15 Years of Hope: Celebrating Our Journey, Building the Future

Wow! Time truly does fly when you are having fun making life better for kids.

In the fall of 2010, while serving as pastor of Foundry Church, I stopped in my tracks when I read a question in Reggie McNeal’s book The Present Future: “If your church were to close its doors tomorrow, would your community miss you?” I had to admit that while our 5,000 members would miss their congregation, the larger community probably wouldn’t notice. At that time, we organized many “drive-by” mission projects, but I also realized that we were merely filling potholes instead of building a highway through the heart of our city. That powerful epiphany demanded change.

Fifteen years ago, I and a small team from Foundry Church joined the Missional Renaissance program led by Reggie McNeal and Eric Swanson at Leadership Network in Dallas. During that very first three-day gathering, Cy-Hope came to life. Eric Swanson, author of The Externally Focused Church, opened a session by quoting from Peter’s sermon in Acts 10, “Jesus went about doing good.” He explained that Jesus’ transformational power came from focusing on making life better for others. In that instant, the mission of Cy-Hope became clear.

Because the school district serves as the largest “silo” in Cy-Fair, we chose to make it our mission to make life better for kids in Cy-Fair. The idea quickly grew into a movement. We began by consulting school and community leaders—Debbie Blackshear, Pam Wells, Roy Garcia, Teresa Hull, Adrian Dominguez, Susan Bacon, Mark McShafry, and many others—who joined us to create something with lasting impact.

I am also grateful for our founding executive director, Lynda (Zelenka) Dierker, who brought entrepreneurial energy and passion that transformed this idea into a thriving mission-driven organization. Foundry Church contributed more than $2 million, and that support fueled the launch and growth of our core programs: four afterschool Hope Centers, the Backpack Feeding Program, the Counseling Center, Cy-Hope Mentoring, the Providing Opportunities Program for college and career readiness, Cy-Hope Fine Arts/Betty Devine Virtuosos, Camp Lemonade, and Dierker’s Champs Baseball. Over time, we added two Hope Chest Resale Shops to fund our programs and purchased the serene Northwest Forest property as our headquarters. We grew from three part-time employees into a team of nearly 100, supported by over 900 volunteers, serving 4,000 students and their families annually.

Lastly, I am profoundly grateful Cy-Hope responded to the need for a local disaster response organization and sponsored Hope Disaster Recovery (HDR). Through HDR, Cy-Hope has generated a $50 million boost to the local economy.

I count the founding of Cy-Hope as one of the greatest honors of my life. To every volunteer, donor, staff member, and board leader who has worked to make life better for kids: thank you. Our work has created real change. I can only imagine the impact we will create together in the next 15 years.

Godfrey Hubert