USA (MNN) — If funding wasn't an option, Book of Hope International would be sending out millions of copies of their harmony of the Gospels to young people all over the world. Unfortunately, distribution is linked to funding and in 2007, Book of Hope may have to cut back.
That's the message from the African Director of Book of Hope, Cal Ratz. "This year we've done around 17 million books in all of Africa. Next year, we're redeploying in other parts of the world and we have resources for 14 million in all of Africa."
Limited resources forced Book of Hope to makes a few changes. "We just went through a painful process in the office of pairing down our requests. In every country [we] had to pair back 20-percent or so to meet our budget projections," Ratz says.
He says they had an incredible number of requests for the upcoming year. "Those requests came in at over 90 million books. And, according to our projections, we figure that we can do about 65 million books. So, it's been a very painful experience. We've slowed down opening new countries because we don't have adequate funds to do it."
One dollar provides a Book of Hope to three young people, but it also does much more, says Ratz. "We have proven it reaches their families because a child gets a book at school, they take it home, the parents read it, 100 dollars would reach 300 homes."
It's making a difference in entire communities, witnessed by village leaders in a village in Uganda who use the Book of Hope in their schools. "There's been a radical change in the behavior, the discipline, in all of our schools and everything has radically improved. And, there's no other explanation other than the fact that you distributed the Book of Hope in the schools."
Your $100 gift can reach 300 families. Go to their website to give online.
