OUR STORY

The idea for HOPE Missions first began in 2012 when Mark traveled with a group of people to Ethiopia and began a friendship with the man who ran the guest house where he was staying, Abraham Bezabeh. Mark saw great potential in the work being done and Abraham was exploring new ways of meeting the needs of his people in Ethiopia. Two years later, Mark returned to Ethiopia with a team that included Alicia. Mark and Alicia struck up a friendship and discovered a shared passion for Ethiopia and supporting Abraham, who had just began his water filter work in local villages. When they got home Mark and Alicia began building support in their local church and community for work being done across the world.

In 2015, Benson, one of the pastors at Mark and Alicia’s church, went with them for the first time, which began a close friendship with Abraham. Benson saw what an amazing cause this was, and wanted to see it grow. Upon returning from their trip they decided to name their team HOPE Missions and began to dream of what could be. Over the next two years Mark, Alicia, and Benson lead more teams to Ethiopia and built a funding base to support Abraham in order to allow their water filter ministry to improve and expand.

In 2017, it seemed like HOPE Missions would come to an end, when Benson and Alicia (now married) moved to Northern Virginia to help start a new church. That year Mark and Benson only took one team with a total of four people on it. A season of prayer began in order to discern the future direction of the work and to ask God to not only keep Hope going but help it to thrive. Alicia and Benson soon found a full team of people from their new church who were interested in going. In 2018 a team of 9 people went to Ethiopia and funds were raised to support Abraham in order to allow him to do his clean water filter work almost full time. Benson and Alicia also discovered that God had blessed their trip with people who were not only committed to the work but had an abundance of leadership gifts.

In the spring of 2019, two different teams went to Ethiopia. On those trips more leaders emerged who could not only see the potential for HOPE Missions but also had the abilities to increase our fundraising, involvement, and organizational reach. That summer, the decision was made that HOPE Missions could no longer exist within a single church and steps were taken for HOPE to become it’s own non-profit. Over the next 6 months funds were raised to support Abraham and his family full time, involvement increased from 1 church to 6, and Mark, Benson, and President of the Board Alek, were blessed to be present at the official ground breaking of HOPE’s latest project the Kondala School.

HOPE continues to grow literally and figuratively as the work being done not only saves lives but improves communities and transforms generations.

Welcome to the HOPE Missions family. We hope that you will consider supporting our work and becoming a part of our story.