Making a Global Impact Since 2003
Helping Hands Foreign Missions is a Great Commission-based ministry mobilizing individuals and churches to the nations. We have been making a global impact since our formation in 2003 by Drs. Richard and Brenda Kowalske of Gainesville, Georgia. Our current international ministry sites are in Uganda, Africa; Bolivia, South America; and Brazil, South America, with significant partnerships in Germany and Argentina.
Our ministry began in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where we developed a 60-acre complex that reaches thousands of people each year with the Gospel. National missionaries are trained and empowered to continue the work of leading this thriving ministry.
In the early days of the ministry, Richard and Brenda met Viktor Thiessen, a man from Germany, while studying at Word of Life Bible Institute in Argentina in 2004. Because of this connection, friends in Germany became partners in ministry. Many volunteers have been sent through this partnership, with some becoming full-time missionaries in Uganda.
In April 2012, Helping Hands purchased 133 acres to build a village for orphans and vulnerable children in the eastern region of Uganda, Africa. The groundbreaking ceremony for this special place we call The Village of Eden was on Good Friday that year.
Currently, the Village of Eden infrastructure includes eight children’s cottages, a primary school for Christian-based education, a medical clinic, and, at the center of it all, a church that was established for the community. Every day, missionaries are busy carrying out our ministry activities.
Our global vision continues to expand as we grow the ministry of Vinde Meninos in Brazil, South America. This outreach center ministers to children living in desperate situations in the slums of Sao Paulo. Vinde Meninos provides a daily meal, skill-building activities, tutoring and homework assistance, and weekly discipleship in an after-school program setting. Missionaries from different countries around the world are making a difference in the lives of these children every day.
We would love for you to consider connecting to global missions in a greater way by joining us as we carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.