Today Our County, Tomorrow the World!
This has been a very busy year for Bundles of Hope! We are now licensed as a non-profit (501c3)...YEA!!! We started the year only serving Jasper County, MO. For over 2 years, we have given every child entering foster care in Jasper County a bundle.
This spring, we were given a unique and exciting opportunity to share hope, through our bundles, with the children of Haiti. We traveled to a small fishing villiage on the island of Ile a Vache. We took a total of 25 bundles with us to the island. As we got to know the neighboring villiagers, we began to pass out the bundles one by one to the neediest children. One of the little girls that recieved a bundle was Rosina. She was two years old and had traveled, by herself, from the market. Our house was a half mile away from where her mom was selling corn. The little girl wondered up just as I was getting coloring books out for some of the villiage kids and immediatly joined in. In the beginning, she was scared of me... probably because I was white and she may have never seen anyone that was white! She had definatly never seen a white teenager, like me. As we sat there and colored, she got closer and closer to me until she was literaly sitting on my lap. After that she went everywhere with me. So when the end of the day came, Rosina and I had become fast friends. Right before we set out to find her momma, I gave her a bundle. I have never seen a little girl so excited about a new shirt and underwear!!! The smile that she had on her face, as she opened her bundle, is the exact reason we do this; to bring hope to those that have none!
Soon after we returned from Haiti, we decided to expand to our neighboring counties. We set up meetings to talk with supervisers and their staffs about providing bundles to their county. All of the supervisers were very surprised when four teens showed up to present Bundles of Hope at their staff meetings. Following the staff meetings, we recieved emails like this one, "We are all truly impressed and amazed by the compassion and empathy of your endeavor." - County Supervisor. We are currently are in eight counties and are hoping to expand to even more.
Our mission is not only to give hope to children in foster care, but to also share the love of Christ with them. We were honored to be chosen as the MIX Kingdom Workers for Christ in Youth this summer!! They produced an amazing video for us...and we had a blast shooting it!!
Please continue to pray for each child facing the unknown of entering foster care. Please continue to pray for and support our organization, as we expand and spread more HOPE!!