Dear Hope,
After 17 years of faithful ministry for Jesus and people both outside and inside the Hope family, Dana Yost will retire from her role on our staff as Prayer Ministry Director at the end of this ministry year (Aug. 31, 2018).
I met Dana in 1999 in a Denver court room. We spoke between legal hearings and I was captivated by her stories of people being 
freed, delivered and healed by our Lord as she fulfilled her call. After several conversations over a period of weeks, I told Dana that if she was ever interested and able, it would be a privilege to have her on our team. At that time, Hope was less than 1 year old; I was a new, young, part-time and bi-vocational pastor; we had one part-time office assistant on our staff and we were just barely meeting our small budget. Months later, Dana called me to share that the idea of uniting with Hope had grown so if I was serious, she would like to discuss moving to Denver and possibly uniting with us. It was a step of faith for Dana, our elder team and the Hope family but it seemed the Lord was stretching all of us. In hind-sight, I could not be more thankful for Dana’s and everyone in Hope’s investment and courage to make this happen.
Over the years God has used Dana in immensurable ways. Addictions have been broken, marriages repaired, night terrors removed, suicides avoided, self-harm ceased, demons departed, illnesses and disease lifted, fears dissolved and so much more. If not for the work God has done in my life through Dana Yost, I would still be dealing with life-long fears to lead, doubts to preach and physical ailments to endure.
For some time now, Dana has openly shared with me the possibility of her retirement when the Lord’s timing was right. In May, Dana shared the clarified timetable. We both had tears of gratitude for the privilege of serving King Jesus together, sadness for the reduced time we all would have with her in the future and praise that God has sustained her to finish well.
Dana plans to continue worshiping and serving with us as a volunteer in the days ahead. She has been training and raising up others to continue her ministry including Rebecca, whom Dana has seen giftings in and a calling upon for prayer ministry. Since Rebecca also senses a desire and call to facilitate freedom prayer and help others of us do the same, she will be helping to continue expanding this core ministry within Hope.
We will have a retirement celebration for Dana later this fall after she takes some much-deserved time off in August.
As we walk through this transition, please let Dana or me know if you or anyone you interact with has any questions.
With gratitude and love,
Dean