THANK YOU for your support!!! Please grab a cup of tea or coffee and cozy up with a blanket and read on… if you have been a prayer or financial partner of our ministry then you are in for a treat as we share the testimony of God’s goodness! PLEASE Read all the way to the end to hear about all the beautiful miracles!
Wow, it’s so hard to believe that 2024 is coming to an end and we are about to embark on a new year of new hopes, dreams and goals for GIASHOPE.org. But as I reflect on the NEW, I have to take a pause to remember all the miracles of the past 5 years, and to thank YOU who have helped us grow HOPE.
Will you consider partnering along with us in growing more HOPE through our GIVING TUESDAY CAMPAIGN?
GIASHOPE.org is a tiny but mighty little Non-profit that was started 5 years ago from the seed of the legacy of our daughter’s beautiful life. Our Gianna Lilyfaith, who was adopted from China at age 2 with a ½ heart, moved to heaven 6 years ago at age 6. Her life, though too short on earth, was a life that fully displayed God’s miracles, glory and beauty. Her life taught and continues to teach us that HOPE is worth the fight, and LOVE is worth the risk to lay your life down for another. Our Gianna Lilyfaith’s life of hope, bravery, love and light continues to bloom more miracles of hope and love around the world. It’s an honor to get to be a vehicle of God’s goodness to a world that needs more hope. God has taken the most broken and painful part of our story and has transformed it into a beautiful mission of purpose and beauty like only HE can. Jesus is our redeemer and because of HIS life, death on a cross and resurrection, we are no longer slaves to despair…but we have THIS LIVING HOPE (1 Peter 1:3) and this HOPE has been what has been the driving force behind GIASHOPE.org.
You see, our Gianna knew who her Savior was and she gave her life to Him, and so her HOPE was not lost because she lost an earthly battle. Our Gianna is alive forever because Jesus lives! The JOY of this hope and this truth of eternal Joy propels us forward to share HOPE with the most vulnerable, lost, broken and hurting. What started as an initiative and goal to give grants to families adopting children with special needs has blossomed into a garden of love that has burst forth a harvest of love to the world in various missions. And none of these miracles could be possible without the LOVE of our community (YOU ALL) and your partnership in this dream. Your gifts have been multiplied into 5 years of beautiful miracles! This is the gift of the church, the village, the community coming together in LOVE to plant seeds of hope! And, we are beyond grateful and humbled for your help and we are blessed to witness God move in such amazing ways through your love!
So, lets RECAP and REMEMBER the Miracles of the past 5 years…..
Because of your generous donations,
Over the past 5 years GIASHOPE.org has had the humbling honor of:
- Giving 38 grants to families adopting children internationally with special needs from all over the world. These grants ranged from ($500-$1000)
- Helped Financially support vulnerable children/orphan-prevention care ministries through partnership ( some of them have been: Lilys Foundation HopeStation, Unity4Oprhans, OpenHearts Nicaragua, Tesoros De Dios, and Open Hearts for Orphans, Ting Ministries, Impacting 1 Life at a Time Love without Boundaries etc) to help preserve vulnerable families and children through medical care, education, and other basic needs.
- Have had the honor to take 2 Missions trips to both Guatemala and Nicaragua to serve and bring love and light to the most marginalized, poor and vulnerable.
- Written and published a children’s/family picture book HOPE’S GARDEN SONG (You can find my book on Amazon) to help families who are grieving or suffering loss. All sale proceeds are donated back to the GIA’S Hope Foundation. In addition, these books have been sent from us all over the world to families and communities who need a hug of hope.
- Translated and published our book: Hope’s Garden Song Book into the UKrainian language and sent the translated books to families suffering in Ukraine from the devastations of war
- Started an animal therapy farm (GIASHOPE FARM FRIENDS) to minister to those in our local community who need an extra dose of joy, comfort and love from God’s creation at GIA’S Hope farm friends.
- We have been able to support international missions (especially to the unreached, 10/40 window) through sending financial donations to missionaries or by going ourselves. Three of our oldest children are full-time missionaries and continue to provide us with new opportunities to help a broken and lost world.
- Finally, We have had the humbling honor and joy of partnering with Ting Ministries to providing the funds to free three families from the devastations and bondage of modern day slavery in an area in the Middle East. We hope to continue in this mission that is very close to our hearts! (we share more about this mission below)
…. May the miracles of HOPE continue to GROW and BLOOM
NOW to RECAP 2024: LOOK WHAT GOD HAS DONE!
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, donated and prayed that GIASHOPE.org would be a light in the darkness!
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 are only the Vehicle…. this is God’s mission, and we are praying to be good stewards of His heart and His resources!
- Because of your generous support…. GIASHOPE.org was able to give 4 adoption grants on our Gianna’s Birthday month of January 2024. Your donations help us to help families bring home their child so they can be an orphan no more!
- Because of your generous support, 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 support, We were able to partner with a church to send a box of our “Hope’s Garden Song” books to families devastated by the historic hurricane in North Carolina
- Because of your generous support, We were able to send a shipment of our Ukrainian Translated books (with a traveling family) to a Ukrainian orphanage that is seeking refuge in Italy. This was such a JOY of our hearts to see the nannies, orphanage workers and children receive our books!
- Because of your generous support, We have had many visitors to our little farm so families and children can benefit from the nurture, joy and love of God’s creation! We’ve been able to also host classes and storytimes at GIASHOPE FARM FRIENDS with our interactive fuzzy critters to bring joy to children who most need it. We have also had the honor to travel to homes to bring the animal joy to little tender hearts who most needed the comfort of fuzzy bunnies
- Because of your generous support, we are able to (for the third year in a row) to 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 generous support, We have been able to send financial support to missionaries all over the world who are taking the hope of the gospel to the most unreached. In fact, our three oldest children have served this year in India and various parts of the Middle East working with the refugees and most vulnerable to share the Hope of Jesus.
- Because of your generous support, We have had the honor and joy to partner with Ting Ministries to free two families from the devastations of modern day slavery in Pakistan. For those who were not aware, there are millions of precious people and families trapped in modern day slavery on Brick Kilns in Pakistan. Entire families in Pakistan work dangerous jobs at these brick kilns to pay off snowballing debts to kiln owners. Workers don’t have bank accounts and make so little that they have to keep borrowing just to get by. Thanks to your Donations, there is freedom from the perils of Brick Kiln Enslavement for two precious families (5 vulnerable young children in all). GIASHOPE.org was able to pay the ransom/debt to purchase this glorious gift of freedom so they can all be safe. Now, these two families ( 5 children in all) will be able to dream and hope for a brighter future and have now been given a safe place to lay their heads at night, an opportunity for schooling, jobs and discipleship within a local Christian church. All PRAISE and Glory to God! It is our hope to continue to help free families! Please learn more about his horrible injustice at this link. These are the families that are now experiencing their freedoms. Hallelujah! Glory to God!
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 2025. 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.
…..And as we close up the 2024 chapter, we believe that the story continues to be written! God is continuing to bloom and grow GIASHOPE.org and we get to watch the miracles unfold and all BECAUSE OF YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!!!!
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 6 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.
So with that truth always at the forefront of our minds and hearts, let us share that Our Vision for 2025 is simple: To do more of the same. To Hope MORE, to Love MORE, to give MORE and to share MORE of HIS light in any way or opportunity that He invites us. We are following the Spirit’s lead as this is God’s ministry and this is His heart. His heart is our mission.
Our vision is To be a vehicle of hope to the world. 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!!
As many of you know, Giving TUESDAY is here and 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 or at our donation link:
GOD BLESS YOU and THANK YOU!
Love,
GIASHOPE.org and The CanneLongo family
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
