Founder’s Story

While I Was Building House of Hope, God Was Building Me

A personal story of calling, obedience, provision—and what it means to be given room to breathe.

Read the story Return to House of Hope

Rebecca “Bex” BondFounder & Executive Director

Faith • Family • Calling

A family enlarged by love.

Where the seed was planted

Long before the ministry had a name.

House of Hope was born from a season I lived through years ago.

In 2018, shortly after becoming a single mother of four, I welcomed my three teenage nephews into my home. Almost overnight, I became a single mother of seven. During that season, people showed up for our family with groceries, practical assistance, encouragement, and prayer.

They could not solve every problem, but they gave us something incredibly valuable: breathing room.

That experience taught me how quickly life can change, how much courage it takes to ask for help, and what it means when support arrives with love and dignity. I didn’t know it then, but God was planting the seed for House of Hope.

The assignment

He made my purpose unmistakably clear.

On July 3, 2026, He made my purpose unmistakably clear.

As God revealed His plan and showed me how He intended to use my life, I cried uncontrollably. I was overwhelmed that He would trust me with the assignment. He showed me that some of the hardest seasons of my life had not been for nothing. He had strengthened and prepared me through them so I could become a servant leader for other families facing overwhelming circumstances.

Once God revealed the assignment, I immediately got to work.

Family has always been at the center of the calling.Every yes began at home.

Building from the ground up

Be careful when you ask God for focus.

Every morning, I prayed for God to guide me, help me ask the right questions, and keep me focused.

Now, let me warn you: be careful when you ask God for focus.

I became like a dog with a bone. I worked 10, 12, and sometimes 17 hours a day, primarily Monday through Friday, for three straight months. During that time, I invested more than 600 hours building House of Hope from the ground up.

I began with faith, years of lived experience, and a great deal to learn. I researched. I wrote. I planned. I prayed. I built the bylaws, governance policies, ministry programs, Guardian Angel Kinship Relief campaign, gala strategy, Christmas Under the Stars initiative, website, and back-office systems needed to prepare House of Hope for launch.

Most days, it was simply me, God, my computer, and a ridiculous number of open tabs.

Faith under pressure

The pressure tested me.

As the weeks passed, distractions showed up, life’s challenges began to become more complex, and the weight of the world seemed to be on my shoulders.

I became anxious, overwhelmed, and easily agitated. Eventually, I had to take a very hard look in the mirror. I regularly told my children to trust God and have faith, but they were watching me behave as though I believed we were alone.

I am sorry that I have been so stressed. I want you to know that I am done allowing fear to lead me. I have given this to the Lord. God’s got us, and we are going to be okay.

That did not mean every concern instantly disappeared. It meant I made the decision to trust God in the middle of them.

The provision

Breathing room arrived.

While I was building a ministry designed to give families breathing room, God was providing breathing room for mine.

Time and time again, He showed me how important it is to receive a text of encouragement, a phone call with prayer, or a hand to hold in counsel.

My yes to God

I did the work. I showed up. I prayed. I asked questions. I kept going.

But I also know Who held my hand through every part of it.

House of Hope is my yes to God.

It is proof that He can use our hardest seasons as preparation, transform the help we once received into help freely given, and build something beautiful in circumstances that may not look beautiful at the time.

While I was building House of Hope, God was building me.

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