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Tiffany Solano Arias lives in a poor barrio on the edge of Lima, Peru. Two years ago her alcoholic father was unemployed; her mother's job as a domestic brought in $40 a month for the family, supplemented by her teenage sister's meager wages from a factory. They sacrificed to keep Tiffany's older brother enrolled in technical school in Lima. Because of mounting unpaid bills, even the flimsy make-shift roof over their heads was going to be repossessed.

One day in 1998 some people from the United States visited her public school classroom and handed her and her classmates the Book of Hope, a harmonized version of the four gospels with study questions, a simple salvation message, and a prayer to accept Christ. The book Tiffany held in her hands just happened to be a specially marked copy—the 50 millionth one distributed worldwide.

To extend the celebration, the Book of Hope International volunteers visited Tiffany's family. There they discovered their hardships and shared God's good news of hope. Tiffany and her mother became Christians. Later that week the two brought Tiffany's father to a Book of Hope crusade and he too became a believer.

In the two years since, their lives have been radically changed. Tiffany's father stopped drinking and found a job, and the entire family is involved with their rapidly growing local church. Tiffany's dream of becoming a civil engineer now has a better chance to be realized. And, more importantly, though life isn't easy, Tiffany has hope for each day and for eternity.

Her story has been repeated thousands of times over throughout the world. A child receives hope, a family receives hope, a neighborhood, a city, a country changes. Since 1987, local church leaders and missionaries in 89 countries, as well as U. S. volunteers, have distributed about 100 million copies of the Book of Hope, available in more than 40 languages in both a children's and youth version.

"The gospel is what it takes to lift people," says Bob Hoskins, founder of Book of Hope International. His desire is to provide the world's children with the Word of God in a format they can enjoy, understand, and be changed by.

"During a time of fasting and prayer over a period of weeks God broke my heart for the children and young people of the world. I saw them as Satan's number 1 target," he says, noting evils such as war, disease, famine, drugs, and promiscuity destroy generations before they even have a chance.

With this burden on his heart, he started reaching out to countries in the regions he was closest to, Latin and South America. Hoskins says God had directed him to work through "leaders," so he began contacting high-ranking officials in those countries. He received positive responses from the presidents of Chile and Venezuela, but the Book of Hope became reality when El Salvador's minister of education expressed interest.

The minister asked Hoskins to provide a Bible for every public school student in his country. Not knowing even how many children there were in El Salvador, Hoskins agreed to take on the task. Thinking that children might be intimidated by a large Bible, he worked with his staff to develop El Libro de Vida—Book of Life, now Book of Hope—which includes the gospels word for word. Donations from individuals poured in to provide the $500,000 necessary for the printing and shipping of the book. In December 1987 one million Spanish copies were given away in El Salvador's public schools. Local Christians handled the distribution, traveling to the hills and valleys by car, truck, motorcycle, canoe, and donkey.

Natasha grew up with parents who held the party line and considered themselves atheists. Her teachers, too, preached atheism. But Natasha's grandmother, who lived with the family, was no atheist, Hoskins says. She told Natasha not to believe what others told her. God did exist, she said, as she prayed for someone to bring his book to her granddaughter one day.

That day came when strangers visited her public elementary school and gave her a copy of the Book of Hope, Hoskins says. Natasha ran home and told her grandmother that the people finally came, delivering the much-anticipated book.

Book of Hope International continues to have a strong presence in Russia, where 30 million copies have been distributed. The pattern in Russia is the same in countries worldwide: local Christians or Book of Hope regional workers gain permission from leaders to enter the public schools, distribution is coordinated, and then nationals or U. S. volunteers pass out the books in schools, part of an evangelistic blitz culminated by evening crusades.

Told he must gain access to the public schools through government authorities, the missionary set off on a long journey home contemplating how he could manage such a meeting, Hoskins says. When he changed planes in Paris, his ticket was upgraded to business class. He found his new seat next to a man from Madagascar. Not just any businessman—it was the minister of education! On the ten-and-a-half hour plane ride home the missionary was able to discuss the Book of Hope. One million copies of the book are scheduled to arrive in Madagascar in February 2001.

Book of Hope International places a high emphasis on working through national churches of all denominations. "We see ourselves as a vehicle for the local church," says John Young, Jr., director of communications. "We're an American organization, but we don't want to promote our Americanism. We want to help local people reach their world." Only about 2 percent of distributions are done by U. S. volunteers, he says.

Under the executive directorship of Rob Hoskins, Bob's son, Book of Hope International plans to distribute more copies than ever next year. And they're reaching out to youth through the Web with multiple language versions of www.hopenet.net, a site featuring games, music, and answers to life's hard questions. But, though millions have been reached with the gospel, Rob says it's still all about one child at a time. Like Natasha. Like Tiffany.

A Christian Reader original article.

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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