Category: Local & International Missions

Successful Day 1! 

Our team is ready for VBS tomorrow with one at a feeding center in the morning and another at a school in the afternoon. Please continue praying for boldness for our team to step out of our comfort zones, protection and safety during our outings, and for God to use us to plant seeds in the lives of those we come in contact with.

-Lauren Murphy, Team Lead

We are excited to announce HOPE’s first 5K race!

Join us on September 1st on Cherokee Boulevard. Prizes to be announced following race. Post race refreshments provided by HOPE.

Check-in begins at 6:30 am. Race begins at 8 am.

$20/participant. $15/participant for groups of 10 or more.

Registration increases to $25/participant on race day.

For more details or to register visit: runsignup.com/Race/TN/Knoxville/HOPE5K.

Faith Promise Church’s Annual Back to School Supply Drive is BACK!

With a new school year just around the corner, we need your help! We are partnering with lots of awesome local schools and ministries to help get the school year off to a great start for children in at-risk environments.  Please read below to see how you can help with resources and volunteering. You can purchase and bring in supplies to your campus July 21st/22nd and July 28th/29th. Thank you so much for your generosity and heart of compassion!

Supplies Needed:
*New Backpacks*, pencils, crayons, rulers, scissors, glue sticks, Ink Pens (Black and Blue), and Index Cards

*NOTE: If you attend the Farragut Campus, your partner school does NOT need supplies. Instead they have asked for new youth size shoes and new backpacks only.

Interested in volunteering your time? Each campus needs volunteers to help deliver supplies to their partner ministries and schools email missions@faithpromise.org for more information.

Give a child a fresh start at school!

On the first week of June, I had the opportunity to go serve on a mission trip with my church to Monterrey Mexico. During the week, I was also a small group leader for some middle school girls. I am still in the midst of a hard time and going to Mexico really opened my eyes. I have severe anxiety and depression, and am currently working on getting my medication right. It has been really rough having to try and try to get better but still feel the exact same way the whole time. I continued to tell my girls my story and God’s truth. However I couldn’t help but feel so unloved by God, so uncared for. I continued feeling tired and depressed throughout the week, but continued praying and sharing my story with the girls.

Then, I had the opportunity to go and serve at a children’s home there in Monterrey. There, I came across an 8 year old child that I had met the year before. He and I would play and play and play whatever he wanted. We would constantly switch gears and play another game about every 5 or 6 minutes. But God opened my eyes as I looked at this child. I knew he was so loved by God. Even during this tough time in his life. And I looked in his precious eyes and saw his smile, he was so happy and thankful. I got one of our people on our team to translate and tell him that God loves him and has a plan for his life. He just nodded and kind of put me off. He told me that he knows, but I didn’t believe him. I wanted him to see how much he is loved. If I knew this orphan was loved by God during his tough time, then the same should be for me.

The boy took me up to the playhouse and we sat on the top and looked up at the sky for a long time. I reflected as I laid there with him….A boy about my age reading to the kids in Spanish was truly amazing, our team was getting some construction work done for the home, the night before was worship, where I lifted my hands and felt his presence, and I could feel it again here with this child. Then, I felt the boy hug me tightly and I knew it was God telling me “I got you” and that’s why I know I have to go back.

– By Callie Holland, Age 14

Through all the large group discussions and small group discussions in Monterrey a theme continued to ring throughout, “be aware”. Aware of the needs around me, aware of what God is telling me, aware of the big picture in my life. It is easy in the states to be bogged down by “stuff”. Work, responsibilities, by life in general, all these things distract us from what God wants in our lives. When all that is taken away and you are in a foreign country doing what you know God wants you to do, all that “stuff” falls away. You realize that there are more important things than money, more important things than having a nice house, more important things than having a nice car. When all that “stuff” is not getting in your way you can see God’s priorities. 

This hit me as we were traveling to a children’s home and passed many houses full of people. We had travelled all the way to Mexico to stand in the gap for children who have been through tough experiences. Right across the street are people living that are not involved at all. Why not?  Do they not know what is going on in here?  Do they not see the healing that these kids are receiving by people each day?  Or are they just letting the “stuff” in their life get in the way?  As I began feeling good about myself and the “I see it, why can’t you” attitude was kicking in I wondered how much stuff is going on around me in the states that I am not at all involved in.  How many people are in need that I personally know and I miss the signs and warnings that they are in trouble. Am I really as aware as I think?

I am returning to my life, my responsibilities, my job, and all my stress with the knowledge that none of that matters. God’s priorities don’t line up with those of the world. I WILL be aware of what God is doing and of the needs around me.

– Dave Holland