God has been birthing this dream in Lauren for a few years. It started during her trip to Guatemala with Orphan’s Heart. During her time there, she was using your gifts to serve a greater purpose and she felt truly fulfilled for the first time. She was thriving and her heart overflowed with joy. She wanted to help others find what she found. After she came back, she went to church, and saw how the pieces weren’t fitting together. Where was the joy in serving like I had in Guatemala? Where were the other members of the body of Christ coming together for the same cause? She didn’t understand why this didn’t feel attainable within the American church. God knew what He was doing designing the church and I think we’ve gotten so far away from the original design. From my experience, the church has had a difficult time helping people discover the gifts God has given them to operate to the full capacity. It’s not as easy as taking a spiritual gifts test. Spiritual gifts are discovered through investing in discipleship, training, and serving with purpose.

Over the years she developed somewhat of a vision in her heart but never knew how it would come together or what it would look like, or even a name. Nevertheless, she knew God was preparing her for this mission.

In 2013, Justin was looking for a name for a youth group retreat. He knew the general direction in which he wanted to go, but the name wasn’t coming. So, he glanced at his library for names and he looked at two of his favorite books. The first was Gordon Fee’s God’s Empowering Presence and the second was N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope and that’s where Empowering Hope began in Justin’s heart. Over the years, he tried to start different projects with a video series and a road trip, but nothing seemed to click. 

In October of 2016, Justin embarked on a journey to Honduras to film promotional videos for missionaries Clay and Cynthia Powell. During that trip Justin told Clay he had a heart for a ministry called Empowering Hope, but he had no clue what it looked like.

Not knowing all the while the vision Lauren had.

Clay responded that if this is something God is calling him to do that he should just do it whatever it is and let God organically build it. Because of that conversation, when Justin returned to Atlanta, he told Lauren about Empowering Hope. Everything clicked. She had some of the vision for the ministry and God had given Justin the name. Over the past few months, God has been orchestrating this vision and leading the way to bring it to fruition. He has been making the connections and tugging on Justin and Lauren’s heart to step out in faith to launch Empowering Hope.

God has been birthing this dream in Lauren for a few years. It started during her trip to Guatemala with Orphan’s Heart. During her time there, she was using your gifts to serve a greater purpose and she felt truly fulfilled for the first time. She was thriving and her heart overflowed with joy. She wanted to help others find what she found. After she came back, she went to church, and saw how the pieces weren’t fitting together. Where was the joy in serving like I had in Guatemala? Where were the other members of the body of Christ coming together for the same cause? She didn’t understand why this didn’t feel attainable within the American church. God knew what He was doing designing the church and I think we’ve gotten so far away from the original design. From my experience, the church has had a difficult time helping people discover the gifts God has given them to operate to the full capacity. It’s not as easy as taking a spiritual gifts test. Spiritual gifts are discovered through investing in discipleship, training, and serving with purpose.

Over the years she developed somewhat of a vision in her heart but never knew how it would come together or what it would look like, or even a name. Nevertheless, she knew God was preparing her for this mission.

In 2013, Justin was looking for a name for a youth group retreat. He knew the general direction in which he wanted to go, but the name wasn’t coming. So, he glanced at his library for names and he looked at two of his favorite books. The first was Gordon Fee’s God’s Empowering Presence and the second was N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope and that’s where Empowering Hope began in Justin’s heart. Over the years, he tried to start different projects with a video series and a road trip, but nothing seemed to click. 

In October of 2016, Justin embarked on a journey to Honduras to film promotional videos for missionaries Clay and Cynthia Powell. During that trip Justin told Clay he had a heart for a ministry called Empowering Hope, but he had no clue what it looked like.

Not knowing all the while the vision Lauren had.

Clay responded that if this is something God is calling him to do that he should just do it whatever it is and let God organically build it. Because of that conversation, when Justin returned to Atlanta, he told Lauren about Empowering Hope. Everything clicked. She had some of the vision for the ministry and God had given Justin the name. Over the past few months, God has been orchestrating this vision and leading the way to bring it to fruition. He has been making the connections and tugging on Justin and Lauren’s heart to step out in faith to launch Empowering Hope.