This month, team Thriven is so privileged to be partnering with a local (but international) ministry called Threads of Hope, and also the Aninuan Christian Church here on Mindoro Island in the Philippines. Threads of Hope was started back in ?? by Alex and Chris Kuhlow; a married missionary couple who happened to be at one of their favorite hang out spots in the Philippines and realized after spending time with a lot of the locals, that one of the girls they talked to on the beach often was gone and had resorted to prostitution in order to take care of her family. They had first met her by purchasing bracelets that she made, and they were so heartbroken to hear about her that they decided they were going to do something, so that none of the other friends they met had to enter in to the same situation. Alex then, led by the Holy Spirit, purchased $100 worth of bracelets from one of the girls that they had really gotten to know. She told him that she didn’t have $100 worth of bracelets made, and he said don’t worry, when I come back again, you can give them to me. Well, Alex did go back and upon his return, she presented him with $100 worth of bracelets, approximately 500 of them! He took these 500 bracelets and the story that came with them and brought them back to the states to sell to people. The revenue that came from that amounted to $1000. Alex then took that $1000 back to the woman who made the initial order and instead of just giving her the $1000 (which would amount to almost a whole year’s worth of wages), he asked her to make him $1000 worth of bracelets. This was too big of an order to fill, so she then had to employ the help of some of her sisters and friends and then a short time later, Alex returned and was presented with 12,000 bracelets. You can see the snowballing effect here can’t you?! How exciting is that?! He just kept investing the money from the bracelets, every single penny, back into buying more bracelets so much now that Threads of Hope purchases c. 1,000,000 pisos worth of bracelets every month, which amounts to about 180,000 bracelets a month made by around 700 women.
Alex has invested all the money from the bracelets back into the bracelet makers and their community. They now have a church building, Aninuan Christian Church that has a basketball court up top, and the meeting space down below. They built a church with money from making bracelets! Alex and Chris are a true testimony of what God can do through two people who are fully surrendered to God’s will and lean on him for every decision.
Alex and Chris travel back and forth between the Philippines and the US every six months for six months at a time, they are full time missionaries and while they are home in the US, they travel around to festivals and shows to sell the bracelets and spread the story of the women who make the bracelets in the Philippines. By purchasing the bracelets, this allows the women to simply make the bracelets, and not have to sell them on the beaches, which brings the opportunities to be taken advantage of by foreigners who are purchasing the bracelets on the beach. This one small act is bringing women freedom from prostitution and from having to live a life of fear while selling bracelets on the beach. Would you consider partnering with them?
www.threadsofhope.com.ph
