“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” – Hebrews 6:19

This year, we are bringing you stories of how hope is greater. Hope is greater than conflict. It’s greater than drought and famine and disease. It’s greater than earthquakes and hurricanes. It’s greater than poverty. And it’s greater than hunger. Read the intro to the series here and follow along on social media with #hopeisgreater.

“I gave MannaPack to children and old man because they have no food I want to help them to alleviate the hunger and have a better life. I want them to be blessed through MannaPack. They were very happy when they received the Manna pack. Although traveling difficult, when I saw them happy I was happy too.” – Supo

Supo received 55 boxes of MannaPack meals in a recent Venture shipment. She delivered the meals to 1,000 children in an Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp across the Myanmar border.

Fighting in the region meant that it wasn’t safe to drive meals across the border, so they brought the meals across the river by boat, picked them up on the other side and delivered them by truck to the IDP camp.

The meals were a huge blessing providing sustenance and health to the kids, according to Venture, a faithful partner of Feed My Starving Children. Venture has been working on the Thai-Burma border for 15 years. In partnership with FMSC, Venture is able to feed 9,000 people a day.

'Tough Things'

Venture’s tagline is “We do tough things for people in tough places,” which may well be an understatement.

The organization serves thousands of people along the border of Thailand and Burma, which it calls the epicenter for trafficking, sex slavery, child soldiers, extreme poverty and refugees.

Venture offers scholarships, after school programming and English education to vulnerable children and empower them to become the next generation of Christian leaders through evangelism, Bible training, prayer and discipleship.

These programs prevent some families from selling their older children to pay for food for the younger siblings.

About 241,000 displaced people – of which 77 percent are women and children – remain in camps or camp-like situations in Myanmar, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Additionally, Amnesty International reports that some 100,000 refugees from Myanmar live in camps in Thailand, where they faced decreasing humanitarian assistance in 2017.

Hope is Greater

At FMSC, we believe that food assistance is so important in tandem with community development. We are honored to work side by side with organizations like Venture that share our belief that hope is greater.

Hope is greater than conflict. It’s greater than drought and famine and disease. It’s greater than earthquakes and hurricanes. It’s greater than poverty. And it’s greater than hunger.

Thank you for believing this. Every time you put on a hairnet and pack meals or write a check or drop a quarter in a bucket, you are saying, "Yes. Hope IS greater."

What you do makes a difference. We need you more than ever as conflicts and natural disasters continue to wreak havoc in the lives of children around the world.