Children of Hope

By: Gayle Phillips-Roberson

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Journalist Kareem Boyd was summoned by 80-year-old, Miss Teddie Barnes, a life-long resident of Hope Mississippi, her reason, she had a story to tell, a story so far-fetched and unbelievable, once he met her, his first instinct was to pack his equipment and walk out the door.
But there was something about Miss Teddie, something mysterious and shadowy, and once he agreed to hear her out, Kareem realized there was not only something to Teddie Barnes, but her story as well, something compelling and life-changing, which was, on May 31, 1954, five minutes before the strike of midnight June 1st, an unknown, mysterious Stranger arrived in Hope with a message that would change the lives of the adults of Hope for the rest of their lives. A message that involved their children, the children of Hope.
The morning of June 1st, the adults of Hope woke up to find every child between the ages of birth to seventeen years had disappeared. The town was gripped with panic and desperation, and they all meet at the town square where they find the Stranger waiting for them, waiting to tell them why their children disappeared and what they must do to get them back.
The adult residents of Hope lived and thrived on hate, bigotry, adultery, idolatry, covetousness, and even murder, and because they were passing their destructive behavior on to their children, something had to be done, and the Stranger informed them that was why the children were gone and why He was there, which was to warn them they had thirty days to examine themselves, to see what they were passing down to their children, and if they did not change, their children would be lost to them forever.
So, for the next thirty days, as each parent began to examine his or her life, were they willing to do whatever it took to have their child returned to them, or were they so absorbed in their destructive lives, it was too late for change?
Follow the compelling story of Hope, Mississippi and how, with the help of Teddie Barnes, a former child of Hope, and journalist, Kareem Boyd, go about telling the story of the small town, more specifically, what happened to the children of Hope seventy years ago.