We at A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES believe that there is always hope in this world and that it is available to everyone. Our goal is to use the best means available,(through newspaper, radio, or the Internet), to reach the most people with everlasting hope.

Our only desire is to share with you what we've found about living a life of hope. Through this newspaper column, we try to present to you real experiences from everyday people such as ourselves. We don't assume we know it all, but we do believe we know the way to find ultimate happiness and peace.

Have you ever noticed that there are very few universal experiences in life? There are a few though; these rare events give us an experience that everyone can relate to. One experience that no one can avoid is the feeling of hardship. We all know the feeling of being down in the ditch, feeling like there is no hope. Our struggles come in every shape and size, but hopelessness is something that we've all shared.

For some people the struggle is with themselves, with their emotions, self-confidence, or depression. Others are bombarded and attacked by situations of the world.

However, no matter how difficult our struggles, there is always hope. No matter how long we've fought to overcome our hardship, there is always hope for the future, for peace, for happiness. The trick to finding this hope is to look in the right place. During the next few weeks, we'd like to share how it is possible for you to experience hope for a better life.

Friend, throughout our life we are lured into countless situations that offer to return hope, only to find ourselves back in hard times. In our desperation, we have been convinced to seek hope through medicine, relationships, ethics, philosophy, hobbies, education, etc. While most of these are great courses to pursue, none of them will bring you true hope.

Then, still in desperation, we attempt to find a cure to life's problems by doing things that we know are wrong, things that we call sin. All of us at one point have tried to patch a hole in our life with a sin of some kind, like drugs, inappropriate relationships, lying, or materialism.

The sad truth is that sin can never fix life's problems. And, the worst part is that sin unfortunately only makes it worse. Sin is just a temporary fix for a problem that really has only one solution.

True hope can only be found through the pursuit of something greater than yourself. That greater being is God.If you would like to know more about developing a meaningful relationship with God, we encourage you to write for a small booklet entitled, "How to find God".To receive your free copy of this booklet, write to Discovering A BETTER LIFE, P.O. Box 1540, Albany Western Australia, 6331 or Email us at: abl-alb@omninet.net.au