300 People Praying.

That's what we want. 300 folks praying to God for Family of Hope by 2009.

The very best anniversary present you could give us are your prayers and support as we venture out into new ministry territory. In honor of our 3rd Birthday, we hope to have 300 people join us in prayer. Will you be one of them? Pretty please?

If so, just leave us a comment under this post (or any of the other ones), and let us know your name so we can keep track of our prayer warriors.

You know, I once heard of a very successful army that only had 300 fighting men in it...in the Bible somewhere, I think. :)

An Electrifying Success

So, our June 8th event was smashtastic! If you missed it, we DEFINITELY ate your share of the cake. Speaking of the cake, it was itself a work of art. As a collaboration between our own Ebony and the cake guy at the Jewel grocery store, it was more than we could have imagined. There's pictures below:









Plus...there were strawberries between the cake layers. Heavenly.

And the program just got better from there...even though we had a bit of a rocky start. First, we almost melted during our regular noon service because it was so hot in the sanctuary. Then, suddenly the sky darkened and let loose a nice-sized rainstorm--enough to blow the electricity out. We'd have gotten upset, except that the rain and darkness cooled us off enough to stop sweating to death. So we opted not to complain. A few hours later, the power came back on and we got started (albeit a tad late) on our special anniversary worship service.

There was singing and singing and more wonderful singing! We had our own specially designed coloring and activity sheet (created by Ebony as well) for the young and young at heart. We had testimonies and faith statements from members about how God brought them to Family of Hope and new ministries we are starting these days. (More about that later...) And Shaun Marshall preached his whole face off. It was fantastic.

Of course a key purpose for this event was giving God praise and asking for God's power to take our ministry to the next level by trying some new things. Here are some of the new things we'd like to try. Would you please pray with us about these?

• a pre-teen boys sports ministry: bringing boys to Christ and maturity through sports and mentorship
• a teen girls discussion group: helping girls recognize their God-given worth and abilities through mentoring and discussion groups held at the local high school and at Family of Hope.
• a women's group: bringing women together for recreation and networking around relevant issues, i.e. family, work, immigration, etc.
• a men's group: making a space for men to share and build friendships that promote community and growth
• a media plan: building a strategy to increase the presence of Family of Hope and its ministries throughout Blue Island and surrounding areas
• a career ministry: helping equip people to better search for, interview for, and prepare for jobs and career changes.
  
• counseling: pre-marital, individual, etc.

There's more, but feel free to share the thoughts and prayers you have so far. In fact, I think I'll make a new post for that right now...

-Pastor Ayanna

A Little About Ourselves

Welcome! We're so glad you stopped by here to visit our Family of Hope blog. First things first: who are we and how did we get here?


Family of Hope Christian Church was started in 2005 with a rascally band of disciples of Christ. They were Ayanna, Armon, Candyce, Deirdre, (pictured left, excited about our newly donated printer) & Lewis. Ayanna was serving on the ministerial team at Park Manor Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2004, when the regional leadership for our denomination--the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)--came by to ask them a question. Would any of these ministers be willing to help start a new church in a neighborhood where another church had closed? Ayanna thought to herself, I'm graduating in a few months and I don't have a job. Why not? News spread, and Candyce offered to help. They went to New Church Planter Training together in September of 2004. Then Armon heard God's call to ministry and he offered to help. Then, Deie and Lewis, members of Park Manor, offered to help. (That's Lewis, below.)

And before you know it, we had a leadership team.

Organized and inspired by "Coach/Sensei/Godfather" Rev. Demus, the five of them committed in March of 2005 to give the next three years to building this new church. And a few weeks later, on March 27, Resurrection Sunday, Family of Hope Christian Church held its first worship service...at 7:30am. (We have not gotten up that early since.)

Shortly after, in April, we added Shereice to the leadership team. In May of 2005, Family of Hope hosted its first block party. In July of 2005, Robert Adams (our first visitor!) became the first person baptized in the Family of Hope congregation. In August of 2006, Tara & Jason were the first couple married by the church--and Pastor Ayanna's first wedding! In September 2006, we had our first ministry intern (and marathon runner), Ryan Singleton.

And then, all of a sudden, we'd crossed the three year mark. There were a few rocky moments...like the whole first year. But we kept meeting, kept worshiping, kept eating. We stayed up late. We got up late. But God never let go of us, and we never let each other give up. Ours is a story of faithfulness--God's mostly, and ours some too.

We're celebrating 3 years tomorrow with a Worship Extravaganza. It should be a BLAST. Come join us if you live close. Go to www.familyofhopechristianchurch.com for directions. If not, we'll miss you...and eat your share of the cake.