About

Hi I’m Kate, thanks for visiting Hope & Savvy!

Who I am: A follower of Jesus.
Love: Married to my best friend Joe, who fills my life with joy and laughter.
Kids: I am mommy to 4 awesome kids, one of them through adoption.
Work: Director of Let them LOL.{Follow the link to learn more}
Random: I am a fan of Jack Sparrow and all things Savvy.

This blog is meant to be a place to share the stories of what God is doing, and what I am learning along the way. My hope is that you will be encouraged in your journey.

Follow the links to learn more about the story behind the name Hope & Savvy.

Photos from Africa are by sjbridgeman.com.

Why Hope?

def. desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment.

Why Hope? As the Director of a charity working in Sierra Leone, Africa it is rare that a day or two passes without something amazing happening.  As these moments come up I can’t help but share them with others. The more and more I’ve shared them, the more people have been encouraged. It is really fun to see someone’s eyes twinkle when they hear a wonderful story. It is even more exciting to be a part of watching someone’s life turn from despair to hope, as we so often get to see with our friends in Sierra Leone. Hope is truly contagious and this is why I was looking for a place to share these hope stories. May they inspire you to believe you too can make a difference in the world.

What is let them LOL?

A few years ago, my husband Joe and I learned that there are nearly 1 billion people on our planet without access to clean, safe drinking water. And even more heart wrenching, approximately 4,000 children die every day from water related disease.

We weren’t sure what to do, but we knew we had to do something. We weren’t ok with 4,000 children dying every day just because they didn’t have access to clean water. We also knew that there were a lot of other people who wouldn’t be OK with it either.

My husband Joe has a very strange laugh. It’s the kind that turns heads; everyone looks and then starts laughing. So we put his laugh on a ring tone, and sold the ring tone to raise funds and awareness about the water issue. We called it “let them LOL (laugh out loud).” “Let them” because we believe many people in the world are experiencing unjust suffering only because they lack the most basic resources for a better future. By giving them a basic resource like clean water, we are helping them embrace a better future. And “laugh out loud” because we are using laughter to raise awareness about this issue.

When we started it we didn’t have big ambitions to start a huge organization, we just wanted to help people. We underestimated the power of friends, family and communities coming together to change the world. To date we have funded 80 clean water wells! Thousands of people’s lives have been impacted.

To learn more about let them LOL, follow this link.

“We all cannot do great things, but we all can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresea