Story number 4 for 6 Dec 2002

(Nicaragua)–Meanwhile, a businessman in the United States is building homes for Food for the Poor in Nicaragua. Les Stewart’s daughter Bethany was killed in a tragic explosion in 1998 while maintaining a Blackhawk helicopter. Looking for a way to memorialize her, Stewart wanted to build a house. “The only thing I thought I would do is maybe build a house every year. The house is $2,000 and I knew I could afford a couple thousand dollars to put someone in a home. And, I thought of no better way to carry on her memory than to have someone living in a house.” Stewart didn’t stop there, though. He went on to build a 250 family village, now known as “Bethany Village”. “My company has donated the money to build a church there. We have a feeding program. We’re getting ready to start a school and we’ve already taken care of two teachers and more will be hired as time goes on.” Stewart says the church already has 257 members.