Welcome to the WI blog and Hope to the DR!

Welcome to the World Impact blog!

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read our blog! We hope for this to be a main thoroughfare of information and inspiration for involvement in impacting our world. If you want to keep up with all that's happening with Hope World Impact, make sure you sign up to follow the blog. As a follower, you will get an email message whenever the blog is updated. Then you can read the blog at your convenience.

You will find links to different mission efforts both here in our own metro Richmond area, and abroad. Check them out to learn more about what God is doing in the world. Maybe He would like you to join Him in that work. Comments are welcome, as are suggestions.

This Christmas season at Hope you will see many opportunities to share blessings with others. Many have already brought filled shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and children all over the world will be blessed by your gifts! Remember to pray for that child, whoever he or she may be, in the coming month.

There is also a shoe drive in December in correlation with the sermon series. Gently used shoes will be collected and sent to Soles4Souls where they will be sent to the needy in the US and abroad. So those shoes you bought for your son for that wedding that he only wore once, and very grudgingly, can now have a grateful new owner!

We are also hosting a Christmas party for the children from the Youth Life Foundation Learning Center in Highland Park, on Friday, Dec. 19. If you're curious to know about them, click on their link on the right.


And make sure you greet Chris and Leah who are home for a few weeks to introduce their new son, Bennett to family and friends in the US. They are working to reach the artist community in the capital city of a Southeast Asian country. If you want to know more, I can't tell you here, but you can ask them. They'd love to tell you more! Chris and Leah and family will be at Hope in late December.

There's something for everyone this holiday season.... so let's share the joy!


Hope to the Dominican Republic

Each year Thanksgiving rolls quietly up to my home and gently reminds me of all that God has provided for me over the past year. Squeezed in between the sugar rush of Halloween and the hectic days of Christmas, Thanksgiving has become for me a quiet time for my family to get together, EAT, and catch up on kids, jobs, and who we are becoming as children of God.

This year, for a handful of youth from Hope and a few parents, Thanksgiving became even more meaningful this year. For 7 days, they gave up family time, turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, (and pumpkin pie!) to travel to the small town of Hato Mayor in eastern Dominican Republic. Hope Church has been sending teams there almost since our beginning as a church, and these kids joined the list of those whose lives have been changed in one short week.

Their time was divided between building a home in a poverty stricken neighborhood outside the city, welcoming neighborhood children to a VBS, visiting homes with gifts of food and prayer, and painting the new building for Shalom Church (our hosts).

This list reveals what they DID, but much was also gained that we may never see with our eyes. When asked what they came away with from week, the 13-18 year-olds gave these answers:

• We need to trust God more.
• We need to listen for Him more to understand His will for us.
• We need to give him the opportunity to work in our lives; he can’t work if we’re always trying to control things.
• Things do not equal happiness.
• Relationship and fellowship is important.
• We can better prepare ourselves for worship.
• We all can give more of ourselves to the Lord so He can work through us.

Pretty deep stuff, huh? Check out the slideshow below to see some pictures of the trip.

If this has piqued your interest and you'd like information about an upcoming trip to the DR (June 20-27), Hungary or Asia, drop me a line! I'd love to hear from you!