Hope Church - Annual Report 180103 2017 Annual Report (Web) | Page 27

SHARE 1. THE VISION FOR “WHAT’S NEXT?” On April 30, 2017, the vision for the Next Campaign was shared with the entire Hope Church community, and thousands of Jesus followers began to seek the heart of God together with a desire to impact both nations and generations for His glory. As the specific components of this vision were shared, our entire church was challenged to seek the Lord about our investment and involvement in the future of this ministry. In June 2017, hundreds of families chose to give sacrificially to join in God’s activity through the Next Campaign. As a community of faith, we saw almost 8-million dollars pledged and 2.4 million dollars given in 2017. It was a phenomenal launch and special moment in this life of Hope Church. 2. OPEN DOORS AMONG THE WADI PEOPLE Five years ago, Hope Church adopted an unreached, unengaged people group in the Arabian Peninsula that we refer to as the Wadi People. This people group has no access to the Gospel in their dialect, no worship community in their heart language, and less than twenty known believers among their entire population. One of our ongoing prayers as a church has been for God to open doors for us among the Wadi People. In 2017, in a refugee camp in North Africa, God answered that prayer. During an exploratory trip for future humanitarian projects, a mission team from Hope Church was introduced to not just one, but two individuals from among the Wadi People. That moment in North Africa was five years in the making and an answer to thousands of prayers. We continue to seek to plant a reproducing church among this people group and trust that God will open the right doors for us to reach one of the most unreached peoples and places on earth. 3. IMPACTING OUR CITY – FOSTERING HOPE One of the strategic, Spirit-led opportunities that God has lead our church to focus on is impacting the lives of children in need through engagement in the Foster Care System in Las Vegas. In 2017 through a new ministry called Fostering Hope, we began to engage in seeing this vision become a reality. An initial priority for this initiative is to see more families from Hope Church become certified Foster Parents. As we looked at the current certification process in the spring of 2017, we noticed a few apparent hurdles: certification classes were not being offered in our immediate community, and childcare was a difficulty for those seeking to attend the class. By God’s grace, on August 6, 2017, the Department of Family Services began offering Foster Care Certification Classes on the Hope Church campus. This was a significant stride in making certification more accessible for Jesus followers to engage. Additionally, because of the generosi