The church is often described as “the hope of the world.” Throughout the Bible, God issues a clear call: to seek justice for orphans and widows, to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and to be salt and light as we bring true and lasting hope to the communities in which we live and around the world.

At HopeCo, we are grateful for the wonderful partnerships we have with churches across the US. One of these amazing church partners is Community Church from Ashburn, VA. Pastor Charlie Whitlow visited City of Hope in 2019 and immediately fell in love with our ministry as he witnessed firsthand what God is doing to transform the lives of children, families, and communities in Tanzania. The church is now making a lasting difference in the lives of our children both in East Africa and the US. Another pastor, Brian Kirby, recently became a member of our Board!

Charlie Whitlow, pastor of Community Church, praying for children at City of Hope

As one of our partners, Community Church makes a monthly financial gift to support the care of our children at City of Hope. The church is also investing deeply into the lives of our students that are studying in the US. During this summer, numerous families at Community Church generously opened up their homes to host these students, and the church organized an incredible program full of games, activities, trips, and fellowship for them. There was much joy and laughter, as you can see from the gallery of pictures below! During the trip, the students toured Washington DC, learned about American history, and created some meaningful friendships with their hosts and other volunteers from the church. The students even performed a traditional African song and dance during the Sunday morning service!

Unfortunately, Community Church’s hope to send a mission team to Tanzania this year was not possible because of the pandemic - but they are already planning to schedule a team as soon as it becomes safe to do so! In the meantime, we have some fun memories of our time spent serving together this summer!

Brian Kirby, HopeCo board member and a pastor at Community Church, said this about the time spent with students from Mountain Mission School: “Hosting these students this summer helped bring a real sense of City of Hope into our church, and it helped us to better see the impact that HopeCo is having. The host families in our church were talking about how impactful their time was with the students and how blessed they feel. We want to do it again, and for longer! It helped our church put names and faces to the students and to the HopeCo ministry.”