Connect with Hope

by Merv Thompson
Teaching pastor

For several years, Mission Rio Grande has engaged the imaginations and passions of a number of people from Lutheran Church of Hope, causing them to travel to Mexican border cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. Partnering with Pastor Rosemary Sanchez-Guzman and members of her Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey congregation, team members have undertaken myriad projects, construction, painting, maintenance, as well as sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through worship, prayer, children’s ministry and personal relationships.

During the most recent 2011 sojourn, Pastor Sanchez-Guzman, while expressing deep appreciation to all team members for their many gifts of love and service, challenged them to now go back to West Des Moines, to Lutheran Church of Hope, look in our back yard and discern how God might use them to reach out to Latinos in our own community.  It is wonderful to be missionaries in foreign lands, so much is needed; but that does not mean we should ignore the needs at home, just down the street and across the town.

The team was so moved by Pastor Sanchez-Guzman’s Spirit-filled words that someone immediately sent a message via Facebook to Senior Pastor Mike Housholder, repeating the challenge from Pastor Rosemary and informing him that the team was now returning home on fire for beginning a ministry for Latinos. Even though it was late at night (does the man ever sleep?), Mike replied clearly and unequivocally, “I am totally in favor of your vision, go for it.” Amen and Amen.

As soon as the team arrived back in West Des Moines an appointment was made with Chief Ministry Officer Gus Gustafson. He was equally as encouraging. “Whatever I can do to help you in this venture I will do,” he promised. He explained, The next step for you is to begin to pray and come up with an action plan to bring to the Lutheran Church of Hope church council. What made it such a God thing is that when word started to spread about this new ministry, new people just showed up to be a part of the time, some of them bilingual, some with deep resumes of working with Latinos in the past.

Some of the content of the action plan was as follows:

Aim-Agenda. “To bring God’s Word to people in their language, creating an opportunity for people to worship and learn and grow regardless of any language barriers.

Problem-Opportunity. The Latino population in the Des Moines area is growing, and there are few Spanish-speaking ministries to serve it. To make heaven more crowded, we wish to provide a ministry to this community in its own language.

Mission-Vision. We believe this ministry is consistent with the overall vision of Hope: to reach out to the world around us and share the everlasting love of Jesus Christ. That world around us at Lutheran Church of Hope most definitely includes Spanish-speaking residents. By the way, 23 percent of U.S. Latinos identify themselves as Protestant; and, at present, there is no other Lutheran congregation in the community that is providing these resources.

Solution. Develop a culturally relevant program at Hope for Latinos.

When the Latino Ministry team met with the Lutheran Church of Hope church council in August of 2011, it  unpacked three initial goals.

1.  Serve, minister and worship shoulder to shoulder with Latinos, and incorporate staff and members in this ministry.
2.  Begin a “simultaneous interpretation” of the worship service and sermon as a temporary solution for Latino worship.
3. Plug into the Thursday Outreach Night event, in which food, clothes, fellowship, worship and support groups are offered for all.  In addition, permission was granted to order more than a hundred Spanish Bibles, to be given away when appropriate.

With permission granted, the  team now began making plans to reach out to Latinos on Thursday nights. Fliers were developed and distributed at the
huge Latino Heritage Festival held each fall in downtown Des Moines. In addition, the team members printed T-shirts that had “Hope en Accion” (Hope in Action) on the front, and the mission statement on the back (in Spanish).

Outreach Night began slowly for the Latino population. One family showed up, then another, word got out and another came. The Latino Ministry team showed up each week to provide hospitality, relationships and bilingual communication. It was not long before the team wanted to offer more than just food and fellowship, and so a Bible study was implemented following the meal.

At first it began at a table in The Bridge, but then it grew to a point where a separate room was needed to handle all of the people, both children and adults.  Soon the children and adults were moved to a separate place where the children could have more of a “Sunday school Kingdom Quest experienc,” with videos, teaching and interaction, most of this in English. They were taught and engaged in Bible study in Spanish.

At Christmas of 2011, the first simultaneous translation of the sermon and worship service took place. This enabled any person with a Spanish language background to go to the Welcome Center, secure some headphones, and then be able to listen to the message in Spanish.

By early 2012 the numbers of Latinos who attended Thursday Outreach Night have grown to more than 100 per week. Almost half of them remain after the Thursday meal at 5:00 pm for fellowship, Bible study and worship (re:vive for young adults meets on Thursday evenings). An expanded Latino Ministry team continues to welcome and show hospitality to all who come on Thursdays, and those who are bilingual have even more opportunities for such interaction.

The Latino Ministry team identified a need to the church council and the need has only intensified since then, that an ultimate goal would be secure a full-time staff person of Latino heritage to lead this ministry. This would then make it possible to fulfill a second goal, to host a Latino worship service each week, with the appropriate music, language, etc. And remembering that the original challenge came from Pastor Rosemary Sanchez-Guzman, there is the strong desire to build even stronger ties with her congregation.

Because of the connection with re:vive  and the fact that some of the Latinos are part of this community, the leaders of re:vive are looking closely at developing closer ties to this new ministry. In fact, they are going to host a trip this Mission Rio Grande and are launching a ministry to teens. This could make a huge impact on the entire ministry.

There are also plans be made to have the Latino mission featured rather prominently at the Taste of Hope event during the summer. This could include providing culturally relevant components such as Mexican food, organizing Latin music with mariachis, a taco truck and Spanish style dancing.

A major breakthrough in the visibility of this ministry has just taken place with the request of one of the families to hold a quinceanera at Lutheran Church of Hope.  What is a quinceanera? In the Spanish culture, there is a tradition that when a young girl reaches 15 years of age, she is honored with a ceremony that recognizes that she is now moving from childhood to adulthood. Oftentimes this event incorporates a blessing from the church, and this will certainly be a part of this celebration. Other families have expressed interest in Hope hosting their daughters’ quinceanera as well.

Please pray for this new ministry, to bless the present volunteers, bring new ones, to unearth some potential bilingual staff and volunteers. There is so much potential to reach the Latino community in the Des Moines area, and vision that God has revealed to us.

By Mark Hoffschneider
Missions director

What is your earliest memory of going to church? Was the church building unique? Did it have a traditional spire and bells?

For most of us in America, the thought of our childhood church probably conjures up images of a stately building with the sign out front indicating what the week’s sermon title would be. For most in Ghana, Sunday morning worship might be gathering outside, under the blazing sun, in plastic lawn chairs.

Or if a village is blessed with a big mango tree, those plastic lawn chairs would be placed under the tree and the drums would signal the start of worship. Walls, windows, pulpits and steeples are not found in rural Ghana.

As Hope embarks on another Lenten season, we turn our attention to Christ and his sacrifice for our sins. We might even be driven to give up something as a reminder of penitence and the promise of a new start. And, we also use this time to look externally at how we can serve the world
around us. .. specifically how we can expand God’s Kingdom in Ghana.

Over the past few years, Hope has donated over $1 million to construct 142 clean water wells in villages in and around Accra and Ho, Ghana, in western Africa. Now, most residents of these villages, including the village chiefs, want to have a church. They appreciate the critical fresh water they and their people now have to drink, but they also want the eternal water of life – Jesus Christ.

To help meet this need, Hope’s mission partner in Africa – GlobeServe International and Pastor Sam Dunya – has training and equipping pastors who now stand by, ready to serve and be deployed.

Hope’s investment in this Kingdom Expansion is to fund the construction of church structures (and the furnishing for those churches and housing for the pastor) in 40 of the villages where wells have been dug and dedicated. What is exciting about this “40 Churches in 40 Days” Lenten Outreach  Project is we are not just building a church structure. These new buildings will become a center of community life for the villages. A gathering place.

The $4,200 provides the church structure (think picnic shelter), the Bibles, benches and altar for the church, and the housing for the church pastor. That’s almost as much as a typical American receives in a tax refund.

What an incredible way to “reach out to the world around us and share the everlasting love of Jesus Christ.”  Praise God for the lives He is changing in Ghana and pray for God’s guidance in how you can be a part of it all.

Heaven will indeed be more crowded!

Blessings,

Mark Hoffschneider

Missions Director

Editor’s Note: Mission Robin’s Nest is a Hope mission partner. Here’s a wonderful Hope Story from Byron and Marcene Culbertson on their recent experience serving at this children’s home in Montego Bay in Jamaica.

We have returned from Robin’s Nest, a Christian children’s home on a mountaintop outside Montego Bay in Jamaica. Although words will be a poor substitute for the real thing, we’d like to share our experience with you. We want to encourage you to step out and do what God whispers to you; because we now know He does just that with all of us.

We were assigned a bunch of pretty simple tasks, and we finished most of them with fun and teamwork. Painting, building, organizing, fixing, cleaning, and carrying 440 concrete blocks. Part of the way through, we realized these tasks were needed, but not the big reason we were welcomed there. Helping the kids with homework, playing, swimming, doing Bible studies, pushing them on swings, reading books with them; all really good stuff, but still not the big reason we were invited in. The big reason we all went and were so openly received is to share God’s love and be loved by 30 kids and about 17 staff and 9 fellow missionaries (our team). The way those kids, who were abused and/or abandoned, loved us, trusted us, treated us so special, and asked us to simply be with them was truly inspiring.

They are joyfully unaware of how little they have, and they made us joyful because we could learn so much from them. Their bright eyes and huge smiles and enthusiastic playfulness are something we carried back with us. When you are there, they make direct eye contact, sit as close as possible with you if not on you, take you by the hand to share their time, hug you with all of themselves, ask you to read with them, and touch your hair and face and hands and in my case, belly, until you just laugh. It will always stick with us how kids with so little and such painful pasts can be so happy. God is so obviously in the midst, and we have a new and much deeper faith.

Marcene was loved on by all of them, and especially 9-year-old Prince, infant Joanna, toddlers Ayesha and Aliya. We were both touched by all of them and especially Abby, Jerome, Sun, Cisco, and Sue. Byron made special contact with Damien, Demani and Obrian. My birthday was on Thursday, and all the kids took me outside like I was Gulliver and they were the Lilliputians, pushing, pulling and giggling all the way. Once outside, being blasted with flour from head to toe surprised me. It’s their way of “marking the birthday person so they all know.” Then Joyel, the co-director of Robin’s Nest, made a beautiful cake with candles and everybody sang Happy Birthday. Think I wasn’t blown away?

Jamaica is a place where the average Jamaican makes $80/week, milk costs $10 a gallon. Resorts are luxurious and provide most of the revenue to run the society. If Jamaicans have running water, showers have no hot water. Clothes are mostly hand-me-downs. Education is a privilege. Roads and infrastructure are Third World status. The geography is mountainous anywhere away from the coastline. The weather is gorgeous and the scenery is unbelievably pretty. Most vacationers never get to see the real Jamaica because it’s just too difficult. We were treated to the “real Jamaica” and some “real Jamaican love”.

Byron’s takeaways: I actually saw what I only previously heard in the abstract. An ordinary person doing extraordinary things is the reality of God’s work when we let God be the boss. He doesn’t ask us to give up what we have or to have less. He does ask us to share what He so generously gives us because all of it comes from Him through others. And we can be the others to someone else who has so much less. Not through huge, grandiose gestures, it doesn’t require a mission trip to far-off places. Just through everyday generosity and kindness and willingness to do as He says in the Bible. What I hope I left there is the knowledge that the staff and the kids are loved and that even people they don’t see all the time value them. I taught them the deaf hand sign for “I LOVE YOU”; they really liked learning it, flashing it to us when we parted. Being abandoned and abused and treated like throw-always, these kids offer such a treasure to someone who will adopt them. I pray every kid there gets to be part of a loving, Christian family.

Marcene’s takeaways: When I arrived at the Robin’s Nest, I was excited to get the projects started and completed. Give us a list of tasks and let us go. During the first day I realized it wasn’t all about completing the task, it was so much more. It was the joy of being present, seeing God at work in others and me. What I realized this week was about developing long-lasting relationships, seeing the joy in the children, working together joyfully and taking time to be still. The overall feeling of joy and appreciation and gratitude was truly amazing. I, too, pray every child gets to be part of a Christian family. I am so thankful the children have a safe place to live. What I hope I left behind is that each child knows they are loved. And know they are each loved by God. The question I was asked most by the children is “who is your boss?” My answer was GOD.  They would nod their little heads and smile. I pray that I will start living my life as I learned; putting all of my trust in GOD. I am so excited to see what he has in store for us next.

A big “thank you” to all of you who provided the great donations. What we found out talking to Matt Riley (one of the co-directors): it takes $23,000 monthly to keep Robin’s Nest going, that is in addition to the donations. All of the team members had additional luggage filled with your donations, it is a much better way than shipping, due to the import fees and cost of supplies in Jamaica. If God has put in your heart to help Robin’s Nest, Matt says service teams bringing items is the best way. If that isn’t possible, cash donations can be given through the web site.

In closing, telling you about it doesn’t even touch how this trip affected their and our lives. Please enjoy our pictures.

God is good. God bless every one of you.

by Wendy Liskey
Missions Ministry

“…Remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35

Christmas is the time of year that many of us take that verse to heart. The joy we see on loved ones’ faces as they open the gift we’ve thoughtfully and lovingly picked out for them is better than any physical gift we could receive. What a blessing it is to be able to experience that every year.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of a mother or father who cannot afford to give their family members any gifts. They may not even be able to afford a Christmas tree this year. Or prepare a holiday meal. What a blessing it is to be able to support families like this through Hope’s annual Adopt-a-Family program, a partnership with our local mission partner Bidwell Riverside.

Christmas Sharing 2011 marks the 57^th year the Bidwell Riverside Center has provided Christmas help to those in need. Last year more than 850
families were either “adopted” or sponsored by Bidwell. This year Hope plans to adopt over 400 families through our Adopt-a-Family program. This is the ninth year we have partnered with Bidwell.

What does it mean to adopt a family? You, your family or small group will provide gifts of toys and clothing – from a specific, suggested list. You will also provide a holiday meal and deliver all of these items to the family you select. Envelopes with family information, including the gift suggestion list, are available now – on the windows near the Chapel, on the windows of the Gym, and in the Atrium.

Another opportunity to give is something you can do any time you shop at Hy-Vee or Café Hope until Dec. 24! “Scan Away Hunger plates will be in this weekend’s bulletins or at the Mission Center. Scan Away Hunger proceeds will be used by Hope Ministries to help feed and care for homeless and hungry men, women and children in central Iowa throughout the year.

Hope is proud to partner with the U.S. Marines in their Toys for Tots efforts. Collection boxes for new, unwrapped toys and new books can be placed in the boxes at the main entrances from Dec. 3-11.

Just like the mother or father who cannot afford gifts for their family, many times seniors in need are forgotten and alone during the
holidays. Hope is partnering with several local agencies that have identified seniors in need through Share Christmas with a Senior. Suggested gift lists will be available at the Mission Center or online beginning Dec. 3. Return unwrapped gifts to Hope by Dec. 11.

Thank you for participating in 4Ways 2 Give and for sharing the joys of Christmas with families around the Des Moines area.

By Kolette Nelson
Care Ministry Director

What an amazing night at Hope last week! We were blessed with the perfect amount of donations and volunteers to make our first Outreach Night a success. We fed over 320 people and 60 families walked out of here with a sack full of clothing ( all FREE). There has been nothing but grateful people and positive comments by all involved. I would highly encourage all of you to take part in this night at some point. … It will bless you more than you know and the volunteer opportunities are endless.

The spirit and energy in the building had a positive effect on our usual programming as well.  The state representative of Celebrate Recovery came to share his testimony and could not say enough about the church and our programs. He reminded us of how blessed we were to have the largest CR in Iowa and that most CR’s nationally have 20-40 in regular attendance.

These things are said only to give thanks and praise to the One who allows us to enter into ministry, to be the church and to be a blessing to others. Thank you to each and every one who made this night happen.

It is GOOD to be the church!!

If you want to be a part of this amazing effort to curb world hunger, you can still volunteer. Shifts are open for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

At the kickoff on Tuesday evening, teams put together 15,000 meals.

Today as of the lunch hour, 199,584 meals had been packaged. God is good!

Here are photos of some kids at Summer Kingdom Quest coloring hearts that will be used in the Meals from the Heartland boxes.

You are an amazingly generous church. The special offerings at weekend services the last two weekends mean almost 200,000 more meals can be packaged.

By Merv Thompson
Teaching Pastor

All who have been around Lutheran Church of Hope for going on three and one half years or more will immediately remember the unbelievable well project, which took place in the spring of 2008.  Pastor Mike and the leaders of the congregation introduced the idea of funding wells in the African nation of Ghana, wells which could bring fresh water, and indeed, living water to the people of this desperately poor country.

A finished well in a village in Ghana. Pastor Pat was on a trip there earlier this year on the wells project.

At the time the campaign was introduced, a rather audacious goal of seven wells was projected. Seven wells at $8,000 each, for a total of $56,000.  No one was quite sure that such a miracle goal could be reached; after all, Lent is only 40 days long. But as so often is the case, it was a God thing. Seven wells soon turned into 17 and then 30 and 50 and, finall,y when all was said and done (much more done than said), 71 wells were funded.  This meant that 71 villages in Ghana would have fresh water for the very first time, revolutionizing the health and
well-being of the entire village. (more…)

Here’s a Summer of Love story shared by Krisanne Myers about how her family is reaching out to share God’s love.

She writes:

“We have had an awesome summer so far. Our family went on Mission Navajo for the second time this year and had a great time reconnecting with friends we made down there.  We helped put on a roof, built a fire pit, built a playground, and put on VBS at the churches. It was awesome to see all the kids who would not even stand up to sing on the first day of VBS dancing and singing to God at the front of church on the last day of VBS.

Back here in Iowa we have provided lunches for the kids at Freedom for Youth. We participated in the teen fair they had there and look forward to getting more involved in that ministry.

I had a great time being a shepherd at VBS and my husband and I  had a great time driving the Hopemobiles around for Taste of Hope! We are going to volunteer to do that more because it was just fun driving those little cars around.

We are so excited to be able to do all these things and share the experiences with our kids, teaching them that it is all about helping others.  We are so happy to
be involved in a church that is reaching out locally and around the world,  it is wonderful to be a part of spreading and sharing God’s love.

by Jon Anenson
Hope Des Moines Director

The Des Moines campus (CityBranch) has been busy during the Summer of Love (Hope’s effort through individuals, small groups, life groups and families or friends to reach out to the local communities and really show the impact the church can have on the world). Go here for a list of ways to serve.

Here are examples:

-7 homes were remodeled, painted, landscaped, and cleaned during Rock the Block in May

-200 backpacks were filled with supplies for local kids to head back to school this fall

-12 life groups are actively meeting, all serving the community through monthly acts of kindness

- 40 guests from area homeless shelters were fed breakfast, are participating in Bible study and are loving each week at
worship!

-400+ hot dogs and burgers were grilled during Backyard BBQ’s this summer

-400+ blessing the Hubbell neighborhood residents

-30 Des Moines-area Liberian refugees are meeting in a house church whose ministry is being assisted by Hope

Exciting things are happening. It is good to be the church!

Suzanne Behnke
Communications Editor

Thank you to those of you who have shared your stories from serving the community during Hope’s Summer of Love. It is inspiring to hear of how you are showing God’s love around you.

For those of you new to this blog or Hope, Summer of Love is Hope’s effort to really reach out and serve the communities around us — from organizations, Hope mission partners, neighbors, family members … you get the picture. Click the image at right and you’ll find a list of suggestions of ways to serve.

Here are two stories shared by recent mission trip participants:

- Erin Moon shared this: “Our family went on Mission Custer State Park for a week in June and had a wonderful experience!  We loved getting to know other families from Hope as well as participating in service activities within the park.  We also enjoyed attending worship at a very welcoming Lutheran church in Custer, SD.  It was a great first mission trip experience for our family!”

- Stacie Hesterberg shared this: “Our family of 4 greatly enjoyed the Custer State Park Mission trip we went on.  It was well-organized and it was fun for all ages.  The accommodations were great, the food was great, and the activities were great, too.  We had a great experience and we would do it again.