2018 Inspiring Lunch Recap!
Over the past two weeks the Hope is Alive team hosted our annual Inspiring Lunch event. This fundraising event was created to help fund our Mentoring Homes Program that now provides a safe, structured and next level recovery program for close to 100 residents!
This year we hosted our first Inspiring Lunch in Tulsa! It was a huge success!! We had over 350 people attend, 30 sponsors support it & tons of incredible stories come from our Tulsa lunch. Here’s a picture of our good friend Mr. Steve Largent kicking off the event! A big thank you to Evergreen Baptist Church for helping to co-host with us! We will definitely be doing this again next year!
Last Thursday we held our 3rd annual OKC Inspiring Lunch. From all accounts this was our best yet. Just like in Tulsa, we chose to place an HIA Resident at each table and allow for 25 minutes of table talk. We believe there is no better way to understand what we do than to listen to the people who actually live there! This moment was clearly impactful as we had tons of phenomenal stories come out of these conversations. Here’s a couple highlights!
- One couple offered to pay for the first year of college for one of our residents!
- One business owner promised to give one of our residents a chance to bid upcoming jobs!
- Three residents were asked to submit resumes!
Here are some pictures of those moments.
After the table talk, the program opened and the tone was set when HIA Resident, Taryn, stepped up to the stage to share her passionate & vulnerable story. She was absolutely amazing and tons of people have asked for a recording of what she said, it was that good!
Here’s a picture of that moment!
Following Taryn we debuted two new short films, just as we did in Tulsa. Clearly they were impactful as there were very few dry eyes in the room. Here’s a link to the “Before & After” film and the new “Story of Hope is Alive” film. Hope you enjoy them!
To close out the OKC lunch, all our staff and residents surprised me with quite a moment! My beautiful wife Ally interrupted my closing speech to inform the entire room of my 7 year sobriety birthday coming up the following day. Following Ally’s speech our staff brought out a cake and all of the residents in the room came to the stage for a very special moment. Here’s a great picture of that moment.
The response, generosity & support we felt during these lunches was absolutely phenomenal. As I stated at both events, “it is clear that we are not waiting on a movement, we are in the middle of one!” The momentum we have at this place in time is something I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams. But isn’t that just how God works? Clearly, He is seeing that lives are changing within our homes and it pleases Him!
To all 850+ people who came, gave & shared in these magical moments with us, THANK YOU! We will look back on these events as catalyst moments for years to come!
With Hope,
-Lance
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Quotes from attendees:
“I thoroughly enjoyed the luncheon last week. Very, very nice event and very impactful.”
“Great job with the luncheon. Our table people loved it!”
“You guys are truly doing God’s plan!”
“Incredible!, I love the simplicity, clarity, and approach to what you are doing.”
“Just wanted to say that I absolutely loved the luncheon today. I think it was my very favorite event that I’ve attended. I know hearts were touched and eyes and ears opened to what God is doing through your ministry, and to the very real need for it.”
HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS WHO HELPED TO FUND THESE EVENTS!! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!