March 2020
But God…
Hello Everyone!
We are so excited about our first newsletter for HopeLIfe! It feels so good to be communicating to all those we consider to be family and friends! God has been doing what He is always does and thats be faithful! We felt like this first newsletter should be a testimony of how God worked through this season to start HopeLife.
“But God…”. That phrase appears many times in the Bible and has many times in our experiences with Him as well. When you hear that phrase there’s always an anticipation of what He is going to do next. What typically follows that phrase is a supernatural action of God and His grace for that particular individual or situation in spite of all the futile attempts to do and/or accomplish that same task within their own strength. This has been very true and evident in our years of ministry.
We have settled in and committed ourselves in ministry for the long haul multiple times, but God has had different plans. In 2008, after living and serving at Dunklin Memorial Church in Okeechobee, Florida, and we were as settled as you can get. But God, moved us to Virginia to live and serve at Eagles Nest Regeneration. We served there for 11 years and had no intentions of leaving there either, but God turned the page again in August of 2018. This was a sudden change and a difficult transition, but God was faithful. As many of you know, when God turns a page it’s always in His timing, trusting in that is not always easy though. When you hit the brakes that hard, whatever has been placed in the back seat is thrust forward and is now sitting in your lap.
After 20+ years in ministry, we were given a 6 month sabbatical with the intention to rest and heal. We didn’t realize how much we needed this. You know, you don’t know how much you're drowning some times until you try to get out of the water. So many things begin to surface in our hearts; failure, fear, doubt, worry. A hopelessness creeped in, in a way that I could compare only to that of times back in my addiction. We wondered if God would ever use us again in ministry. But God, began to bring truth, encouragement and healing. We cannot express enough gratitude for all that God has done in our hearts in this season.
But God, through prayer and circumstance led us to a some friends, Ron and Karen Barnard, pastors of 828 Church, located in Wilmington, NC. In December of 2018, we moved here to Wilmington, not really knowing the fullness of what God was doing. We started some jobs to make ends meet and plugged ourselves into the church. One day I ran into an alumni from the Virginia regeneration program in a paint store. We had a great unexpected reunion and followed up with further talks and discussions. In one of our discussions, he expressed his gratitude for the time while in the regeneration program but was struggling with translating that level of relationship outside of a program. We committed to meeting and following up with each other. A couple weeks later I received horrible news that Josh had overdosed and died. Of course the enemy used this to hurl accusations and condemnation of after 20+ years in the ministry I couldn’t even help him. But God, began to speak life and began to awaken the call that was in me to help and serve others in the field of recovery ministry. We could no longer sit by and not use the solution that is in us for helping others to overcome chemical addiction.
A friend recently began talking about how God “winks" at him at times in his walk as encouragements and confirmations to current situations and struggles. I could look back since God began to awaken this call and breathe life back into our hearts towards ministry and see Gods “winks" as he was beginning to breathe life to a ministry in us. God had been speaking many times about “hope” for us. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”, Proverbs 13:12. That hope not properly placed was a big part of our discouragement. And then “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”, Hebrews 11:1, where we realized hope properly placed allows our faith to come alive for what He was leading us to. In 1 Peter 1:3, God is referenced as our “living hope”. We began to realize God wanted us to work with men in recovery in a slightly different way. He was taking the challenge of the alumni’s difficulty with sobriety and twisting it with our current season of rediscovering hope. We believe God wants us to work with men that have completed multiple regeneration type programs but still struggle with relapse issues. We have a three-phase program that quickly brings different freedoms and entitlements back into his life while being discipled and mentored under healthy accountability so that we can see where the chronic relapse issues surface. We also believe we are supposed to have a weekly “2Regenr8" meeting at the 828 Church that would open to the public to serve the local Wilmington area as it is a big recovery community already. Also we would like to get into Prevention as we would like to begin to speak to the youth of our community to make them aware of the dangerous allure of recreational chemical use.
One day last November, I was listening to a song by Switchfoot, called “Hope is Anthem”. One of lyrics says, "Hope is a seed you have to sow, when you let it go it comes to Life”. I immediately felt like God winked at me and said thats the name of the ministry HopeLife! We set up the corporation for HopeLife and applied for the 501c3 on November 17, 2019 and received confirmation of non-profit status on December 4, 2019. God winked again! Three weeks! Receiving 501c3, non-profit status in three weeks is unheard of. Did I say three weeks! God has been so faithful to work for us, in us and now again through us. Sandi and I would like to thank everyone for all your prayers and encouragement through the season. We would have never made it with out God’s help and your support.
HopeLife is currently working with three men and have the capacity for four so we are hoping for God to bring more. God has been working in these mens lives and we are so proud to be a part of what God is doing in them. HopeLife has a great church family at 828 Church and very grateful for their love and support. We also are so blessed to have a family, Sam and Stephanie Sheaffer that have joined us in this journey. Sam has a great heart for God and helping others. He has joined his Handyman construction business with with our painting company under HopeLife to expand our therapeutic work sites and it’s work capacity and vocational training. We also have one man in Servant Leadership Training, Geoffrey Kleinfelter, who has a heart to love and serve God, HopeLife, and the men He brings here. Both Sam and Geoffrey have been a tremendous blessing to what God is doing here at HopeLife as He creates the regeneration culture and climate I have experienced in other regeneration programs.
I also would ask the you pray for HopeLife in this beginning season for God’s great wisdom and favor as we continue to move forward with His leading. We would also ask that if you would prayerfully consider becoming a monthly supporter of HopeLife so that we may grow and expand to help serve other men and their families overcome addiction and its devastating affects. There is so much we believe we are supposed to do as a ministry but we need your help. Please consider what ways you can help us grow and build what God wants to accomplish here in Wilmington NC.