Stories of Hope

A History of Hope Fellowship, Chapter 2: The Humbling Years   For reasons understood best by the staff, the elders and the Lord, Hope Fellowship’s staff disintegrated after two years. One by one they resigned or were let go. When the dust settled, only one person was left: Evelyn, our wonderful administrative assistant

  I find it quite interesting how it has taken almost 3 months for me to be able to write my story. But God’s timing is perfect. Sharing my story on Palm Sunday will help bring our focus to where we need to be on our journey to Good Friday

  Seventeen youth and their parents have booked flights to build a house this summer for a family in the Dominican Republic. They are paying their own way with personal fundraising efforts and savings. But the cost of the house - $5,000 U.S. ($7,000 Cdn) – had to be raised separately. In her October staff report, Alice wrote, "It will be exciting to see what happens with this." This week she reported that $8,817 Cdn. has been raised to date

  On Tuesday, a winter storm packing 30 centimetres of new snow was predicted. Our small group was scheduled to meet, but the weather forecast compelled us to cancel. Everyone was disappointed because we love getting together and we were eager to see each other again

The Beginning Years   Seventeen years ago, on March 7, 1999, Hope Fellowship got its start. At the time, Zion CRC in Oshawa had become a large church under Rev. Henry Wildeboer’s visionary leadership with dreams of moving to a larger property and building a larger facility. Blueprints for the new building were drawn. But when the proposal came to the congregation, the vote fell just shy of the required amount.

  I wish you could have joined us at last week’s leadership retreat at Kingfisher Bay. The things that you would have heard and seen would have inspired you and reassured you that God has placed Hope Fellowship in good hands

  The Bible can be used to promote the idea that the earth was created in six days, six thousand years ago. It can be used to defend a geo-centric (the sun circles the earth) view of the universe. It can be used to defend slavery, anti-Semitism, racial segregation, interracial marriage and the silence of women in church. It can be used to advocate capital punishment, polygamy, the stoning of adulterous women and rebellious children, and the dispossession of indigenous peoples. I don’t agree with any of the above. But I could find biblical proof texts for all of these theories and practices