Our History

In 2008 God began to gather a group of people together who shared a vision for the ministry now known as Living Hope Women's Ministry. Few of us ever saw ourselves being part of a Bible Study at a women's prison but one by one several of us accepted an invitation from Ruth Boyd to join Joy Bible Study at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McCloud, Oklahoma. God knew we would grow to love the women we prayed, worshiped and studied with weekly.

We celebrated as some of the women were released from prison and we would encourage them and remind them to walk closely with the Lord. Often though, some of these women would return to prison broken and discouraged. With little help available to them in their reentry process, they remained caught in the devastating cycle of recidivism.

This is how God placed a passion in our hearts to begin a ministry that would provide the support of a Christ centered community to women seeking to change the direction of their lives.

Many of our first volunteers attended the same church. Our pastor challenged the congregation to ask God to do something through us that we could never do on our own and could only be accomplished if God equipped us. With the encouragement and support we received from our church, we stepped into a wonderful adventure with the Lord.

Living Hope is the Lord's ministry. It exists today because of God's faithfulness and those willing to follow in His steps. We are so grateful to every member of the body of Christ who has given their gifts to lovingly serve the women who will be influenced by the ministry of Living Hope. One of the founders of this ministry, Janet Sherry, once said, "We want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus so closely that we will be covered in His dust."