Testimonials
Rediscovering My Faith
I wanted to share with you my story about how The Great Bible giveaway is responsible for me re-discovering my faith and love for GOD. As a child I was baptized and regularly attended church until I hit grade 7. I had a bad experience being forced to attend church and after school programs so I just became angry and against going to church.
Fast forward about 20 years later. I had really been struggling in my life with my kids, work and my fiancé had been struggling with alcohol consumption for past 15 years and I was really feeling hopeless. I began to feel this strong pull to start reading the bible again and rediscovering my faith, so strong that anytime I would hear a testimony or read scripture, I began to weep uncontrollably. I couldn't explain it, it wasn't like crying when you're sad, this was the Holy Spirit. I began researching churches in Midland and told myself to attend a service.
I had visited my mother one day and sitting on her kitchen table was this beautiful turquoise Busy Mom's Bible. When I asked where she had bought it, she replied " The Hope Centre Christian bookstore". She then told me how the lady who worked there had given it to her, along with few other items. My mom then picked it up, wrote something in the front cover and gifted it me. That night I began reading the Bible again, and a few days later, my fiancé told me he decided to quit drinking. The following Sunday, I attended church service at the Midland Alliance Church and wept the entire service. I just felt like I was home! The following weekend both my daughters asked if they could join me for church and I took them both to Hope Centre to buy them their own bibles.
I am truly grateful for the Great Bible Giveaway and for God's great work. It's been almost 2 months and I'm a member of the church, being baptized in my new found faith July 16th, and my fiancé hasn't had a drink, he was completely healed by the grace of God. I am so blessed to have received that bible and for the many gifts God continues to bestow upon me and my family. Thank you!
Ashleigh
Review from Judy:
Beautiful centre. I had such a wonderful experience.
Thank you Nancy and Judy and Michelle and others.
So special to have the hope centre in Midland.
We are blessed
Review from Lisa:
It is such a wonderful and welcoming place to pick up a book to read or bring a friend or loved one for fellowship. They offer fresh baked goods that are so delicious along with coffee or tea. The Hope Center is a lighthouse to the Midland and surrounding areas. I highly recommend this place of Hope
Review from Braeden:
Wonderful coffee shop and bookstore. Food was lovely ... Michelle and her husband have done a beautiful job designing and decorating, this place has tones of character and a very relaxed vibe. Great selection of Christian books. My wife and I will definitely be back! God bless you HOPE Centre!
Review from Kristin:
I really enjoy the Hope Centre! The staff are fantastic, the food is excellent and the energy of the whole place is so uplifting! I recommend this shop to everyone I know. Great place to meet and connect! Thank you for being in the community
Review from Andrea:
Such a special place! Clearly people are grateful for it! Thank you for having the vision, the heart and the courage to follow your dream…
Fulfilled
Dear Michelle,
This is Nevine, who entered the gate of Hope Centre today, having no idea what she would encounter.
Can't thank you enough for blessing me today with every anointed word you shared with me. Thank you so much for blessing me with praying for me and my kids. As I walked out the door, I felt I was floating somehow.
For many years, I was longing for true fellowship, but couldn't find any, although I am a regular church goer, and I always wondered if fellowship is now an obsolete term. But today, God deeply fulfilled the longing of my heart. Praise Him!
I checked out your website when I went home, and would love to share with you that your prayer for Hope Centre has been answered today in my life:"Please pray for the lost and weary who enter into Hope Centre. Pray that they will see the Light of God, and be drawn to it. That they will feel the Love of God, and find rest in it..That they will desire the will of God, and will follow it." Amen.
Thank you so much for ministering to me today, and for the book you gave me as a gift.
I join you in praying, " that God's glory may always remain first and foremost, and may the devil never have a foothold in any way in this place."
Nevine
A Safe Place
When I think of the Hope Centre in Midland, Ontario, I think of hope and rest. Michelle Rogers followed the instruction of Jesus and stepped out in faith. There are a number of Church denominations in Midland, and some of them have good communities, but they are only open for
Sunday service and other Bible studies.
In my walk, I have spent many years in the desert, with God as my companion, but sometimes I have not had the fellowship of other believers as company. I have seen that there are many travelers on the path of the Way. The high road is indeed narrow and hard, but the view is wonderful. Sometimes, when we come down off of a mountain and we are walking the path through a valley, we see the scenery give way to the start of another desert. When I look at the desert, sometimes I think I am going to go through more difficult times.
I have found that I need a safe place that allows the room for therapy on my heart to take place and the revelation of the Lord to be spoken to me, but I can’t get that if I am always on the move. Jesus was tempted in the desert, and some of the greatest growth of Christians happens in the desert.
This brings me to the Hope Centre and the role that it plays in Midland. People like myself, and people that are new to the Way (Christianity), and those that are looking for the path, will find this beautiful oasis that is off to the side of the path of the Way.
I call the Hope Centre an oasis because I am reminded of places where there are wells that are described in the Bible. I think of the well where Moses met his future wife, and the well where Jesus was telling about the waters of life.
When I come to the Hope Centre, I come to a place that has been set up around one of those wells of the living water. The Hope Centre is a shelter in the presence of God that allows members of the body to come together and chat and encourage each other in the things of God.
Jesus is here in overabundance, and the body is truly blessed and built up. The Hope Centre does not try to be a church, but a place for the Body of Christ to assemble and be the Church.
Kevin