The lives of 2 million Haitians hang in the balance as Port-Au-Prince and outlying areas suffer the affects of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.The split-fault quake occurred Tuesday afternoon about 10 miles west of the Port Au Prince and could be felt as far away as 300 miles.

As the sky turned gray with a choking dust the infrastructure of city lay in rubble. Destroyed were buildings including the hospital, the National Palace, commerce center, government buildings and many homes. It was a long, dark, frightening night as Haitians searched for survivors. Many are missing or feared dead.

The Bright Hope Response

We are in touch with our church network in Haiti (Jepthe, our Project Developer in Haiti, is pictured here) and currently assessing how our assistance can best help save lives and glorify God.  I spoke with one Haitian leader who said “the best built buildings in Port-Au-Prince have been destroyed, imagine what has gone on throughout the city.”

We will have two immediate responses:  Distributing food, water, clothing and temporary shelter (immediate needs) and secondly to supply Med Packs (personal hygiene and First Aid kits) to needy families.All our relief efforts are accomplished through churches. It will take days to know the full impact. Communications have been difficult as services have been interrupted.As we hear from our partners, we will update our website.

I need your help in four ways:  Pray, Network, Act, Give

1. Pray! Pray! Pray! Please pray now and in the upcoming days for the Haitian people, our Partner Developers and the Churches and Pastors we work with to provide relief.

2. Network:  Could you recommend Bright Hope to your friends on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and email to help in Haiti? Please forward this letter and our website BrightHope.org to those in your network.

3. Act:  We need groups to fill 5,000 Med Packs — a project for churches, Sunday school classes, scout groups and homeschoolers. Order in minimum quantities of 20 at $15 each ($300) or you can sponsor a pack and we will fill one for you for $30. To order a box of Med Packs ($300) call 224-520-6100 and speak with Joy. To sponsor a $30 Med-Pack visit our website.

4. Give:  As God would lay it on your heart at our website  www.BrightHope.org

Thank you for sharing and praying for those in most urgent need in Haiti.

Click here to watch!

Thank you to all who came together for the incredibly successful Hope4Haiti Event!

 More than 1,300 people volunteered. Collectively we packed 270,864 meals.

Exceeding Our Goal!

You can still get involved by Clicking HERE!

New Pictures are up now in our New Photo Gallery!

Bright Hope is Tweeting!

You can follow us by searching for: @Bright_Hope

What were you doing on September 12, 2009?

Laurie Teper was competing in an Ironman Competition for Bright Hope! Through swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and running an entire marathon (all at once) she raised over $900 for Bright Hope! Through nine months of training, Laurie finished after 13 hours 15 minutes and 6 seconds.

Congrats to Laurie in her valiant efforts on helping the less fortunate through Bright Hope!

 There is still time to donate to Bright Hope through Laurie’s Ironman Competition by Clicking Here!

A team from Hope Community Church in Springfield, IL just returned from an 8 day trip to see our partner in Mathare Valley, Kenya.

Team Member: Rebecca Harbauer (pictured here) returned with these words…

“Abject poverty abounds in Mathare Valley. No combination of words are picturesque enough to describe the sights, sounds, smells and surroundings one experiences as she walks through the slum valley being greeted by tiny extended hands and staring into toddler eyes that still cling tightly to hope. Sounds of loud music…children laughing…visions of grilled entrails…children bathing in small plastic tubs…jagged tin jutting from the roofs of 8 x 8 rusted, tin shanties…mucky water running through the streets….this is how I describe Mathare Valley—not a place one desires to call home.

It would be so easy to return to the United States after eight days and forget what I saw and be thankful that I do not live like this. It would be so easy to remain a tourist in a foreign land snapping pictures and forgetting the names of the people who crossed my path. But, I can’t. And I won’t. I want to etch the experiences into my memory so that God can use me as a vessel of faith, hope and love. And I want to etch the names of the people I met into my heart so that we remain connected.

Visiting the slum and the orphanage had a profound effect on me. But, what touched me to the very core are the stories of the people I was privileged to spend time with. The individuals who run the various churches around the area, the teachers who work in the schools and at the orphanage, the women who are the strong support for their pastor husbands, and the people who have hopes and dreams and aspirations no different from mine. These are the stories that will affect lives…the lives of those in Kenya and the lives of those here at home.

What did we do while we were there? We brought hope and a future as it states in Jeremiah 29:11 through one God…through unity of the Spirit. We did not come with western ideas to fix the African world. We came with a humble spirit and allowed them to teach us what relationships are truly about. I have learned what profound faith is truly about.”

To read more about what Bright Hope is doing in Mathare Valley and for opportunities to Donate: CLICK HERE!

Are you ready to make a direct impact to stamp out hunger?

You can really help!

To expand on National Hunger Awareness month, Bright Hope is spanning the globe to combat hunger. As you receive this email, Bright Hope staff is readying our warehouse to accommodate over 1,000 volunteers, over 4 days to pack 270,000 meals. These meals will feed 2,550 hungry children in 17 schools in Haiti.

Can you imagine knowing that your own child, brother, or sister was going to school every day to learn their ABC’s and 1, 2, 3’s but learning was crowded out by hunger pains?

In Haiti, they have a saying - ‘a hungry stomach has no ears’. This is the reality for many children and families in Pignon, Haiti.

Together, we can change the lives of the Haitian children. We can stop those hunger pains to make learning at school possible. When you feed a child, you provide essential nutrition for the mind, body and spirit.

You can make a difference! See you October 22 - 25th!

Bright Hope is on the brink of unveiling a large campaign to help the poor.

This is like nothing we have ever done in the past - this is Run For Hungry Children BIG!

For a life changing experience make sure your calendar is cleared for October 22-25.

Keep checking in to Bright Hope’s Homepage and this blog for details.

Bright Hope is gearing up to send a team to Mathare Valley from Hope Community Church in Springfield, IL. Jennifer Young is on that trip and wrote us these encouraging words about God’s vision to get her on this trip…

“In January or February of 2008, I went to a movie called “The Invisible Children” that our church was showing and it was about kids in Uganda. God, just really started tugging on my heart. I ended up going to an informational meeting on Haiti and then in February my husband was served with papers to go back to court for more child support and post-secondary education for his daughter.

This meant no Haiti Trip.

God took me out of my comfort zone while on a mission’s trip to an Indian reservation in Minnesota but I kept hearing “Mathare” in the back of my mind. Then when the trip happened last September, I went and heard their excitement about what had taken place. It kind of lit the fire a bit.

Months went by and then there was a little blurb in the church bulletin about an informational meeting coming up on “Mathare”. I thought, what the heck, I’ll go. I went and the fire just started to consume me. I was so excited and then I saw the cost was close to $4,000.00. I thought “no way” but stepped out in faith and filled out my application. It was a huge leap for me!

I prayed about it and left it in God’s hands, telling Him if He wanted me to go He was going to have to help me. In March my daughter gave me my first $100. I sent notes to a few people. In less than a month, I had all the money that I needed to go on the trip and to pay for my shots!!! It blew me away.
God just told me – You have My Love in your Heart, my Holy Spirit – that’s all you need.

I was told at the first meeting to pick a name for myself that represents what God would have me do on this trip. I was thinking encourager but then while praying, God brought me Isaiah 61: 1 “He has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners set free.” My new name: COMFORTER. God told me “You will comfort the brokenhearted.”

Well here’s the end or should I say the beginning of my journey. I was told after I gave up on going to Haiti – “don’t ever let money stand in the way of you going on a mission trip, if you are supposed to go, God will provide!” I believe that now. I still stand amazed. -Jenni”

You can support projects opportunities like Mathare Valley and more by clicking on our Project Map!

Many of you don’t know Laurie Teper but all of that is about to change.

Laurie’s passion for running began in 1985 through short distance triathlons. She was hooked from the start and has competed in many events since then. Laurie has taken her love of running to the next level when in 2009 she served as the Co-Race Director for Bright Hope’s Run For Hungry Children in Woodstock.

This year Laurie is competing in the Ironman Wisconsin race on September 13th, 2009. She has been training for 8 months and did we mention she’s doing this at the young age of 52?

With her passion for running comes her connection to Bright Hope. All of the money raised (and her goal is $3,000!) will go to our 62 World Wide Projects. To access Laurie’s First giving page, you can click here to read more about Laurie or donate!

On August 5th, Bright Hope Staff helped package, load and ship a container to Haiti. En route as we speak are: 100,000 meals for a school feeding program, notebooks and pencils for all 2,500 students and that is just for the students!

The schools (a total of 17 this year!) will receive chalkboard paint, a large supply of chalk, along with markers and crayons and that is just for the schools. 89 Bikes were added to the shipment as motivation for the Teachers. All of these gifts will greatly increase the quality of education the students will receive.

For pictures of the Haiti Shipment click here!

But the work isn’t finished yet. We still need help to pack 270,000 MORE meals to go to Haiti.

To be apart of an amazing experience clear your schedules for October 22-25.

Details to follow!