Developing people to be deployed as ministers of the gospel is one of the essentials to what we do. One of the people we've been blessed to have serve on our team is Kayleigh Moore. She is going to a short term trip with YWAM to be trained in world missions for 5 months. With all she has given to Hope Rescued, I wanted to give us an opportunity to give back and support her mission trip. If you'd like to support her in going, you can give to Hope Rescued and write "Kayleigh Moore" in the memo line.

"When I was twelve years old I was called to world missions. One day I decided to pray a very dangerous prayer. I said, “God take all that I am and make it all about you”. Soon after, I realized the true weight of that prayer and my life has been such a testimony of His greatness ever since." -Kayleigh

Rescued from homelessness
Rescued from addiction
Rescued from human trafficking
Rescued from darkness
Rescued from sin and death

May we never tire of the rescuing power of Jesus Christ. This month three people came out of addiction into Christ centered recovery, two women were rescued out of human trafficking, thirteen people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. God is doing incredible things and we are so thankful.
Through our outreaches across the city, our dinner church services, and the partnership of people around the nation peoples lives are being changed in Louisville. Thank you for being a part.

One of my personal favorite initiatives we have in our inner city work is our work with the next generation. We believe by encountering Jesus at a young age, and through consistent discipleship, the next generation we can raise up a generation avoiding the gangs, violence, addiction, and other challenges they are surrounded by and live for Jesus.

Our team this month hosted a VBS on campus, and a back to school event where the gospel was presented to over 100 unchurched individuals, largely children. Almost a dozen children have been baptized in the last few months, and our kids ministry is also effectively reaching full families with the gospel. Families are seeing the positive impact and potential of our kids work, and coming into the church and being a part of service while their children are in our kids ministry. We are excited for a generation changing everything, as they are raised up in the Gospel!

There are so many exciting things happening in Louisville, KY with Hope Rescued. Top of our list is the opening of our new outreach center! The outreach center hosts our Tuesday night dinner church, Sunday morning service, inner city kids ministry, a clothing closet and food pantry.
Opening night we had over 100 people on campus, and had six of them water baptized! People are continuing to come to know Jesus every week at our outreach center and be discipled.

Our outreach teams are still reaching across the city of Louisville, providing over 1,500 bags of food in homeless encampments in June. Many are coming to know Jesus, get off the streets into recovery, and walk on a new road thanks to the encounters they are having.

We are in great expectation for the coming months, as we will host VBS and back to school events in July where the gospel will be presented to many who have never given their lives to Jesus.
In late summer/ early fall we will be launching our second dinner church to reach the unchurched in partnership with one of the churches in the city. Additionally, we are dreaming of a third campus by the end of the year.
Hundreds are hearing the gospel every week, many are responding in different ways as we see Jesus completely transform their lives. We believe soon that thousands will be hearing the gospel every week through the dedicated work of our Hope Rescued team and the great support provided by those who believe in the mission God has called us to. Thank you for your continued support, prayer, and partnership.

Blessings, Alex Kennedy

Africa, how do I describe this experience. I have no words. Beautiful land, beautiful people, unbelievable experiences daily. Today was very special for me as we went back to the Maasai tribe in the bush and I was able to speak to the women about childbirth and bleeding. My translator was amazing and funny and put me at total easy. The women ranged from very young to very old with four tribal midwives in attendance. What an honor to speak to these amazing women. As I discussed childbirth, bleeding, and treatments they became so engaged! They began to interact and ask wonderful questions. We became a circle of women discussing issues and hardships. As they asked questions, sometimes very challenging ones, my heart was humbled and broken for them as they truly wanted this basic knowledge to help each other. We laughed at things, at times, I even cried as I prayed over a woman with a very serious issue that only my Father in heaven can fix and I’m believing he heard my prayer and cries for her and she is healed in Jesus name. I offered private time for questions that were to personal and was challenged in the questions and issues they are dealing with and have no medical care available. When we were finishing the service, I was humbled to my core when they gave an offering to buy me a water because I had talked so long standing. How precious is that gift I’ll never forget. Reminds me of the woman who gave all she had in the offering. These woman have nothing, but I could see love and peace in their eyes. We connected on a physical and spiritual level as women and sisters in Christ. I will forever be changed by this experience and thank my beloved Jesus that he chose me for this assignment. If there is anything more I can say to this experience it would be that I came to bring them love, hope, supplies, and more importantly Jesus. But I have found I’m receiving much more than I have to offer. Lord help me be the light of your precious gospel to these people

Kelly Johnson (Tanzania STNM Missionary)

Stories from the Streets 2/18/22    

We are so excited to be starting this new blog to be able to share stories of what is going on the streets with our team and those we are serving. We will be intentionally sharing generic stories of what we experience on the street as a team, and specific stories of our team members and those we are reaching, how they are impacted by how God is moving in their lives and the work we are doing.
As we kick of this new project, I just want to share about this week in more detail than you generally will see through our short videos and online posts. This week we had a number of quite challenging experiences on the streets here in Louisville and while none of them are overly long, I just felt like it would be helpful for those who ask about some of the things we see and experience.

This Monday we took out bags of snacks and hot chocolate, and at our first stop we had multiple people come up to us and tell us how hungry they were and how they had not eaten in days. Surprised, I talked with one or two of the people on the streets who shared that majority of the organizations that took meals out stopped when the COVID pandemic started, and the ones that did not stop, or started up again, only go to specific areas. It shocked me hearing about the level of hunger that was being experienced here on the streets of Louisville. Often when we go out we know we want to meet people's needs and do what we can to open the doors for relationships and the Gospel. But never have we experienced being the source that keeps so many people from going hungry for an entire day, much less for several.

    This Thursday we had a major thunderstorm that dropped over 2 inches of rain on Louisville but that did not stop our team. As we hit our first stop we had several interesting encounters, while our team was talking with a man and helping him carry the meal and blanket we gave him he pulled out a crack pipe and lit it while still engaging with our team. At the exact same time we had a fight break out between two individuals on the other side of the street next to the rest of our team. As we went to the next stop to escape the escalating situation we pulled up to a camp that had just broken up a major fight. As we were there ministering we had a man walk up wearing no shirt and covered in cuts and bruises and start harassing our team. He simply wanted to cause a problem, so we wrapped up our conversations and distribution of food in that camp, and moved on to the next one. On our way to the next camp down a one way road, someone turns the wrong direction down the road and almost hits us head on! What a night!
   
None of these experiences by themselves are out of the ordinary for us by any stretch, they definitely are more of the extremes we see, but they do happen. However, I have never seen so much happen in the same evening. It was truly a challenging evening. Through all of the stories of last night, our team stayed strong, standing through the winds and the rain, giving out food and blankets, having conversations and loving the lost, and bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the streets of Louisville.