HFO is bringing 24 students to a Christian Sports Camp in Branson, MO called Kids Across America. Our students will pick a sport to specialize in and also enjoy other camp activities including ski boats and a high-ropes course. This camp is designed to minister to inner-city youth and impact them with the gospel. There will be bible studies, preaching, and gospel hip-hop performances. We expect this to be a life changing experience for our students on many levels.

The cost is $150 a student. This is a great opportunity for individuals, families, or bible study groups to consider partnering with us to serve.

You can mail a check or donate through our website with a credit card or paypal account. Just designate that your donation is for HFO Summer Camp.

If you are excited about helping partner please paste this link on your facebook or twitter and tell your friends to partner with us!

Thanks,
Loren
Hope for Opelousas

Agents of Hope is a unique internship designed for High School seniors. Through a 17 week program the Agents of Hope interns will be employed by Hope for Opelousas, providing tutoring assistance for the after school program, being part of the strategic planning team, and handling clerical duties. Each week they also participate in a job training curriculum using the “Jobs for Life” program to teach them job skills and character building. This program is so unique because it is not just teaching them how to get a job, but it is also giving them the opportunity to apply what they are learning in class to the job they already have with Hope For Opelousas.

Meet the Agents of Hope interns:

Carmen Washington

My name is Carmen Washington. I am a senior at Opelousas Senior High. After high school I plan on furthering my education at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA. There, I want to major in secretarial studies. Although I love to do busy work, I enjoy reading, writing, and listening to music. I love learning and enjoy the feeling of sharing my knowledge with others. The feeling of succeeding in a goal sends magic through my soul. I know, feel, and believe that I can, and will, be the best I can be in life. With love, care, and tenderness around me I know there is a reason for me to believe in myself as well as others. I am Carmen Washington, the future leader of tomorrow’s world.

Carla Rosero

Hello Everyone! My name is Carla Rosero. I’m eighteen years old and I go to Opelousas Senior High School. I love sports, especially tennis, and all sorts of music, mainly rock. I absolutely love to sketch. I adore children and could like to do all I could to see to it that our future generations prosper.

Jaferrius Thomas

Hi my name is Jaferrius Thomas. Im nineteen years old and am a 12^th grade senior at Opelousas Senior High School. I like to play in our school band and march as well. I would like to attend Southern University and go for General Studies. I would like to learn from this job but mainly from the kids. I think learning from kids is a great idea because the children are our future. And in order to have a successful future we must learn about the people that will be in it. With this opportunity I would love someone to say I made a difference in their life.

Renesha Darthard

My name’s Renesha Darthard. I’m nineteen years old and I’m a senior at Opelousas Sr. High. I enjoy reading, writing, and playing sports. I hope that by becoming a part of Hope for Opelousas, I can become even more outgoing and experience life and childcare. I also hope that by God’s grace I can be a great contribution to Hope for Opelousas, the children, the community, and one day the world.

Yesterday afternoon I visited Hope for Opelousas around 4:30pm.   Larry Callier, ex Opelousas Chief of Police, is recovering from gall bladder surgery was with me.  Larry was instrumental in getting HFO’s youth programs started.  I wanted him to see HFO’s tutoring program in action.  All rooms of our facility were occupied with volunteer tutors and young students doing homework.  Larry was encouraged that these kids were getting a chance to succeed academically and be loved by our volunteers.  ”This is great and could be taking place all over the city.  We talked about starting this and now it is happening.”  were some of  Larry’s comments.

Over 3 years ago Hope for Opelousas was just a dream.  Today over 20 Opelousas children are tutored 3 days a week.  Many of these same children have experienced LSU and ULL football, basketball, and baseball games.  They have visited Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, and Houston and some have climbed the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.  College students and interns from Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, and Tennessee have come to Opelousas to rebuild houses and love the people of our city.  Local volunteers are sharing their lives with children and families they have come to know through Hope for Opelousas.

“These kids have dreams like you and I had when we were young,”  Larry said yesterday.  Young people dream about a better future.  Hope for Opelousas dreams of a better future for the people of Opelousas.  We believe “Love changes everything!”  Hope for Opelousas needs your support to make dreams become reality.  Many of you have supported Hope for Opelousas from its inception, many, many thanks to you.  Some of you are only now hearing of Hope for Opelousas.  I ask all of you to pray for the people of Opelousas and for Hope for Opelousas.  I also ask you to make a financial donation to Hope for Opelousas.  I know times are tough and finances are tight.  Your prayers and financial support help put “skin on skin”, connects people to people, and makes the dream of “Love changes everything” come true.  Thanks for your time and Happy Holidays from all of us at Hope for Opelousas.

Reggie Dupre’

Board Member HFO

Do you remember the Jr. High years of life? I remember how in some ways it was social torture. Learning how to relate to peers, the opposite sex, and struggling with parents made these years very awkward.

Take those same struggles multiplied with the anxieties of one of our students:

Mom gets engaged to live-in boyfriend

Electricity turned off because can’t pay bills

Eviction notice served

Fiancé arrested for drug and possession of a weapon charge

Evicted from home

Forced to move out of his house to live with Grandmother

What do you think your GPA might be?

These issues and many we may be too frightened to think about are common place for our students. Innocence is lost at an early age for our students and life can seem very cold.

This is why the work we do at HFO is so important. “Love Changes Everything.” First of all this student will be loved through these trying times. If HFO wasn’t here this student would have no outlet to process his situation and no one to walk with him through it. Also, if HFO wasn’t here this student wouldn’t have the example and encouragement to have Hope for his future. We are advocates of Hope for the people we serve and daily we are finding ourselves being changed most by the process.

Love changes everything, even us!

AMEN

Loren Carriere

Executive Director

P.S. Thanks for your support!

If you visit the office of Jason Cohen, a well known photography talent in Lafayette, LA you will not just see beautiful art, you will also have the privilege of chatting with witty, jovial, and very generous people. You will quickly learn that photography is just one of Jason’s passions. The other is coffee, quality coffee. In the back room of his office he has installed a dual head espresso machine and he brings in gourmet coffee beans from different places. This very tasty coffee is a means to great conversation and fellowship for Jason. I asked Jason about why he decided to start Café Cohen. He said,

“The very beginnings of coffee for me was when I would go to Portland, Seattle, or New York and have fantastic coffee. Coffee that did not exist in the south, much less in Lafayette. I got tired of coming home to mediocre coffee so I decided to go out and find an espresso machine (in Dallas). Most recently I flew up to Seattle to pick up an espresso machine, a.k.a. The Beast, which now resides in Café Cohen. The real start for Café Cohen came out of more of a joke of people always calling to see if “Café Cohen” was open. From there it became a bit of an outlet to connect with people and feed a little bit of a personal passion at the same time.”

Café Cohen began as a way to have meaningful interaction with clients and people he knew. It has become a regular stop for us when we are in Lafayette. Recently Jason came up with the idea of having a donation jar. He decided that the proceeds would be given to HFO. The money is used to provide snack for our after school program. Jason has also done some photography for us and we consider him a dear friend of HFO. Thanks Jason for sharing your passions with us and turning out some amazing products, both your coffee and your photography.