Our New Website!

Faithful One Hope Blog readers, we have officially just transferred the One Hope Blog over to our main One Hope website.  We will no longer be posting to this blog, because all of our old posts have been transferred and all of our new posts will be added from now on to the One Hope Website.  Please go check it out!

www.onehopeministry.org

If you are seeing a website with a gray background, you are still looking at the old website that you may have viewed before.  Try deleting your cookies for the website and refreshing your page.

First Day of School

We did orientation last Thursday and a team building activity last Friday, but today is the first day of classes at the One Hope Academy.

Please be praying for us.

Reflections on Interning

Something that I have come to realize over the summer while participating in the internship at Springs of Grace is that the amount of spiritual aid, knowledge, and encouragement that I have received from the other interns, brother Joe, and the members of the church has far exceeded any amount of work that I have done for the church.

There is no doubt in my mind that God called me to this church to strengthen my faith and build a real relationship with me, and He did so just in time for me to hit the secular world head-on, as I will be a freshman at the University of Oklahoma in less than a week. I have faith that God will not give up the work that He started in me and allow me to be tempted and distracted by the things of this world that can waste my time and eventually destroy my soul. My family has just recently moved to Springfield but we still plan on coming back to Tulsa to watch some Metro, Noah, and TU football games and visit Springs of Grace. I am already looking forward to coming back to Springs of Grace next summer to continue the internship and spend time with everyone that I have gotten to know over the past few months.

Written by: Whitaker Henson

Goodbye, Interns!

There were quite a few of our interns we weren’t able to round up for this last picture, but we are so thankful for a wonderful summer of ministry with all the interns the Lord brought us.

getAHEAD Dreams

At intern retreat at the beginning of the summer, Brother Joe pointed out something discouraging to us. He reminded us how few (if any) people that he knows in the inner city of Tulsa have come to have a THRIVING relationship with Jesus.In some ways, this discouragement has marked my summer. Several of the students from last summer that I had been excited to see had moved or were no longer attending One Hope activities for other reasons. I can only pray that God will bring other influences into their lives that will teach them the joy of repenting and following Him.

As I work in the second youngest classroom (6-8 year olds), I realize that many of these kids will probably drift in and out of our One Hope family over the next years. As much as we try to “hold on” to our students and keep them involved at church and our other programs, it’s not unlikely that their time at One Hope will be a fairly small phase in their childhood. Is there any hope that they will remember the truth they are learning now?

One thing that comforts me is the interesting ways that God has drawn great Christian men and women in the past. I think of how God had been working on the heart of Augustine (the one that wrote “Confessions”) for a long time through the prayers of his Christian mother Monica and other experiences in Augustine’s life. It wasn’t until Augustine randomly heard a child in a yard nearby (or whatever the 4th century equivalent of a yard was) singing, “Take it up and read it; take it up and read it” that he thought maybe God was telling him to read the Scriptures. He never found out why the child sang that (he couldn’t remember it being the lyric to any song he knew), but he was converted that day after reading a verse in Romans. So, sometimes I imagine one of our getAHEAD students all grown-up. Something tells her, “Take it up and read it!” When she opens her Bible, all those floor times with Mr. Nate and the missionary stories at Project61 and discipline conversations with Miss Miriam and Christian rap songs on the van route home come flooding back, and she finally sees that God has been wooing her heart all the time.

One of my dearest dreams is seeing the day when these students become interns. We often sing the song “Jesus, Thank-you.” There is a line that says, “Once your enemy, now seated at Your table.” I love having “family dinners” with my beloved fellow interns. It is some of our best times to laugh and sympathize and plan and tell stories and prayers from the week. I imagine that someday kids who had been some of our most difficult students – the ones that earnestly display their sin nature and enmity with God through their bad behavior at GetAHEAD – will come to love Jesus and will become interns, enjoying these sweet mealtimes. This will be a beautiful picture of the feast at God’s table when we become part of His family.

Written by: Courtney Martin

Of Rewards

Last Friday, we had our swimming reward field trip. I think it was just as
much a reward for the interns as it was for the kids.
The kids were told for a couple weeks in advance that if they behaved well, didn’t get any strikes and showed up for class consistently, they would be able to go swimming on Friday for a special reward. Five kids from my class, Room Tank, got to go, and we matched up with the second youngest class, Room Journey to go to swim in the Winns’ pool (Thank you so much, Winns!). The kids had a blast, and I loved having the chance to bond with them outside of the classroom. It was awesome to be able to spend time with them without the responsibilities of class time.

The Winns’  pool had a slide, water squirters, and floaties for the kids to play
with, and we all had a blast splashing around in the pool. I spent most of my time catching Javier and Josh when they came down the slide, or supplying the foreboding music for Jadin’s shark attacks on the other interns. I loved seeing their little faces so full of joy as they splashed around in their star-shaped rings.

As we prepared for the reward field trip, we stressed to the kids that being “good” does not come from their own merits, and God is the only one who can make you truly good. Although we rewarded them for their behavior at GetAHEAD, Miriam told them that there is a much greater reward in heaven that we can only receive if we have God’s grace and Christ’s righteousness covering our sins. Every day before class we pray that God would take ahold of the kid’s hearts and show them their need for a Savior. None of the discipline or reward we give the kids can make them good; only God changing their hearts and removing their sins by His grace can give them the eternal reward of communion with God. Please pray with us that God would save these children.

Written by: Lydia Hazel

Picture of the Day- Leading an Imagination Special

The Importance of Questions

In Room Radical this last week we have been talking about asking questions.

During class time at getAHEAD the teachers work with the kids to improve their reading skills.

In my room I am trying to teach the kids with different ways to help them with reading comprehension. We talked about the importance of asking questions to yourself before, during and after your reading. These were simple questions such as ‘why do you think the title is ____________________?’ or ‘who is the main character?’ to more complex questions such as ‘how do you think the character feels?’ or ‘what would you have done if you were in the character’s shoes?’. This allows the kids to begin interacting more with the story, and to get them thinking. We had some great discussions and questions about the story of Daniel and about the life of Corrie Ten Boom.

The kids took this question asking past just the stories they were reading. One boy asked me one afternoon, what happens to an athiest when he dies? I told him the truth, they go to hell. He asked if Jesus comes and rescues people from hell? This developed into a few more questions and continued on the ride home after getAHEAD. We got to talk about eternity, he thought for a second about how long that was and was kind of amazed. We talked about how you go to heaven and what heaven is like.

Another day at lunch Miriam told one of the boys to ask me the question that he had asked her that morning. He looked at me and asked, How do you know the Bible is true? Like you know, there are a lot of different religions and they have their books too, so how do you know that the Bible is true?

It has been neat to see God working through different questions the kids have had this last week. I’m praying for more conversations of the Lord that start with questions like these.

Written by: Emily Heinz

Project 61- The Best Year Yet

I really believe that Project 61 this year was the best yet. I probably say that every year, but it seems to be true every time! We had epic games, convicting messages, special times of praying for countries all over the world, and so much more. I felt so surrounded by God’s grace throughout the entire week.

Jordee and I led the youngest group at Comanche. We had 25-40 five- and six-year-olds for four days in a row. Needless to say….it got a little crazy. On the first day, our kids got out of hand and were running all over the playground. One of the little boys, Jordan, was trying to run off entirely. I tried to bring him back to the group, but he wouldn’t cooperate. I had never felt so inadequate in my life – I was at a loss for what to do. Fortunately, someone else was nearby and was able to calm him down in just a few sentences. But at that moment I realized that I had absolutely no ability to impact any of these kids, apart from God using me. It was very humbling…I spent a lot of time the rest of the day just praying for God to be with us.

Our Comanche group never had another out of control incident the rest of the week. We definitely did not have the most well-behaved group, but considering the circumstances I felt like it went really well. God definitely worked to give us strength, patience, encouragement, ability to cope with different circumstances, etc. And that little boy who was running away and screaming at me? Jordan ended up being my best buddy for the rest of the week. The child who humbled me most on the first day was the one who probably encouraged me most the rest of the week.

I love that we interns get to continue to build relationships with a lot of the children who came to sports camp. Pray that our ministry throughout the rest of the summer will be powerful and effective. But there are some that we may not see again. There was one little boy who complained every day that he had no food in his house. We fed him while he was there, but I have no idea how he is doing now. It’s heartbreaking, but I’ve had to trust that God is sovereign. Please be in prayer for them too. The needs of Tulsa are bigger than most of us would imagine. But we have a BIG God, please join with us in asking Him to do something unthinkably amazing. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Project 61- Let the Little Children Come to Jesus

Project 61 was a very special week for me personally. One of the things that stood out to me most about it was that I felt God helping me to love the kids more than I ever had before. I also felt the weightiness of eternity while thinking that these kids will one day stand before God with or without Jesus.

The verse that God put on my heart all week was Matthew 19:14 where Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them.”

Although there were times I didn’t feel well at sports clinic I was able to love the kids with the help of the Lord. I wanted to testify to Jesus’ love, and try to convey to them that Jesus is the greatest treasure in this life.

I am also thankful for the messages that were taught in the evenings by Myles Roberts on the sovereignty of God. They were encouraging to me because it better helped me see God’s purpose  in the lives of the kids of Tulsa even if they do not make sense to us. God’s ways are high above ours, and He does indeed have a purpose in the lives of the kids He gives us to love. I pray that God would help all of us trust His sovereign plan and trust that He brings the kids to us that He wants to be in this ministry even though there are thousands of others in this city in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God also gave me a greater desire and passion for His glory to be seen in my life and in the lives of others.

Thank you so much to those of you who prayed for all of us this week. I ask that you please continue to pray for the kids that came to Project 61, that they would see that God has a purpose for their lives despite all the hurt and disfunction that may be in it. And that purpose is for them to see that Jesus is the greatest thing in this life.

Written by: Jake Funderburk