Our first day of travel was an extended one. Leaving Monroe early in the morning, we arrived in Atlanta for a long layover before flying out to Bogota, Colombia. The One Kingdom team traveling to Colombia included Director Ryan Lee, elders of White’s Ferry Road Church, Mike Kellett and Robert Ables, and myself.

From a worldwide perspective, have you ever noticed how obscure Jesus was during his short 33 years on earth? We know hardly anything about his first 30 years, and then during his three years of public ministry, he never traveled outside of the region of Israel and never addressed anything about world politics or the occupying Romans. When asked about paying taxes to Rome, his only comment was “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

Hope is an important and popular construct in modern culture. Songs, movies, fiction and non-fiction novels, even Broadway plays center around themes of hope. We preach about hope. We teach about hope. Deep down, each of us is hoping for something. And, all of us at some point in time have felt the opposite of hope: hopeless.

As old men often do, I’ve been reminiscing about how I’ve spent my life over the last 50 years, the impact my life has had on Messiah’s Kingdom, and the part my wife, Ann, played in those Kingdom accomplishments. You see, my wife of 51 years, 8 months, and 11 days, passed away on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2022 at 6:00 PM, after a 3-year battle with colorectal cancer. During those 51 years, we resided in three foreign countries, learned two languages, and raised three daughters. That covers 30 of our 51 years together.

From my earliest memories, one thing I always said was “I want to go! Take me, too!” I was raised in Arkansas where my parents, Jake and Barbara Henry, always had every visiting preacher or missionary in our home to eat at our table and talk about ministry around the world. I heard about their struggles and listened to Godly folks dream about the future and how to reach the lost. I would sit there and dream with them, even as a child. I wanted to go!

The following article has been written by two sisters who are originally from Iran.

Ghazal (pictured above, left) and Maryam (pictured above, right) are both very active members in their church in Athens, Greece, and they also devote much of their time to ministering to other refugees who are making their way through Athens.

I was made to be a soldier. When I joined the Army at 18 years old, it was all I wanted. It gave me a mission and a purpose. I stood shoulder to shoulder with other men, fighting for a worthy cause. I loved the excitement of combat. You might have heard it said before: there is not quite anything that makes you feel so alive as being shot at. All you have in that moment is your training, your inner strength, and your brothers. In some core way, this felt like what God made men to do. I knew it was what God made me to do.

This summer we had the privilege of traveling to Nicaragua with our youth and college group to host a VBS and fellowship with our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters. When we were students in the college group, we had two opportunities to visit Nicaragua, and each time it had a dramatic impact on our lives. It opened our eyes to reality, teaching us that relationships are more valuable than material prosperity, and that there is beauty in both the similarities and differences of how other people-groups worship God.

A verse from the book of James has taken on new meaning for me, and I’m not happy about it! Since being a child in church I remember hearing sermons on James 1:2-3:

When the highly-educated, well-traveled Pliny—a first-century Roman aristocrat and politician—was confronted with the death of a beloved friend, he wrote the following:

In last quarter’s issue, we discussed the very idea of hope. As an organization, we aren’t just providing physical needs through mission work but bringing the hope of Jesus Christ to every corner of the Earth. You can see that one of the best ways to deliver hope is through rescue. When you meet someone at their deepest time of need, whether that’s after a disaster, or when they’re hungry or—better yet—when their own children are hungry, you touch a part of them that is so vulnerable, and it opens doorways to share the Gospel.

The world is full of trouble for all mankind, whether Christian or not. It rains on the just and the unjust. What makes the difference for God’s people is hope.

As Christians, one of the evidences that we are true believers in the saving power of Jesus is to minister words and deeds of hope to those who find themselves in distress or hopeless situations. More than 40 years ago, someone literally acted on the lyrics of the hymn quoted above, and his deeds of love rescued my soul from sin, giving me hope for living.

Sunday

We were up early at 4:00 AM to travel to the Dominican Republic. We hadn’t been back since November 2019, although we had been going regularly since 2010. In 2014, my husband Adam and I lived down there for six months.

You mustn’t tell me that God finds it very difficult to love sinners. If you were to prove that, or at least lead me to believe it’s true (by how you treat me when I repeatedly fall, or by what you teach me), you would obliterate any trace of hope in me. I’d immediately weaken and I’d die long before I die.

I hear every day from our culture and sometimes from those in Christ about how terrible the world is and how hopelessness abounds. I know that to the world, the word hope means only a wish or desire, but that is not the biblical definition of hope. Biblically, hope is an anticipation and expectation of something good. It is sure confidence. Hope is held out in the gospel.

Over 50 years ago my dad, Sam Hartline, while on a mission trip to India, met a teenager named Asee. Dad taught and led many to the Lord in India, but there was something about this young man that caused Dad to see a diamond in the rough.

While campaigning for the presidency of the United States in 2008, Barack Obama offered a new vision for America: he promised that he would usher in a new era of hope and change. Donald Trump, not to be outdone, cast a newer version of hope and change when he vowed to “Make America Great Again.” Not to be outdone, Joe Biden won on his pledge to “Build Back Better.”

On August 26th, 2020, Hurricane Laura made landfall in Lake Charles, Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. Just a little over a month later in early October, Hurricane Delta hit the same area. Many residents were forced to evacuate. When they returned, they came back to homes devastated by the storm.

I have noticed that our culture today quickly criticizes Christians who have a conviction about truth. There is this thought that you cannot be full of compassion and conviction at the same time. Yet, when I look at Jesus and his actions toward others, he was full of compassion and truth.