Shortly after Gary and Phyllis Hill retired, they were invited to serve on a mission trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The trip was multi-purpose. Among the travelers were a doctor and two nurses, and everyone traveled with a second large duffle bag stuffed with clothes and over-the-counter medical supplies. These items were for local people who did not have access to healthcare or could not afford it.

When the group was not providing medical assistance, they were visiting orphanages, painting churches, holding worship services with the trips' three pastors, and spreading goodwill. Gary says,” If you’re ever traveling through Nicaragua and see a lime green shack with a cross in the window, it’s probably a church painted by our group.”

Gary and Phyllis’s call to missionary work was intensified by following the work of their daughter, Becky, who traveled to gather stories about mission work for Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) and now works with Missionary Ventures International.

"Some of the places she’s traveled worried us a great deal, until she returned,” Phyllis shared. But despite their parental concerns, Gary and Phyllis are proud of their daughter’s mission work and have been inspired to be part of ministry in their own backward.

While they’ve watched and supported with great interest all this international missionary work, they couldn’t help but draw a connection to what they’ve seen at Hope Lutheran Church, particularly in the development of a new campus in the southern Villages.

While we’ve heard stories of bringing the Word to a few dozen or a few hundred people in the far corners of the world, we have come to believe Hope Lutheran Church has the opportunity to fulfill our mission to make Christ known in the southern part of The Villages. Gary says, “This means reaching not just a few people, but as many as two thousand people or more, if The Villages continues to grow as planned and if Hope can duplicate what has been accomplished with our other campuses. And with this new mission, they don’t have to travel halfway around the world. This one is only eight miles away."

Phyllis also knows the importance of having a strong church close to home. “If someone had not built a church close to the farm where I grew up,” Phyllis reminisced, "I may not have become a Christian.”

Gary knows he has seen God’s hand in Hope’s southern expansion, especially during the process of obtaining the land for the new campus. Gary says, “To paraphrase what we say every Sunday before Communion, this new campus is not Hope’s plan. This is not a Lutheran plan, or an ELCA plan. This is God’s plan, and we are going to support it in as many ways as possible.”

Hope Lutheran Church

250 Avenida los Angelos, The Villages, FL 32162

(352) 750-2321 hope4all.church