Hope Blog

What's new at Hope.

  1. Christmas Eve Candlelight Service from 5-6:00 PM

    Community Updates

    Come as you are: dressed for photos in front of the tree or with the kids in pajamas. Begin a tradition with us Christmas Eve at 5:00 PM.  Bring your family and friends to sing the carols and hear the story once again of when Hope came as a human and lived among us.

    Then stand in the darkness as the first candle is lit and see it slowly spread across the room, candle to candle. Until at last, enveloped in the glow, we remember when The Light came into the world and pierced the darkness.

  2. Outreach Book Is Here!

    Community Updates

    Hope Chapel,

    Our outreach book Reset is finally here. Thank you to everyone who participated in giving testimonies and to those who have prayed for this project. We have two more phases to go!

    1. I want you to take a copy home and read it. Then please ask God who would be a good person to share the book with. Don’t be afraid to give up your copy. I can always order another box of 50 if you want to reread it. Remember, this is a tool to help people far from God come close by coming to know Him. We need to ask Him for fruitfulness, wisdom and grace throughout this whole endeavor.
    2. The last phase is where we have the opportunity to sponsor books being sent directly to homes in the Hope Chapel neighborhood. It’s going to come across as “hey, we published this book and we’re proud of how it turned out. Since you’re a neighbor, we wanted you to have a free publisher’s copy.” It’s not weird at all and has -traditionally- had a high readership rate. The goal is to reach the unreached in our midst. If you want to fill out a sponsorship card to help me with this part, let me know. Or, if you just want to help by donating a small amount to the Outreach Book account to help cover the costs from publishing the book, you can do that as well.

    Thanks! And please keep praying for God’s grace to draw people to Him.

    Matt

  3. Heart Gallery Reception

    HopeArts

    This particular gallery exhibit is a joint partnership between Hope Homes Foster/Adopt Ministry, and Hope Chapel’s Art Ministry, displaying Partnership for Children’s “Heart Gallery” Project.

     

    Exhibit Reception is Saturday, December 8th, from 7-9 P.M., with food, musical performance, storytelling and spoken word.

    The show hangs in the gallery through New Years, and is viewable anytime the church is open (call office for more times).

    Taken from the Heart Gallery website: “The Heart Gallery of Central Texas is an art exhibit and community education/outreach initiative featuring children who are waiting for adoption. We work to find forever families for children through direct recruitment opportunities and education of foster and adoptive families.  At the core of this outreach is simply a picture. But there is nothing simple about it; our volunteer photographers truly capture a child’s spirit in every shot. These pictures speak louder than words, they say, “I’m here and I am special.”

     

    Hanging this show in our gallery is more than just offering wallspace to a really good cause. The viewer, at the reception, encounters an experience of profound and deep connection:

    We are all adopted by God, “adopted” children and co-heirs with Christ; all of us “orphaned” in some ways, but as Christ promised, not ”left as orphans in this world”; we all have the experience of choosing those who are not our own, and may or may not receive us back; all have experience rescuing the abandoned or of being abandoned ourselves; being lonely yet put into families, and welcoming into our families the lonely; all just as God does with us with His incomparable Father’s Heart.

    Echoes of this connection reverberate and deepen as we engage our spirituality corporately worshipping amidst the very efforts to place the lonely in earthly families, to defend the helpless, to provide for the needy, to welcome the little children as our Savior did. Viewing the exhibit we realize we stand together amid the very heart of God for the restoration of all persons within His design for creation  (spiritually and practically).

    And, hopefully, we are quickened.