250,000 Meals Packed
It is always encouraging to hear how the Lord is turning heads and hearts to those in need from all different ages and backgrounds. Take Bryson Turner, for example, whose heart was shaken by the earthquake in Haiti miles and miles from his home in Florida. He was only three years old at that time in 2010, but he prayed for Haiti daily after that event. Then, in 2014, his family took a trip to Haiti, and Bryson fell further in love with the people he had been praying for all that time.
After that trip, Bryson sought out to do whatever he could to support Haiti, no matter how far he was from the country. He heard about the opportunity to host a meal packing event in the United States and jumped on the idea. In 2016 he began fundraising with the goal of raising $6,000 to pack over 20,000 meals in order to feed a whole school in Haiti for one year! He set up lemonade stands, filled up water bottles with change, sold orange juice and muffins, collected recyclables, and even ran a 10K to raise funds. It was not an easy journey as military relocation took the Turners to California, making a meal packing event in Florida less feasible. There were further bumps in the road as trips to Haiti got postponed, but in 2019 the Turners were funded and back in Florida to pack those 20,000 meals!
The first meal packing event was a success, and Bryson decided to take on the even greater challenge of packing 40,000 meals to feed 100 kids in Haiti for an entire year. The Lord was clearly with them as they made the event possible by October of 2020. When a mourning mother showed up at the packing event after having recently lost her son, she was surrounded by an entire community of people who supported and prayed over her. This is the type of community they were surrounded by—people of faith, determination, and service. The community aspect of these events has continued to grow and grow.
Since the second event was a success, can you guess what happened next?! Bryson upped the challenge to raising $85,000 to pack over 250,000 meals in order to feed more than 750 children in Haiti for a year. This was no easy task, but with the Lord on his side, a community who showed up with incredible support, and an attitude of motivation, Bryson’s project was fully funded and staffed with volunteers, just in the knick of time for the event last month! 800 volunteers filled the event center as those meals were packed, prayed over, and celebrated.
Pastor Samuel, our Haiti National Director, stated, “When you are packaging food, you are packaging hope!” This is the heartbeat behind Bryson’s constant praying and packing over the years, and it is the heartbeat behind the community that makes up Mission of Hope. Thank you for being a part of the Mission of Hope family!