Willow Creek bringing in speakers to celebrate 'Hope'

In a world where conflict, grief and despair seem to flood headlines, finding hope amid chaos can be challenging.

Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington will bring in speakers Saturday, April 22, through Sunday, May 7, during its annual Celebration of Hope to help people see how their efforts can bring hope to the corners of our world that need it most.

Willow Creek partners with churches all over the globe to fight poverty through refugee support, education programs, clean-water initiatives, health care, microenterprise efforts and more. Willow Creek will host partners and distinguished leaders who are changing the world to show how the local church can spread hope and provide opportunities for individuals to make a lasting impact.

"Celebration of Hope is one of my favorite times of year. It allows for us to reflect and learn about crises going on all over the world and understand how powerful the local church is in making a difference," said Senior Pastor Bill Hybels.

Each speaker is uniquely making a difference in their local community and the world. Speakers include:

• April 22/23: Harvey Carey, senior pastor of Citadel of Faith Covenant Church in Detroit, and Gladys Mwiti, director of Faith & Learning International in Nairobi, Kenya.

• April 29/30: Jeremy Courtney, co-founder and executive director of Preemptive Love Coalition in Iraq.

May 6/7: Gary Haugen, CEO and founder of International Justice Mission.

The Recycled Orchestra, a Paraguayan musical group that plays instruments made entirely out of garbage, will perform the first weekend. These young musicians are from Cateura, a slum built on a landfill, where the 2,500 families live and survive by separating garbage and recycling. The recent documentary, "Landfill Harmonic," tells how environmental engineer Favio Chavez founded the 35-member group nearly a decade ago. For information, visit LandfillHarmonicMovie.com.

There are a host of ways people can join in. The church expects 20,000 volunteers to fill 1 million seed packs from Friday, April 28, through Sunday, April 30, to be distributed through partners in Africa so families can grow vegetables for food and income. On Saturday, May 6, Willow Creek will host the Run for Refugees 5K race in South Barrington to raise money to provide mentoring and entrepreneurial opportunities for refugees in the Middle East.

More information is at willowcreek.org and on social media @WillowCreekCC. Those who can't attend can tune in to willowcreek.tv.