Hello everyone and welcome to our site. We are so thankful that you are here and we hope the information found is helpful and encouraging to you and your family. Trusting God's direction is often very difficult but He will never let you down... and we have experienced this first hand many times.
Our journey began all the way back in 1999 when Erik took his first mission trip to Costa Rica. This was a life changing event for him which etched a place for missions in his heart forever. In 2007, we became highly involved with different ministries at our church and this is when we both started to see God had a specific purpose for us - we just didn't quite understand what that might be. After we relocated to Tuscaloosa, AL, for a little over three years, our home church contacted us about accepting a full-time position on staff. After much prayer, we knew this was God's call for us to serve in ministry and live in complete obedience to Him.
We had the awesome opportunity of serving for over 15 years in the church, mostly in Student Ministry and Administration but also within Missions, Children, College, Ladies, Sports and more.
Every year in full-time ministry, we offered to lead a mission trip during Summer break. In 2016, God led us to Guatemala where we served at a children's home that cares for several hundred children and youth who have been abused or abandoned from all around the different areas of the country. While there, we also conducted several outreach opportunities in the local communities. We were able to supply basic life essentials such as food, clean water and other resources along with the opportunity to share the Gospel. It was then we knew God would call us into full-time missions one day.
Following a second trip in 2019, we knew it was time to transition towards international missions so we made the commitment to move to Guatemala as our first step into this new journey. Hands of Hope International was established as the base for our support in serving as missionaries. Its really neat to see how God gave us the vision for this ministry in 2018, a year before He called us to step out in faith and follow Him.
Our two children, Ellie and JohnPaul, enjoy having the opportunity to serve together as full-time missionaries. Even at a young age, they too have a heart to serve God no matter where that may be. As an educator for over 20+ years, Amanda has now been home-schooling for 11 years, which has developed a close relationship within our home of working and serving together. Our overall goal is to serve others and offer the 'Hope' that only comes through having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
We are very excited about this journey and invite you to join alongside of us. There are plenty of ways to plug in and stay connected through our social media outlets, subscribing to our website list, becoming a Prayer Partner or Financial Partner, donations or even joining us for a short-term mission trip. No matter where God leads you to help, we know that you will receive a blessing from Him in your life as well. Thank you so much for your time and interest in our ministry journey. Please reach out to us with any questions you may have... we would love to share more information with you.
Offering Hope through Loving Hands,
The Hunt Family