Good News - February 2021

INSIGHT 8 FEBRUARY 2021 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition I always drive the same route to work. One day while sitting at a red light a few blocks away from the office on a double- booked kind of day, I distinctly heard the Holy Spirit tell me to, “Take a right.” Not one to argue with the Lord, I clicked on my blinker and made the right turn. My cu- rious eyes drank in the new sights on a road I’ve never driven before. My unexpected right turn landed me in an urban community, called Avondale, made up of nine hundred resi- dences that house over 3,000 people – mostly Hispanic and African American with a few An- glos mixed in. I did some research on the population that existed within half a mile of my ministry headquarters office, and the statistics for its tenants were disheartening – not only had they been labeled as “Struggling Urban Diver- sity” by the Percept Group, but there was also a very low population of married people and two-parent families. In my back yard I felt sure that as the president of a global ministry delivering a biblical message of purpose and hope to children all over the world, God had intended for me to take that right turn in order to discover this patch of needy children located in my office’s back yard. We did further research on the demograph- ics of Avondale and found that it was ranked in the bottom one percent of US neighborhoods for safety – not exactly the best conditions for chil- dren to grow up in. We even went door to door to personally ask the residents what kind of help families in their community needed. Next we did exactly what we would have done in any other corner of the world; we created goals and designed a program that would achieve the de- sired outcomes for this specific community, then we sought out partner ministries and churches to come alongside our efforts to cultivate and sustain the re- lationships and work we were starting in Avondale. To make a long story short, the crime rate has dropped since we launched this initiative for Avondale, and the stories of individual lives changed continue to pour out of this once neglected and desperately danger- ous sector. What is your right turn? Had I not been prompted to take a right turn and deviate from my typical commute to work, I would have never known about the parcel of needy children right in my ministry’s own backyard. I’d like to challenge you to stop and pray right now. Ask God to show you the specific “right turn” He wants you to take in order to discover the ministry opportunity He has placed in your vicinity that you might be missing by sticking to your regular route. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can initiate positive change in your sphere of influence, check out my new book, Change Your World. In this book leadership expert John C. Maxwell and I share our real- world experiences helping to transform millions of lives around the world to show people how to be the change the world needs – and help others do the same. Rob Hoskins is the President of OneHope. Since taking leadership of OneHope in 2004 he has continued to advance the vision of God’s Word. Every Child. by partnering with local churches to help reach more than 1.6 BILLION children and youth worldwide with a contextualized presentation of God’s Word. God Said Turn Right - Rob Hoskins - OneHope President