Because You Give
As we enter this new month, our hearts are thankful for each of you who has stood faithfully with Home of Refuge over the years. Some of you have been giving for nearly 30 years, and your faithfulness has been a living witness of God’s provision. Through you, He continues to meet needs and bring hope. Your giving is not just a gift, it is a lifeline. It is a channel through which the Lord demonstrates His love to the forgotten and His care to those who have suffered greatly.
The apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:10–11 (NKJV), “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.” Every gift you give is seed in the hand of the Lord, growing, multiplying, and bringing glory to God. And in a world of constant shifting and uncertainty, your consistency also reminds us that God remains faithful. Thank you for standing with us! We are deeply grateful for you.
This month we want to share the story of one woman who has been profoundly impacted by your support. Her life shows how God can rewrite even the most painful of stories with hope.
For decades, Peru’s hacienda system left generations in bondage to endless labor without dignity or rest. Families worked from sunrise to sunset for little or no reward. Many children never had the opportunity to attend school, leaving them trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. Alcohol often became a means of escape, but it only deepened the suffering.
One of those who endured this life was Marcelina Condori Bellota. Her hands, worn and wrinkled from years of labor, still carry the scars of her past. From childhood, she herded animals and toiled under the relentless sun. Later, as a wife and mother, she moved from hacienda to hacienda, peeling potatoes and serving landowners who ate well while she and her children often went hungry. Out of love for her children, she would give them her portion and endure the emptiness herself.
Her children worked themselves to exhaustion, with no chance for education, no chance for hope. As she recalls, their lives were consumed by labor, their futures stolen by injustice. For Marcelina, misery seemed permanent.
But then, Home of Refuge entered her life. At first, she did not understand the message of the Bible. Yet week by week, as she listened, the words of God began to sink into her heart. The truth of Christ’s love started to heal wounds that had been open for decades. Today, she gathers with her neighbors to hear the Word of God and to receive food that sustains her family. She no longer faces the fear of starvation or the despair of abandonment. Instead, she testifies that where there was once only hopelessness, there is now peace, hope, and the assurance that God has not forgotten her.
Her story is one of many. It shows that generosity opens the door for the Gospel to shine. It reveals that your giving does more than provide food; it restores dignity, renews faith, and brings eternal hope to lives once defined by pain.
Dear friends, stories like Marcelina’s are only possible because of you. When you give, you are not only providing meals and medicine, you are joining in God’s work of restoring lives and lifting burdens. You are helping to write new chapters of hope and faith in places where sorrow once ruled.
Giving is never wasted when it is placed in the hands of God. Jesus told His followers that even a cup of cold water given in His name would not go unnoticed. In the same way, the bags of groceries, the shared meals, the prayers lifted up, and the words of Scripture spoken all bring Him glory. Your generosity shows that God still provides, still redeems, and still restores those who thought their stories were finished.
From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your faithfulness. Some of you have walked with us for decades, and your support has made all the difference. Please continue to pray with us that the Lord will grant strength, wisdom, and provision for the work ahead. Together, we are overcoming darkness with light, despair with hope, and hunger with the Bread of Life.
By His Grace and for His Glory,
Tony and Rosa Rivera
Home of Refuge International, Inc.
