Seeing the Pieces Come Together
Sunday, October 4, 2026 - [click here to support the continuing work at MOHI]
Today's update is from Taran and Jonathan
There are weeks when we get a small glimpse of how God has been working through relationships, opportunities, and moments that began years ago.
As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:6–7, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
We are incredibly thankful for every person who plants, waters, serves, gives, teaches, cares, and walks alongside the people in our communities. But above all, we give thanks to God. He is the One who brings the pieces together and allows us to be part of what He is doing.
This week, we're grateful to share a few glimpses of that work.
School Is in Session!
School officially started on Thursday, October 1, and we're excited to have our campus filled with students again!
Our teachers are back in their classrooms, students are reconnecting with friends and meeting new classmates, and the energy of a new school year can be felt throughout the campus.
Our staff spent the beginning of the week making final preparations—cleaning, organizing classrooms, and making sure everything was ready to welcome students.
There is always something joyful about the first days of school. We're grateful to God for another year together and ask you to join us in praying for our students, teachers, and families in the months ahead.
A Special Celebration in Luperón
September 26 was a special day in Luperón, Dominican Republic.
During the afternoon, students—including Micha and Eli—participated in a community walk. That evening, local churches gathered in the park for a special service recognizing the Bible and sharing the Gospel.
We love seeing the churches we partner with come together publicly to share their faith and serve their community. We're thankful for these local congregations and the role they continue to play in Luperón.
Our Clinics Continue to Grow
It's been a busier week for our medical teams, with an increase in patients coming through the clinics.
Our staff continue looking for new ways to connect people with the care they need. The team is exploring opportunities to provide physicals for previous patients, our dental clinic continues offering regular cleanings, and the Physical Therapy Clinic continues to grow as more people learn about the services available.
Our medical staff have also been spending time doing outreach in the community, and we're even promoting available services on the radio!
With students returning to school, we expect our medical staff will remain especially busy. We're grateful for their commitment to caring for the people who walk through our doors and reaching those beyond them.
Preparing for the Next Business Academy
Behind the scenes, preparations are also underway for the next Business Academy class in the Dominican Republic.
Ron, from Bless Back Worldwide, has been dedicating time each week to training the staff who will lead the Academy. Together, they are working through each class—not only reviewing the material, but discussing how to effectively teach and share each lesson with the next group of students.
We're thankful for Ron's investment in our team and for the opportunity to continue equipping local leaders who can, in turn, equip others.
When a Connection Comes Full Circle
Update from Jonathan
A lot of the work I'm doing with Mission of Hope International right now happens behind the scenes. I'm spending a fair amount of time cleaning up databases, improving systems, working on enrollment and sponsorship processes, and helping teams in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and now the Philippines find better ways to communicate and keep things organized. It's important work, but it's not necessarily the kind of thing that makes for a particularly interesting weekly update.
This week, though, something happened that reminded me why all of those different pieces of the work matter.
Mission of Hope recently opened a new physical and occupational therapy clinic in Haiti, and the team has been sharing some of the stories and photos of patients they've been seeing. It's an exciting addition to the services available in the area, particularly because access to specialized physical and occupational therapy can be extremely limited. One of the stories involved a 17-year-old young man who had injured his knee and was having difficulty walking normally even after receiving treatment for the original injury.
As I looked at some of the information the team shared, I noticed his name. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't immediately figure out why. I had the feeling that I knew him, but I couldn't place the name. I made a mental note to ask about him and then, as tends to happen with everything else going on, a couple of weeks went by.
During our international team call this week, the physical therapy clinic came up again. That finally reminded me to ask the question I'd been meaning to ask: "Who is that?"
And then I found out.
He was the very first child I ever brought into the children's home I worked with in Grand Goâve.
Fourteen years ago, he was three years old. He was the first child who came into the home, and because of that, I obviously developed a particularly strong connection with him. I watched him grow up, go to school, and become the young man he is today. I haven't been directly involved in his life for a long time, so discovering that he was now a patient at Mission of Hope's physical therapy clinic was one of those unexpected moments that makes you stop and think about how interconnected this work really is.
He grew up in a children's home in the same community as Mission of Hope. He attended a Mission of Hope school for a period of time. He knew the organization and knew that there were people here who could help. So when he needed specialized physical therapy, he had a place he could turn to.
That may sound like a small thing, but it isn't.
One of the challenges in Haiti isn't simply the absence of resources. There are organizations, schools, hospitals, clinics, programs, churches, and people doing good work all over the country. The challenge is often that people don't know those resources exist, or they don't know how to access them. Having a connection to one organization can lead you to another service you didn't even know was available.
In his case, a connection that began when he was three years old eventually led him to a physical therapy clinic when he was 17.
That's one of the things I find so meaningful about the work Mission of Hope is doing. The programs don't exist in isolation. Education connects to healthcare. Sponsorship connects to families and communities. Teams and Hope Encounters create relationships. Those relationships create familiarity and trust. And that familiarity can eventually mean that someone knows where to go when they need something that Mission of Hope may be able to provide.
I've spent a lot of time over the past year working with MOHI on systems, processes, databases, enrollment, sponsorship, and all of the other infrastructure that helps an organization function well. None of those things are particularly glamorous. But they make it possible for the programs themselves to work, and the programs create connections that can last far longer than any individual project.
Fourteen years ago, I made a decision to say yes to one little three-year-old boy who needed a home. I certainly didn't know then that, years later, he would walk into a Mission of Hope clinic and receive care because of a network of relationships and services that had developed around him.
I think that's one of the things that keeps me invested in this work. We rarely get to see the entire story. We see one child, one family, one school, one clinic, one project, or one team visit. We do what we can with what is in front of us and move on to the next thing. But the impact of those things continues to move through people's lives in ways we may never know about.
This week, I got a small glimpse of one of those connections coming full circle. And after nearly two decades of working in Haiti, I'm grateful to still be surprised by the ways the pieces come together.
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