{"id":84853,"date":"2026-10-13T18:31:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T22:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=84853"},"modified":"2026-10-13T18:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T22:32:02","slug":"gospel-inc-invites-lakeland-to-unlocking-hope-together-at-gospel-village-oct-20-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/10\/13\/gospel-inc-invites-lakeland-to-unlocking-hope-together-at-gospel-village-oct-20-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Gospel, Inc. Invites Lakeland to &#8216;Unlocking Hope Together&#8217; at Gospel Village, Oct. 20-22"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"666e72\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"437\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/images-1-7.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-84854 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #666e72; aspect-ratio:1.606419707007558;width:320px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/images-1-7.webp 702w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/images-1-7-300x187.webp 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Hope for the Homeless 2026 offers guests a look at the future of the Gospel Village campus, with a goal of raising $150,000 to serve the community of Gospel Village<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gospel, Inc. will host Hope for the Homeless 2026, &#8220;Unlocking Hope Together,&#8221; Oct. 20-22 at Gospel Village, 1109 E. Main St., Lakeland. The annual event invites the community to the campus to hear what God has done at Gospel Village and to see the vision for what comes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guests attend one of three sessions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tuesday, Oct. 20, 6:30 PM &#8211; Dinner and Tour<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wednesday, Oct. 21, 12 PM &#8211; Noon \u2014 Lunch and abbreviated program<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thursday, Oct. 22, 6:30 PM &#8211; Dinner and Tour<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each session centers on the future of the Gospel Village campus. Guests will share a meal, hear firsthand stories from residents, and learn about plans to expand housing, dignified work, and community space. There is no cost to attend and no obligation to give. Organizers hope to raise $150,000 across the event. Proceeds from the event will go to support the ministry of Gospel, Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guests are asked to RSVP by Oct. 15 at gospelinc.org\/hope. Those unable to attend can give at gospelinc.org\/give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gospel Village is a Christ-centered permanent supportive housing community for people coming out of chronic homelessness. It is not a transitional program. It is a place to put down roots. Residents pay rent equal to 30% of their income and live in community with staff, volunteers, and Missionals, people who choose to live at Gospel Village as neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The need in Polk County remains real. The 2025 point-in-time count found 804 people experiencing homelessness in the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In May 2026, Gospel, Inc. opened 48 new one-bedroom apartments at Gospel Village, bringing the community to roughly 80 homes for formerly homeless residents. Within weeks, 40 new residents had moved in. One of them, Mike, had been living in a broken-down vehicle before moving in. &#8220;I feel like I&#8217;ve won the lottery,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cGospel Village is a God story, and it&#8217;s the whole community&#8217;s story,\u201d<\/em> said Ray Steadman, executive director of Gospel, Inc. <em>\u201cEvery home here was built by neighbors, churches, businesses, and friends who believed that no one is beyond hope. At &#8216;Unlocking Hope Together,&#8217; we want people to see the future of this campus with their own eyes and find their place in what God is doing next.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hope for the Homeless is Gospel, Inc.&#8217;s largest fundraiser of the year. Event sponsors include Faithward Advisors, Masterpiece Marketing, Roggen Clyne, The Ruthvens, Publix, Urban Delta, Lightup Lakeland, and a host of individual sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>About Gospel, Inc.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gospel, Inc. is a Christ-centered community providing a home and micro-enterprise work opportunities to the formerly homeless at Gospel Village in Lakeland, Florida. Its mission is to cultivate community among friends on the streets and to help them through housing and dignified income opportunities. Its work rests on four core values: a relationship with God, community support, dignified work and a place of permanence. Gospel, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (Fed ID 90-0771464). Learn more at gospelinc.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hope for the Homeless 2026 offers guests a look at the future of the Gospel Village campus, with a goal of raising $150,000 to serve the community of Gospel Village&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC9pbWFnZXMtMS03LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJHb3NwZWwsIEluYy4gSW52aXRlcyBMYWtlbGFuZCB0byAmIzgyMTY7VW5sb2NraW5nIEhvcGUgVG9nZXRoZXImIzgyMTc7IGF0IEdvc3BlbCBWaWxsYWdlLCBPY3QuIDIwLTIyIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.b7kLTLjbMsZt-WL6SCuQTpT0B_q1rWJPcQqfyVOlhOgMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[18126,18128,2266,18127],"class_list":["post-84853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-gospel","tag-gospel-village","tag-inc","tag-unlocking-hope-together"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84855,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84853\/revisions\/84855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}