“It started with a nudge, as most things do. Then it turned into dreams that kept us up at night.”

In 2016, Alyssa and Brooke had an apartment lease coming to an end. As they prayed about what their next move would be, they prayed with the longing to be intentional to their neighbors, and who they were… wherever they were. Those early prayers drew them towards a trailer park community, where God began to stir something in their hearts for a community they did not yet know. Always, though, their goal was - and still is - simply to be loving neighbors.

But as their dreams for what a “trailer park ministry” might look like grew bigger, they realized they were — let’s just say they were young — with very little experience or education. So, they decided to enlist some help from Michael, who was doing something similar. Michael had been living in a trailer park for five years where he had been running a tutoring program, helping families find resources, and — most importantly — acting as a loving neighbor. This was all they knew of him.

So when Alyssa and Brooke sat down with him for the first time, they did not anticipate him telling them that his trailer had been gifted to him. They did not anticipate that he was moving out of the park — he was getting married and felt his time there had come to an end. And they definitely did not anticipate his next words: Michael explained he had been praying for someone to whom he could regift the trailer. As though he had known them for years, Michael handed Alyssa and Brooke the keys.

And so their adventure — and House of Hope Ministry — began.

House of Hope Ministry started with the foundation Michael had laid and, as they began to immerse themselves in the community, Alyssa and Brooke began to grow with the needs of their neighbors. As more dreams started to build and more people wanted to get involved, they decided to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit: This was an intentional statement to their community that they were “all in.”

In July of 2018, House of Hope Ministry was granted its 501(c)(3) status. Two months later, it launched its first “people plant,” opening the doors to its second location in Oxford.