How & why did RHC start?
A note from our Founder
When I (Andy Richers- Founder) entered a time in my life when everything important to me collapsed, I felt completely alone and lost. I finally began my relationship with God. I quickly found a calling to live a different life and discerned that becoming a third-world missionary was the right path, to the point of preparing an application. My pastor and spiritual guide helped me begin a deeper discernment of what I was being called to, rather than letting my interests guide my call.
I started by spending weeks at a remote site in the Dominican Republic (DR) on the border with Haiti. There, I fell in love with joining missionaries from the United States to solve basic needs and enter into spiritual communion with the poor residents there. This ultimately led me on a path to my wife, who was uniquely able to help me act on my calling. Her childhood connection to a mission site in El Salvador opened a door for me to help meet the faith needs of a barrio that could not afford basic infrastructure for its poor parishioners and create a path for many North Americans to experience what I had, through establishing Richers Hope Charities (RHC).
Richers Hope Charities now funds and organizes projects in El Salvador, and works with the organization, Commissioned By Christ, to bring groups of missionaries from the United States down to assist in our various mission projects. These projects have included renovating a church, updating a senior citizen facility, providing dental care, etc. I get no greater joy in life than seeing missionaries touched by the Holy Spirit as they meet and love others.
RHC works with the bishop, sisters, and the lay ladies organization of Saint Paul, working in El Salvador. Our initial focus was on the needs that parishioners could not raise funds for, such as a large Church maintenance and remodeling project, and a ground-up rebuild and restoration of a chapel. Since completing those projects, we have shifted our focus to other unmet needs of the poor, such as major safety and health corrections to a homeless senior citizen facility. We are also in the initial phase of a major upgrade for a dental clinic, with the vision of supporting dental missionaries and funding local dentists to provide far-reaching service to the suffering poor.
