Louisiana-Hope Church

Hope Church, New Orleans – Westlink is a partner in the planting of this church.

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May 4, 2012 – March Ministry & Family Update

Message from: Eric Fillinger
We hope that you’re doing well.  As always, thanks for taking the time to read and stay informed about our lives and ministry in New Orleans.
Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer Fillinger

Summary by Eric
-I started the month by preaching at a small church plant, about an hour away in Pearlington, MS.  I was filling in for the minister who was out of town.
-Gerald Williams has been part of the Hope staff from the beginning in a part-time capacity.  His other work is a summer camp called Excite.  Due to a new location for the program, the Excite camp has grown significantly.  The growth is good, but it means that Gerald will have less time available for ministry at Hope.  So, Gerald has transitioned from a staff pastor to a lay pastor.  He and the family will remain involved with the Hope family, but with lower demands and expectations.
-Our church family participated in the One Million Bones event to demonstrate and uphold the values of peace and justice.  You can learn more at www.onemillionbones.org
-I spent quite a bit of time working on the Connect Bus.  The main project was applying window tinting film to all the windows.  This has made the bus much nicer.  I also spent time getting the fuel pump replaced and obtaining the Brake Tag for this year.
-It was a big month for the boys.  With the sale of our house completed, we were able to buy a loft bed for each boy.  Mitchell and Jacob also got contacts and 435 lbs. of free weights.
-As they say in New Orleans, Jacob made 13 on April 20th.  So, we are the parents of 2 teenagers now.  Jacob got a cell phone for his birthday.  He also got himself on Facebook as soon as he was legal.
-Jennifer’s mom came for a visit and to stay with the boys while Jennifer and I attended a church planting conference in Orlando.  The conference was called Exponential.  It was good to be around like-minded people and be reminded that though church planting is hard, it is worth it.
-Be sure to check out my 2 new blog posts at ericfillinger.wordpress.com, you’ll get more stories and pictures about our time at Exponential and One Million Bones.

Stories by Jennifer

This time last year Mitchell and Jacob were both shorter than me- it is verifiable in our Mother’s Day photos- and today I am the “little one” in our family, a title usually reserved for our youngest son, Jacob. We Fillingers have been able to stem the tide of adolescence among our youngest members by reserving cell phone and Facebook usage until 13 (the age FB stipulates, BTW), but this month we plunged headlong into the abyss.  Jacob turned 13.  To put it another way, my baby is a teenager or, how about- I am the mother of two deep-voiced suspiciously man-sized creatures with ginormous shoes.  With Mitchell, 13 was not an existential crisis for me. When he turned 13 I still had one kid who could order off the child’s menu (not that he did) and honestly Mitchell is such a mellow kid that it wasn’t a huge transition. It was convenient to call him and his FB got hacked and he never went back to it. Jacob, on the other hand, has been pacing at the starting line for months for the clock to strike April 20 and render him a teenager. All he wanted for his birthday was contacts, a phone and a workout to follow P90X with (he’s done it twice). Tools of the trade, I suppose.  I was unprepared for the torrent of testosterone.
Within 24 hours he had nearly as many friends as me on FB and my seldom-used wall is filled with middle school drama (every time he posts something he gets 67 to 86 comments). Who is this child? Sorry, teen. A girl asked him to a dance…and her birthday party. I have never met her and Jacob doesn’t have any classes with her, but she is in hot pursuit of one un-bespectacled blue-eyed boy. Not ready! So not ready! Me, I mean. He is obviously down with the idea of being a chick magnet.
Right after Jacob’s birthday, Eric and I went to the Exponential conference, where the overall topic was being sifted and how we have to hold fast to Jesus in the midst of crises. One couple after another shared their story of overcoming pornography addiction, extramarital affairs, alcoholism, workaholism and pride. They talked about how difficult the fallout was and how important they make their family now that they realize what they almost lost. Churches and families were devastated. We left feeling amazingly healthy and centered, coming up on 20 years of marriage, we have done the hard work of being honest with each other every day so that we don’t have to fight our way back from the brink. Tiny course corrections are so much easier than turning the whole ship around. Our little church has that same DNA in it. We have our issues, but we are a healthy family, not perfect, but sweetly, honestly healthy.

Here’s where these experiences come together. When Satan sets about sifting us, what do you suppose that temptation is going to feel like? Perhaps, like a boy who hid behind glasses getting attention from a girl? Perhaps, like going from mathlete to stud overnight? Yeah, I think maybe. And when you are riding that kind of high, what would be a bigger buzz kill than owning your own pride, selfishness and sin? Nothing. So sin feeds itself on our basest desires- to be loved and accepted and appreciated. If we don’t look for love and acceptance in the right places, the wrong places will come looking for us. Count on it.
Jacob was every bit as special and beloved to God (and me) a month ago with glasses and not one Facebook friend to his name. I want you to know that God loves you just where you are right now, too. He won’t love you more at 20 pounds less or 20 good deeds more. He knows you deeply, intimately and He loves you anyway.

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April 4, 2012 – March Ministry & Family Update

Message from: Eric Fillinger – March was a really good month for us, we had a lot of positive things happen.  And we have entered a season of life where we should have more margin and balance.  We love you, thanks for supporting our work through prayer and your gifts.
Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer

Summary by Eric
-I had the Connect Bus out serving the homeless at the Crescent City Café at the beginning of March.  Our bus is 17 years old.  On the way home, the bus died on the highway and I had to have it towed by a big rig tow truck, which was pretty expensive.  Fortunately, the repair itself wasn’t too expensive.
-We sold our house!  We had closing on March 9 and the check cleared the bank!
-Jennifer won third place in a local writing contest.
-We enjoyed having the help of volunteers from Central Christian Church.  Their high school group has come to New Orleans three years in a row to serve the city.  They helped me scout a new location for the Connect Bus.
-March was crunch time for NOLA Mad Dash.  God gave us fantastic weather on race day.  19 teams participated and everyone said they wanted to do it again next year.  One reason we did the event was to raise money for our students to attend the Student Life camp this summer.  Read Jennifer’s story below to see how it worked out for us.
-Jennifer and I have been doing pre-marital counseling with our worship minister and his fiancée every Monday evening.  It’s been fun and a good reminder for us about what needs to be done to have a marriage be all that God intends it to be.
-Our family enjoyed having the Buckeyes in town for the Final Four, we got to attend their public practice session.

Stories by Jennifer
Manna.
The Israelites got exactly what they needed for that day no matter how hard they worked and they couldn’t put it away for the next day (or it would get all maggoty) so they had to trust God again the next day. And the next day…
Good lesson, no?
Well the manna at Hope has been good this last month!
NOLA Mad Dash, an Amazing Race style event that we created, marketed and pulled off beautifully was an unmitigated success. Two local restaurants catered the after-party, Monster energy drinks gave each racer a prize pack (with 4 or 5 products in them), the prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Best Costume were beefy with local gift certificates and swag- nearly $700 worth for the top scorers- and businesses and individuals sponsored the event generously to send our youth group students and sponsors to camp this summer. We had a huge goal- $4,200!- but we went after it wholeheartedly. Check out nolamaddash.com for pictures. It was a riot, and some teams are already planning their strategies for next year.
So. Much. Fun.
But why is it manna? The next day Eric added up the receipts, donations, race registrations, sponsorships- it all went into the pot. The total raised was $4,150…so close! But then Eric remembered a little pile of manna he left on the ground- a local business had promised a $50 donation and not followed through. So my man, being practical way before prideful, trotted over there and told them the news. They pulled out their checkbook and wrote out the $50 check. $4,200 on the dot- we got exactly what we needed. God is good!
Whenever we have the opportunity to trust Him and He comes through, we are able to take His promises a little more personally. It makes me think of prenuptial agreements and NFL negotiations. We are wired as humans to want our contracts front-loaded. We want to know that we will be safe and cared for now and for the foreseeable future, so these documents aren’t about relationship at all. They are written precisely because the entities don’t trust each other to do what’s right or best for them. With God, we don’t have that concern. He is not out to get us- there is no ulterior motive. His contract states clearly (in Jeremiah 19:11) that His plans are to prosper us, not harm us, and to give us hope and a future. That’s fine print I can sign! He seems to set it up that He must be a part of our equation every day. If we had earned enough now to pay for camp next year, we wouldn’t need to do another Mad Dash next year and it was a great time of community and outreach.We have an amazing story that glorifies God and we can’t wander too far from the source of that blessing. His longing is relationship and our trust and obedience allows that intimacy to grow.
We met our goal…He met our need.
Exactly- to the penny.
He set it up so we must trust Him tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day…

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March 2, 2012 – February Ministry & Family Update

Message from: Eric Fillinger
It seems that every month I write that it was a busy, full month of ministry and family activity, so I guess I should stop saying it was busy, as if this was somehow an exception to normal life and say that February was normal and good.  We’re still not yet closed on our house, but at least we are in contract again.  Thanks for reading and supporting us.
Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer

Summary by Eric
-I spent a lot of time working on NOLA Mad Dash.  Read my blog for a biblical explanation of why we are doing an event like NOLA Mad Dash, and learn more about the event at www.nolamaddash.com
-I spent a lot of time preparing our house for sale.  The house looks great inside and out and everything works.
-the family enjoyed some Mardi Gras parades together and the boys had an entire week off of school for Mardi Gras.

Stories by Jennifer
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Any of you who teach have probably seen this quote recently, as February was Black History Month. I have seen it lived out.

Anyone who knew Eric Fillinger in Ohio, knew him in moments of comfort and convenience. Those words- ‘comfort and convenience’- characterize shockingly few of the days we’ve had since coming to New Orleans. This last month was no exception. The original buyers for our house had their financing fall apart (boo), so we went back on the market (boo), and found another buyer (yea!), who happens to be the premier construction litigator in the southeast U.S. (boo) who scheduled an inspection team who wrote a 67 page treatise on what was wrong with our house (boo).

Eric handled all of this with a great attitude and an amazing attention to detail. We had at least 50 showings at all hours and once we had a buyer, he had to switch into contractor mode and find the best, most economical plumbers, carpenters, sand pumpers, HVAC specialists and electricians available to meet the 6 requirements they made.
He did this all within 10 days…while doing all of his church work…and being a great husband and Dad…and putting together a city-wide adventure race to raise money and awareness of Hope. That’s my man.

As we approach 20 years together (I know; I feel older just typing that), I have seen Eric in many seasons of life and circumstance, but none so consistently trying. Satan fights hard here, and he fights dirty. We have battled deception, drug abuse, alcoholism, slander, depravity, betrayal, theft, malice, rejection and mental illness in our little church. Some days, it feels like we’re in Helms’ Deep and the battering rams are at the door, but it has made my mild-mannered husband into the warrior for Christ he was destined to be. He does not shrink back, he prays it through and gets into the thick of it. For those of you who’ve never been there, it’s messy in the thick of it and sometimes the people you go in to save decide that they’d rather not be saved after all, thank you, but sometimes God is glorified and that person’s life is changed forever and you are privileged to be a knight in God’s army for them.

I wish I had a soundtrack, because it’s just that epic. Could we use reinforcements? Yeah.
Is it overwhelming sometimes? Absolutely. Do I ever wish I could go back to comfort and convenience? Not really. You see, I left Ohio with a Strider and now I’ve got myself an Aragorn. Why would you ever walk away from that?

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February 3, 2012 – January Ministry & Family Update

Message from: Eric Fillinger
We’ve been enjoying a mild winter here in New Orleans.  As I write this, it is 70 degrees outside, so it’s technically winter, but it obviously doesn’t feel like it. We’re okay with that.  We hope you’re doing well as you read this. Thanks for being a part of our work to see Hope established in New Orleans.
Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer Fillinger

Summary by Eric
-NOLA Mad Dash was the recipient of much of my time in January. Planning, scouting locations, logo development, website design and the production of print materials. Check out the website to get the details, www.nolamaddash.com.  This event will involve the entire Hope family to make it happen. NOLA Mad Dash will help us raise money for our students to attend camp this summer and it will serve as a major outreach opportunity for the Church.

I took the Connect Bus out to partner with the Crescent City Café, which is dining with dignity for the homeless in New Orleans. We had a great day serving our clients on the bus, but a neighbor complained that the noise from the generator woke him, so he called the police. The responding officer liked what we were doing and let us continue.

The Church showed the Saints game on our big screen a couple of times, this has been a very good outreach for us. The Saints games and a board game night that we did were all well attended and gave us the opportunity to build relationships.

Our buyers broke the contract to buy our house on Jan 9 and so we put our house back on the market. We’ve had two open houses and a fair number of showings. We’re ready to been done with the process.

Jennifer met with the director of the Heath Evans Foundation to pitch him an idea for a new program that they would facilitate. The meeting went very well and Jennifer was asked to take the next step in the process.

Our Life Group did some painting for one of our Hope families that was unable to do the work on their own.

Our family and our High School/College Age Life group attended a Hornets game together. It was fun despite a loss by the Hornets.

I spent a day in Bossier City, LA. (5 hrs north of NOLA) meeting a potential church planter for a new church in that area. I serve on the Management Team for the new church.

Stories by Jennifer
“Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” It was these words from I Samuel that I was discussing with my co-workers (who happen to be pretty deep, philosophical Christians) right before Christmas break. Erik Thien explained that when he is awakened in the middle of the night for no good reason (no alarm, tomcat fight, etc.) he prays, “Lord if you have awakened me for a reason and you have something to tell me, I am listening.” Usually if I am awakened slightly before my normal time, I will get up and have quiet time, but I had never answered this call as Samuel had and filed the idea away for use at the next opportunity. That opportunity came at 4:40 a.m. the next day. I woke up fully with no outside influence so I prayed “Lord, if this is from you and you have something to say to me, I am listening.”…and I got 2 words clearly: Brave Beauty. This made no sense to me at first, but as I settled in to ponder what it meant, the pieces came together effortlessly. I had read about the Heath Evans Foundation, which provides counseling to survivors of childhood sexual abuse, the day before and this was clearly about these women. You see, when a woman has been violated in that way, there are two different ways she will likely respond physically: she can go overboard controlling diet and exercise and making her body conform to a very strict personal standard or treat her body as a liability and hide from unwanted attention, often through weight gain. In this situation it really is brave to be beautiful. This was not my idea, I had forgotten I’d read the article until that moment, so I got out of bed and wrote an e-mail to the Heath Evans Foundation explaining the idea for a program to help women make that final physical connection with their own bodies after completion of counseling called Brave Beauty. Then, went ba ck to sleep with a clear conscience. Except the story doesn’t end there.

The Executive Administrator and the President of the Foundation both e-mailed me that day. They set up a phone meeting for the next day. During that meeting Glenn, the President, asked me to flesh out my ideas with a one page proposal and he would discuss the idea with Heath Evans. Oh, and by the way, they are all Christians. I wrote the proposal. He talked to Heath and asked to meet with me while he was in town for the BCS game. They all loved the name. We met for an hour or so and he asked me to put together a 5-page proposal with a budget narrative to present to their board so that we can get funded to launch a pilot program. He suggested I write myself into the budget as a project manager. How amazing is that? Did I expect any of this? Not on your life! Do I believe that God is big enough to orchestrate something of this magnitude out of nothing? Absolutely!

So my challenge to you is this: Pray a dangerous prayer. In the still of the night when nothing is competing for your attention, allow God to speak to you in a still small voice and listen. Who knows what adventure might await you.

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January 11, 2012 – Pictures for your enjoyment

           

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December 30, 2011 – Ministry & Family Update

Thank you all for taking the time to read about our trials and successes, pray for us and give of yourselves over the last 12 months. You have helped to create and sustain our family and Hope Christian Church. We consider you a part of our family and hope that you had an amazing Christmas and that 2012 brings you great joy.

Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer

Summary by Eric

-Mitchell, Jacob and I distributed thousands of Hope postcards in the month of December.
-I took the Connect Bus for the second time to the Crescent City Café, this looks to be a very good partnership between the two ministries.
-I was thrilled to have the opportunity to baptize Brian into Christ on 12.10 and welcome him into God’s family.  You can see pictures on my blog, ericfillinger.wordpress.com
-As they say in New Orleans, I made 44 on Dec. 12.  It was a great birthday.
-Hope held a Christmas movie night as an outreach event.  We showed Elf and A Christmas Story.
-We had a lot of car related expenses in December, as both our vehicles needed repairs, a new windshield, brake tags, etc.  Both vehicles are paid for and generally continue to run well despite their age.
-Jennifer’s Mom spent a week with us and was with us for Christmas.  The boys enjoyed the extra stuff that came as a result of a Grandma visit.
-We went into contract on our house. (see story below)  We still have the inspection and closing to get through, so please pray that God gives us favor and we can complete this process.

Stories by Jennifer

What makes a good gift?
I taught a Jesus Kids lesson on that 2 weeks ago and it really got me thinking.
Take Asher, a 5-year- old boy in the class, for example. He loooooves dinosaurs. A great gift for him would be a giant roaring dinosaur, yet he was quite sure it wouldn’t be a great gift for me. In fact, he giggled maniacally when I suggested the idea.
Why? Well, because I don’t want it like he does.
We also decided if you were crazy hungry and hadn’t eaten in three days and someone offered you a giant plate of spaghetti and meatballs or a fun toy, you’d pick the spaghetti.
Why? Well, because you need it.
So to recap, wanting something makes a gift good, but needing it makes it better.
By this definition, we just got a great gift.

Let’s climb into the way-back machine and recall the house we sold in Ohio four years ago (thank you, again, to all those who painted or mowed the lawn or prayed for that house to sell.)  We were praying for clear guidance on whether to stay in New Orleans and specifically that our house would sell by the end of the year. It was a difficult time as we were living in a FEMA trailer here and owned a perfectly good house in Ohio that we were paying the mortgage on.
But God had big plans:
The couple with a spare FEMA trailer for us became part of Hope’s launch team. Hope began as a Bible study in their living room soon after.
And remember that perfectly good house back in Ohio that I mentioned?
We got an offer for it on Christmas Eve.

Now back to the present day; Eric and I saw an opportunity to help Hope grow, by moving into the house next door to the church that Hope had been using for church offices, storage and other staff. When Chris and Beth Hall left to help plant a church in New York, we decided to move in and put our house on the market. We knew we could reduce both Eric’s salary and our expenses by selling our house in Lakeview, so we prayed that God would bring the right buyers to us quickly.
Boy, did he!
We put the house on the MLS 11/15, we got a first offer 12/21 and, after much negotiating, I sent a final offer on 12/23.
They countered on 12/24.
That’s right; they inexplicably countered an offer that had explicitly been our bottom line…on Christmas Eve.
Hmmm- what do you think? Is that coincidence or God basking in the glory of a plan coming together?
We split the difference with the buyers, and called it Providence.
In a real estate environment where people fear selling at a loss, we got an acceptable offer without a realtor, at a profit, within six weeks, on Christmas Eve…for the second time.
That, my friends, is an amazing gift!

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October, 2011 – Ministry & Family Update

Ministry & Family Updates at Hope Christian Church
Message from: Eric FillingerI hope you are doing well. The last two months have been very full with all of the work on the house we are selling, but good news, all the projects are done and we’ll be putting the house on the market this week.
Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer Fillinger

Summary by Eric

-Jennifer spent a week in Colorado participating in a retreat for the wives of church planters. The retreat was organized by Bloom, which is a ministry of Stadia for church planter wives. Jennifer was refreshed and encouraged during her time away.
-Work on the house was like having second, part-time job. Everything was painted inside, two porches were cleaned and painted, I moved 6 cubic yards of dirt for new landscaping, put plants in and laid sod. The yard looks great, the way I always wanted it to look when we lived there. There were many other jobs, like replacing broken ceiling fans, re-grouting showers and cleaning thoroughly. I’m glad it’s all done.
-We celebrated Jennifer’s birthday in October. One thing we did to celebrate was karaoke at a Japanese restaurant with about twelve other people. It was a lot of fun.
-I have been leading a class we call Next Steps. We’ve had six people participate in learning what it means to follow Jesus and what it means to be a part of the Hope church family.
-I was very encouraged by our Taste of the Nations dinner on Oct. 29. We had 53 people participate in the worship service and meal that followed. We were celebrating the incredible diversity of our church family. Represented at Hope are five different ethnicities, and at least eight distinct cultures. You can view pictures of the dinner on our Facebook page
-One new blog post with pics

Stories by Jennifer

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Can I just say James kicked my butt this month and call it a day? Yeah, I didn’t think so. I shall begin with a riddle: “When is a mountaintop experience not a mountaintop experience?” Answer: When they happen to be the mountains you were trapped in for the most vulnerable, abandoned and abusive time of your life. You see, I began October by going to Colorado for a church planters’ wives retreat. I went up a few days early and got to see my Uncle Dave and Aunt Kerry, Kevin King and even saw Matt and Carissa Sturgeon. Fabulous people I love and miss- all was going swell, so imagine my surprise as my chest began to compress on the way up into the Rockies. It was dry, cool and 8,000 ft (remember, I live at sea level or below) and I have asthma…easily explained, right? Not so much. I had the wind knocked out of me literally and figuratively. I wanted OUT of there. I had spent 3 of the worst years of my life in Wyoming as a kid feeling those very mountains were my prison. God and I had some tough moments on the other side of those mountains a fe w weeks ago. I got up at sunrise and sat on a rock and sobbed. He showed me that the mountains He made could be beautiful, they didn’t have to mean holding me back, holding me hostage, and He reminded me that even in those awful, horrible times when I felt unlovable and powerless, He was there. I know that as truth because I couldn’t have survived it without Him. I was among women doing the same hard work of church planting in those mountains and God, in His providence, arranged it so that the one woman there who was my age and had a similar background had a late flight out of Denver with me. We rented an SUV, had a fabulous lunch and talked through the hard stuff. If I went to CO just for that afternoon, it was absolutely worth it.
Then I came home, a more ‘finished work’, and was almost immediately called upon to use that horrible time of my childhood to minister to women in the church. I’m not even exaggerating to say that stories of physical and sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse and character assassination came crawling out of the woodwork. Whether it was the women themselves or close family members and friends, I was ready to delve with them into the ugly in a way I probably wouldn’t have been in September. I did not seek out this retreat to ‘face my trials’, but God is good, He is big and He loves me enough to remind me who I am in Him, and it is so much more than I even dreamed possible as a helpless kid. Hmmm…immeasurably more than you ask or imagine, sound familiar, anyone? So, I am growing, individual people are growing and the church is growing. In fact, we had over 50 people and over 10 cultures represented at our Taste or the Nations dinner last week. Diversity is a beautiful thing, so is healing, growing and loving each other like family. This month has not been easy- far from it- but it has been good and deep and God-filled. Please pray for my James 1:2-4 sisters and me. Pray that we would find joy, faith and perseverance so we can be mature and complete enough to show others the path through trials with God at our side. Oh, and not lacking anything? That sounds good, too.

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September, 2011 – Ministry & Family Update

Hope Christian Church need our prayers and moral support through this difficult time.  The majority of church plants fail within a few years.  This section of New Orleans needs Hope in order to have real Hope.  Pray for the leaders, the congregation and those they are reaching out for.

I hope you’re doing well and that you are enjoying some nice fall weather.
Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer Fillinger

Summary by Eric

-Jennifer’s brother Matt spent a week visiting with us.  Matt lives near Seattle, Washington.
-Tropical Storm Lee dumped lot’s of rain on greater New Orleans.  We had 10-15 inches in about two days, fortunately we did not have any flooding.  The storm did keep some people away from our worship service even though it wasn’t raining, because they weren’t sure when it would start up again.
-We spent quite a bit of time continuing to unpack and get settled into the new house.  We’re basically done, we just need to hang some pictures.
-Jennifer and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary September 12th.  We enjoyed a delicious brunch at the Cheesecake Bistro.
-I did some budget projections for Hope which showed me that we need our people giving more and more people giving in order to become a self-supporting church.  We are tackling our financial challenges by seeking additional outside support and by reducing our expenses.  We had to reduce Pastor Gerald’s salary pretty dramatically and I will be reducing my salary as soon as our house sells.
-I’ve been spending a lot of time at our old house preparing it to sell.  Our goal is to have it look as much like a new house as possible.  I finished the sheetrock in the half, Jennifer has been doing touch up painting and we just finished cleaning and painting the front and back porches.  I rented a pressure washer to clean the porches and it was stolen from the backyard, while I went to get fuel for it.  Now I’m on the hook to replace it for about $1000.00.
-I spent almost a week in Decatur, IL working for Jennifer’s cousin on the ADM Town Hall meeting.  This job is a huge help to us because it pays really well.
-I am excited that we have over 80% of Hope people participating in one of our Life Groups (small group Bible studies) at this time.
-I’m also excited that we had three first-time guest visit in September, so we are growing, it’s just slower than I would like, but we are trusting the Lord.

Remember to ‘Like Us’ on Facebook if you haven’t already done so

If you’d like to give a gift to Hope and help us with our current financial challenges, we would really appreciate it.  You can make your check payable to Hope Christian Church and mail it to: PO Box 19842 New Orleans, LA 70179

Stories by Jennifer

What a surprise! What a breath of fresh air.
I began a Women’s Bible Study on Sunday nights with 4 women who I’d been having an informal study (read ‘community based, not Hope Christian Church based’) with. As most everyone there had begun coming to Hope, we decided together to make it a Hope Life Group, as we’d been functioning that way for months. It seemed like a small thing at the time- we were keeping it the same in spirit; accountability, prayer, Bible study, but it turned out to be a big thing of the sort only God can pull off.

We now have 15 women attending and 3 more that have expressed an interest and 5 of them don’t even regularly attend any worship service, they are just plain thirsty for God. The ages range from 20- 40s and we are as diverse a group as I can fathom. It has been awesome! We began in my living room (it was only 5 or 6 of us, right?) and quickly had to take it over to the church building because I ran out of seats…and floor cushions. What a phenomenal problem to have!

It isn’t just the sheer size of the group that’s got me excited. People are opening up and growing already…and we haven’t even met for long. Transparency and support create a good cycle in which everyone feels comfortable. We got to take the DNA from our cozy little girls’ group and make it into something more impacting. That is a gift.

One of my favorite intermittent attendees of our smaller group has started coming to this group and to church. She would probably hate it if I said her name (her cantankerous spirit is one of the things I love about her!) but I can see the flakes of rust falling away from her heart…she’s softening up in spite of herself. Where she used to raise an eyebrow and shoot me an “I dare you to ask me a question” look, now she participates, does her homework and doesn’t even mock Beth Moore… too much.

I wish I could sit down with you and show you a picture of each woman, telling you how much I care about each of them, but I wouldn’t want to embarrass them. Apparently, I am prone to gushing. They secretly love it though. Jontue, one of the members of the original community based group, stood up during worship service this week and said she appreciated how I got in her business and challenged her at just the right time. She is now doing the same thing with the youth group students. This week they will be meeting without me as I am going to CO for a retreat and Jontue will lead the group. God’s plans are so much bigger and more astounding than my plans.
I love it when a plan comes together.

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We’ll be doing some traveling for two weeks at the end of July and I will be speaking at Discover Christian Church on Sunday, July 31.  We’d love to see you, so it would be great if you could make it out that morning to see us.  We’ll go to lunch afterward at a family favorite like Donatos or Skyline.  Hope to see you soon, thanks for reading.
Love in Christ,
Eric & Jennifer

Summary by Eric
-Mitchell began the month at Camp College, it was more work than fun.  It was two weeks of prep and organization for being a high school student.
-Our Life Group had a watermelon party, followed by “sledding” down the levee at the lakefront.  Use this link to watch of video of our sledding.
-Pastor’s Gerald’s mom passed away at the beginning of the month.
-I led a successful day camp with the help of some great Hope people and a great volunteer group from Indiana.  We ended the week with 24 kids participating.
-I finally got the air conditioning working for the Connect Bus.  Thanks to a donation from Central Christian Church in Wichita, KS, I was able to purchase a new generator and two new laptops for the bus.
-I had the opportunity to be the guest speaker at Camp Clearwater for an elementary week of camp.  I spoke two evenings to about 60 students.  Jacob joined me and we had some good father/son time.
-I spent a little over a week being sick with a summer cold or flu, which was just annoying.
-We had our third baptism of a Hope attender, you can watch a great video of it by clicking this link, http://ericfillinger.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/avryls-baptism/ it’s called “Avryl”.
-We said goodbye to Chris & Beth Hall at the end of the month.  They have joined a church planting team in Buffalo, NY.  Chris served as our youth and worship minister for about 13 months.  We’re sorry to see them go, but we understand why and that it is something God had in their hearts to do before ever meeting us.
-We welcomed two new guys to the Hope ministry team this month.  Both are serving as one-year ministry interns.  Erik Olivo is leading our youth group and Javier Pineda is leading our worship band.
-I have been teaching a photo class about once a week at the Excite summer camp that Pastor Gerald leads in the Gentilly area.
-Four of these updates have more details and pics at my blog: ericfillinger.wordpress.com

Stories by Jennifer
I got the most beautiful job rejection e-mail yesterday:

“Thank you so much for your impressive and heartfelt application. I want to let you know that your application is very impressive.  You clearly have many relevant skills that will go far in business and non-profit management.”

Then comes the dreaded word “however” which in New Orleans might as well be followed by “you are not from here” or “nobody on our board is related to you or owes you a favor,” though usually just blandly states that they have chosen another candidate from the extremely competitive pool. It is maddening to be rejected without an interview- sight unseen. Anyone who knows me knows that I can close the deal in the interview…but I have to get an interview. Now if you saw my last post, you know that I have instituted a no whine policy which I am in danger of being out of compliance with, so I will just mention that if I measured my worth in the world’s economy, I would be laying in my bed sobbing right now. Even an entrepreneurial risk-taker like me can only take so many losses/rejections before I start to take it personally (and grant writing hasn’t helped as I was personally invested in every “no” I got there, too).

If I didn’t view my “net worth” in God’s economy, I would feel like an abject failure.

You see, no high-powered, benefit-bearing employer may want to pay for my expertise, but there are certainly people whose lives are better for knowing me.

Ask my friend who’s in rehab right now. Ask my kids or Eric, or my sister, who is at a crossroads right now.

I am called on daily to bring light and love and grace into people’s lives and I have the margin to do it. Working part-time (with or without benefits) has allowed me the flexibility to be available when the Spirit has an opportunity for me to serve, which is much more often than you’d think. It is something of a mystery what people in ministry “do all day”…until you live it! There is so much sadness or ugliness or anger in so many lives, that if you have the joy of helping someone untangle their knots and be set free, it is priceless.

But you would never say “sorry I’m late, I was helping Joe and Sally avoid divorce and there was a suicide threat on line 3″… and therein lies the disconnect between God’s economy and the world’s. The person who God impacted through you may never be the same- you know it, they know it and God knows it- but no one else does. The work is unpaid and hard to fit on a resume, but so worthwhile. It is a privilege to be trusted with someone’s deepest fears or most difficult struggles and be able to introduce them to an all-powerful God who cares for them.

So, would I like health and dental? Yeah. Would I trade God’s favor for six figure salary? Not on your life. It may not pay well, but purpose, meaning and fulfillment have value, too.

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There is hope.

Hope Christian Church is an authentic and diverse community; living like Jesus to transform people, our city and our world.

We simply want to love God, love people, and live like Jesus here in New Orleans.