"The Boundary Lines Have Fallen for Us in Pleasant Places" (or God's Gift of Land)

The line from Psalm 16 captures how the team here at Wild Hope is feeling about a beautiful open 20 acre piece of land outside the city of Arusha. As we signed off on the purchase, our (almost disbelieving) minds were rocked by the fact that God has provided a piece of earth for our dreams to grow on.


(Staking the boundaries)

Let me go back...

Many of you will know that, from the beginning, Wild Hope has dreamed of a base called home where the fullness of life would flourish. Hardly daring to put words to it, we have hoped for a place to plant ourselves; a place where work, ministry, hospitality, training, demonstration projects and experiments can flow together to be a blessing here in Africa. In short, we dreamed of a retreat and training center with working gardens. In biblical terms, we have wondered if there was a little corner of Africa where we might live in Shalom with the land, each other, the community and our Creator.

Big dreams for a little team!

God must be a big dreamer too :-)

Somewhere along the way during this last year, He has sent us a small group of amazing partners who decided that they would like to see this thing go forward. To our own great shock and amazement, God allowed Wild Hope to recently pay cash for 20 acres of African soil.

This land is surrendered to our Maker. He is the one who provided the finances, led us to the plot and walked us through the weeks of dialogue and discovery with the local community.

We at Wild Hope are willing tenants, hoping to honor Him in the way we care for this piece of earth and the neighbors He has given us around it. Smile with us about this: all our neighbors are Maasai :-) They are quite surprised to find two families from the United States who speak their language (!) coming to join them in their community. As for us, we are happy to oblige.

Obviously, there is much to be done. First up on the to-do-list is to drill for water. We are praying we find good water and soon!

In time, as funds are adequate, we will begin to build. We will build our homes, a gathering place where we can teach and train, hospitable quarters for future teams, and gardens that utilize the earth in a Creation-honoring way. These are our initial dreams, but we know that more will unfold as we begin.

Please join us in celebrating this gift of land. And pray with us that it truly will be a place from which life springs forth.


The Wild Hope Team on the land


Looking out toward some of our neighbors

We Are Thankful (and Our Hats Are Off To...)

There is much to be thankful for this year!

We have some very special news about "the land" but that will have to wait till next week.

Today we just want to say a heartfelt thank you to Byron's dad, Oscar Borden. Oscar worked for 12 years in East Africa. Though he moved away many years ago, his heart and mind still carry a love and concern for this place.

Recently, Byron was telling his father about the lending base we want to raise so that we can increase the number of micro-loans to our African friends. Wild Hope wants to start with a dedicated $30,000 for this express purpose.

Oscar lives on very little at his home in Florida. He cares for others, tends to his work, and visits Byron's Mom in the full-time care unit where she lives.

Not long ago, Oscar wrote us to say that he had a CD coming due and he wanted to cash it in and send the whole sum to our lending-base fund.

This little note is just to say "Thank you, Oscar!" We wanted to honor you for giving the very first $1,000 to what we fondly call The OCB--or Oscar Clarence Borden-- Fund :-)

We are inspired by you!