Hope Boxes at Hope Fellowship

2.12.14

    I was so excited to get to start the next Wednesday night Bible study with my ladies at Hope Fellowship. The study they decided on this spring is called the "Unglued" study by Lysa TerKeurst, and its all about conflict resolution and dealing with raw emotions.
    At the beginning of the study, our leader, Jen, got up and welcomed everyone to the group. Something hit me: I should ask if we could host a Hope Box Gathering with this group of ladies. The ladies at my table were so support of us during those first two weeks that I knew they'd be up for it, but I wanted to extend the invitation to all the ladies in the group.
    After the initial session, I went to Jen and talked to her about the possibility of the Hope Box Gathering being our outreach for the semester. Every study that I'd done with Hope we've had some kind of outreach, sometimes writing supportive letters to women who were going to safe houses, other times raising funds for certain charities, so why not put it forward that Hope Boxes are needed here in Dallas for our sisters? Her response was an overwhelming, "YES." Not a hesitant, "We'll see," but a resounding, "Yes. Let's do it."
     The next week, I stood up at the end of class and shared our story. I shared about my brokenness, and about how Hope Mommies had been such a blessing to me in my darkest hour. I shared about taking Jerra her box, and what she wrote on the page about the Bible speaking to her soul so deeply. I shared about the retreat, and how much it meant to be in the same room with women who had been through what I'm going through.
     Again, the overwhelming response was, "Yes. Yes, we will commit to doing a Hope Box Gathering. Yes, we will sacrifice our time and money to grow this ministry. Yes, we want to reach out to our sisters that have lost their children." It was amazing.
     Stephanie, one of the ladies from my small group, got up and prayed over us before we left to go our separate ways. I love Stephanie, because she had offered to come play filter when I went back to work because I was so nervous about what people would try to say to help and it wouldn't be appropriate. She prayed for this ministry to take off, she prayed that the city of Dallas would feel God's love. She prayed thanksgiving over my heart for this ministry (I mean, I had gotten so much from it and I just wanted/needed to give back), and she prayed that the women who would receive these boxes would feel God's love through them.