Village of Hope was originally the idea of Jerry Reynolds, an American missionary of the Church of Christ, who contacted Emmanuel Asante and Christian Nsoah, both Ghanaian ministers of the church, about starting a children’s home in Ghana. In August 1989, a 17-acre parcel of land was bought at Ayawaso, in the Greater Accra Region, to begin the construction of the children’s home. Two months later, there was litigation in court over the land and this discouraged the ministers from the original plan. Jerry Reynolds returned to the United States and his responsibilities at his local church prevented him from raising funds for the project.

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By 1994, things had come to a standstill. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Asante and Albert Adu Larbi had gone for ten orphaned children that they were taking care of, hoping that the construction of a home at Ayawaso would be completed so that the children would be taken care of there. That could not happen because of the court case and a lack of funds. Asante and Larbi sent out requests to churches of Christ in Ghana to ask for support and funding to help them care for the children. A copy of the appeal letter happened to reach Josiah Tilton who was a missionary in Ghana at the time, heading the Church of Christ Rural Water Development Project. This moved him to contact his sponsoring church, Traverse City Church of Christ in Michigan, USA to come to the aid of the orphans. The Traverse City church, realizing the need was bigger than a one-time help, wanted to raise money for the sustenance of the project. In order to do so, they contacted Jerry Reynolds, who handed over the US-side of oversight of the project to Traverse City Church of Christ.

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The Traverse City church elders also realized that they could not supervise the project from the United States and therefore wanted a local church eldership to oversee the work in Ghana. They therefore contacted the elders of Vertical Centre Church of Christ to ask if they could oversee the local side. Meanwhile, over the period that the work was under Asante and Larbi, an interim management committee to oversee the work in Ghana, had been formed by Taifa Church of Christ in Accra, where Asante was the preacher. After discussions, the Taifa church agreed for the interim management committee to hand over local oversight of the project to the elders of Vertical Centre Church of Christ. That was in early 1994.

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From that point, Traverse City Church of Christ raised funds in the US for Village of Hope and did the US-side oversight while the elders of Vertical Centre Church of Christ handled local oversight. To further the work, the elders appointed a Board of Directors in June 1994. One of the first things the Board did was to pay all outstanding salaries and benefits to Emmanuel Asante and Albert Adu Larbi, and refunded all expenses made on the upkeep, education and care of the children during the time that the project was dormant. Then, in November 1994, the Board, in consultation with the elders, appointed the Managing Director of Village of Hope. The Managing Director immediately registered Village of Hope officially with the Registrar General’s Department as a company limited by guarantee. Then, in 1995, he saw to the completion and furnishing of the building that had begun at Ayawaso. After a nationwide search, a married couple was also employed in 1995 to begin work in January 1996.

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While all this was going on, eight of the first ten children had been returned to their extended families owing to financial difficulties. Therefore, in January 1996 the remaining two children and six other children were brought into the home at Ayawaso to begin the project all over again. On February 24, 1996, Village of Hope was officially commissioned. By August 1998, the house accommodating the growing family was bursting at its seams and yet, a court injunction prevented further construction from happening. After several efforts to settle the court case on the land at Ayawaso, God provided an answer in 1998 with 25 acres of land at Fetteh, in the Central Region, for the advancement of the project.