Hope Resource Center can be described as a number of things, but I can sum it up with one word…love. We love the men and women of this community. This is what ultimately led a group of people to open our doors in 1997, and this is what keeps these doors open today. We are not seeking to increase our profits or our bottom dollar. We simply want to love our neighbors and help them during some of their darkest times and toughest decisions. We understand and recognize that Jesus was called to broken places and our call is no different. We are a broken people in need of a gracious and merciful Savior. This is why we get up every day and open these doors. We recognize that Christ Jesus stepped in our brokenness and offered peace, and we want the men and women who step into our building to walk away with a sense of peace and Hope…pun intended.

You see, Jesus has commanded this type of love for our neighbor. This isn’t something that we just thought on our own. This isn’t a silly flippant love. We at HOPE are not simply a feel good place seeking to offer an artificial love. Instead we are seeking to offer the only love that matters. We are seeking to point folks to something greater than themselves. We want to point them to the One that will step into the darkest of places and offer a light that will penetrate every corner. This is where true hope is found and this is why we do what we do. It is that vertical love that we have for our God that fuels the horizontal love for our neighbor.

This love for the men and women in this community is birthed out of Scripture. Matthew 22:37-39 is clear,

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself…”

We are not here to give lip service to a pro-life agenda. We are not seeking, simply, to impact a few. We are here to love, as Christ loves, the people of this community. We are not driven by bumper stickers, politics, or the way the wind happens to be blowing today. Our mission is clear. We are here to love our neighbor. Every person on this earth is an image bearer of our Creator. This includes the coed who walks into our mobile clinic, the single mom that doesn’t think she can have another child, the young man or woman that fears they may have contracted an STD, the teenager that let his or her relationship go too far, the suburban man or woman that thought they were through with kids, the inner city family that is not sure they can afford the news they just received, or any other man or woman that steps into our facilities. Our mission is clear, sure, but the work is hard and never ends. We would not be able to do what we do and to impact this community the way we have without love.

We are going to have victories and we are going to have defeats, but we trust that God is involved in this mission of HOPE and we will continue this love work as long as we have breath in our lungs. Please join us on this mission. God has not called us to sit idly by as our community hurts. I ask you to give. Give of your time, your money, your prayers, your knowledge, or anything else that you feel led to contribute. We are not in this alone and I praise God for this opportunity to partner with friends of HOPE.