About Us

In 1993, Mark & Chris Currie moved their young family to Moscow, Russia, because they believed they were called by God to serve in the spiritual awakening that coincided with the fall of the former Soviet Union.  Sent by their home church in suburban Washington, DC, and supported financial by family and friends, they served in a Bible school and traveled to Russian cities, learning the language and getting to know the people.

NHI is an emerging mission with a retro vision.  We’ve been emerging since our inception in 1995 and if emergence is about change, then we will continue to emerge because everything must always change.  In every succeeding generation the church and its mission emerges from the imbalance of a previous generation of leaders and followers who didn’t get it quite right.  Because we never get it quite right.   That’s not a railing accusation, that’s the nature of life as most of us experience it.  The shapes and colors of our world cloud and shift, and the canvas of our lives must be re-worked.  Everything changes. 

In 1995, together with Sergei & Julia Charaev and Roman Gulik, the Mark & Chris planted a  church and a started a mission, that reflect the common values of their Christian faith: community, discipleship, interdependence.  Both church and mission were called New Hope. 

NHI is a post-modern mission.  Given the pace of our world, post-modernism is pretty ancient.  In the West, we are men and women, born and raised, schooled and apprenticed, in a world that has increasingly embraced tolerance, personal liberty, and epistemological uncertainty from our first moments of consciousness.  We digitize and re-mix the signals of our analog world until all that is left is a scrambled broadcast of life that we call virtual reality.  Everything is real; nothing is real. 

There were many victories.  During the next 10 years the Currie children grew up and returned to their homeland.  The Charaevs became leaders in the church; they prospered in business and God blessed them with two sons.  Roman fell in love, married and moved to his wife Oksana’s city where they became leaders in a large church.  Disciples from New Hope Church emigrated to Germany and Israel to serve in churches there.  We purchase property in a city building to use as church office and meeting space. The possibility of a new church plant in Siberia was explored.  Roman's evangelistic worship team, Reflection Band, produced a professional-grade CD and presented youth concerts in several Russian cities.  But there were losses, too.  The high point of the church was in 2000 when 70 people were in fellowship within 6 neighborhood cell groups.  Today Sergei and the elders lead the church and Mark serves in a supportive pastoral role.  The church remains financially self-supporting as it has been from its inception, but they haven't grown to the point where they can support a full-time Russian pastor.  That remains a key next step.

Today we are significantly changed from who we were yesterday; tomorrow we will be different from who we are today.  And as our “who” changes, so does our “what” and “how”.

In 2004, the Board of New Hope International (NHI) met several times before finally deciding to embrace a significant change. For almost 10 years the mission had existed to serve the needs of the Curries and New Hope Church.  Now the NHI mission would take on new associates and new projects.   Roman & Oksana Gulik in Russian Karelia joined us to launch the Reflection Band music ministry.  Tom & Elsie Reese began to help us with mission administration from their home in Virginia.  The mission grew.  In 2006, Don & Sharon Lee, serving in India, joined us.    In 2007, Jimmy & Hulda Bennett, serving in the Czech Republic, joined.  In 2008, Tom  & Lois Ford from Pennsylvania began to raise funds to get to Russia.  Angam Haokip, an Indian who leads a church-planting ministry among the Kuki and other nations in the northeastern states of India and Myanmar.  Angam's ministry has contacts beyond India in Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet.  Working together, Angam and the Lees are a best example of the kind of cross-cultural synergy that's possible in an NHI partnership between national and expatriate mission associates.   In early 2009, Philip Lee joined the NHI team in Bangalore, India, and Conrad & Jodi Weaver signed on to help provide audio/visual and Internet support, and international teaching support in the future.  NHI is becoming a mission with an "all things to all people" kind of vision.