From a Hotel Room to a Sanctuary of Hope

We never planned to start a movement.

My name is Angie, and together with my husband Andy, we’ve walked through seasons we wouldn’t wish on anyone. We’ve known what it feels like to be homeless, to live in a hotel room with our daughter Haley, wondering how we would survive another week. We’ve felt the weight of financial ruin, the pain of family separation, and the daily struggle of caring for a child with special needs.

In our darkest moments, love showed up — not always as money or resources, but as people who simply showed up and cared. That love changed everything.

Out of that pain, Held By Love was born.

We started with one simple idea: What if we made love visible? What if we challenged ourselves and others to live out Matthew 25 — to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, and care for those who are hurting?

From that hotel room, we began sharing daily kindness challenges. People started joining. Ambassadors signed up. Acts of compassion began lighting up our Global Kindness Map. What started as our survival story became a growing movement of ordinary people doing extraordinary acts of love.

Now we feel God calling us to something even bigger.

We are building Shangri-La Pour Tous Jours — “Heaven on Earth Forever” — a healing sanctuary for veterans, families experiencing homelessness, and animals. A place where people can find not just shelter, but dignity, trauma healing, purpose, and community. A place where veterans and animals can heal together. A place where no one has to walk through hardship alone.

This sanctuary will offer transitional housing, counseling, vocational training, animal-assisted therapy, and a community grounded in compassion and faith.

We can’t do this alone.

We are raising funds to secure land, begin development, and launch the first phase of this vision while we complete our 501(c)(3) process. Every single dollar will go directly toward making this sanctuary a reality and expanding our daily kindness movement.

Your support means more than you know.

Whether you give $5, $25, $100, or become a monthly partner — you are helping turn our pain into purpose and helping us create a place of hope for those who need it most.

If you can’t give financially, we still need you. Share this campaign, pray for us, or join the kindness movement as an Ambassador.

Together, we can prove that love is stronger than hardship.

From a hotel room to a sanctuary of hope — will you help us build it?

Thank you for being part of our story.

With grateful hearts,

Angie & Andy

Co-Founders, Held By Love