ignite hope
- Latest report from Jonoro in Madagascar
- Hope School Portraits, Anjabetrongo
- Chifundo Kids Portraits
- Mission to Malawi Update
- Mission to Malawi 2009
ig-nite: to cause to burn, to begin to glow, to arouse passion, to catch fire.
When you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, when your clothes are worn out and you have no shoes, when those you love have died or abandoned you, each day is simply a struggle for survival. Ancient Path provides for the basic needs of orphaned and vulnerable children through our Chifundo’s Basket program. Partnering with organizations and churches on the ground in Africa and Asia, our supporters have provided ongoing funds to purchase clothing, food, personal supplies, as well as medical care and education for needy children. Through the years we have ignited hope in the hearts of widows and orphans, street kids and homeless men by providing for basic needs of survival.
But there is more to a person than the body. We have also ignited hope through spiritual mentoring, providing not only training and bibles, but bicycles for pastors – enabling them to reach remote villages. Literacy classes, English classes, sewing projects and music and arts training, we’ve watched a spark ignite more than once in those who had given up hope.
For instance, in the South African squatter camp where the women couldn’t tell us what there dream was – because they had given up dreaming. But one brave soul raised her hand and revealed that she has always wanted to sew wedding dresses. When we told them we would be back with sewing machines and a trainer, they didn’t believe us. When we returned , the women danced through the camp with the sewing machines on their heads.
Or when we assembled a cast and crew of over 100 people in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa to stage our original music – Cries of the City. People from every walk of life, from every race – men. women and children from the camps and the townships who never believed they could be part of something like this. But when when the curtain opened to a packed house for 7 shows, not only the audience was changed – but the cast were as well.
And then there were the orphans in Malawi – children who could sing, but never dreamed they could put on a concert let alone record a live CD. Or the children who participated in a photography project in the summer of 2008 and learned to see the world in a whole new way. One boy told us he had never seen a sunset til he looked at it through a camera. Or the children in the remote Mikea Forest of Madagascar who never dreamed of going to school let alone having a school in their village.
Whether it’s through the arts, education or a bowl of maize, Ancient Path aims to ignite hope in the human soul – to not only help lift our friends above the day to day struggle for survival, but remind them who they are created to be.