Spreading Hope
The Hope Project is a set of faith-based initiatives around the world and in our community that Grace Church supports. Thanks to these projects, thousands of people have tangibly experienced the love of God through the provision of food, shelter, pregnancy or addiction support, and much more. This show of love has inspired many to follow Jesus as a result! Each year, many who attend Grace Church go above and beyond their regular giving at Grace Church to contribute to this cause. We are excited to see how this year’s Hope Project will change the hearts and lives of people around the world and in our own backyard, as a result!
Make a lasting impact
Select “Hope Project” from the dropdown menu at the next step
LOCAL
Boston Center for Pregnancy Choice
Boston Center for Pregnancy Choice is a faith-based non-profit that first opened its doors in 1984 with a simple goal in mind: Help individuals make informed decisions about unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, and provide support after those decisions have been made. In our first year partnering with Pregnancy Center, we’ve seen them expand their online presence, offer service to clients from the comfort of their homes, and invest in more equipment to provide ultrasounds in more areas.
Make a lasting impact
Select “Hope Project” from the dropdown menu at the next step
Braintree Food Pantry
Braintree Food Pantry is a faith-based non-profit, hosted out of our Braintree location that we’ve partnered with since 2018. Their mission, to alleviate hunger in Braintree, has turned into sharing about Jesus and seeing neighbors in the community come to know and follow Jesus! The Food Pantry was able to expand their ministry to families affected during COVID, and have since reopened to supply groceries, school supplies, and clothes for the coming colder seasons!
Teen Challenge
Teen Challenge is a faith-based organization that provides adults, teens and families with effective and comprehensive faith-based solutions, clinical counseling, and life-coaching for drugs, alcohol, and other life-controlling addictions. During COVID, Teen Challenge has created more opportunities to provide service both on campus and online and began putting together classes and studies that will help those in the program step back into society intentionally.
The Well
The Well is a non-profit counseling and holistic wellness center that opened in 2011 with the mission to help people experience spiritual, emotional, and physical healing through a variety of holistic services that we offer. They provide high-quality mental health care in an environment that also provides opportunities to explore spirituality, faith, and God as part of that healing process. Partnering with the Hope Project gives The Well an opportunity to continue online services for clients, expand their team to meet the needs of their community, and add more resources.
REGIONAL
BROCKTON
REZAREC CHURCH
Rob and Nicole Connolly have been investing in the Brockton community for years, and have a desire to help others find and follow Jesus! He finished his one year church planting residency at Grace, and started online services with Rezarec Church this past September during COVID.
CHARLESTOWN
CHRIST CHURCH
JD and Natalie Mangrum are in year two of planting Christ Church Charlestown. The church has taken an active role in supporting the High School athletic department, finding and meeting needs within the community, supporting local organizations, and expanding their team to lead others in finding and following Jesus. While looking for a new building to meet in, they’re creating a plan for regathering that keeps their community safe.
BOSTON METRO
CHURCH PLANT
A few months ago, while serving as an elder of a small church, the Lord told Jason Cross that it was time to take a step of faith. In response, Jason has begun the process of planting a church. Their timeline for launching is about 18 months out and they are still listening for specifically where the Lord would have them plant.
NORTH SHORE
GRACE CHURCH LOCATION
Victor Moura and his family moved three years ago from Brazil and planted a church last year on the North Shore primarily for reaching Brazilians. They are now praying to relaunch the church as a Grace Church location in Easter of 2021, as their heart is for reaching not only a specific ethnic group, but all of Peabody/ Salem, one of the most multi-ethnic areas on the North Shore.
BERKELEY, CA
CITY CENTER CHURCH
Raymond and Rachel Hudson, along with their four children, are planting City Center Church in the Claremont and Elmwood communities in Berkeley, CA. There is no English-speaking evangelical church in that community and over 99% of the community wants nothing to do with faith. The Hudsons are excited to impact the city one community, one family, and one person at a time.
God's Love Has No Borders
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.” Mark 16:15
INTERNATIONAL
CUBA
PASTOR RAMIRO SESMA
With the remodeling of the church building on hold due to COVID, Pastor Ramiro and his team have invested more into training future church planters and church leaders. They have plans to plant more churches in the coming new year, and look forward to finishing construction on the church building.
DENMARK
PASTOR THOMAS CHRISTENSEN
Open Church in Copenhagen, Denmark, has had one of the most relationally expansive years! Amidst quarantine, the church took up an opportunity to turn a drive-in movie lot into their now worldwide recognized church. With attendance jumping up from the hundreds to the thousands in a matter of months, they’re transitioning to a theatre, and making connections with the city that is leaving an incredible impact.
GUATEMALA
PASTOR PJ HERNANDEZ
The San Lucas church plant has always been about serving the community that surrounds it. Running a feeding center during the week, the church has one of the biggest investments into the people of San Lucas, and has adapted and committed to feeding their community throughout COVID. They’ve recently begun praying for opportunities to expand their feeding program, and provide beds and housing updates for many in their area!
HAITI
PASTOR LENY FUNTECHA
The church plants, elementary and seminary schools, orphanage and feeding centers in Haiti have been through suffering for as long as we’ve known them. Pastor Leny continues raising up native pastors, teachers, and church leaders to serve the community around Port-Au-Prince, starting more churches and putting more schools in communities outside the city! Facing both national unrest and the COVID pandemic, the church continues to see people come to know and follow Jesus, and is committed to opening more churches that serve the people of Haiti!
KENYA
PASTOR JOHN OKONGO
Pastor Okongo has been in ministry for 35 years throughout Kenya! He currently oversees Crossroads Fellowship Church, Bible Institute, Academy, and a rescue children’s home, Life Spring! Partnering with the Hope Project will give an opportunity to enhance the property buildings, invest in students, and plant another church outside of Vipingo, Kenya!
MONGOLIA
CHRIS BALLINGER
Grace Church’s very first missionaries to sponsor, Chris and Stephanie Ballinger, have been in Mongolia since 2008. They continue to create job opportunities within their communities, oversee an orphanage and MANNA feeding centers in Ulaanbaatar, and have started churches, training locals to pastor and lead! They are currently in the process of moving to another village in Mongolia to start a second coffee shop and church plant, and partnering with the Hope Project will help with the foundation of both!
NEPAL
DAN POKHAREL
Dan Pokharel is on mission to see an indigenous church- planting movement spread through the peoples of South Asia, for the glory of God and for the joy of all peoples. The mission has currently established a Church Planting Center (CPC) in Kathmandu where 20 potential church planters graduate every five months, planting around 40 churches a year! Our partner- ship throughout 2021 will help fund Community care as they’re recovering from COVID, and assist with plans to start more churches throughout Nepal.
NEW ZEALAND
BEN WALKER
Ben and Raelene started Story Church in 2019 in the center of Christchurch, New Zealand, where less than 2% of the population attends church. After an attack left the city wondering about their belief in God, the Walkers have been attracting attendees who wouldn’t normally
attend church on their own. Throughout COVID, they maintained relationships with their church family online, spent more time training leaders, and began looking for a more permanent location to meet!
PAKISTAN
RANDALL FERNANDEZ
The Fernandez family has been serving the people of Pakistan since 2011! They’ve started three churches, with another in the planning stages, run a feeding center, and work with a seminary to train more pastors and church leaders. Their rapidly growing church is located in the middle of the largest Muslim city in the world, where they’ve been able to bring the message of Jesus online. God has allowed the COVID pandemic to bring them bigger opportunities to meet the needs of their community, and they have used every moment of it to point people back to Jesus!
URUGUAY
ESTEBAN ALVAREZ
Emily and Estaban are Natives to Uruguay who have a heart for the people in Montevideo. In the last three years, they’ve finished training as missionaries to return to Uruguay, relaunched their church Accesso Vertical, trained up more pastors and church leaders, and began changing the community’s view of the local church by way of serving! As partners, we’ll be able to help them invest more into their community, and move into the planning stages of planting another location in the capital city!
WAYS TO GIVE
ONLINE
Remember to select Hope Project in the drop-down options!
IN PERSON
Place your gift in one of our offering envelopes and bring it to any weekend service at Grace. Indicate Hope Project on the memo/envelope.
THROUGH MAIL
Indicate Hope Project on the memo and mail your check to: Grace Church, 101 Wales Ave, Unit D, Avon, MA, 02322
WITH BILL PAY
Use your bank’s Bill Pay feature to have a check mailed to Grace Church. Make sure you include Hope Project on the memo line.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM MY REGULAR OFFERING?
The weekly offering is the proportional amount (1 Cor. 16, 2 Cor. 8, 1 Tim. 6) we give back to God through our local church family. However, there were many times in the Bible when God’s people gave sacrificially, above and beyond their regular giving, to start churches and meet specific needs in the church and among the poor (Acts 2, Eph. 4, Heb. 13). The Hope Project is our version of this biblical, Christian practice.
We’ve created an option that allows you to participate throughout the year. Choose what you want to give weekly, above your regular tithes and offerings, and indicate that it’s for the Hope Project on the offering envelope, or the “Hope Project” designation online. It is possible we may end up giving more throughout the year than we do in December.
HOW MUCH SHOULD I GIVE?
The amount you give is between you and God. It is one of the ways we demonstrate our dependence on God. While the regular offering is a percentage of our income, the Hope Project offering is your “I am excited to give this and it comes from the bottom of my heart!” offering.
WHEN SHOULD I GIVE?
If you want to give all at once, you can do that between now and January 31. Your monthly contribution to our Hope Project partners can be given at the time that you normally give. Just make sure to indicate your gifts as explained above.
FROM THE LEAD PASTOR
Dear Grace Church,
If you had told me that we’d not meet in person for six months and would still be operating as a church, I’d have thought you were nuts. Not only are we simply “operating”, we’re making huge strides forward.
Our Hope Project Offering in 2019 was a bit more than $179,000 and 2020 was an amazing $228,000! Can you believe that?! In a pandemic!!! You really are the most generous church I’ve ever been in and I’m thankful to be a part of it with you.
Please look through the 2021 Hope Project and ask God to give you a specific burden for one of our partners. Pray for a way to get involved even beyond your financial gift.
We are going to be collecting our Hope Project offering from December 1st through January 31st. We’ll announce what has come in at the beginning of January and then mail you a sponsor card to let us know if you’d like to give on top of your regular offering toward these projects throughout the year.
I’m genuinely encouraged and excited to see what we’ll do next year. I believe that God will continue blessing us to the degree that we are willing to be a blessing to others. Let’s not take our foot off the gas!
As always, I’m grateful to be one of your pastors and thank God for the opportunity to make a difference in the world with you.
May God bless us and help us become a blessing to others,
Pastor Sean