One Hope Ministries and area non-profits, churches, businesses and individuals are joining together to help ease the stress and pain of this hard economy. So many are struggling from the loss of a job, the lack of jobs, higher gas prices, higher food prices and the list goes on and on.
Many children are feeling this stress and struggle as well. Their parents have to work extra hours or take on additional jobs just to make ends meet. Some are hardly at home as they try to keep a roof over the family’s head or heat to keep them warm. Little food is bought and shared between family members. And the children are the ones who suffer the most.
With so much hurt and stress among the working poor, we are gathering the community together to combine resources to help our fellow neighbors. We offer many ministries to help meet the needs of our community.
Bags of Love feeds hungry children over the weekends. It is expanding into the summer months. We will be providing 29 schools and over 454 children with enough food to beat their hunger for the whole month. This helps supplement what the children normally would get through a school breakfast and lunch. So many children depend on Bags of Love and are excited to receive it whether it be weekly or monthly. We couldn’t do this without the community’s help!!
We continue to open Hope Centers throughout Berkeley County. We have many Hope Centers reaching out to our local children with Kids Explosion. We have teams that go into different areas throughout the county and connect with children through games, sports, bible lessons, snacks with hope, care and lots of fun! Many of these children are home alone while their parents or parent works to help make ends meet. Kid’s Explosion takes God’s love on-site to where children live.
Uni-Fest is our huge annual event that takes place August 12th at the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Parks & Recreation Center from 5 pm to 7 pm. This a total FREE event for our community and most importantly for our children. We will have inflatables, face painting, games, sno-cones, hot dogs, water, clothing, school supplies and bookbags to give away while supplies last. Our goal is for this to be a fun filled event for the children and for the parents to be able to get their children’s school supplies and help relieve the stress of school starting. Thousands in our community attend this event and it continues to grow every year.
We would love for you to join hands with us and help meet the needs of our community. There are many different ways to help. We have one lovely lady that is helping the ministries by coupon shopping for items we are in need of to add to our Operation Hope Truck, Bags of Love and Uni-Fest. She has posted a picture to show all the items she has bought and only spent $54 dollars with a saving of over $150!
Others way to help is donating your time, monetary donations, sponsoring your business in our sponsor booklet, or joining in with One Hope in our Dollar a Day program. With just a Dollar a Day given through One Hope kids are fed and community programs go on-site taking help and hope to area children. Become a $1 a day sponsor by emailing unifest@onehopeministriesinternational.org or call us at 304-261-4007. Donations can be mailed to One Hope Ministries, PO Box 2751, Martinsburg WV 25402.
We can’t thank you enough for your prayers, love and support of the local community. We are making a difference with one bag of love, one box of food, one bookbag filled with a promise that someone truly does care and love you.