Benjamin Edgar Hope

BENJAMIN EDGAR HOPE January 17, 1936 – June 11, 2015 Benjamin E. Hope, 79, passed away peacefully Thursday evening, June 11, 2015 at a local hospital surrounded by his loving family. Mr. Hope was preceded in death by his parents, Ernest and Zelma Morris Hope; and a brother, Gerald Hope. Survivors include his loving wife of close to 60 years, Berdie Lou Hope ; one son, Joel (Heather) Hope of New Market; one daughter, Lori (Karl) Kingston of Syracuse, NY; a sister, Mary Hope(Archie) Wade of Gadsden, AL; a foster daughter, Janeth Cruz of Brasilia, Brasil; two granddaughters, Sunny Hope and Jessica Kingston; and a host of nieces and nephews. www.valhallafunerals.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.valhallafunerals.com/ Ben Hope was a young man with a pioneer spirit and a deep love for the Lord. Not one to follow the crowd, he chose to go to Oklahoma Baptist University when all the other preacher boys were going to Ouachita Baptist University there in Arkansas. There he met the love of his life, Berdie Lou Moose. When he asked her to marry him, she didn't say yes. She said, “Will you go to the mission field with me?” She knew what his answer would be; she already knew of his call to missions. They married in 1956 and began working to fulfill the requirements of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board of having at least two years experience in the work they expected to do on the mission field. Ben graduated from OBU with a Bachelor's degree in history in 1958. He began his studies at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1959, and graduated with a Master of Divinity in theology in 1965. He gained experience as a church planter in Cleveland, Ohio. Along the way, he and Berdie had a daughter, Lori, and adopted a son, Joel. In December 1967, they were appointed as missionaries by the FMB, to serve in Brazil. After a year of learning Portuguese in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Ben took his family to Campo Grande, in the state of Mato Grosso. (A city called Big Field, in a state called Thick Weeds. Ben was staying true to his pioneer spirit.) While Berdie and the kids lived in the city and found ways to minister there, Ben traveled with other missionaries and Brazilian pastors into the backwoods parts of this state that was 2 ½ times the size of Texas. They started preaching points in towns that had no evangelical presence – in many places where the towns themselves were just starting up. Long distances and muddy dirt roads meant Ben was often away from home three weeks out of the month. Being away from his family so much motivated Ben to learn to fly a plane, but the fact is he couldn't remember a time when he didn't look up when a plane flew overhead. He had been fascinated by airplanes from the time he was a boy. He took lessons at a local flying school, accepted the used-motor-oil bath that is the tradition when you solo in Brazil, got his pilot's license, and found himself grounded for lack of a plane. It was several years before the Mission assigned him a plane, and when he crashed that one (flipping it on its roof during take-off), several more years before they assigned him another. By this time, Ben had moved his family further north, to the state capital, Cuiabá. As well as planting churches, he found a new ministry in helping churches in crisis. He served as pastor or interim pastor for multiple churches over the course of his ministry, occasionally more than one at a time. He baptized new Christians in baptistries and rivers. He also taught at the local seminary, which actually began as a Bible Institute in his backyard. In Cuiabá, the family gained one more member – foster daughter Janeth. Over the years, Ben and Berdie took in numerous young people who needed a place to stay for a night, a week, sometimes just for a meal. Janeth ended up staying for ten years, and her children call the Hopes Grandma and Grandpa. Once all three kids were out of the house, Ben and Berdie moved again, going this time as part of a team into pioneering territory – Brazil's newest state, Tocantins. As part of that team, they planted dozens of preaching points and helped them grow into self-supporting churches. Ben performed many wedding ceremonies over the course of his ministry, including his sister's, his mother-in-law's, and his son's; and he walked both daughters down the aisle. He attended funerals and wakes, but missed those of his own parents and older brother, since he was in Brazil at the time. He watched towns grow from “a wide spot in the road” to bustling cities, and made sure there was land purchased in each one for a Baptist church. He taught and mentored many young men and women as they found their calling in the ministry. Ben was a man of many interests, and always found ways to direct those interests into his ministry. He loved photography and documented his life in Brazil on hundreds of slides. He became interested in computers in the early 1980s, and was the first Southern Baptist missionary in Brazil to have a computer and use it in his work. Throughout the 80s and 90s he donated several computers for use in state Baptist convention offices, and taught people there how to use them. In 2000, after 32 years on the field, Ben and Berdie retired and moved to Southside, Alabama. They joined White Springs Baptist Church, where Ben became a deacon. He was restless in retirement, so he got a part-time job at the Etowah Baptist Association office, and Berdie volunteered there as librarian. Ben's skills at helping churches in crisis came into play one last time in 2012, as he led the pulpit committee at White Springs Baptist to find an intentional interim pastor, heal divisions within the church, and eventually bring in Bro. Abel Garcia as the new pastor. In 2014, after his extended hospital stay, Ben and Berdie sold their house in Southside and moved to Brookdale Jones Farm Senior Living Facility. They settled in well and made friends easily, recognizing that this was where they needed to be at this point in their lives. Ben Hope was a good husband and father; a scholar, preacher, and teacher; a good friend; a good man. He will be missed. A celebration of life memorial service is scheduled for Friday, July 3, 2015 at the Locust Grove Baptist Church, 171 County Lake Road, New Market, AL 35761. Rev. Robbie White will officiate the service commencing at 10 a.m. at the church. You may visit with the family after the service. The family has requested, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Ben’s name to the Lottie Moon offering (https://netcommunity.imb.org/Donation/imb/LMCO) which supports international missions. Or if you would prefer, donations may be mailed to: IMB Office of Finance PO Box 6767 Richmond VA 23230-0767 Please sign the guest registry at www.valhallafunerals.com