Alumna creates thriving African mission

Photo By Abby Bellow

 

Alumna Aubrie Ross’s heart has beat for the Village of Hope in Ghana, Africa since she started a non-profit organization in 2008 to support the mission.

“Village of Hope is an orphanage in Ghana, Africa,” Ross said. “Their primary purpose is to bring in children that are either orphaned or don’t have family capable of taking care of them. Some of them have come from slavery situations or just really destitute situations.”

The Village of Hope started in 1994 after a chief donated several acres outside the capital of Ghana to a group of Christians wanting to start an orphanage.

“Some Christians were trying to take care of orphans and they were taking that scripture in James really seriously about ‘pure religion is this: to look after the widows and the orphans,’” Jeff McMillon, dean of Spiritual Life and board member of Heartbeat for Hope said.

At first, the village was a church and an orphanage. However, since opening, they have expanded a great deal. Besides the houses, the Village of Hope also has a school and hospital.

“The school is now preschool age all the way through senior high school,” McMillon said. “The medical clinic has turned into a hospital and it is the medical facility in that whole area. All of that makes up the Village of Hope.”

Each house has two house parents and is home to approximately 12 to 18 children. These children are given all of their primary needs, including education, based off of donations.

Ross started thinking about the Village of Hope when she heard a story on the news about a woman who had visited Africa to buy children out of slavery.

“She talked about this place that she found out about where she sent these kids,” Ross said. “That’s how I found out about it.”

Her organization, called Heartbeat for Hope, officially began as a non-profit in 2008, but the organization has its roots in a single fundraiser held on Oklahoma Christian’s campus in 2007.

“I think that’s incredible… that’d be so cool to do those things, but a lot of times we don’t put ourselves to actually do it,” sophomore Zac Vanover said. “There’s something that distracts us or something that just keeps us from doing it. What’s great about it is that [Aubrey] didn’t let any of those things stop her. She went through with it and she’s helping a great cause.”

It began with Ross as director and Judy Branch and Judy Lashley as board members. Both Branch and Lashley were alumni of Oklahoma Christian, and they still serve on the board today. The group of board members continues to grow, all but one of being an Oklahoma Christian graduate.

“That same year I became missions director for Memorial Road Church of Christ’s elementary program, Journey Land,” Ross said. “As part of that, we were looking for some sort of mission effort for our kids to be a part of.”

The children of Journey Land started out sponsoring five children a year, but now sponsors 18. It requires $100 a month in order to fully sponsor one child from the Village of Hope.

Several of the children Journey Land sponsors are now in high school or college, while some have even graduated college.

“I feel like probably one of our biggest goals is to continue our relationship we’ve made with the Village of Hope,” Ross said. “It’s been really neat and special to have these same kids all this time and to see them get older.”

Ross first visited the Village of Hope in 2012 and has returned twice. Each visit lasts approximately two weeks.

Around the same time Ross began her organization, McMillon began his connection with the Village of Hope. Years prior, the director approached him to train house parents. However, at the time, he was the youth minister at Memorial Road Church of Christ.

“It seemed like that was probably going to be too much travel between a youth minister schedule and then a trip to Africa, so I put it off,” McMillon said. “But then my first year in campus ministry I had this idea: what if we brought a group of college students to Ghana and let them work with the children there at the Village of Hope?”

Since his first trip to Ghana in 2007 with 24 college students, McMillon has returned to the Village of Hope every year.

It was not until several years later after the first visit that McMillon and Ross joined forces.

“A few years ago I really felt like it just was on my heart that we needed to have a non-profit presence in Ghana,” McMillon said. “It felt like it needed to be organized and focused so when people wanted to contribute to the cool things that we were a part of, I wanted a way for people to do that.”

Along with McMillon joining the board, Heartbeat for Hope took on two other missions.

“Two years ago, he joined Heartbeat for Hope as a member of our board and brought on another project as well, which is called the Rural Village Project,” Ross said.

This program helps support rural villages outside the Village of Hope. Besides this program, Heartbeat for Hope also has training programs for young women.

“They’re teaching them how to sew, how to make soap… how to do that real traditional African dress called batik cloth,” McMillon said.

Ross has high hopes for these branches of her organization.

“I would love to see those grow more and to be able to reach out to more rural areas and also with the women’s training facilities, maybe add one of those in a different area,” Ross said.

Because of the connection between McMillon’s trips and Heartbeat for Hope, they now coordinate when traveling to Ghana.

While there, they split their time between the Village of Hope and working with the other two projects. This past May, Vanover accompanied McMillon on his trip.

“The main thing we did at the Village of Hope was hang out with the kids and really build relationships with the kids and just try to be there to hang out and have fun with them all the time,” Vanover said. “I have friends there that I will probably have for life that I am writing back and forth to.”

According to Vanover, the students were there to support the children in whatever they needed, from playing soccer to helping with homework.

“I highly encourage someone to go,” Vanover said. “It’s just an enriching experience, you get to meet kids from a totally different culture… it’s just an incredible, humbling experience to be able to go and talk to them.

Ross says she also encourages, supports and forms relationships with the houseparents while visiting. Each trip, she has planned a “mom’s day” for the housemothers.

“The best part of all of this has been relationships and the people that we have really come to know as friends over there,” Ross said. “It’s not just a mission that we’re sending funds to. We want to be involved; we want it to be a partnership.”

Any student wishing to go to the Village of Hope should seek out McMillon and talk to him about the opportunity.

“I really encourage students to take advantage of all the different ways you can serve and do meaningful mission work… this is the real deal and you can do that at Oklahoma Christian,” McMillon said. “Go for it while you’ve got the freedom and ability to do it. Go, and you will never be the same. You can never come back from an experience like that and feel the same about what it means to believe in Jesus. So go for it.”

According to Ross, the best ways to help Heartbeat for Hope are to participate in events, support a child, donate and share the mission. To do this, visit heartbeatforhope.com or visit their Facebook page.