# @hopewdm on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/B5snN9-Au4X
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/16338865-hopewdm-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/bbbac9f34a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2019-12-05T16:14:59.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** HOPE (@HopeWDM) — https://gondola.cc/HopeWDM

## Caption

The first time I started attending Hope was in 2011 when I moved back to Des Moines after graduating college. At the time, I was working as a golf pro and had to work long hours on nights and weekends. My schedule made it difficult to attend weekend worship, so I looked around for a church with other options.⁣
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I stumbled across REVIVE which met (and still does) on Thursday nights; my only consistent night off. I started attending every week. I remember one service when Pastor Jeremy was preaching, I felt inspired to start serving with a youth group at the church where I grew up; Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Urbandale.⁣
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I got my work schedule rearranged a bit, so that I could spend Wednesday nights leading an 8th grade confirmation class and Thursday nights worshiping at REVIVE. Soon, I felt called to switch career paths and start taking seminary classes online at Dallas Theological Seminary. Shortly after I started classes, I got offered a new job as a golf pro in Hutchinson, Kansas, so I moved away.⁣
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About 18 months after moving to Kansas, I got a call from my dad who told me he’d just been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. I took that as a sign to move back to Des Moines to spend time with family and focus on my seminary studies full-time.⁣
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When I got home, my dad and I started attending Hope every Saturday night and Gloria Dei every Sunday mornings. We were both hungry for more and we got filled up every time, despite what the doctors were telling us.⁣
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At that same time, I was looking for a church to serve with and got connected to Pastor Jeremy by a mutual connection. He allowed me to serve with REVIVE and I did that for a little over a year before I moved into my current position here at Hope: Connections Coordinator.⁣
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During that year at REVIVE, I lost my dad to cancer, transferred to Bethel Seminary, and met my wife, Karla. Through the highs and lows, Hope has always been a place that's created an environment for the Spirit to move in my life, filled me with an incredible amount hope, and connected me to the body of Christ; all things I’m extremely grateful for.⁣
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#PiecesFromHope⁣
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Eric Peyton⁣
Connections Coordinator

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## Tags

piecesfromhope

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