Ministry Profile

NeighborHope Ministries International is a non-profit, 5013c that was founded in 1998 by Norm and Becky Wretlind.

NeighborHope Ministries is focused on teaching Christians lifestyle evangelism, with the primary tool being evangelistic Christmas parties.

The Wretlinds, Steve Fernalld the current president of NeighborHope Ministries International, and a board of directors oversee the ministry from the United States.

Pastor E.A. Abraham is the National Director of NeighborHope International India and works with a passionate and distinguished group of Christian leaders that serve on the board for NeighborHope International India.

OUR ROOTS

Over thirty years ago, Norm and Becky Wretlind discovered that loving your neighbors really could be fun. In fact it could be a party! Hosting a Christmas party in their neighborhood was the perfect way to create a bridge for their neighbors to meet Christ.

Various additional parties led to home Bible studies, and over a three-year period, more than sixty neighbors accepted Christ as their Savior. Even whole families came to faith. It was like living in the book of Acts! Soon a church was born, and today over one thousand "neighbors" gather weekly to worship the Lord in Richardson, TX.

In 1998 the Wretlinds founded NeighborHope Ministries International to effectively teach Christians how to share the gospel through lifestyle evangelism. Their ministry has trained thousands of Christians in the United States to reach out to their neighbors through evangelistic Christmas parties. When Norm Wretlind and Steve Fernalld, the current president of NeighborHope Ministries, shared the Christmas party outreach concept with Pastor E.A. Abraham from Bihar, India in 2000 he immediately saw this as the tool he had been looking for.

Pastor Abraham's first Christmas party was a big success with over 550 'neighbors' attending, most hearing the Gospel for the first time. From 2002 to 2008, Pastor E.A. Abraham and NeighborHope Ministries have trained over 8,500 church leaders in India. Over 22,600 Christmas parties have occurred with over 1,600,000 people hearing the gospel. Thousands of house churches have been formed and existing churches have been strengthened.

During the past year, NeighborHope Ministries has also been presented with exciting opportunities to spread this method of lifestyle evangelism with countries outside of India.

NeighborHope Ministries International Board of Directors (U.S.)

Steve Fernalld, President
Norm Wretlind, Executive Director & Founder
Jon K. Bourgain
Milt Bryan
Rick Lafluer
John Manta
Jonathan Moreno