The House That Hope Built

There’s an old 19th century gospel song that we sang frequently when Linda and I were growing up and that we pulled out of our memory banks in the 1990s in Kikwit and Kinshasa, when there were threats of pillaging and then, in 1997, the AFDL forces of Laurent Kabila headed for Kinshasa to oust Mobutu Sese Seko. 

In this email, we are using the first line of the song but then going in a slightly different direction: Our hope is built on nothing less…than God’s promise for presence, for strength, for peace, for abundance, for joy, for mercy, patience, kindness, sufficiency, love. Our hope doesn’t depend on “correct theology” or politics. Our hope draws from the assurance that we are God’s beloved children ~and the knowledge that we are all God’s beloved.

Mama Makeka House of Hope has been built slowly, block by block, tile by tile, one load of sand, one load of gravel, one bag of concrete at a time. Inch by inch, dream by dream, prayer by prayer. Encounter by encounter, friend by friend. One obstacle at a time, sometimes several challenges at the same time, heartaches and heartbreaks and tears and loss and grief in the midst of the process, but always centered on the hope that we saw exemplified in our parents, Mama Makeka Natala Rebecca, in Papa Pasteur Isaac Mutondo Tshimika, in Papa John Kroeker and Mama Hulda Loewen Kroeker. 

It is the same hope that sent Linda’s paternal grandfather out of the door just moments before Soviet soldiers arrived to arrest him for the “crime” of not praising the regime in his religious newspaper. It’s the same hope that sent her paternal grandmother and all their children (some in adulthood already, others in or just past adolescence, and in poor health) to travel by train and boat to a North America. So many of our ancestors, in family as well as faith, have tied themselves to that hope. They are all part of our great cloud of witnesses.

The motto of Mama Makeka House of Hope is “There’s always room for one more.” There is room in God’s kingdom, there is room in God’s grace, there is sufficiency in the kingdom, there is shalom in the kingdom. 

On Saturday, 15 November 2025, we celebrated the inauguration of our splendid Mama Makeka Conference Center and Guesthouse with more than 150 guests when our special invitations were sent only to 60 guests. 

Finding comes through sharing and blessing. 

Thanks to our gracious donors, the completed Center campus is fully paid for without any debt. All is current. Continued support for MMH Hope ministries may be through periodic or annual gifts, or by joining the monthly support group. Larger gifts of $5,000 or more, along with end-of-life estate gifts, may also be designated for the MMH Hope Endowment invested with the U.S. Mennonite Brethren Foundation, currently at $50,000 plus toward a goal of at least $300,000. Earnings from the endowment add to the support of the work of Mama Makeka on a quarterly basis.