When a single project can house the homeless, create jobs for the jobless, protect the planet, and be self sustaining—all at the same time—Cross International would consider it to be just about the perfect project!

That’s why we’re so excited about a special enterprise being launched in Haiti. It’s an all-in-one housing program, vocational training program,

Boys of working age at an orphanage are learning how to assemble pre-fab houses that will go to families who lost their homes in Haiti’s earthquake. This will be a steady livelihood for them for years to come.

construction company, and livelihood for orphans.

Now for the details.

The houses are designed by Shelter2Home. They resist earthquakes, hurricanes, fire, termites, and 96 percent of the sun’s heat. They’re made of environmentally-friendly materials, yet you can’t tell them apart from traditional cement homes in Haiti. Through Cross’s support, these homes will go to families who lost theirs in the earthquake.

Right now, orphaned and vulnerable kids of working age at an orphanage in southern Haiti are getting trained to put these pre-fab homes together. They’ll be able to make a living for years to come while rebuilding Haiti, through the construction company they’re forming. Those are good job prospects considering Haiti had 80 percent unemployment before the earthquake!

Click here to watch a video and learn more about this ideal project!

After more than two years of waiting and praying, Ana Briceño’s dreams came true. Her family was one of 50 to receive a sturdy home through a housing project we support in Nicaragua.

“This is such a blessing from God,” Ana said. “Before our family was suffering because we were constantly moving from place to place. We did not have a place to live.”

The shanty where Ana and her family used to live was literally falling apart.

Ana and her husband, Erwin, and their five young children had been nomads for several years. The $2.50 a day Erwin made working on a shrimp farm was hardly adequate for food and basic living necessities, let alone enough to secure a safe place for them to live. So they moved — a lot.

One of the places they lived was a small shack in El Limonal, the community next to the Chinandega city garbage dump. The people call the area the Triangle of Death because it is surrounded by the 20-acre dump, an overflowing cemetery, and a contaminated river. The nickname is hardly an exaggeration. Disease runs rampant in the community because of the filthy living and working conditions.

Ana’s children were always sick from the dirty conditions — they lived in a dilapidated shack made from rusted tin, dirty plastic tarps, and rotting wood — and she feared something would happen to them while she was gone during the day working as a maid.

Now Ana's family can sleep in peace knowing that their sturdy house built by Cross will protect them from the weather.

Ana prayed daily that her family would be able to escape the harsh conditions of the dump. Just when she was about to lose hope, Ana’s family was selected to receive a house in a clean community miles from the dump through a Cross housing program.

“I was so happy when I heard the news,” Ana said. “I didn’t know what to say.”

Ana and her family are now settling into their new house, and her three oldest children are attending the primary school in their new community — the other two will also once they are old enough.

“The environment here is much better than in the dump,” Ana said. “I am so thankful to have a place where my children can grow up in safety.”

Of all the things you can do to help a poor family nothing is as transformative as building them a house. Not only does it provide them with a safe place to live, but it gives families who have nothing hope for a better future while showing them the love of Christ in the process. Cross provides sturdy homes to destitute families like Ana’s who don’t have a safe place to call home. Click here to learn more about the housing projects we support around the world.

For Mari Lu and Lino Vizoro, a new house changed everything.

Top: This shanty is where the Vizoro family used to live. Left: The Vizoro family now lives in this house built by the Gawad Kalinga housing program. Right: Mari Lu, Samantha, Angelica, and Lino Vizoro.

“We used to be one of three families who lived together in one house,” Mari Lu said. “The house had no toilet inside—we had just a common outhouse for 10 families! When it rained the house flooded because it was below street level. This new house is above street level, so it won’t flood.”

The Vizoros, along with their daughters Samantha and Angelica, live in Pasay City, part of metro Manila in the Philippines. They used to live in the shanty pictured here, which was patched together with tin, wood, and whatever other materials they could find. Flooding and disease were two major problems in the area, along with crowded and dirty living conditions.

Thousands of families live in horrible conditions in slums throughout the Philippines. An estimated 5 million families in the Philippines are in need of safe housing. These poor men, women, and children live each day on the edge of survival. Families living here are constantly exposed to garbage, polluted water, and disease.

But there is hope for these families. The Gawad Kalinga (Giving Care) housing program replaces these shanty communities with clean, safe houses. For families like the Vizoros, a new house is more than just a building—it’s a chance for Mari Lu and Lino to offer a better future for Samantha and Angelica. Their new house, shown here, keeps them warm and dry, and it also gives them self-esteem and hope.

Mari Lu says God gave her a house and answered her prayer for a safe place to raise her daughters.

“Thank you for the materials to build a dream come true,” she said.

Click here to read about Gawad Kalinga and the many other housing programs that Cross International supports around the world with the help of generous American Christians.

By 2050, a full 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. That’s four out of every five people!

Poverty and opportunity exist side-by-side in Guatemala City.

The prediction comes from a recent Financial Times report called “The Future of Cities.” People often migrate from rural to urban settings because cities offer new jobs. But these growing cities are also producing vast slums. The Financial Times used Lagos, Nigeria as an example of the downside of urbanization. Lagos is “a city that forces us to confront our fears of what will happen if we do not sort out our cities,” because it “has become the cipher for the urban nightmare – a city without structure, infrastructure, social provision, amenities, or basic property rights for its citizens.” In short, “Citizens have to work to carve out their niche in a city that does not care.”

It’s interesting that in the Bible, Jesus’ disciples used a strategy of evangelism that focused on cities. By going into urban areas, they could reach large concentrations of people who could then spread the Good News into the countryside. Today, those cities are bigger than ever, and they are full of people hungry for the Gospel. They are places where extreme wealth exists side-by-side with overwhelming poverty, and where row upon row of tin and cardboard shanties extend for miles.

Cross International is continuing the mission of Jesus’ disciples by reaching out to slum communities in developing nations with food, shelter, education, medical care, and the message of salvation. We want poor families to know that, even if the city doesn’t notice them, God loves them and so do we. Their cries are not unheard.

One great outreach we’re now sponsoring is a Christian after-school program for Guatemalan children whose families survive by scavenging for recyclable goods at the Guatemala City garbage dump. The program provides the children with school supplies, food, and even medical checkups, while teaching them about Jesus and working with their parents to improve their home life. Click here to learn more about this awesome opportunity to share God’s love!

Three brothers, along with their wives and children—12 people in all—lived together in one tiny makeshift shack in a slum in Manila, Philippines. The place crawled with mice and roaches. When it rained the house flooded in knee-deep dirty water. The only table in the house doubled as a bed because space was so tight.

Lani and her husband, Zoilo, are grateful for their new home. They no longer share a cramped, roach-ridden shanty with two other families.

The brothers worked hard for their meager incomes, but there were so many mouths to feed they could not afford a decent roof over their heads. Then came a group of fellow Filipinos—Christians who wanted to help. They offered a project called Gawad Kalinga.

Housing is only one component of Gawad Kalinga’s holistic, sustainable approach to community development. Programs teach values, train in livelihood skills, and encourage accountability, and foster neighborly cooperation. Eventually, the dog-eat-dog slum mentality of self-preservation is replaced by the Golden Rule.

Today the three families live together as next-door neighbors, but they each enjoy their own homes, sponsored through Cross International. The sister-in-laws recently told us how they felt about their homes:

According to Lani, her youngest son said, “Oh, Mommy! We don’t have to run with cockroaches anymore!” Fredelynn said, “Now I can have both a dining table AND a bed!”  And Mari Lu told us, “Thank you for the materials to build a dream come true!”

Click here to learn more about how Gawad Kalinga turns dirty, dangerous slums into bright and friendly communities, through the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

For many people, St. Patrick’s Day is a time to wear green, eat corned beef and cabbage, and have a night out with friends. But behind all the merrymaking is a story of a 4th century missionary whose life exemplified the kind of self-sacrificial love we strive to emulate here at Cross.

A stained-glass depiction of the missionary Patrick, who converted Ireland to Christianity and is remembered on St. Patrick’s Day.

Before Patrick came to Ireland voluntarily as a preacher of the gospel, he came in shackles as a slave. This injustice could have embittered Patrick toward the Irish people, who had kidnapped him from his homeland in Britain. But after escaping on a boat and vowing never again to set foot in Ireland, God gave Patrick a supernatural compassion for his pagan captors who desperately needed Christ.

It’s easy to have compassion on a friend, or on those who suffer by no fault of their own. But Cross International aims to do more than this, because when we come across people who do not share our values or faith and who have made choices that have worsened their situation, Christ’s radical love compels us to show mercy. We are called not only to serve those who are kind, hard-working, intelligent, and attractive, but also those who are rough around the edges, difficult to look at, and unlikely to thank us for our help.

The question isn’t whether the needy deserve our compassion, but whether Christ deserves our obedience. When Cross provides water wells to poor villages in developing nations, we don’t discriminate over who can drink from them. Instead, we give to everyone as if we were giving to Christ himself. Our house-repair project in Vietnam has been hugely popular with local communities, and a great witness to the gospel, precisely because we reach out to everyone regardless of what church they attend or whether they have any faith at all. That kind of love is what brings people into the doors of Christian churches, eager to discover the reason why we do what we do.

On Wednesday, many Christians began observing Lent, a time of prayer and fasting during the weeks leading up to Easter. Although some denominations don’t recognize Lent, the practice has a long history among both Protestants and Catholics.

There’s a tradition that during Lent, Christians will give up a particular luxury they enjoy, such as unhealthy foods or even television. But this year, some pastors are calling on their flocks to take a slightly different approach: don’t just give something up – give it away.

The Rev. Bill Hewitt from the Church of Scotland encouraged his congregation this week to reach out with their time and talents to others in need: “I prefer the idea of Lent being a time of giving of ourselves in service to others. This runs contrary to a culture that suggests that the only thing that motivates people is money.”

Lent is a great opportunity for Christians to bless others while denying themselves. We can turn our thoughts not only to the needs of the neighbor across the street, but also to the poor and downtrodden around the world. Of course, not everyone can personally travel to a faraway land to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but those of us who stay home have an important role to play in supporting those who go.

Our Cross International mission partners simply could not do what they do without the generous giving of our Christian donors. Whether you choose to feed orphans at the Kondanani Children’s Village in Malawi or build houses for poor families in the Philippines, your gifts make a real difference. Check out our online project catalog to see how you can be a blessing in someone’s life today!

Though we evaluate our work in terms of the benefit to the poor, the fact is that our projects also have an incredible impact on the men and women who have dedicated their lives to charity and self-sacrifice. One person who comes to mind is Bobby Rodrigo. He is a resource general director with Gawad Kalinga, a Cross project that provides housing for poor families in the Philippines.

Bobby Rodrigo (right) gave up a life of luxury so that he could serve the poor through the Gawad Kalinga housing project.

Bobby experienced the best the world had to offer and realized it wasn’t enough. The retired Filipino businessman was living in a 75,000 square-foot mansion with 12 bedrooms and a 10-car garage when he decided to get involved with the Gawad Kalinga project. His garage alone was a luxury resort compared to the dilapidated slums he soon found himself in. The small shanties, pieced together with salvaged scraps of cardboard, tin, tarpaulin, and discarded wood, were homes to entire families who could only dream of owning one car, let alone 10. The disparity touched him deeply.

In the face of such need, Bobby felt he could no longer justify his lavish lifestyle. He sold his mansion and moved into a much more modest home, and focused his attention on alleviating the suffering of desperate families in the slum communities.

Later, Bobby developed a blocked artery and needed open-heart surgery. His doctor scheduled an angiogram in the morning – so Bobby could see the blockage for himself – and the surgery for the afternoon of the same day.

What happened next is best explained in Bobby’s own words. “The night before the procedures, I prayed, ‘Lord, please help me be well so I can finish all the Gawad Kalinga work we’ve got going for the poor.’ I prayed harder than I had in my whole life.

“The next day, they could find no blockage. The doctor said, ‘You must have strong connections upstairs, because there’s no explanation. It’s a miracle!’”

Bobby didn’t need the doctor, because God had already performed surgery on his heart, in more ways than one. He’s become a new man with a new calling and a new lease on life.

We are so thankful for the compassionate men and women who are helping us bring God’s love to the poorest of the poor. They are out in the field every day, providing the needy with shelter, food, medicine, clothing, education, and hope for a better future. And we want you to be a part of it.

To find out how you can get involved with our work in the slums of the Philippines, click here.