When we talk about RESTORE at HVG, it comes with the following ideas:

We believe four relationships exist in the Good News of Jesus. We are meant to be restored with God, self, others, and the rest of creation. It is the harmonizing and flourishing of these four relationships that we experience and also express what the Bible calls “shalom” (holistic peace).

As Brian Fikkert and Kelly Kapic say in Becoming Whole, “People experience human flourishing when their mind, affections, will, and body enjoy loving relationships with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.”

In other words, we believe it is essential to address restoration as physical, emotional, social, and spiritual when we are looking towards loving people well. Many people address physical and spiritual realities, but we also believe that humanity is inherently emotional and social as well. Therefore, if we are going to honor the sacredness of all humanity we must see flourishing in all four of the areas of what it means to be human: physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.

As we have continued to address this holistic picture at HVG one reality I have continually told the children in our care is that every nation is called to all nations. Many times we hear of the need to train indigenous people to reach the indigenous. This is great in many ways, but it is still not the entire story of The Great Commission. What if we would be people who truly trusted that the South Sudanese were called to reach all nations, just as much as Americans? What if we thought the same for Ugandans and Kenyans?

We have seen this worked out in incredible ways with HVG. One of our kids (who is not a kid anymore), Asiki, has his degree in Business, works for HVG, and has traveled to Kenya as a South Sudanese in order to speak into the Kenyan children’s lives.

Isaac Munji, our partner in Kenya, has traveled with Darrell Parrish, our Director of Theological Training, to India in order to train leaders. It is a picture of an American and Kenyan traveling to equip Indian leaders.

Our prayer is that we will see holistic restoration continually worked out in ways we could never have even imagined over the years and decades to come.

Please consider partnering with us in our efforts to see flourishing among all people.