Just Outside of Hope

"Just Outside of Hope" is the way Stan Parris' dad described where he lived with his wife and son. His land and small dairy farm were close enough to Hope, Arkansas, that Stan went to school there. Stan would help milk the cows in the early mornings, ride his bike to the general store just down the way when his mom needed milk and bread, and would field grounders his polio-surviving father would throw to him after getting home from his second job.

Stan grew up in a small Baptist church not too far from home, was baptized there, and fought God's desire through high school and college for him to become a preacher. His first love was football, where he starred and became a small college All-American at Henderson State University, then signed with the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. He was one misstep from making the team, and returned home to become a coach, still fighting the "call' to preach. While an assistant coach at Hope High School, he drew the short straw to become faculty sponsor of a new Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at his school. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Charlotte, became active members of First Baptist Church in Hope, where years later he would become pastor.

Stan and Charlotte felt God's calling to become international missionaries while he pastored a church in Oklahoma City, so after training and learning a new language, they and their three children moved to Maracaibo, Venezuela, and started a new church that met under a mango tree in a vacant lot. He shares stories of the people there, most of them encountered through "prayer walking" in neighborhoods that generally were considered undesirable, at best. Experiences of meeting new people in other countries and sharing the gospel continued after leaving his full-time missionary post, eventually becoming missions pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church, one of Arkansas' largest congregations.

The impact of the time he shared with people on foreign soil is compelling and often emotional. He prayed with Muslims at one of their mosques and delivered groceries to 30 families overwhelmed by a tsunami that devastated their country. He shares the struggles endured by him and his family and the people who came from every possible circumstance, while also sharing the gospel with them.

"Just Outside of Hope," carries a double meaning in this author's first book - it describes where he grew up and the situation many people find themselves in at different points in their lives.