counseling. This beautiful ministry is integral in preventing children from becoming orphans. Your donations help preserve families! This is our passion! It is our hope to be able to sponsor Fu Yin AND another child next year too! Your donations help preserve families so they can stay together!
- Because of your donations, We were able to help fund a care package that was sent to the earthquake victims of Turkey as one of our dear friends was serving there with the broken families Through YWAM. We were able to see the photos and JOY that these children (who have lost so much) have when they got to play with stickers, markers, bubbles, balls and other items that bring so much joy in a time of deep grief. Nothing compares! Your donations bring JOY to the darkest places of sorrow and places of tragedy! Your help brings LOVE and light!
- We have launched a new program and we have two new ***VERY SPECIAL*** specifically trained friends that came to GIAS HOPE Farm Friends that operate under our 501c(3) GIASHOPE.org.… These special furry friends are a part of our Farm Friends branch of our ministry. They have a very special job to bring love and joy to those who have special needs, or who’ve been through trials or trauma of any kind. Our miniature horses are currently in a national recognized therapy training program that will officially certify them to visit those people (young and old) in our community that need extra doses of JOY who are not physically able to come see us! (More on that in our “vision” section below! ). So thank you for helping us bring joy!
- This past summer, our family got to represent “GIASHOPE.org” and bring the light of Jesus to Guatemala by partnering with “Impacting One Life at a TIme” Ministry. Our time there has marked us forever. You see, this ministry and land is so special beyond words.The need in this region is vast as this ministry (https://impact1life.org/) is the ONLY missionary presence and available health care in that entire area. We had the humbling honor to help the team hold medical clinics, discipleship groups, VBS for the kids, sports camps and art therapy. It was an honor to share the HOPE and LOVE of Jesus to such a hard to reach area. Our whole family were each individually impacted in different ways by this incredible LOVE-filled team and the precious people of the villages that they serve and love on. I am going to share my husband’s words to give better insight to our time serving in Guatemala: “It is definitely hard to fit in a paragraph all that God did during our family time in Guatemala; words are inadequate to express how amazing our time was and all that God did. To be honest, I didn’t want to go to Guatemala at first. We had served in Nicaragua several times as a family and I wanted to go back to see friends and serve, but there weren’t any open doors this time. I wanted a personal connection as I didn’t know Donna or Peter; so I reached out to many people around the world for opportunities and all were closed doors. We only knew Donna and Peter through a friend. So, I started to lean in knowing this door remained opened and I learned more about their ministry. It seemed like an awesome adventure, traveling 6 hours, taking a boat into the jungle, and helping with medical clinics and sports outreach, which is a passion of mine. BUT!!! I had over 1000 questions on how to navigate the journey with taking my large family, especially my youngest daughter who is immobile. Donna was a gem and she answered all my questions and reassured they would help and do anything to make it easier to accommodate our family. There was so much spiritual warfare on our end and their end leading up to this trip. And now looking back, I praise God that we all fought through it with a lot of prayer, knowing the enemy was trying to discourage us to not go. Our time there was amazing!!! To see Donna and Peter and how their team works was so beautiful to see firsthand. Their whole team is so authentic, caring, loving, and all have such compassion to reach the marginalized. I loved how they allowed us to use our gifts playing with kids, helping with triage, playing sports, and they really allowed us to come alongside them and not feel like a burden. Looking back, I think I was just afraid of the newness of going somewhere where I have never been; not that I was scared to go somewhere new, but leading my family and bringing 10 people into a new country, not knowing the landscape and the schedule was making me to have to release control. But now I know there’s so much beauty and goodness in experiencing something new. I truly believe God birthed a new future of ministry for our family. God did so much in this week, not only in my family’s hearts, but just the Holy connection we had with Donna and Peter and their team. I now see why there was so much spiritual warfare trying to keep us away. We are continually praying for more opportunities to see how we could be more involved in the years to come and partner with who we now call family in Guatemala. -Brian
WOW, Look what all that God has done!! We are in awe and humbled to bear witness to His power, love and light! Thank you to all who have helped us fulfill missions of hope this past year! It’s given us great JOY to watch God work and move through GIASHOPE.org this past year….
Now for our vision and hope for 2024!!!
As we have prayed for God’s direction on His ministry, we have felt Him call us to focus our efforts and funds on three main areas:
1. Adoption support/orphan-care/Family Preservation:
**We hope to continue to be able to give grants to families on both our Gianna’s Birthday (january 4th) and her Heaven day (april 22) to help bring orphans into forever families so they can be an orphan NO more.
**In 2024, we pray and hope to continue to support initiatives that share our passion for family preservation (orphan prevention), special needs orphan assistance, and caring for and protecting the most vulnerable children in the world. See above for examples of these ministries that we partner with.
2. Ministering to our local community through grief support, and through GIASHOPE Farm Friends therapy Ministry
**In 2024 we pray for the miracle of being able to have our book “Hope’s Garden Song” translated in Spanish to be given to families in central and south America through various ministries that we partner with who care and minister to those who’ve been through great trials, traumas and griefs.
**We also pray to be able to officially kick off our Mobile Minis Ministry at GIAS HOPE Farm Friends! It will mean that children, adults and elderly who can’t leave their beds, chairs, or rooms will have a special friend coming right to them! We personally know what it is like to be locked up in a hospital for weeks at a time with a child who is sick, and we also know the power of animal therapy and how these special creatures can lift spirits and encourage hearts and bring joy to those that feel sad and hurt. We feel God is leading us to start a special project that will be the first like it in our immediate community and we are so excited to see how God will move! Stay tuned as we hope to launch this new division of GiasHope.org out this spring/summer!
3. International Missions
Our family has a passion to take the hope of Jesus to the world whether by supporting others who go, or by going ourselves. We believe in the Great Commision and this dark and broken world’s great need to be shown the Hope and Light of the Good News of Jesus Christ!
** This past summer we had the honor to go on a family Missions Trip and I wrote about how God was stirring our family’s hearts and inviting us into something more. We are praying and leaning in and asking God to give clarity and faith as we pursue HIS heart and follow His leading whatever that may be. I wish I could share more, but God has not released us to share and there is still so much that is not clear. However, We are waiting on His hand to direct, and what is clear right now is that our hearts have been deeply broken for the nation of Guatemala. Currently our two oldest children are serving there full time and getting many opportunities to share HIS hope. Please pray as we continue to seek God’s heart for how GIASHOPE.org can be a light in Guatemala! You can read more about this stirring in our hearts in this blog post.
And the story continues to be written! God is continuing to bloom and grow GIASHOPE.org and we get to watch the miracles! I pray that as you have learned about the ways that God has used GIASHOPE.org to bring Hope, light and love that you would consider partnering with us as we answer His calling for His vision of 2024. We can’t do this alone, nor would we want to. We are not meant to do it alone. We need you and your gifts! The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that There is one body, but it has many parts. We know God has a wild way of using all the incredible parts, gifts, passions and resources of HIS church to plant seeds and grow a garden of LIFE, love and HOPE that reflects HIS beauty!
Over 5 years ago, our daughter lost her earthly battle with Cardiac Heart Disease and she went Home to Jesus. Our deepest agony and greatest pain was her most beautiful Joy and blessed Gift. She got to run to the arms of Jesus and be completely restored, because He is the GOD of all HOPE and LIFE everlasting. Death does not get the final say when Jesus is your Savior. That Hope saves us from Despair.
It is our desire to share this redeeming HOPE with the world through our Foundation…because Jesus came to give LIFE and LIFE in abundance! Let us rejoice that His stories never end in ashes!!
GOD BLESS YOU and THANK YOU!
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
How to Donate:
You can Donate directly on our Non-profit Page through PayPal
Please reach out to me at this email: info@giashope.org if you have any questions about other ways to donate! I would love to chat with you and share all that God is doing to bloom His HOPE and LOVE!