Dear Volunteers, Donors and Supporters,

On March 2, 2013, we returned from our ambitious expedition to endeavor to cross Nicaragua by land to reach the village we have served for 14 years by boat. We discovered, definitively, that a land route to our target area is not feasible...we learned that the hard way as you will see in the videos below. However, we learned a tremendous amount about the region and how we can better deliver our ministry in the future and where we may hope build a new base of operations closer to our target area.

We also spent some time in Matagalpa and we are now in the process of developing a plan to serve and minister to the young drug addicts on the Atlantic Coast through a work/rehab program in the refreshing and renewing temperate rainforest of Matagalpa. One of the greatest needs that we have been unable to meet (drug addiction) in the coastal communities is now in the project pipeline!

Finally, we made great advances towards tackling the single most serious physical need in the villages we serve...access to potable water. We are currently meeting with potential partners to get a mobile PHT well drilling rig on the Atlantic Coast to serve the 18 communities we serve.

Our plans are bold and costly and we thank you in advance for your generous and sacrificial support. Despite challenging times we feel called to press ahead and reach those who are not reached by others.

Sincerely,

Peter Coleman and Roger Drost

Dear Volunteers, Donors and Supporters,

On February 21, 2013, three PHT leaders (Tom Clay, Peter Coleman and Roger Drost) will embark on an ambitious expedition across Nicaragua. We are searching for a land route to reach the villages we have served by boat for 14 years on the Rio Grande de Matagalpa. This expedition does not come without risks and rigorous physical challenges. We are calling it a "Discovery and Prayer Expedition" as we hope to discover a land route to better serve the isolated villages that have, until now, been accessible by river only. We will also be prayerfully considering a long-term and sustainable model to continue to serve these communities.

In addition to the expedition we will be spending some time in Matagalpa, the mountainous temperate rain forest in the center of Nicaragua, to look for new opportunities to serve.

As most of you know, our ongoing work in Nicaragua brings with it great physical and financial challenges. We ask for your ongoing prayers and support for our ministry. To learn more about our new paradigm and our projects please visit our new website.

Please partner with us as we move forward with an exciting new year of service in Nicaragua!

Sincerely,

Peter Coleman and Roger Drost

For 14 years we have been serving the isolated and impoverished communities on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua by boat.  This month we will endeavor to locate a land route to this region to better deliver our ministries.

Originally accessible by water only, we will now try to reach and hopefully serve Makantakita and the surrounding villages by a land route...our expedition begins in 3 weeks!

Greetings friends... we are updating our system to give a new look to the webpage... right now our blog is under construction, please enjoy this video.

Music By: 

http://www.vineyardworship.com/

Dear Volunteers, Donors and Supporters,

We cannot adequately express our gratitude for all you've done on behalf of Peace and Hope Trust and for the impoverished and neglected peoples of Nicaragua's Misquito Coast. You have made personal sacrifices to support or go and serve and rendered the sweat of your brow in service to those who few care about, even in Nicaragua. Do not minimize the importance of what you have done: your efforts to help these forgotten people have made a powerful impact on those seeking a shred of hope in the drudgery of their daily lives and your service is a reflection of Christ's love for the needy in this world.

Through your effort and by God's grace, we were able to construct two rice mill facilities (thus providing increased food security and financial stability in those communities), hold VBS for 100 children (which they will likely never forget), provide every family in Walpa with their first family photo, build a cement walk to a village wharf, distribute 250 mosquito nets (thus combatting the scourge of malaria and dengue fever), provide medical services for a remote jungle community, give every household in one community (likely) their first copy of the Word of God in their native language and build three cement water tanks.

At the risk of asking too much of you, please consider ways you might continue to support our work and ministry and be ambassadors for Peace and Hope among your friends, families and churches. You, more than anyone, know what we do and you understand our unique and challenging ministry. Many of you can tell the compelling story of our pioneering work from personal experience of the remote jungle communities we serve.

Many blessings and thanks,

Roger Drost and Peter Coleman

Dear Friends, Volunteers and Supporters,

It is with great enthusiasm that we approach the beginning of our 2012 Summer Project. We have been blessed with a great team consisting of willing and eager volunteers from ME, MA and VA...a group of 19 in all! Some will be arriving as early as June 30th and they will be here serving in Nicaragua until the third week of July.

We will be serving many isolated and impoverished communities on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua with infrastructure, humanitarian and evangelistic projects. Our aim is to build two diesel powered rice mills to increase the food security and economy in two of these small and hungry communities. We also hope to deliver medicine, mosquito nets and Bibles to other isolated communities in the region and we have been blessed by the support of schools, churches and individuals to support our "Nets for Neighbors" program which will make this important mission possible. A number of our team members have already started the preparation to hold two large Vacation Bible School programs for roughly 200 village children.

The financial and physical challenges to make a pioneering mission like this possible can be daunting. We ask that you keep our team members and our budget in your prayers. The fuel costs to reach these forgotten communities and the costs of the additional measures we undertake to keep our team members safe and well in a challenging environment add up. Your ongoing financial support is an essential part of our work in Nicaragua.

Blessings to you all,

Peter Coleman and Roger Drost

Peter Coleman in Walpa where we will build a concrete bridge, a diesel powered rice mill and conduct a VBS for over 100 children

Peter Coleman with the leaders of AngloAmerica standing on the proposed site for the new diesel powered rice mill to be built in July

Dear Friends, Volunteers and Supporters,

12 years ago Peace and Hope Trust began distributing mosquito nets in the desperately poor and flood-prone jungle village of Esperanza, which was notorious for its voracious clouds of mosquitoes, especially during the rainy season. After volunteers spent some nights in this village, which lies along the Rio Grande de Matagalpa, they found it lived up to its reputation as a haven for this deadly and annoying insect. During one of our first visits to that community, while providing relief after a flood, a woman asked our volunteer team for a mosquito net, and it became clear that distributing nets could be a tremendous and life saving blessing to a community by curbing the spread of Malaria and Dengue Fever.

Since then, every year during the rainy season, we go door to door in a village to distribute nets and have provided between 800 and 900 nets to the villages of Esperanza, Company Creek and Makantakita, as well as to isolated homes along the river. During the last two years, our Nets for Neighbors program at North Shore Community Baptist Church has provided sufficient funding to increase the number of nets we deliver to these communities. Many thanks to the church members who purchased a net (or several) for someone in these jungle villages. We plan to reach many other communities with nets as we continue our work along the river in the years ahead. If you would like to raise funds for mosquito nets in your church, civic group or community, we would be grateful for your help. Please contact Roger Drost ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).

Blessings to you all,

Peter Coleman and Roger Drost

For 12 years PHT US has been distributing life saving mosquito nets on Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast

Dear Friends, Volunteers and Supporters,

During this time of trying financial times for our ongoing work in Nicaragua, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on something positive and recognize the sacrifice and service of a dear friend of our organization and a person we have been working with deep in the jungles of Nicaragua for nearly 10 years, Mrs. Lila Bendliss.

Lila is a Miskito speaking Nicaraguan and a Registered Nurse. She is greatly respected by our volunteers and she is very talented at treating the medical/health needs of some of the poorest and most isolated people of the Americas with compassion, dignity and great efficiency and skill. She is from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and accompanied our Summer 2011 volunteers to help us provide holistic support to the nearly forgotten people we serve. In the days that Lila worked with us in July she treated roughly 160 patients with medicine and supplies mobilized in the United States. While Lila is fighting diabetes and high blood pressure, and with an injury to her leg from falling on her first day in Company Creek, she pressed on with Peace and Hope to serve her people along side of us. We are all inspired and blessed by her abilities and her heart for her people.

Your donations and support help us pay people like Lila, purchase medicine and medical supplies and make our medical interventions possible. There is always a lull in giving after our summer projects and we are feeling the pressure of the economic downturn now more than ever before. Our commitment to the isolated and impoverished people of Nicaragua continues to be implemented daily. Your ongoing support is ever-so-valuable and needed and without it we would not be able to serve these forgotten and disenfranchised people.

Blessings to you all,

Peter Coleman
Resident Country Director

Lila in Company Creek attending to patients who would otherwise have no access to medical care or medicine

Dear Friends, Volunteers and Supporters,

We are pleased to officially announce that Roger Drost has accepted a position with Peace and Hope Trust as our U.S. Field Director. Roger has been serving in Nicaragua for 13 years and served as a Trustee with Peace and Hope Trust since 2002. We are excited about the future of our work and grateful that Roger has made this significant commitment to our ongoing service to the poor and isolated people of Nicaragua.

We would also like to say a very special "thanks" to North Shore Community Baptist Church for extending their facilities to Peace and Hope Trust. Roger Drost will be setting up the new Peace and Hope office at the NSCBC facility in the weeks ahead and we are grateful for their generosity and support.

We thank you all for your support and want to remind you that there is always a lull in giving after our summer projects. Our commitment to the isolated and impoverished people of Nicaragua continues to be implemented daily. Your ongoing support is ever-so-valuable and needed and without it we would not be able to serve these forgotten and disenfranchised people.

Blessings to you all,

Peter Coleman
Resident Country Director

Roger Drost
working on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

Dear Friends, Volunteers and Supporters,

I have just returned from a terrific trip to the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Peace and Hope Trust had the privilege of hosting a great team of volunteers from VA and MA. We were able to accomplish more than expected in our trip. We delivered mosquito nets to Makantakita and some isolated families living on the Rio Grande de Matagalpa. We conducted an amazing 4 day VBS program and hosted a Nicaraguan nurse to treat many (perhaps hundreds) needy patients in Company Creek and Esperanza.

The bulk of our manpower and resources went into the construction of a solar powered radio outpost and building a cement path through the mud to the new Moravian Church which the small community is in the process of building. Don't miss the photo of our inauguration of our radio outpost below!

We thank you all for your support and remind you that while our summer project is over, our commitment to the isolated and impoverished people of Nicaragua continues to be implemented daily. Your ongoing support is ever-so-valuable and needed and without it we would not be able to serve these forgotten and disenfranchised people.

Blessings to you all,

Peter Coleman
Resident Country Director

Celebrating the opening of the radio outpost in Company Creek

Dear Friends, Volunteers and Supporters,

This week marks the beginning of our Summer 2011 Projects! We will be hosting a group of more than 15 people deep in the jungles of Nicaragua to serve the most isolated and impoverished villages on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast: Makantakita, Esperanza and Company Creek.

We are approximately $3,800 short of our project budget and we need your financial help! We will be building a solar powered 2-way radio communication outpost, a cement wharf, delivering mosquito nets and Miskito Bibles, conducting a VBS program and hosting a small medical team to reach out to our dear brothers and sisters in dire need.

Without your support our mission into the jungle to serve these humble people and to do our small but important good works and Christian charity would not be possible. Please consider a last-minute gift to this important project and partner with us as we press ahead with this life-transforming project. Thank you!

Blessings to you all,

Peter Coleman
Resident Country Director