About Us

Chris Hatch’s job description in London for World Harvest Mission

Individual Areas of Responsibility:

A. Research and Develop the Kingdom Businesses - investigating the opening of other “ASHA” shops, developing small local businesses to train and employ members of the church community, and developing connections with cottage industries in India and Pakistan. This will also include recruiting appropriate personnel to plan and implement these development ministries

B. Being a part of the Wembly church planting effort out of MasihGhar by: living in the Wembly area developing relationships in the community doing direct evangelism as part of the church Discipling Asian believers Developing Asian leadership, especially in the areas of holistic mercy ministry

While at Georgia Tech, I lived in an apartment with several other guys. During this time, I was challenged to take my faith seriously - to go beyond being a "good, Christian guy." The second time of growth happened during my senior year at Covenant College when I interned with an inner city widow's ministry connected with New City Fellowship. Through the preaching of Randy Nabors (senior pastor of New City) and the caring for the spiritual and physical needs of the Hurting, I was deeply challenged to spend my life on behalf of the poor. In addition, I was growing into a deeper understanding of the grace of God through the Sonship course which I first took in 1989.

The Sonship course was brought to Chattanooga by Barry Henning, whose life and ministry was impacted tremendously by Jack Miller (Founder of World Harvest). Barry, in turn, influenced me as I was befriended by his family in Chattanooga and then lived with them when we all moved to St.Louis in 1992 (Barry to start NCF St.Louis and I to attend Covenant Seminary). The Lord taught me many things during my years in seminary, through serious study of His Word and practical work during the beginning years of New City. God used my relationship and later marriage to Josephine Gitonga from Nairobi, Kenya to continue to open my eyes to the world through many discussions, new friends and travels to Kenya to visit my in-laws.

In 1995, Josephine and I moved back to Chattanooga to start "Hope for Chattanooga", a church-based community development ministry focused on youth, housing and job training. In 1999, we attended the Sonship weeklong conference and God used this third time of going through the Sonship course to dramatically open my heart to the teachings of grace. It was the beginning of my understanding God's love for sinful old me and the impact this had upon my relationships.

As I think back on my years with Hope for Chattanooga, one passage of scripture continues to jump out at me.

I John 3:16-18:

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This has grown into the desire of my heart – that I would deeply know the love of Christ personally and this love would drive me out to love others “with actions and in truth.”

Over the last year since our move to St.Louis, I have been confronted with the various idols that I have used for my identity. As I now live without the things I held onto previously like my job, my home and friends. I am learning to depend on God even more in the midst of an uncertain future. Jesus continues to loves me now as He has over my 37 years and I look forward to seeing how he will work in the coming years.

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Josephine Hatch’s testimony I grew up in Nairobi Kenya, the youngest of three. My parents were Methodist and encouraged us to go to Church because they felt the moral teaching would be helpful for us. Sunday school was always an enjoyable time for me and when our teacher asked as if we wanted to go to heaven we all said yes and prayed ‘the sinners prayer.’ Meanwhile I had a plan for my life which did not really include Jesus but rather my own ambitions of becoming successful and self-sufficient.

While in high school both my older siblings attended camps where they claimed to have become Christians. I could see some evidence of change but did not really understand what was driving them. My brother invited me to attend some youth meetings at a nearby church and it was there that I was challenged about the state of my soul. I began to understand that I was a sinner and that no elaborate plan of my life would amount to much if Christ was not the center of it. I met with one of the counselors and was able to confess my need of a Savior.

It was in this church that an older woman took me under her wing and discipled me. She became a dear friend and I thank God for her willingness to walk with me through that time because I needed to learn the word as well as apply it in different areas of my life .She encouraged me to stay the course when I wanted the easy way out. Some changes were also taking place at our church. A missionary by the name of Randy Nabors came as an interim Pastor for two years while our own pastor completed his studies at Westminster Seminary in Philly. It was through Randy that I ended up at Covenant College where I met Chris Hatch and got married in 1993. We were a part of New City Chattanooga and then New City St. Louis in it’s early years while Chris attended seminary. We continued to grow in our understanding of justice and mercy as we saw the church’s commitment to these issues.

We both went through the Son-ship course and I began to gradually understand how much I was still trying to earn my way to heaven. My heart was opened in a new way that the work was finished on the cross and that the message of the Gospel needed to be applied on a daily basis. It is this very message that we desire to share in London one of the most diverse cities in the world.

Immigrants otherwise known officially in America as aliens, of whom I am one, come into a new situation full of fear, expectation and a longing for the old country. What could meet their utmost longing, fears and struggles than the gospel of grace and truth? At the same time thy need people to walk with them through those difficult times to be their support as they grow in the knowledge of He who died for them and wants to grant them a permanent place of rest in Him. We have had the blessing of being renewed in the joy of the gospel and have a message of Hope to share with those that feel hopeless. Some of the immigrants in London come from communities in which their faith and culture is strongly integrated so that when one becomes a Christian, they become an outcast. We will be called upon to take in those who have been rejected for choosing Christ. They will need support and encouragement as they experience rejection from family/friends, etc.

It is daunting to think of all our sin, others sin and working together to make an impact on the Kingdom but we praise God that we can be a part of His plan and His purposes. We cling to His promises in Isaiah that He will Release, Restore, Renew and Rebuild the broken cities (hearts) Isaiah 58.

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World Harvest Mission was born from the evangelical and Reformed theological tradition. All World Harvest missionaries are required to affirm the following statement of belief written by Dr. Benjamin Warfield:

1. The Bible. I believe that my one aim in life and death should be to glorify God and enjoy Him forever; and that God teaches me how to glorify and enjoy Him in His Holy Word, that is, the Bible, which He has given by the infallible inspiration of His Holy Spirit in order that I may certainly know what I am to believe concerning Him and what duty He requires of me.
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2. God. I believe that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and incomparable in all that He is; one God but three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, my Creator, my Redeemer, and my Sanctifier; in whose power and wisdom, righteousness, goodness and truth I may safely put my trust.
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3. The Creation. I believe that the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, are the work of God’s hands; and that all that He has made He directs and governs in all their actions; so that they fulfill the end for which they were created, and I who trust in Him shall not be put to shame but may rest securely in the protection of His almighty love.
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4. Man. I believe that God created man after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and entered into a covenant of life with him upon the sole condition of the obedience that was His due: so that it was by wilfully sinning against God that man fell into the sin and misery in which I have been born.
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5. The Fall. I believe that, being fallen in Adam, my first father, I am by nature a child of wrath, under the condemnation of God and corrupted in body and soul, prone to evil and liable to eternal death; from which dreadful state I cannot be delivered save through the unmerited grace of God my Savior.
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6. Grace. I believe that God has not left the world to perish in its sin, but out of the great love wherewith He has loved it, has from all eternity graciously chosen unto Himself a multitude which no man can number, to deliver them out of their sin and misery, and of them to build up again in the world His kingdom of righteousness: in which kingdom I may be assured I have my part, if I hold fast to Christ the Lord.
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7. Christ. I believe that God has redeemed His people unto Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord; who, though He was and ever continues to be the eternal Son of God, yet was born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that are under the law: I believe that He bore the penalty due to my sins in His own body on the tree, and fulfilled in His own person the obedience I owe to the righteousness of God, and now presents me to His Father as His purchased possession, to the praise of the glory of grace forever: wherefore renouncing all merit of my own,
   I put all my trust only in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ my Redeemer.
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8. The Lord. I believe that Jesus Christ my Redeemer, who died for my offenses was raised again for my justification, and ascended into the heavens, where He sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty, continually making intercession for His people, and governing the whole world as head over all things for His church: so that I need fear no evil and may surely know that nothing can snatch me out of His hands and nothing can separate me from His love.
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9. The Holy Spirit. I believe that the redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ is effectually applied to all His people by the Holy Spirit, who works faith in me and thereby unites me to Christ, renews me in the whole man after the image of God, and enables me more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness; until, this gracious work having been completed in me, I shall be received into glory: in which great hope abiding, I must ever strive to perfect holiness in the fear of God.
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10. The Gospel. I believe that God requires of me, under the gospel, first of all, that, out of a true sense of my sin and misery and apprehension of His mercy in Christ, I should turn with grief and hatred away from sin and receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation: that, so being united to Him, I may receive pardon for my sins and be accepted as righteous in God’s sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to me and received by faith alone: and thus only do I believe I may be received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.
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11. Good Works. I believe that, having been pardoned and accepted for Christ’s sake, it is further required of me that I walk in the Spirit whom He has purchased for me, and by whom love is shed abroad in my heart; fulfilling the obedience I owe to Christ my King; faithfully performing all the duties laid upon me by the holy law of God my heavenly Father; and ever reflecting in my life and conduct, the perfect example that has been set me by Christ Jesus my Leader, who has died for me and granted to me His Holy Spirit just that I may do the good works which God has before prepared that I should walk in them.
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12. The Church. I believe that God has established His church in the world and endowed it with the ministry of the Word and the holy ordinances of Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and Prayer; in order that through these as means, the riches of His grace in the gospel may be made known to the world, and, by the blessing of Christ and the working of His Spirit in them that by faith receive them, the benefits of redemption may be communicated to His people: wherefore also it is required of me that I attend on these means of grace with diligence, preparation, and prayer, so that through them I may be instructed and strengthened in faith, and in holiness of life and in love; and that I use my best endeavors to carry this gospel and convey these means of grace to the whole world.
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13. The Future. I believe that as Jesus Christ has once come in grace, so also is He to come a second time in glory, to judge the world in righteousness and assign to each His eternal award: and I believe that if I die in Christ, my soul shall be at death made perfect in holiness and go home to the Lord; and when He shall return in His majesty I shall be raised in glory and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity: encouraged by which blessed hope it is required of me willingly to take my part in suffering hardship here as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, being assured that if I die with Him I shall also live with Him, if I endure, I shall also reign with Him. And to Him, my Redeemer, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, three Persons, one God, be glory forever, world without end, Amen, and Amen.

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