Fostering a Culture of Hope

Often when I walk into the community room at Hope City, I’m confronted with situations that are so contrary to the way I live at home. So many have found themselves living in situations beyond their control. Some come in for coffee, some for a shower, others just to be around people and grab a plate of food. They come in clothes that haven’t been changed in two weeks, bringing kids that don’t have coats on or proper shoes. Some look different, some smell different, some come dragging a cart or a buggy behind them, but all of them come with lonely hearts looking for love all the same.

I’m grateful this holiday season, as I walk into these different scenes, that God allows me to be a part of watching the slow transformation of broken hearts. I’m grateful to be a part of families receiving groceries when I have so much. I’m grateful that God chooses broken down places like Bethlehem to bring forth a mandate of freedom to those otherwise lost and ever inching toward hell as their eternal dwelling.

I’m grateful because I was raised in such a place, a place that so many at Hope City have found themselves stuck in. I was raised in a drug-addicted community that did nothing but churn out more drug addicts. I was raised in a jail cell that shows no mercy to those bound to be incarcerated for decades—unless Jesus comes.

This is the place God found me—broken, depressed, and with no hope. This is why Hope City was birthed—it came forth out of a longing to see others set free. I work at Hope City because I’m grateful to God that He looks down on the outcast and uses places like this to call them forth into salvation.

Hope City is uniquely placed, in the heart of the inner city of Kansas City, to bring awakening to our community to the worthiness of Jesus. He is the King of social justice and is the only way that wrong things will be made right in the lives of His precious broken ones. As they encounter God’s heart and redeeming power in the Hope City Prayer Room, we get to watch wonderful transforming change.

Hope City also offers two three-month internships for those who want to combine 24/7 missions training with a prayer focus in their training. One young woman intern was transformed in her internship:

Hope City creates an environment for exponential growth. Expect tears, expect intensity, expect your heart to burst out of your chest for people, and you will be well equipped for whatever the Lord has for you.—Sansaray Jones, Traverse City, Michigan

Hope City exists to trumpet hope in the inner city. There is a promise in Isaiah 9 that those who have lived in the shadow of death would see a great light. That light is Jesus, who is filled with zeal to deliver those who have had no helper, to redeem lives from oppression and violence.

One of our interns came from Tennessee to encounter God:

I came to Hope City to visit and felt like God wanted to do some heart surgery here, so I became part of Hope City’s Internship. God shined a light on my weakness here. He lit a fire in me that revealed my pride, my sense of being better than other people. Hope City’s internship is a place I think everyone would benefit from attending.—Sarah Johns, Nashville, Tennessee

One of the ways that Jesus offers hope is to invite them into His Father’s house of prayer, where there is a place for everyone! As the Psalmist says ,

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. (Psalm 92: 13–14)

What hope!

These are individuals from our Hope City KC Trade Off-Program and from the community, expressing their faith in God by choosing baptism and sobriety.

The Hope City Prayer Room, open nearly ‘round the clock five days a week, is next to a community kitchen where we serve lunch daily. We also have a food pantry where we distribute over 350 bags of groceries weekly. Our prayer room and healing room is open when the community comes in to get their groceries, and often they step in for prayer. Miracles happen as Jesus touches and heals.

Listen to what another one of our interns has to say:

I fell in love with Hope City as I witnessed the love of Christ being displayed. The reality of serving the poor, the orphans, the addicted from the place of prayer captivated my heart. I have never seen anything like this before—a house of prayer that is contending for justice for the least of these and actually providing practical help to the oppressed.— Nadiath Bernards, Florida

Hope City also has church services on Monday and Friday evenings where we teach the gospel of salvation, the forerunner message, intimacy with Jesus, etc. We also have a vast substance abuse assistance program that operates like an internship, where many are offered the same training as the rest of the IHOPKC family.

Hope City offers two three-month internships for those who are passionate about combining 24/7 missions along with a 24/7 prayer focus during their training.  Apply online today!

Richy Bickle

position

• Director of Internships, Hope City KC

Richy Bickle and his wife, Lena, have three children and have been residents of the Kansas City area their whole lives. Richy serves as the Director of Programs and an instructor at Hope City, as well as a teacher at the Center for Biblical End-Times Studies.