How It Got Started

The year of 2003 was a year of change for my family. By taking on the small ministry of picking up children for New Hope Independent Baptist Church, we did not know that we would be taking on our future family. I’ll never forget the day Dad sat the family down and told us that we were going to be picking up the bus ministry of our church. At first, I’ll admit, I did not want to take this on. These children were from, what I say, filthy homes. I didn’t want this, but I acted as if I was excited. I had a lot of bitterness in my heart at that time, and this was the last thing that I wanted to do.

Once we started, I knew that I would have to give these children love, but I was determined not to do so deep down within myself. God had a different plan for me, however. When I gave my faked love to these love-starving children, they gave me so much more. I became so overwhelmed; and on a Sunday morning, I went to the altar and gave it up to my forgiving Lord. During my time at the altar, our pastor gave an invitation to salvation. As I rose from the altar, I saw one of the children raise her hand. God gave me the opportunity to lead that child to Christ, and He has given me a love for the ministry ever since.

We renamed the children we picked up the “Hope Kids” because we realized they are the hope of our future. We realized that if we were going to win the world for Christ that it was mandatory to start with the children. After all, “The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.” We are trying to be God’s hand to rock the cradles that might one day make decisions that could affect our Christian nation.

In the year of 2008, God made it clear that we were no longer to attend New Hope Independent Baptist Church. The Sunday that we told the Hope Kids is a Sunday I’ll never forget. We were all in tears because we thought we were going to have to leave our ministry, that had blossomed into family, for good. With tears we said goodbye. But praise be to God, He, through many circumstances, gave the Hope ministry back to us.

Later on I’ll post some stories about what happened next.

Stay tuned