2022 Annual Report
Leaving A Legacy
Craig John Gentry lived life BIG. He played big, from competing in state championships for his high school wrestling team and making national championships with Georgia Southern Football to playing big with the team that mattered to him most, his family. Craig made even the most mundane things into big fun and for family he delighted in planning his famous big surprises. He celebrated big, designing acres of paint ball fields for his wedding party to play all night before their overflowing church ceremony. He helped others celebrate big, filling his warehouse with big inflatables for his daughter, Abby Kay’s birthdays and his family living room with big Christmas gifts after big breakfasts. He traveled big, hiking much of the Appalachian Trail, planning every hour of a 4,000 mile road adventure out West with best friends and going across the world to spread the Gospel of Christ. Craig loved big, making every stranger he met a friend and every friend feel like a best friend. In his big life, it was always others that he was making feel big, whether they were jobless, struggling, or feeling left out or one of the celebrities he served at Catalyst.
Remembering Craig
By Mike Reinsel
There are few people you’ll know in life who are loved by everyone they encounter. Craig Gentry was one of those people, and to have known Craig was to love him; and to be loved by him.
Craig served as a Mission: Hope board member until his tragic death last year. But that was merely the “tip of the iceberg” for the many ways Craig served his family, community, church, and the Kingdom of God. Craig was deeply passionate about people and always lived life big. From playing on National Championship Football teams with Georgia Southern to hiking much of the Appalachian Trail, Craig loved the outdoors and adventure. He swam underwater in the darkest caves, spelunked through the narrowest passages, climbed up the tallest mountains, repelled down dangerous cliffs, skied black diamond slopes, raced competitively through the muddiest obstacle courses and Iron-Man courses, and wrestled alligators in the swamp (literally). All of that served him well for going into the remote mission fields of Mission: Hope, as he traveled to several mission outposts like Peru and the Dominican Republic, and lived without fear in everything he did.
A prolific entrepreneurial businessman, Craig started and grew many successful businesses and was intentional about living modestly so that he and his family could be generous to those around him and generous to the Kingdom. He was a keynote speaker at many gatherings and was often both the youngest and most accomplished person in the room wherever he went.
While Craig lived passionately throughout every area of life, what he was most passionate about was his family and Jesus. He adored his wife Gretchen and daughter Abby Kay, and lived a life that served them each well.
Mission: Hope remembers the life and the legacy of Craig Gentry, a life well-lived. One that ended far too soon.
2022 Financial Report
Over the years, we have stayed steady and true to our mission of village transformation in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and four islands in Indonesia. In each area, our programs continue to grow as more and more families hope to experience the same life-changing impact as nearby villages we have already served. So far this year, I have had the opportunity to visit many of the villages from which we have graduated – villages where families are no longer hungry or trapped in poverty, women and children are no longer exploited, the local church is successfully reaching out and serving those in their communities like never before, and entire villages have hope for the future.
From Our Executive Director
Over the years, we have stayed steady and true to our mission of village transformation in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and four islands in Indonesia. In each area, our programs continue to grow as more and more families hope to experience the same life-changing impact as nearby villages we have already served. So far this year, I have had the opportunity to visit many of the villages from which we have graduated – villages where families are no longer hungry or trapped in poverty, women and children are no longer exploited, the local church is successfully reaching out and serving those in their communities like never before, and entire villages have hope for the future.
While the growth of our programs to new villages and new islands is exciting, it is the individual stories of transformation that truly motivate us. In the village of Makantaka in Nicaragua, we recently had the opportunity to celebrate with schoolchildren who now have clean water for the first time in their lives. On our new island of Sumba in
“Successful Exit”
Our Board of Directors
NANCY VEPRASKAS
NINA DEAUGUSTINIS
KAREN ROBINSON COPE
BEN MATHES
JOHN SITTEMA
CHET SKINNER
MIKE REINSEL
ALEX MAMMEN