House of Hope International Newsletter

September 2024

Honduras - El Castro:

What is it like to live in a brothel?

“Alejandra” says: "My mom and my three little brothers all sleep in the bed with me. I don’t like it when her boyfriend comes home drunk because he takes up all the room and he smells bad. At night, my mom has lots of visitors, so she stays up all night and doesn’t get up until late the next day. My brothers and I get really hungry while we wait for her to wake up.

I don’t get to go to school like my cousins do. I really wish I did. I’m going to be 8 on my birthday and I’d like to learn how to read. I feel like my mom never has time for me. I wish she would play with us! We can’t even turn the TV up when she’s sleeping.

I wish I felt safe here like I do at grandma’s house. Today was exciting – those people came again! We were singing and coloring and heard a story about a man named Jesus. I like it when they come!"

Next February, when school starts for the year, House of Hope Ministries will provide the uniforms, backpacks, and school supplies the children need to be in school. We’ve seen improvement in the lives of the children from El Castro I since they’ve been enrolled in school and we can’t wait for that to happen with this new group of kids!

House of Hope Honduras, together with our generous partners at Metad, has been distributing nutritious whole milk to the children in the ministry for the past four years. Since May, the children in the El Castro II brothel have been receiving the packages of powdered milk, their overall health is improving and the degree of malnourishment is diminishing.

Each Wednesday, the women receive evangelism and a simple Bible lesson. They are beginners and not ready to start the discipleship program yet. A few women have prayed to receive Christ. Some come to our sewing classes at the ministry center, where they are learning a skill that can help them to earn money and hear the Word of the Lord.

Nicaragua - Ephesians Club

April says:

“The Ephesians Club is a class that the staff, volunteers, and I teach weekly to the women in the residential program when they are completing two years of residency at House of Hope. We usually have two to five women in the club at one time. The curriculum that we wrote is based on scripture and the club members study more than a hundred verses over the two-year period.

The class exclusively deals with what the Bible says about how to get along with people. We study different techniques. For example, in Module 1, learning to congratulate somebody or to give a condolence (Romans 12:15, “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep”). Lessons progress in Module 3 to how to ask somebody for forgiveness.

Along with the overall theme verses, which are Ephesians 4:29-32, the women are each assigned a different verse to study each week. We call it a club because we serve refreshments to make it special. The residential women consider it a privilege and honor to be in Ephesians, because it means that they have made it that far in the program. We have seen this curriculum change lives over the years, as God’s Word always does.



Some women who have been in prison for assault many times, or who were so broken they could not get along with anyone, are able to walk as sisters in the Lord together at the end of this class.

At the end of each course (1.5 to 2 years), the women take a field trip to the potter’s house. They witness the twelve steps that the clay goes through to remove impurities and to be made into pottery. Making pottery out of clay symbolizes the process in our lives as the Lord works with us to refine us.”

Bolivia - Sandras Graduation

Hope for the future

Sandra moved to House of Hope Bolivia in early 2022 from a village in the mountains outside of Cochabamba. We learned that, tragically, she is one of seven female cousins who have been trafficked by their own family members to play for food, alcohol and housing. The abuse started at a very young age – one girl as young as three years old. Two of the cousins were treated horribly by their parents and their older sister’s live-in boyfriend. For many, many years, they were beaten and called horrible names. Out of greed, their parents allowed men to buy their bodies.

Unfortunately, Sandra was forced to drop out of school during the pandemic, when, for two years, all classes in Bolivia were virtual. She had no access to the internet or electronic devices, so she could not communicate with the teachers from her school about classwork. When Sandra moved to House of Hope at the age of seventeen, she had already been out of school for over two years and chose to learn a trade instead of starting middle school again. Her future looks bright since her graduation from cosmetology school this past summer. Currently, she is taking an additional course on cutting men’s hair. We are so proud of Sandra and cannot wait to see how God continues to work in her life!

Hope Fund

Your love and support make it possible for girls like "Alejandra" to believe in a better future. Sandra has been able to learn a trade and change her life. Women in all three countries are no longer hopeless because they are learning the life-altering love of God. Thank you for your faithful support of our Hope Fund. Staff, building maintenance, and other miscellaneous expenses all play a vital role in continuing this important work.

Thank you!

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House of Hope is a 501c(3) non-profit