Hope Hell’s Kitchen

07/02/2022

Friends, we will NOT meet for worship on Sunday, July 3. We will see you the week after, July 10.

06/03/2022

As we lament the tragic loss of precious life in Uvalde, Laguna Woods, and Buffalo, among MANY other places, we stand with Asian American Christian Collaborative - AACC in demanding action to end gun violence.

We call for effective safeguards against guns that are too often used to commit evil in our schools, homes, businesses, and places of worship. As Christians, we must denounce the idolatry of individual rights over God’s commandment to love our neighbors. Laws cannot rid the world of evil, but laws can restrain evil.

Join us in prayer and action. It’s time to love God’s children in word and in deed. Join us in signing the today: https://forms.gle/aYXSjanX84oCkYo36

02/26/2022

“So long as white evangelicals want racial reconciliation without racial justice, they will have to cultivate their belief in miracles—the evangelical racial reconciliation movement will need one to survive.”

— Dr. Jemar Tisby

Reactions from white evangelicals to Trayvon Martin's murder foreshadowed the end of an in*******al era.

02/24/2022

Faith leaders and community members will gather for a prayer vigil honoring the spirit of our sister from Christie St., Christina Yuna Lee, organized by the New York Coalition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Churches.

This will be a contemplative, healing space for our community to lament, remember, and find hope.

The vigil will be Saturday, February 26, from 1p-2:30p at Sara D. Roosevelt Park.

02/23/2022

On Sunday, Feb. 26, Esther Morales—better known as Mama Esther—will be our special guest preacher. She is a friend, sister, and co-laborer of Pastor Ronalda's. She served as the Children's Ministry leader at Living Word Church and also was active on their intercessory prayer team.

Mama Esther is from Puerto Rico but grew up in Hell's Kitchen and is a veteran prayer walker and prayer warrior for our beloved and complex neighborhood.

We can't wait to welcome Mama Esther to Hope Hell's Kitchen—both in-person and on Zoom—this Sunday! Please join us in praying for her and her preparation.

02/17/2022

We are so very excited to welcome back our friend and sister, Pastor Florita King, to lead us on Sunday, February 20. Our service will be online only at 10:30am—you can get the Zoom link in our profile.

This Sunday, Pastor Flo will be preaching on Luke 6:27-38. Please join us in praying for her preparation!

02/06/2022

Sunday morning, as we prayed for Amir Locke, the gun violence in New York City, and much more, these words from Psalm 84 served as a divine guide.

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” — Psalm 84:2‬

02/04/2022

What an incredible message from Pastor Florita King! We are so grateful for her joining us this past Sunday to lead us through a powerful passage from the prophet Jeremiah.

“Hope Hell’s Kitchen, will you accept that you have been consecrated by God for his purpose?”

You can watch her sermon on our YouTube channel and listen to it wherever you get your podcasts—links are in our profile.

01/20/2022

If you missed Pastor Ronalda’s powerful message from this past Sunday, you can catch it on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts (links are in our bio). She walked us through the opening 15 verses of Acts 28, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as our guide.

“God blesses his servants, not for what they know, but for what they do with what they know…When our plans fail, our hopes remain unfulfilled, our dreams shattered, we must continue to be a servant and serve; be flexible with our plans; trust the the Lord has a better plan; and remember that God provides.”

01/17/2022

In an incredible sermon preached on April 7, 1957, in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a message against the evils and oppression of colonialism, based on his recent experience visiting Ghana. "Ghana has something to say to us," Dr. King preached. "It says to us first, that the oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. You have to work for it."

Throughout the sermon—entitled "The Birth of a New Nation"—Dr. King draws from his trip to Ghana as well as the stories found in the book of Exodus.

"The road to freedom is a difficult, hard road. It always makes for temporary setbacks. And those people who tell you today that there is more tension in Montgomery than there has ever been are telling you right. Whenever you get out of Egypt, you always confront a little tension, you always confront a little temporary setback. If you didn’t confront that you’d never get out...

The road to freedom is difficult, but finally, Ghana tells us that the forces of the universe are on the side of justice. That’s what it tells us, now. You can interpret Ghana any kind of way you want to, but Ghana tells me that the forces of the universe are on the side of justice...

Moses might not get to see Canaan, but his children will see it. He even got to the mountain top enough to see it and that assured him that it was coming. But the beauty of the thing is that there’s always a Joshua to take up his work and take the children on in. And it’s there waiting with its milk and honey, and with all of the bountiful beauty that God has in store for His children. Oh, what exceedingly marvelous things God has in store for us. Grant that we will follow Him enough to gain them."

01/14/2022

Saturday would have been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 93rd birthday. On this day—and every single day—we stand upon his work and courage.

In a sermon delivered in 1949 entitled "Civilization's Great Need," Dr. King preached a message that pushed congregants to confront society's greatest need. "[It] is not political security...[it] is not a well-rounded United Nations organization...[it] is not a multiplicity of material goods...[it] is not the superb genius of science, as important as it is...the greatest need of civilization today is moral progress."

As he asserts later in his sermon, "It is not enough to know truth. We must love truth and sacrifice for it."

May we not only seek to know truth—may we love it and sacrifice for it.