Smithville First Christian Church
JustHope
Creating global partnerships that combat extreme poverty and nurture sustainable community.
JustHope Update
Dear Friends of JustHope,
Over the past few years JustHope activities have been in transition. During 2025, several JustHope partners visited Chacraseca, Nicaragua to continue our collaboration. We celebrate that we saw continuing success and growth of the microcredit women’s groups, ongoing commitment of the Stitching Hope women; and impressive progress of the scholarship students! Clearly, JustHope continued to generate creative blessing in 2025.
The biggest change we now face is one we’ve been working toward for years - the transition from being a North American based non-profit to becoming a truly local Nicaraguan organization led by Nicaraguans! This transition includes endings and beginnings, with reasons to celebrate and also to grieve. The Nicaraguan political system and international relations with the U.S. government have continued to deteriorate, making travel and organizational partnership more difficult. Although we have generous and faithful donors who continue to share financial resources, our mission and model must adapt to the changing context on the ground. Therefore, we will be closing down the Tulsa-based operations by July 1, 2026 and transitioning operational and administrative leadership to the new independent organization established by the women who have been leading JustHope’s micro-credit program for the last 17 years.
These amazing women have been in the complex and rigorous process of legalizing their own indigenous organization for over two years. And have continued to embody stubborn hope in the face of numerous road-blocks! Now they are ready to take on the hard work of not only managing their highly successful microcredit program, but also supervising the scholarship programs they are inheriting, managing the 8 acers that served as the model farm, welcoming friends and groups from the US, and pursuing other ideas and projects toward the dream of a thriving Chacraseca!
As part of the legal transition from being US based to being Nicaraguan based, we will be transferring all donated project funds to this new Nicaraguan-led organization. We ask you to please continue your financial support of JustHope through June of 2026 to make it
possible for us to complete the legal and ethical obligations in both countries to make this transition successful. Beyond June, the new leaders in Chacraseca will treasure your ongoing support. We will provide more information in the Spring about the ways you can continue your support.
Leslie Penrose wrote these words that appeared on the JustHope website for years:
“JustHope’s mission is to create long-term global partnerships between Nicaraguan
and U.S. communities in order to combat extreme poverty and increase global understanding.
By engaging one another in cultural exchanges, cooperative learning, mutual dialogue, and sharing resources, we work collaboratively to develop local leadership, empower self–determination, and embody our core values of collaboration, solidarity, mutuality, and sustainability.
Indeed, across the past 19 years, JustHope has lived out its mission. Together with all of you, we have coordinated long-term partnerships that have resulted in lifle-changing cultural encounters and will continue to develop in new ways going forward. And hrough our programs in agriculture, health, education, and social enterprise we have made a significant contribution to the present and future well being of people who live in Chacraseca and La Flor. We celebrate the rich relationships and sacred encounters we have shared in both countries, and look forward to watching how the work we started grows and develops in the hands of new indigenous leaders.
THANK YOU for your part in JustHope’s story! We hope friends of JustHope will continue to form teams and travel to Nicaragua in future years. If you have questions or want to discuss these changes, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our board members. (listed below). We will update you again in the Spring as the transition progresses. In the meantime, please continue to share generously as you are able. Your donations are still changing lives!
With Sincere Joy and Hope,
Kathy McCallie, Leslie Penrose
Board President Founder of JustHope and Board Secretary
Kathy.mccallie@ptstulsa.edu Revlesliepen@gmail.com
Michael Quintin Lynne Bradley
Board Treasurer Board Director
T150scouter@gmail.com lbradley93168@gmail.com
Faith-Based Partners
JustHope supports several styles of partnership, each with its own level of commitment and type of participation. But all of them begin with the recognition that although one’s partner may not be “equal” in wealth, power, or access to opportunity, or may not be “equal” in spiritual depth or the capacity for hope, they are of equal value and have equal rights to dignity, respect, and human flourishing.
Learn more about our partnership styles here.
College Hill Presbyterian, Tulsa, OK
College Hill's mission to build an inclusive community of faith, recieve and openly share the love of God, and reach out with a ccompassionate voice for peace and justice, fits perfectly in a partnership with JustHope and our friends and partners in Nicaragua.
Messiah Community Church, ELCA, Denver
This partnership was formed in 2010. Messiah piloted the 20 Women of Hope project in 2012, which they have continued to support ever since. They also support microcredit projects and the Dreaming Together Hardware Store. We excitedly anticipate the future journey of this partnership.
Federated Church, UCC, Chagrin Falls, OH
Federated Church first met JustHope in 2011 when JustHope submitted a proposal for help in establishing a project called Stitching Hope.
St. Andrews Lutheran Church and Campus Center, Champaign, IL
St. Andrew's is an ELCA church and also a campus center, which means they worship as part of an inter-generational congregation, but one that is rooted in a campus community.
First Congregational Church, UCC Topeka, KS
First Church of Topeka birthed its partnership with JustHope in 2010 by hosting a delegation from Nicaragua and offering a holiday "fair trade" store where items from Nicaraguan artists were sold.
Partridge Community Church, UCC Partridge, KS
Partridge Community Church, an Exploring Partner, works with the community of Santa Emilia on community projects based on the needs of the community, as prioritized by community leaders. In the past their support has included building houses, building a school cafeteria, clinic support, microcredit support, and sewing lessons.
First Christian Church (DOC), Harrisonville, MO
First Christian, whose history includes work in the abolitionist movement, is an Exploring Partner with JustHope. First Church's exploring relationship with Chacraseca began when their pastor participated in a global immersion trip with Phillips Seminary. They took the lead in a collaborative effort to build and sustain a small laboratory in Chacraseca's clinic.
Disciples Christian Church & Chacraseca, Nicaragua
Disciples Christian Church (DCC) of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, took its first partnership exploration trip to Chacraseca, Nicaragua in March of 2009.
Ktizo UCC, Phoenix
In 2009, Ktizo Church (formerly the Church of the Beatitudes, Phoenix) — a vibrant, diverse, progressive community of faith — established a Covenant Partnership with La Flor, a small, isolated Nicaraguan community.
Trinity United Church, Cheney, Kansas
Trinity Church is a growing, family-oriented church in the Wichita suburb of Cheney, Kansas.
United Church of the Valley & Chacraseca, Nicaragua
UCV is a vital and growing progressive congregation in the Temecula Valley of Southern California. The project focus of this Covenant Partnership is music education for the children of Chacraseca, aimed at helping them reconnect with Nicaragua's rich tradition of folk music.
Oklahoma UCC Churches & Chacraseca, Nicaragua
The partnership started in 2004 when the Association churches joined together to raise $5,000 to start a microenterprise bank for the small farmers in Chacreseca. The difficulties of sustaining family farms is something Oklahomans understand all too well; and this partnership is rooted in the shared experience of nurturing new life from tiny seeds. JustHope has now engaged the Oklahoma churches in other life-sustaining projects— clean water, microenterprise, sewing cooperatives, and community bakeries.