Eric & Amy Reed, members
How long have you attended New Hope Church?
We have been attending New Hope the last seven years, but we also attended as college students/newly married in the mid-90’s as well.
What ministries / leadership roles are you involved in at New Hope?
Amy is on the leadership team for Women’s life and team teaches in Kid’s Life. Eric is on the Budget/Finance Committee and captains a set up/tear down team. We both lead a life group and have the past several years. We are both educators in our community, and we are grateful to be involved in New Hope ministries as well.
What excites you as you think about the opportunities New Hope will have because of our new building?
The new building is exciting in several ways. Being involved in New Hope from beginning until now, we have never had that one place to call home, and the ability to plant roots is exciting. We’ve lived relatively nomadically moving to different places and setting up and tearing down church and kid’s life each week is a lot of effort and logistics.
But the most exciting part is that locating within Manhattan city limits will give access to people in our community looking for a church home and it will increase our ability to reach international populations around KSU. The visibility of the location will make people more aware of our presence and hopefully attract them to checking us out.
How do you think the building will increase our ability to pursue relationships that change the world?
The central location will help in terms of access for internationals living in Manhattan, K-State students, and those stationed at Fort Riley along with the core population of Manhattan. By having a location with good space will really help outreach and programs to these key groups. The location will also help our Fusion (Youth Group) have a more consistent space to meet, connect, and have fun. As Manhattan is a community that sees people come for a short time then move on, New Hope is in a great position to impact the nations for the gospel as people literally leave Manhattan and go all over the world. It is not unusual to see us connecting with ministries and people all over the world.
What do you love about New Hope?
We love the people at New Hope, and we love the connections that are made in the Manhattan community and beyond as we seek relationships that change the world. We have been able to find the greatest connections through life groups. First, it was us attending an established group and participating with them, and later grew to us starting another life group. These relationships have helped connect us with support and allowed us to grow deeper in our walk with Christ and encourage others to do the same. It has been a great balance between challenge and accountability as we spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Many of our relationships at New Hope go back to our college days 25 years ago, but we continue to meet new people and bring them into our lives. We love the worship and teaching which is centered on the Bible and lifting up Jesus, and we enjoy the focus on personal change and how to make those changes together to become more like Christ and advance the kingdom. We love that New Hope stays connected to workers sharing the gospel all over the world and prays for them consistently. Team 1:27 highlights the support of adoption, foster, and respite care which is near and dear to our heart as well. The children’s and youth ministries are solid as well and are organized by outstanding people. The people of New Hope are really just good down to earth people looking to impact our world for Jesus and to make Him known throughout the world.
Why are you excited to be a part of giving towards the worship center campaign?
It is simple for us to support the worship center campaign financially. For us, it’s simple logistics to have a facility that we can set up and use everyday when it is needed is very appealing. Also, being on the set up/tear down team for a few years, we’re getting older, and not moving so many chairs and totes sounds great too. But the main reason is to centralize our space in a place that is more accessible to more people at more times. We really know that a building does not make the church, and the core of New Hope is the people, but this update can really help us streamline to do more which is very exciting.
Is there anything else you want to share?
New Hope has been a great place for our family and has continued to provide love and support for us over the years even in times of trials. Shortly after we returned to Manhattan, our youngest child was diagnosed with cancer, and New Hope was a great support and encouragement to us over the next three and a half years as we endured childhood cancer. We’ve gone through other events such as losing family members and watching our oldest daughter marry a young man who attended New Hope his entire life. Through the ups and downs, joys and pains, and whatever life may bring, our church family at New Hope have walked through everything with us.
What are you believing God for as we invite people to partner with us in building our worship center and bringing these dreams to life?
Throughout our lives, it has not been uncommon for God to show up in big ways to provide. There is great potential here to trust God and his provision and timing in raising the funds to build the worship center. We already have a great provision story in securing the property at the price we did, and it will be another great story in the building of the worship center. We hope people outside New Hope see the impact that is made on the world through our ministries, and they want to be a part of it. We’ve had so many come through our doors over the years to be involved for a season. By contributing to this project, it’s a way to stay connected and praise God for the time you were involved at New Hope. Many of the people that attend New Hope do not have the finances to contribute for multiple reasons, but we would like to even better serve the college students, international community, and military populations even better than we do now. We are believing God to use this project for His glory and kingdom.
