Hope House Exceeds Backpack Goal!

Thank you, Hope House supporters, for enabling Deacon Tom (Ioway) and Deaconess Cathy (Cherokee) Benzler to collect more than 750 new backpacks for Native children on the Olympic Peninsula this school year! “God has blessed this project over and above what I would have ever imagined!” Cathy said, adding, “Thanks to so many churches, organizations and individuals, we have gone well over the 500 that we had hoped to receive for the children. Praise the Lord!”

Backpacks have already been distributed among several Olympic Peninsula tribes, including the Lower Elwha Reservation, Makah Indian Reservation in Neah Bay, Hoh Reservation and the LaPush Reservation.

“We’re humbled by the cheerful giving of all our supporters,” Tom commented. “It means so much to the children to have all their supplies on the first day of school. They can go to school confident and ready to learn!”

Besides caring for the physical needs of Natives on the Olympic Peninsula, Tom and Cathy also visit the elders to pray with them and encourage them in God’s Word. They are often called to look in on those who are sick at home or in the hospital. Every week as well, Cathy said they are blessed to provide Bible studies on the reservation.

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