How it all began
Real Hope Ministries began as a simple act of obedience to the call of God on the life of one individual. Ravi grew up as a son of a small time pastor in a small town in India. He was unknown to anyone outside of his small area. God put it upon his heart to attend a prominent Bible College in a major city in India. Typically it takes prestige, connections, and money to attend this school. With faith in his heart, Ravi applied to and was accepted at this college. Here he not only learned keys for ministry, but learned to speak English. Upon graduation, Ravi expected to become an associate pastor in a major city leading the English service. He was even offered a few positions. However, as Ravi prayed about it, God called him back to his small town.
Ravi spent many months asking God why he was sent back to his small town. In September of 2004, Ravi received a call. A church from a major city wanted to visit the Tribal people that live in the mountains surrounding Ravi’s town. This group needed a local to accompany them into the Tribal areas. Ravi went with this group and met the Tribal people for the first time. After a few months, the group no longer wished to reach these people, but the passion for these people group was left in Ravi’s heart.
Ravi would walk 3 miles into the jungle to reach these people. There was no paved road, just a rudimentary path weaving through the jungle canopy. The risks for this area included flash floods, wild elephants, tigers, and other wild animals. Ravi found out many things about these people. They lived in extreme poverty without access to the basic necessities like clean water and proper sanitation. The average life expectancy was only around 40 and they suffered and died from preventable diseases and malnutrition. The most alarming of all is they had never heard of Jesus. For the next few years Ravi would walk into the jungle to just show the people the love of Jesus. It took much time, but slowly they began to trust and open up. In 2007, Ravi and Evie were married and Real Hope Ministries officially began.
In 2007, we started our first Tribal Christmas event to this region. We were able to enroll the children in school and provide medical camps for this area. In 2008, the first Real Hope Revival Church joined Real Hope Ministries. In 2009, we started to reach another Tribal area and another church. In 2010, we started our annual interdenominational pastor’s training conferences. In 2011, we started reaching our third tribal area and two more churches joined Real Hope. We also purchased land to build a home so that Tribal and poverty stricken children could live there and attend school. We finished construction for this home in 2012. That year we also started reaching our fourth Tribal area, and added yet another church into Real Hope. We opened the Hope Center in 2013 to boys and girls. We also added three more churches. In 2014, laws changed in India and the government required that we only have boys in our home. With much sorrow in our hearts, we had to send our girls back home until we could build another home for them. We also added three new churches for a total of eleven Real Hope Churches.
In 2015, we began to reach our fifth tribal area. In 2016, we purchased land next to the Hope Center that will eventually house the girl’s home.
Where will we go from here? We have a vision and a plan for where God is leading us. We trust that God will do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,” (Eph 3:20) and that “He who begun a good work in [us] will complete it.” (Phil 1:6)
All we have to do is continue doing the thing we first did, being obedient to God.