This is the third in a series of reflections on our founder, Steve Hull, who passed away on November 18, 2019.
Posted July 1, 2020
I met Steve Hull January 2012, on a trip with Least of These (LOT) to Batey 9 with my church. Going on this trip was not something I wanted to do, and I went kicking and screaming the entire way. Steve provided the platform and watched and witnessed God do amazing work in my heart and soul that week. Heartbroken and filled with compassion, I cried and prayed most of the bus ride back to the airport. I never wanted to return to the DR but knew deep in my soul God had other plans.
I came home with faces permanently etched in my mind and soul. Ten days later I started to repeatedly see a vision where I was sitting in the back of the LOT truck, teaching the women and children in Batey 9. I knew that God was telling me to go educate the children.
Steve had shared how God had called him while on a plane headed home after a mission trip. So, I went to talk to him and Ann about the vision. They both shared the big step of faith and trust it took to be obedient to the calling placed on them. I knew they had both sacrificed much in their lives. I witnessed the Godly kingdom fruits in the lives of countless people that were touched. Regardless of the challenges and sacrifices they would need to make along the way, they surrendered their own plans and stepped into God’s plan for their life. Steve encouraged me that the blessings of all the children God will touch through me will far exceed the heartbreak and challenges. Today, I steward God’s non-profit Borderless Hope (www.borderlesshope.org) which focuses on educating the children in Batey 9. If not for Steve, Borderless Hope would not exist.
I think of the faith it took and the sacrifices Steve and Ann had to make as I observe the amazing fruits of their obedience to God seen all throughout the region. The gospel has been shared through words, actions and churches built. Relationships have been built and families fed. They improved living conditions for many through concrete floors and new roofs. The fruits do not stop with what LOT is accomplishing; it continues in Borderless Hope and all the children who now have HOPE for a future!
Thank you, Steve, for being a beautiful example of obedience and faith, and shining God’s love on HIS precious children!! Your legacy continues not only through LOT but also through those you have touched along the way!! You are so loved and dearly missed!!
—Sharon Bailey