Mission of Hope and Mercy

A nonprofit organization

0% complete

$300,000 Goal

The Mission of Hope and Mercy is a nonprofit organization providing aid to families and victims of wars in Lebanon and areas of crisis in the Middle East and Africa. 

100% of your donation to Colorado Gives will go towards our programs in Lebanon.

Your charitable donation will provide: 

  • Food boxes for families
  • Emergency food for nursing homes and an orphanage
  • Emergency food for a center for the treatment, rehabilitation, and reintegration of individuals with drug addiction
  • Emergency food for a center for people with intellectual disabilities
  • Christmas gifts and food for 2500 children 
  • Medications for homebound individuals with chronic diseases
  • Cancer treatments for patients, especially heads of households, women and children
  • Urgent and emergency surgeries, including heart surgeries and those for the treatment of cancer and infections
  • Urgent housing to save families 
  • Milk for children 
  • Formula for babies
  • Tuition for elementary school, high school, and college education 
  • Salary support for teachers in Christian schools to assure access to a Christian education for students
  • Animal feed for farms under economic stress
  • Other urgent and emergency support, such as oxygen concentrators, electricity, and hygiene supplies
  • Support for the establishment of the Center for Blessings in Lebanon

We have served those in need since 2015 and have fed more than 10,000 families with hundreds of tons of food. We have provided medication for the chronically ill, children, elderly and homebound, as well as financial assistance for those in need of surgeries. Dozens of patients and homebound patients count on our organization every month for their prescription needs. 

In the last 2 years, we provided COVID relief and hygienic supplies to over 7000 families along with oxygen machines and oxygen concentrators for villages. We also provided funds to repair a civil defense fire truck and ambulance to transport ill patients and facilitate delivery of food and oxygen. 

Our organization supports the education of hundreds of children of all religions in Lebanon and assists the Civil Defense Firefighters, Caritas Lebanon, Dioceses, Parishes and the Red Cross. 

Mission

Religious Liberty, in the Bible and the American Constitution, is America’s greatest gift to the world tormented by hate and by religious persecution.

Our Mission, like the Good Samaritan, is to save lives from all kinds of persecution, rejection, or neglect and to confirm them in God’s image, the Author of all Goodness.

Guided by the Spirit of the Lord, and in light of the Gospel, we toil to save the persecuted flock wherever that might be. With this, our initial aim is to protect and preserve Christianity and its roots; to restore hope, faith and love to all the children of Abraham.

We serve based on the two greatest commandments of God: to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

We work in all nations as peacemakers, forming new Apostles of Hope and Mercy for God, and sending them forth as ambassadors of Christ to the broken hearted and the oppressed, Proclaiming a Year Acceptable to the Lord.

Background Statement

It all began on August 11, 2013, with the P.L.A.C.E Initiative for peace and coexistence for all the children of Abraham in the Middle East during the Interreligious Prayer Service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Denver, Colorado.

The PLACE Initiative was a document cosponsored by Archbishop Samuel Aquila and Fr Andre Y Sebastian Mahanna representing Bishop Elias Zaidan of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, USA that promoted the protection of Christians in the Middle East, invited Muslims to publicly denounce the religiously motivated violent killing of Christians and other minorities by Muslim ISIS, and promoted the protection and coexistence of Jews, Christians and Muslims to live in one World, preaching a God of love and denouncing in such a way any religious violence in the name of God. Over 17 religious leaders in the Denver metropolitan area signed the document, including 5 major Muslim Sheikhs. Our goal has become more and more a conscience issue to save the lives of the persecuted Christians and other innocent people of various religious and ethnic groups who since 2006 have been the target of ethnic and religious cleansing and persecution.

The first realization of the PLACE Initiative came with an Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast that was held on May 15, 2015. The event was co-presided over by Bishop Zaidan, Archbishop Aquila, and over 37 Religious Christian leaders. More than 250 people came to share in our awareness-raising prayer breakfast that Friday morning. We told people to come only to learn about the plight against Christians so that they could then tell a friend about the genocides that are taking place against Christians. They responded by giving over 23 thousand dollars over one and a half hours. That day, these people, who came from different Christian-based churches, both apostolic and evangelical as well as non-denominational, made a strong statement: "We are here for the love of Christ and in support of our persecuted brothers and sisters in the Middle East, and we want to help."

After this initial event, checks kept coming in and reached nearly 30 thousand dollars in total. Father Andre began meeting regularly with his church's pastoral and stewardship councils, as well as with community members John F. Medved and Peter Boyles, to discern next steps. John Medved, as one of the founding members of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, was always a great believer in this mission; Peter Boyles was our media messenger who from the earliest days carried this mission to the hearts and minds of every American he could reach through his daily morning radio show.

In June 2015, Mr. Boyles and Father Andre went to Lebanon with Senator Sam H. Zakhem to do an on-site assessment regarding the proper distribution of the funds that had been raised from that first prayer breakfast. There they encountered most of the religious and political leaders of the country. They met with the Maronite Patriarch, Patriarch Rai, and learned about the great need for aid and assistance; at the same time, they discovered that, due to the ongoing suffering and the magnitude of the tragedy of the Christians and other peoples as well, there was not a clear understanding of either short- or long-term needs, nor was there a clear vision as to what the future of the Christians would be in even a couple of years from then. There were no proposed solutions nor dynamics for a strategy; there was not even a mechanism of communication by which the story of these many Christians could be told.

After meeting the refugees in St. Elias Maronite Church of Jesr El-Wati in Beirut, Mr. Boyles and Father Andre decided to act by giving 180 gifts to children, hundreds of diapers for babies, and food packages for hundreds of families. They also gave these types of emergency provisions to 200 families on July 25 and 26, 2015. They decided that they needed to give these people hope by telling their story and to show them mercy by both giving them assistance and raising awareness.

From there, the Mission of Hope and Mercy was formed, an organized entity that would carry the name of Saint Rafka, who lived under the pressure of persecution during the 1860 A.D. massacres against the Maronite Christians in Mount Lebanon. Father Andre consented to lead this effort. The fruit of the PLACE INITIATIVE Event on August 11, 2013 was the founding of the Mission of Hope and Mercy on October 15, 2015.

The Mission of Hope and Mercy continues to hold an annual Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast to foster and promote the culture of mutual respect, peace, love and coexistence amongst all the children of Abraham. And it continues to bring hope and mercy to persecuted Christians in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

Mission of Hope and Mercy

Year Established

2015

Tax id (EIN)

47-4855538

Category

Religion-Related, Food, Agriculture & Nutrition, Education, Health Care, Youth Development, Public & Societal Benefit, Public Safety, Disaster Preparedness & Relief, Mental Health & Crisis Intervention, Housing & Shelter, Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy

Address

2459 S. Chase Lane
Lakewood, CO 80227

Service areas

LB

IQ