Compelled to Love

James 1:27 says, Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself polluted from the world.

This is such a powerful Scripture! The second part of this verse instructs us to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world, and we do this by understanding God’s Word. It’s His Word that teaches us who we are in Christ, and it gives us the ability to live the Christian life and love other people like Jesus does.

This leads us to the first part of the verse. God says that “pure and faultless” religion involves caring for the widows and orphans and truly loving other people through our actions.

Walking in love and helping those who are hurting have been some of my core teachings over the years. As we reach out in love, we not only share God’s goodness with others, but we also add joy to our own lives.

Through Hand of Hope, Joyce Meyer Ministries’ World Missions, we are committed to meeting people’s practical and spiritual needs in every way we can. And I’m excited to share a few examples of how together we are reaching a world in need.

Classrooms of Hope

Access to a quality education can give a child who’s living in poverty the tools they need to secure a better future. Without it, many children remain trapped in that desperate cycle for their whole lives. But we are working to make a good education available to the ones who need it most through a project we call Classrooms of Hope.

Through this initiative, we’re providing a happy place of refuge for so many boys and girls in some of the poorest areas of South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique. We discovered that many children are taught in schoolhouses that leak when it rains and are close to collapsing. We decided we had to do something to help them, and God showed us a simple solution to the problem. In fact, it’s already having a big impact on these communities.

With the help of engineers, we’re transforming shipping containers into classrooms—a creative and cost-effective solution for villages in these areas. Once the containers are insulated and we install doors and large windows, our team can place them wherever they are needed.

The students not only learn in a safe environment, but the classrooms also serve as feeding centers where the children receive nutritious meals. The most exciting part is that the students at each Classroom of Hope are learning to read from a Bible-based curriculum. This means their education is straight from the Word of God, and the love they receive makes a lifelong difference.

More than 120 classrooms have been completed!

We would love for you to join us in helping more children. I can’t think of a better way to help them succeed than to introduce them to the Word of God and give them a quality education.

Project GRL

Because of the sexual abuse I endured growing up, I have a very special place in my heart for women and girls who are being mistreated in any way. Over the years, God has healed my shattered soul, and I want the same for girls all around the world who are dealing with unimaginable circumstances.

That is the heart of our Project GRL initiative—to Guide, Restore and Love women and girls everywhere who are mistreated and undervalued. I know what it’s like to feel hopeless and powerless to change my circumstances and escape abuse, and I know many women and girls experience the very same thing.

Through this effort, we have identified specific areas where women and girls are in great need. Far too many are affected by human trafficking and sex slavery. Many lack food and do not have access to clean water or education.

Through Project GRL, we let them know they have tremendous worth and value; rescue women and girls from human trafficking; place them in safe and loving environments; provide food, clean water, education and so much more. And I would love for you to join us in this calling to help.

I want to tell you a quick story about a woman we met named Farida. She is a Syrian refugee who lives in Lebanon. Farida was forced to marry at the age of 16, became a young mother and endured horrible abuse. Then her whole world was turned upside down when her family tragically drowned trying to get to Greece.

But thankfully, today Farida is on the road to recovery with lots of help from God’s Word, which she received through reading some of my books…books that were given to her by one of our partner organizations in the Middle East. Farida now knows that she is loved and God is with her, and she can start the process of healing from all that she’s been through.

None of this could have happened without the support of people like you…who gave what they could to help someone else who is hurting.

Through Project GRL, you can help tens of thousands of girls in our feeding programs, provide education, dig freshwater wells that bring health and the chance for women to attend school, and rescue and restore those impacted by human trafficking.

When you support initiatives like this one, I believe it will bring joy to your own life to know you are helping women and girls realize that God loves them deeply…and they have a voice to change the world.

Gabrielle House Expansion

One of our Project GRL initiatives that I recently visited is the Gabrielle House in Thailand. The work that God has allowed us to do there over the last 10 years to help young women rebuild their lives is just amazing.

We currently help care for about 35 women who live at the Gabrielle House. These women have been rescued out of extremely difficult situations. Many were forced to work long hours in deplorable conditions for little or no pay and some were victims of sex trafficking.

At the Gabrielle House, these women are learning valuable skills and a trade they can use to support themselves in the future. They also receive the love and support they need to heal from the abuse they’ve endured.

Your support will make a way for more women to stay at the Gabrielle House. I believe there are so many hurting girls in the world, and we don’t want to help just a few—we want to help as many as we can.

“Place of Refuge”

Through your support, we are also excited to be a part of a ground-breaking outreach for women in Santiago, Chile.

Siquem Lugar del Refugio is a faith-based rehabilitation center for women battling addiction. It is an outreach of Global Teen Challenge that Hand of Hope is honored to come alongside. Their year-long program is unlike anything in the area, and it is already making a tremendous impact in Santiago.

Siquem Lugar del Refugio means “Place of Refuge”—the perfect description for all of the precious women who walk through its doors…women like Pamela.

Growing up, Pamela didn’t know what love looked like. Her mother was distant from her and her siblings, and she felt abandoned and emotionally rejected. As she got older, Pamela began looking for affection wherever she could find it. She eventually met a man who introduced her to the drug scene and forced her into prostitution.

Pamela quickly found herself addicted, pregnant and a pawn in his narcotics operation. Desperate and suicidal, she prayed and cried out to God for help. Within days, a Christian relative helped her to begin her journey at Siquem Lugar del Refugio.

Over time, Pamela opened her heart to Christ and found freedom from her addiction. In fact, today, she is studying to become a therapist so she can help others who battle the same. Pamela has also become the mother she always wanted to be through encountering the love she was longing for all along—in God.

Through your generosity, Pamela and many other women who battle addiction have been restored from the inside out through this program. It is more than just a rehabilitation center—it is a spiritual hospital where they can receive the critical love and support they need.

No matter how you decide to get involved, I want to leave you with a word of encouragement. The Bible says that when we give to help hurting people, it’s something that endures forever (see 2 Corinthians 9:9). And I believe that you will be extremely blessed and your joy will increase and multiply many times over as you reach out and help widows, orphans and anyone you see who’s in need.

Updated: October 2022