I’m Mark Kreikemeier and I live in Alpharetta, Georgia with my wife and three children. In 2009, I reluctantly went on a mission trip to Venezuela with eight folks from our church, First Baptist Church Alpharetta.
One evening our mission was to deliver food to the people of Maracaibo. The local church member picked which “houses” would receive food. I will never forget walking down the dirt roads passing children that were just hoping you would stop at their house. My heart was aching thinking about all the children that would not receive food that night.
As we got to the “house” a little girl came running, jumping, and screaming out of the house. She was a little older than my own daughter. Her face will be forever burned onto my heart. As she and her grandmother hugged us, they told us they had not eaten in three days and were not sure where their next meal would come from. God put on my heart to do something to help these people.
Six months went by while I was trying to ignore what God made clear in my life that He can not be ignored. That is how Bread of Hope began