20 Years of HOPE

This year marks the 20th anniversary of HOPE Literacy, Inc.!                                                 

I’m giving thanks today as we have just celebrated Thanksgiving and head into the Christmas season.  Literacy trainer and visionary, Cindy Harrison and I started HOPE in 1997 at Southwayside Baptist Church.  3 teachers and 5 students met in a little class room in the church youth building.  With a grateful heart, I think about the 1,000 students who registered in our classes this Fall.  This is the first time we have reached 1,000 on the roll!

On a weekly basis, that means that we reach out to a little over 600 students—adults with some of the toughest life circumstances and challenges—in our classes.  We offer flexible, open classes where they can fit in their studies between work, family, and everything else that it takes to start a new life in a new country.

We give the complete credit and glory to God for the lives that have been touched through HOPE.  It is God who has brought committed board members who give sacrificially of their time and generously of their treasure.  He inspires our church partners to start HOPE sites and reach out into their neighborhoods.  It is God who inspires the directors and teachers to serve and pour out their time and knowledge.  And it is God who enables us to reach our students for Christ and help them excel in life.