HOPE is a ministry of
Jefferson Street Baptist Center
733 East Jefferson Street | Louisville, KY 40203
CONTACT US
Email: hope@jeffersonstreet.orgPhone: 502.584.6543
Fax: 502.584.4377
HOPE is about relationships.
It’s about Christians building substantial everyday relationships with the homeless and the urban poor. It’s not about pity or charity. It’s about mutuality. It’s about building “strange” and “uncommon” relationships with other people. It’s about responding to scripture’s calling to “seek the good of others”. It’s about allowing the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to live out the two greatest commandments.
Without fail, we see God use HOPE to change the trajectory of people’s lives forever.
One such case involves our friend Tom. Tom came to JSBC almost 7 years ago. Diagnosed with mental illness and struggling with a substance abuse problem, Tom withdrew from the world. He became a recluse and rarely left our building. He would pay his friends and other residents to run his errands for him. For Tom, the world was a scary place full of people that would hurt him and take advantage of him. It just seemed easier to stay in the building.
The first year that the HOPE Program began, our Team Members and Tom quickly forged strong friendships. For Tom, they became a source of consistent love and support and comradery. They regularly prayed for Tom, talked to Tom about Jesus and shared the day to day ups and downs of their lives with him. Week after week, they invited Tom to go out to lunch with them. Over and over again, he said no. But they never stopped showing up and they never stopped asking. Eventually one week they asked again and Tom said, “Sure… I guess I’ll go.” And so Tom began to leave the building with them to go out to lunch week after week.
Fast forwarding to today, Tom goes out to lunch with his friends on a regular basis. He also goes out to explore his new hobbies of bowling and pool. (Our HOPE Team Members turned him on to these.) If you ask Tom if he’s a Christian, he’ll tell you no. And yet Tom comes to Bible Study almost every day and he even attends church from time to time. Why? Because he knows that Christians love him and care about him. We see God moving in his life because of Christian young adults showing up and loving Tom.
God often uses HOPE to change the trajectory of Team Member’s lives forever as well. They might still be aiming to be a doctor, a college professor, a social worker, church planter, or teacher, but they’ll be a different kind of doctor, college professor, or church planter. They’ll have a deeper understanding of why God seems to love the underdog so much. The hope is that they will have the insight and desire to use their gifts with Kingdom priorities in mind.
This is a radical opportunity for you to come love the homeless and urban poor. This is a chance for you make a difference one life at a time. This is a chance to meet Jesus as he ministers to our city. This is a chance to build his Kingdom in the city.
Jesse Eubanks
HOPE Director
Dear Sisters,
You’ve probably heard it a thousand times already and you’ll likely hear it a million more. HOPE is all about relationships--relationships with those you live with, work with, worship with, and especially with those who are often ignored and/or mistreated. HOPE is your opportunity to bring your beautiful, unique gifts and share them with a person that you might not normally meet in your daily life; one who might be called “the least of these”; one who is your neighbor - because that’s what Jesus asked us to do.
Whether you can cook for a household of friends, tame the wildest of children, organize a picnic in the park, have long conversations with strangers or prove to the boys on the court that you can ball just as well as they can, we want you to bring it! Come live your everyday life here. Build friendship and community with others. Hang out and cultivate relationships in your own creative way. That’s your only duty here. Where else can you go to find that?
I write to you simply to say hello and introduce myself. But I must be honest and say that I also write to you with great hope and expectation that some of you will come and be a part of the vision we have for my favorite city - Louisville, Kentucky.
I get really excited when I think of what God might have in store for the neighborhoods and families around me. I long for more people to share that excitement with. I specifically (and sometimes impatiently) anticipate the time when I am joined by fellow ladies who have turned their hearts and hands to the plough, choosing not to look back but to move together towards the Life of the Kingdom. There are so many things to do, to learn, to teach and to enjoy, and I can’t dive into it without you.
Before I say much more, please allow me to tell you a little bit about myself:
Besides my time here at home in Louisville, I served for two years in a poor African-American neighborhood in Atlanta GA and then for 7 months in a mixed-income Puerto Rican neighborhood in Chicago IL. These were very difficult, beautiful, and influential days that have shaped me indefinitely and have given me a hard shove in the direction I walk in today. I cannot even begin to describe the impact the relationships I built in these cities had on me and continue to have today. In short – and in truth – it is where I learned the vast power of Christ’s Love and what a magnificent thought the Kingdom of God is. My friends, it is worth pursuing no matter what the cost.
Throughout these months, I lived with and among girls who could make birthday cake icing from scratch, girls with their Masters in Social Work, girls right out of High School, girls who had a real knack with children, girls who dominated a soccer-field and basketball court, violinists, gardeners, teachers, hikers, world-travelers……each of us had gifts to offer those around us. AND each of us received far more from those around us than we could ever imagine.
I have been in the place you are now – trying to discover God’s calling for my life and my response to people in need. I know there are probably a lot of questions coming up in your mind as you read through this… questions about safety and fundraising, concerns about school and family…I am more than happy to talk to you about any of these things. I can answer any logistical questions you might have and my main purpose as of now is to help you work through any of the worries and confusion that pop up as you pray about possibly taking this step.
This will not be an easy time nor will it be entirely fun (although we will definitely have some good times). The only thing I can promise you is that you will seek and meet Jesus Christ in an entirely new way. And you will leave with new friends that will change the way you look at loving people forever.
Seek Christ. Seek Counsel from a pastor or mentor. Seek to be challenged and to grow in your faith. Seek the Kingdom.
I look forward to meeting you someday soon!
Erin Ferguson
HOPE Assistant Director
