WORLD Magazine and the American Bible Society are pleased to announce the national winner of the 2012 Hope Awards for Effective Compassion: The WorkFaith Connection. The Houston, Texas, ministry received the most votes from WORLD readers in an online poll conducted in September. WorkFaith CEO Sandy Schultz accepted the award on behalf of the ministry at a ceremony on Oct. 19 at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa. (see "A winning combination: Work and faith," by Marvin Olasky).
WorkFaith was WORLD’s South Region winner. Other regional winners this year, chosen from about 200 nominees, were Fathers in the Field, a Wyoming-based ministry that pairs fatherless kids with men who take them hunting, fishing, and bonding; The Root Cellar, a Maine group that shows refugees how to make it in America; Hope Academy, a classical Christian school in inner-city Minneapolis; and Samaritan Strategy Africa, which in Ghana and other African countries shows how a Christian worldview leads to economic development.
As the winner of the 2012 Hope Awards, The WorkFaith Connection won a $25,000 grand prize. The four other regional winners received a check for $4,000.
In its Effective Compassion competition, WORLD looks for Christian, nongovernmental poverty-fighting programs that are not just evangelical and not just economic, but unite body and soul. We started this year with 200 recommendations from readers and initial research by internet and phone, and followed with journalistic visits that allowed us to eyeball 10 programs. Then we turned it over to you, our readers, who during the month of September voted for the program that moved them the most.
We encourage you to read the profiles and watch the videos of the five finalists. You may get ideas about what you can start or help in your own communities. You'll surely get a sense of how God is using His people.
WORLD looks forward to spotlighting more deserving ministries in 2013.
Work and faith, connected
Hope in the Heartland: Our South Region winner is full of practical help for former prisoners looking for jobs-and is full of Christ
by Marvin Olasky
by Tiffany Owens
Hope in the Heartland
Our Midwest region winner balances discipline and grace
by Daniel James Devine
by Daniel James Devine
Boys to men
Our Western region winner finds fathers for the fatherles
by Angela Lu
by Angela Lu
by Angela Lu
Rooted in Christ
Our Eastern region winner transcends Maine stereotypes
by Edward Lee Pitts
by Edward Lee Pitts
Onward Christian workers
Our international division winner provides biblical worldview teaching as the link—often missing—between evangelism and economic development
by Marvin Olasky
