09/16/2026
21 years ago on September 11, Hand of Hope quietly opened her first door.
We intentionally chose 9/11 to literally REDEEM THAT DAY. It opened into a tiny little room with a bathroom with no running hot water. (Clearly, an oversight then that gives us a little giggle still today.) Our first few weeks were quiet. In stark honesty, I had no idea what I was doing. The training had been completed and I had been coached on client help for months; but I was still woefully unprepared for the reality of reaching, rescuing and restoring women and families. Those memories seem to be surfacing more and more as of late. Hand of Hope and I have grown up together. The lessons she has taught me are innumerable and varied. From day one, we have always striven to keep the main thing - the main thing - and the main thing is always JESUS. So, an eternity of thanks goes out to those who were with me before and when we opened that first glass door with the old brass doorknob on Depot Street:
Dr. Greg Brannon was our very first Medical Director who GAVE us our first ultrasound machine and mentored and directed and corrected me more times than I can count. I miss his wisdom and our pointed, rushed conversations dearly.
Emily Moore and Ben Honeycutt served on our very first Board and mentored me in ways still in use today; my parents, Joe and Sandi Baker, and my husband and the best brother and sister in love ever, Joshua and Stephanie Baker, funded our budget before we even had a bank account! I vividly remember the first time a donor just walked in like it was any other ordinary day and handed me a check for $40,000. To this very day, they still won’t let me share their names. That’s humility and true SERVANTS.
On to the first door that we actually owned when we bought our first property on Ennis Street where Jan Lewis, Robin Fish, Keri Hughes, Carla Barbour and Regina Kinton lived out their prayers for HOH in reality.
We can all remember the most hard fought door we had to fight the City of Raleigh and a federal lawsuit to open! Our attorneys were CALLED to make that door open and you, our prayerful and financial supporters paid for that door while GOD opened it!
And then we were just crazy enough to open our third location right smack dab in the middle of a global pandemic!
And now our most recent commercial glass door at Restored Mission Shoppe is open to the community as we continue to share Christ in tangible ways.
Thank you to EVERYONE who has sacrificed so much for Hand of Hope…
Especially to Sonny Joy, Baker and Eli: all of you never showed even a moment of begrudgingly sharing your mom with Hand of Hope. Thank you for being called to this ministry right alongside me. And thank you for showing your spouses what living out your faith looks like!
Thank you to our treasured Circle of Hope partners, our center directors and staff: Alicia, Kylee, Stacey, Michelle, Kristen, Lindsey, Heather, Barbara, Kathy, Michelle, Cynthia, Anna, Joe, Ellen, Crystal, Destiny, Tiffany, Lisa, Tanya, Bonnie, Robin, Laurel, Michele, Laura, Emily, Julie, Julia, Suzanne and Vanessa!
To Lindsey and Paula…you know.
Yes, there are a ton of things I still want to do and it’s all in God’s time because, Lord knows, that 21 years went by in a hurry!
Here’s to 21 more!
A LIFE full of thanks and gratitude and love.
Your friend,
Tonya Baker Nelson
Founder & CEO
