A Time of Giving Thanks..............

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  As the holiday season kicks off today, let's all remember the things we are most thankful for....the love of God, family, and friends.  

Today we pause to count the things that really matter, and to remind ourselves that often, the things we pursue each day are just fleeting fancies.  We here at Bags of Hope pray that this kind of reflection lasts far beyond just this one day.  Let's spend the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons in a consistent mode of thankfulness.  And thankfulness not just for our earthly blessings and comforts, but for those things which have been given to us by God, through no deserving actions of our own: grace, mercy, salvation, love.

And let us, with a heightened awareness of these gifts, act out of love toward our fellow men.  When we see those who are less fortunate, who are struggling through life, who have fallen on hard times, let us reach out not just with the earthly comforts of money and food, but with the heavenly gifts of the Gospel and the the Bread of Life, which satisfies all who take it.

Order your Bags of Hope for the Christmas season now, and you will be ready to share these things when the moment presents itself to you.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Day!!

With love,

Clara (and a little help from Dad)

The Bags of Hope Website is UP and READY!!

Hello! The entire Bags of Hope blog is finally up! 
Autumn greetings from me, Clara.  My dad and I have finished the Bags of Hope blog. We pray that you are all well this Thanksgiving season.

On the website you can:

• Learn about us and our Mission
• Meet the Bags of Hope themselves.  The three bags we made are: Standard, Snack, and Deluxe
• Order Bags of Hope to distribute in your area
• Order 'Build Your Own Bags of Hope' Kits
• Donate to our ministry

We are excited to finally get underway with the distribution of the Bags of Hope!  My little sister and brother, Laura and Evan, helped me to stock our first round of Bags (see pics here).  They are just waiting for you to order them and give them to someone in need!

Thanks in advance for your support of this ministry project.  During this time of year, when we all are counting our blessings and recalling the things that we are thankful for, it makes more sense than ever that we would pass along the love of Christ to those less fortunate than ourselves.We pray that you will use Bags of Hope this year to do just that!

Blessings,
Clara

Welcome to Bags of Hope!

Hello everyone, my name is Clara, and I am 8 years old.  This is the first entry for the Bags of Hope blog.  Let's start with a little background....

About a year ago, my family went to some cousins house for a visit.  My cousin and I were trying to think of a little craft we could work on, and I thought we could each make three little bags for the homeless people we sometimes see by the road.  In each bag, we would put money, an encouraging note, and a treat.  We made some bags and put them into our cars, so we could hand them out to the homeless whom we saw around town.

After thinking about it for awhile, I decided to make many more of these bags to help the homeless and share the Gospel with them at the same time.

So now, with my Dad's help, I have created this blog, and am ready to start getting Bags of Hope out all over Southern California.  In the coming weeks, you will see how you can purchase these bags to keep in your own car, so that when you have a chance to help out someone in need, instead of just giving them some spare change, you hand them a gift that says alot more.  If you don't like handing out cash, we will have Bags of Hope that contain healthy, nutritious snacks instead of money!  

Stay tuned for more updates to the blog site and notifications about how you can support this ministry, help the homeless, and share the Good News, all at the same time...with Bags of Hope!