About Bethany | Poems | House Specs | Donor Stories | Completed Homes
 Faith turns a father's tragedy into hope for the poor
On January 31, 1998, my daughter Bethany, an Army Specialist 4 crew chief, was killed maintaining a Blackhawk helicopter at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She was 22 years old and in training to be a test pilot.
She died doing what she loved but I had lost my youngest daughter and best friend.
I was devastated, unable to work or communicate with others-lost in a world of pain.
What has kept him going, Les says, is his faith in God and the desire to keep Bethany's memory alive.
Bethany Village, a 250-home community for the poor in Masaya, Nicaragua was born from the desire of a father to keep his daughter's memory alive.
But Bethany Stewart won't be the only person memorialized by the community. While the village will bear her name, it will be filled with homes dedicated to the memory, or to the honor, of whomever each house's sponsor chooses. Click here to sponsor a home.
"Everyone has someone they love and would like to honor," Les said. "This is a way to do that and help a deserving poor family at the same time."
This project will provide sturdy new homes for 250 destitute families, some of whom are still suffering the after effects of an earthquake that struck Nicaraguan in July of 2000. Although the number of victims is much greater, this development will solve the urgent need for shelter for hundreds of people whose lives are plagued by extreme poverty.
 To date, a total of 180 homes have now been constructed. Click here to help us reach our goal of 250 homes. $2,600 can build a home for a destitute family.
Bethany Village already has more than 140 sponsors, including both corporations and individuals. Home construction is under way and a well to provide safe drinking water has been installed. A group of doctors have expressed interest in constructing a medical clinic, and there are plans for the construction of a school and a church.
While the homes in Bethany Village will be gifts to poor families, the planning of the village has been its own gift of healing for Les.
"It's changed my life," he said. "The more I help, the more it helps me. Every time I do something (toward the realization of Bethany Village), I think of her."
Click here to donate now!
| 
