Heritage of Pilgrim Endeavor
 

What is HOPE?
Diana Wyman, HOPE President

Anyone, ages 18 through 26 is invited to be a part of HOPE! Each year, we hold a national conference in a different part of the country. During the year, we keep HOPE going by staying in touch with friends across the country through e-mail, phone calls and letters. And this newsletter! Ananias is made up of contributions from past, present and future HOPErs.

 One of the special things about the conference is that it is planned and run by the participants. We are all in this together! Officers are HOPErs elected by HOPErs. They, along with the two co-directors, are responsible for putting the schedule together and helping it run smoothly.

 Small group discussions are an important part of the conference and HOPErs lead these as well. Small groups are a great opportunity to compare notes and learn from your peers.

 And we worship! After all, God does play a big part in this conference. Whether you like to jump around and make noise or stand quietly and sing, there is a place for your kind of worship at HOPE. We have had bands, acoustic guitars, prayer, recorded music, a capella voices, even dancers. HOPE is a safe place to worship God in whatever way you choose. And there are others who are eager to worship with you!

 If you have an active group of "college-age" people at your church, this is a great activity to sum up the year. And there's no better way to really get to know your friends than to take a long car/bus/train/plane ride together!

 If you don't have an active group, or don't have a group, or don’t even have a church, you're not alone. A lot of HOPE participants feel disconnected from churches either because of physical distance, or because of changing needs and interests. HOPE is a happy reminder that there are other people like you out there! You may even get some pointers on getting reconnected.

 As I sat trying to decide what to write my Ananias article about, I kept thinking of all the "business" things that I wanted to tell you: details about next year's conference, reminders, etc. But that's not what HOPE is about. We do have our business meetings (which were very efficient this year - thank you Tim!) but no one comes halfway across the country for a meeting.

We come together to learn and grow in Christ. We each learn a little differently, so the speaker may be the most significant part of the conference for some people. The music or small group time may be more meaningful to others. And for many people, the fellowship itself is the big draw. When else do you get to spend four fun-filled days with people who share not only a relationship with Christ, but some of the same interests and experiences as well?

 More than anything, HOPE is the people!
 

ADDRESS CORRECTIONS

There are a couple of typos on the e-mail addresses listed in the HOPE 2003 Yearbook. If you know of other corrections or changes, please let one of the officers know so everyone will get their HOPE info. This includes past HOPE participants. If you want to continue getting HOPE updates, the NA office needs to know where you are!

• Rob Boes should be gilisle06@yahoo.com (only one "i" after the first "l")
• Todd Thornstrom is bep_blackeyedpeas@hotmail.com (don't forget the "d")

Cool Down by Getting Your Creative Juices Flowing…
                    Think Advent

Want to cool down during the hot, long, “dog days” of summer?  Why not envision Advent and the approaching Christmas season.  That should cool you down some.  But wait, how about creating your own personal Advent devotion.  HOPE has been asked by the Church Services Commission of the NACCC to be the contributors to the Advent Devotional that will go out to the member churches for Advent.  What an honor for our group to be asked to do that. 

The theme for the devotional book is “In Grace Arrayed, Christ Comes”.  We need to have 25 devotionals submitted for the book.  I know that some of you really enjoy writing so here’s your chance to share with the rest of the NACCC. 

They are not very difficult to do, but there are a few guidelines that need to be followed.  In case you have not seen one of these devotional books put out by the NACCC, your submission should include a title, scripture verse pertinent to the text,
the body of the devotional (no more than 250 words), a prayer (no more than 50
words) and the contributor’s name, church, city, and state they would like to appear in the booklet.

Please send submissions to:  Lisa Dembkowski, 35 Glendale Road, Florence, MA  01062  413-584-8595 or email her directly at   dembkowskilisa@hotmail.com

Submissions are due on or before August 15, 2003.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Joanne Simpson at
617-543-3897 (cell phone) or email JSimp0780@aol.com , Lisa Dembkowski or Ruth Mahnke at the NA office at 800-262-1620.

H.O.P.E. Changes Lives

 I look forward to H.O.P.E. every year.  I have many reasons to look forward to H.O.P.E. such as friends, fellowship, and fun.  There is one other reason that I look forward to H.O.P.E.; every year I ask God to help me with a very specific part of my life.

In Michigan (2001), I asked God to take away my addiction to cigarettes.   I was 19 when I became a serious smoker.  At one time I was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.  I tried to quit many times, but always failed.  It worked!  I had zero cravings during the entire conference.  I knew the real test would come when I went home and had to deal with my friends who still smoked.  To my surprise, I still had no cravings, even as they were smoking right in front of me.  Thanks to God, it has been two years since I had a cigarette, and I feel wonderful.

In Washington (2002), I asked God to take away the lustful thoughts and actions in my life. Thanks to God, it has been a year and my prayers are being answered.

This year, in Virginia, I asked God to take away my slothfulness.  For most of my life, I have been overweight and unhappy about it.  Thanks to God I have run 9 miles, running 3 miles in a row yesterday and am down to 230 lbs (7/13/03).  With God’s help, I feel that it is possible to be less than 200 lbs. by next conference. 

Should we Struggle with our beliefs?
 

We all struggle with our faith at some point. Why do I believe in Christianity? Do I really believe what I say I believe? What makes my beliefs different than a Muslim or Hindu or even another Christian? Does it matter? This is the internal monologue of a person struggling with their faith. I asked myself many of these questions this year. I made some changes to my beliefs, but I am still very much a Christian. This brought me to an interesting question though: is it acceptable to question and struggle with your faith.

Recently I have been reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. He has a tendency to take a question like this and break it down as if it were a math problem until he comes to a logical conclusion. So let me give this a try. If a man were chained to a wall he would obviously struggle at times. He would probably constantly question why he was there, but neither of these would let him leave his shackles. The only thing the prisoner might gain would be a better understanding of his imprisonment. Perhaps this is the same with faith. Questioning and struggling with faith does not mean that you leave them behind. It simply means that you finish that internal overhaul with a better understanding of where you are in your faith.

To look at this a different way, consider what Christianity is. Christianity is a series of beliefs based on something that we cannot possibly comprehend but are always trying to. Almost every Christian writer from C.S. Lewis, to J.R.R. Tolkien, to Kevin Smith (creator of Dogma) will tell you that we probably have not gotten our beliefs quite right yet. So does it not follow that we should question our faith? Just as a writer struggles with a great sentence that is not quite perfect, so too should we all struggle with our beliefs.

By Eric VanTassell

A Challenge for HOPE 2004

After reading and organizing the HOPE evaluations one thing was apparent, everyone is concerned about how small the numbers were in Williamsburg. The answer to this is not an easy one and finding the problem is also extremely difficult. We all know that it is expensive to get to HOPE every year, and we are all in a transition period to adult hood (some even in college), so coming by the money is often difficult. Rents due, credit card bills are in the mailbox, and the refrigerator is empty; by the time you take care of the necessities the left over money is limited. By the time we all pay the bill for HOPE we are all in the need for money. For most people is takes saving money all year to be able to come to HOPE.

We also know that increasing the amount of HOPE ‘ers we have is not just one person’s reasonability. We need to all work together to increase numbers at HOPE. I want to challenge everyone not only to save the money and get to Rhode Island, but to bring a friend with you. I want to encourage you to pray about this! I already have my person lined up and I am working on a couple of more people. If we start saving and encourage more people to come then our problem of numbers is solved. We are the future leaders HOPE and we have to show the adults just how truly important HOPE means to all of us, and that we want it to be around for a very long time.

Don’t forget that we need your help in increasing numbers…. we need to seriously pray about this, everything we do we need to do in God.

See you in Rhode Island

God Bless,
Melissa Schelling
H.O.P.E Secretary