The Circles of HOPE Challenge
If you are visiting this page you may have been invited to join The Circles Of Hope Challenge by a friend or found a note of encouragement left anonymously by someone who has joined hearts to be a part of the 30 Week Challenge. However you found out about this project, thank you so much for joining us.
Simply explained joining the challenge means that each week:
1.) You leave an encouraging note for someone somewhere.
2.) And each week you invite someone into the Circles of Hope Challenge.
You "Dream Big" by joining the challenge, believing that your simple acts of kindness, and inviting others to do the same, can touch millions of hearts. "Stay Small" is a reminder that even small acts of kindness done faithfully and consistently can change our world!
I will provide ideas, free printables to make it super simple and simple video lessons or you can create your own ideas. I create my notes on circles because circles are more eye-catching. But, you don't have to. It's really about "arts of kindness"! For pages of ideas for words to write on Hope Circles click here.
But, before I explain more about the project let me remind you how deeply loved by God you are! His love is unchanging, unstoppable, unwavering, unconditional and never-ending. Nothing can alter that! That is the hope that is most important for me to share with you! You were made with a purpose! You were not an accident or created by happenstance.
Let's gather circles of friends and our families to create circles of hope. Vincent Van Gogh once said, "There is truly nothing more artistic than to love people."
Below is a sneak peak at Week 4's challenge. My son is so excited to do this again!
So join myself, my students and their families in painting the world with the colors of hope. I will make this simple for those who don't feel creative or who are living busy lives. For the creatives I will make it fun with weekly ideas and inspiration. There is no right or wrong way to spread hope through acts of kindness!
Leaving the notes can be a family outreach easily knit into your weekly schedule. I like leaving them randomly at coffee shops, grocery stores and places people frequent. There is no right or wrong place! Everyone needs hope and encouragement.
If the second part of inviting someone into the Circles of Hope Challenge each week seems daunting, I have a printable "invitation" with tabs (like on the mailbox above) that can be put on community mailboxes, local coffee shops, community boards and people can simply tear off tabs so they can find the website to find out more. Or you can use the mini invitations (like the photos above) that you can print front and back to leave with your hope circles or give to friends. The back explains what the Circles Of Hope Challenge is about.
Since some people are super busy, subscribers to my site will have full access to a digital library full of lots of mini notes of encouragement you can simply print, cut and use.
Below there is a tentative list of the mini art lessons and some suggested people to shower with encouragement. For example on Week 12, I will gather notes from my students and take them to an E.R. nearby. And the list includes, irreplaceable and important people in our world like nurses, doctors, soldiers, teachers and more! Just imagine how blessed the nurses, doctors and E.R. workers will be to have hundreds of notes delivered?
If you miss a week or two, then begin again, and combine the weeks you missed into one week. Or just keep going! Grace... no pressure is meant to be added to your lives! This is a celebration of kindness and an opportunity to be the good you want to see in the world!
The inspiration for creating a 30 day challenge came from a children's book called "One Grain Of Rice" by Demi. It is a wonderful book and a page in the back of the book clearly maps out the math. Watch the video, at the bottom of this page, to see the math behind the fact that your life, like one simple grain of rice, can multiply from 1 to over a billion in 30 days. Let's dream big and stay small! Individually, we are like a small grain of rice. But together we become so much more and billions of hearts can be touched with hope!
From my heart to yours:
Again, if you found one of the hope circles I created, or even if you didn't, I want you to know that you are deeply loved by God. His heart of love is full of grace, unconditional and unending love! He hears every prayer. He longs to draw you close and give your heart peace! You have been fashioned by His loving hands! You are not an accident and your life is full of purpose! Jesus longs to comfort and speak life to your weary heart! And He is as close as a whispered prayer. There is nothing that you have done, or can do, that can alter His love for you.
Sherry