The name H.O.P.E. Unlimited has a lot of nuanced meaning, and I wanted to use this page to explain the foundation of this company.
As a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, my faith is at the core of everything I do. Through the years, H.O.P.E. Unlimited has served both the business and the faith community. Its current focus is on Helping Others Pursue Excellence, guided by this Scripture passage from 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 NASB:
Now as to the love of the brothers and sisters, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you practice it toward all the brothers and sisters who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to excel even more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we instructed you ...
While our products and services have changed somewhat over the years, and our clients tend to be from the business community more often than the faith community, what has not changed is our core beliefs and principles for operating our business.
We believe in Jesus Christ alone as Savior, and that a simple relationship with Him, based on what He did for us on the cross, is available to anyone who places their trust in Him, regardless of religious background or affiliation. If you are interested in knowing more about what this means, we'd love for you to contact us.
We look to the Bible as our foundation of guidance for life and business practices. While we appreciate other sources of wisdom, the Bible is the premier source of values for us.
Members of our team are not required to share or practice faith/spiritual beliefs in the same way I do. Several do, but we do not require it. However, we do encourage them to align with the core values of the company so that we, as a team, can be described in the following ways:
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- Honest: operating ethically; giving truthful yet gracious feedback; not manipulating situations for our own benefit; doing what we say we will do when we say we will do it.
- Organized: using efficient, streamlined systems to reduce the overwhelm in our clients' lives and thinking well.
- Proactive: seeking to collaborate with clients to improve their professional (or if applicable, personal) lives, not just do assigned tasks; making suggestions when appropriate; and keeping ahead of deadlines.
- Engaged: being timely in responses with clients and one another; practicing appropriate warmth in dialogue, and being a team player enthusiastic about H.O.P.E. Unlimited’s mission to Help Others Pursue Excellence.
We also do not expect our clients and customers to share our faith views. We are delighted that this has not been a problem.
One of the other things we do to bring HOPE to the world is to have a Give HOPE Fund, used in a variety of ways to be a blessing to others.
We defer a small portion of our income into that account. We also give clients a completely optional opportunity at each order to direct a small portion (i.e. ¼ or ½ hour or more) from their order into the Give HOPE Fund.
We draw from the funds in a number of ways such as (but not limited to):
- Paid time to volunteer for a non-profit, educational, or community service organization, event, or initiative or do a simple act of kindness outside of normal responsibilities. Team members can earn an allotment of paid time per month for such purposes.
- Providing administrative/communication/consultation services to community-service groups, organizations, or NPOs, including our church, in a pro-bono fashion
- Commissioning and/or paying for time and material to produce special projects (i.e. involving writing, design, audio/visual) that we wish to provide totally free (i.e., see some of our past HOPE in Action projects here.)
- Assisting/consulting with an individual or family that may have a need for encouragement or tangible help, including our team members.
- Purchasing tangible items to stock community blessing boxes.
We appreciate your interest in our company. Please contact me if you wish to have a conversation about any of this.
Beth
Feeling Overwhelmed?
One of our biggest Give HOPE Fund projects was the non-denominational Bible study that you can download here. It was a collaborative effort, authored by Barbara Seibel, for the benefit of Life In Abundance and is a guide through Psalm 3, offered to help anyone who feels unsettled or overwhelmed about any concern(s) in their lives, professional OR personal. We hope it will be a blessing to many.
Freedom Church
Beth and Keith are currently in fellowship with Freedom Church in the upstate of South Carolina. This link provides information on the mission, values, and statement of faith of the ministry, and we felt it was a good description of our journey with Christ for those who are interested.