Harvest of Hope Online Event 2020 -

Matching Gift Challenge!

DOUBLE the Power of Your Gift Tonight $1 for $1!

All gifts made tonight, and through Tuesday, October 13th, will be a part of a $1 for $1 Matching Challenge made possible by our generous event sponsors.
Will you help reach or exceed tonight’s goal of $100,000?

Providing Positive Life-Change for Men, Women and Women with Children.

Hope Gospel Mission exists to offer Christ-centered, life changing help to the homeless and needy in Eau Claire and the rest of Western Wisconsin. We help them by:

Meeting their basic needs without enabling them.
Requiring them to work and help support themselves.
Providing them a safe and orderly place to stay.
Addressing the root causes of their situation.
Offering them a complete life change through our Renewed Hope Program.
Sharing with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Biblical values.
Involving them in local Bible-believing churches.
Keeping them accountable for their actions.
Showing them both care and correction.

A Fresh Start and a New Beginning

Short Stay Program

Provides clothing, food, and a place to sleep for individuals for up to 30 nights.

Renewed Hope Program

Holistically builds a new foundation for a fresh start. Residents are helped in nine different areas of life.

Discipleship Transitions Program

Grow and stabilize for an additional year while living in a Hope Gospel Mission facility.

Success Stories

Read Stories of Hope

Maya’s Story

“I was just lost,” says Maya about the years before her arrival at Hope Gospel Mission. “I’d had surgery, and I was on narcotics for a long time. I got addicted and was out of control. I broke up with my boyfriend and stayed with a friend, but she was using meth. I knew I needed to go somewhere with structure that could help me rebuild my life.”

Maya found Hope Gospel Mission online. “I was very fortunate to get in,” she says. “It was life-changing. They pushed me to do my best in everything.” That included being a better mother to her son, who is now five.

“I had a lot of pivotal moments in my faith here,” Maya tells us. “People supported me as I grew in Christ.” Maya recalls a difficult three days when she observed the third anniversary of the murder of her son’s father, lost her beloved grandfather and learned her brother was suicidal. “I’m so grateful I was here for that because I was in a healthy environment with people who rallied round me and prayed with me.”

Maya believes the Mission’s faith-based environment was key to her recovery. “I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for that.”

Maya is now in a very good place in her life. She is finishing the Renewed Hope program, after which she will move to Texas with her mother, her son and her sister. There she plans to study pediatric oncology research and hopes to one day work for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In the meantime, Maya wants to write a book with her sister about their childhood, how her addiction damaged their relationship and how God and Hope Gospel Mission helped repair it.

Maya owes her new life to Christ and to friends like you who support Hope Gospel Mission. “My son and I get a second chance because I will leave here with the life skills and faith to give him the life he deserves.”

Eric’s Story

Eric left home after successfully graduating from high school with honors. He was out to enjoy himself. That meant the party life, which he had experienced in middle school and high school. He expected it would just get better as he moved on.

But the drugs and alcohol that came with his focus on pleasure took hold of him. He wasn’t working to build a career and a good life … he was working to provide drugs that he had come to depend on. That led to losing one job after another and moving place to place.

His family was worried. They could see his demise. This nice young man was losing his health and his self-respect, stealing and sleeping homeless in bus stations — wherever he could.

Time in prison sobered Eric up. After fifteen months he left, wanting to settle into a quieter life. He was close to thirty years old and his life had no real meaning. So, he worked and walked the line of good behavior, living with his aunt and uncle.

Old habits die hard. Before long Eric was drinking a little and then a lot. He fell quickly, even overdosing on drugs.

That convinced him he couldn’t “white-knuckle” his way to the good life, holding on with all his strength. Eric needed help beyond his own. Hope Gospel Mission was the place.

“You start from ground zero. They provide everything you need. Even toothbrushes.”

Looking around he could see others who had been here for a year. “They were where I wanted to be. They were working good jobs with their own place and a car. They were happy and part of a church. I wanted all that, and I knew I couldn’t get it myself.”

Eric happily became part of the Hope Gospel community. At this time of writing, he has been here just six weeks. For the first time since a child, he has started going to church and playing guitar in the worship team. Last week he began reading the Bible, starting in Genesis, and Mark, in the New Testament.

“This is all new to me,” he said. “And I want it.”

Emily’s Story

Emily woke up feeling pain all over. Sleeping in a car does that to you. The windows were steamed up and it was cold. It was winter in Eau Claire, and Emily was homeless. For three years she lived this way. On very cold nights, she would go with a friend into someone’s house to party, drink and take drugs. Mostly, she wanted to get out of the cold, but drinking was her life.

She was hopeless, and she knew it. She had once been a good worker, but all motivation to work and take care of herself was gone. She thought about doing something criminal to go to jail, where at least she would be warm and have three meals to eat.

How far she had come from her innocent days as a 9-year-old! She remembered waiting for the church bus to come along and pick her up. Her parents had stopped going to church long ago, but she liked it. She read her Bible and prayed. Those were good days.

Those days ended at age 12 when she started drinking. Her friends were doing it, so she did too. It was normal after a while, so normal that she showed up for school in the 10th grade intoxicated. It was serious. Her parents didn’t seem to care too much when she was taken the 50 miles to Eau Claire for counseling.

She was alone in a different city and desperate. But she got a job and started to put a life together. Six years later, the company where she worked failed, and the only job she could find was bar tending. Because of her childhood introduction to alcohol, she easily fell into a drinking habit.

Before long, she lost her job and apartment. She lived with family for a while, but without a job or money, they eventually told her to leave. She was homeless, sleeping in her car and partying from house to house. Thankfully, she was arrested. Jail time gave her a chance to sober up and come to her senses. Upon release she came to Hope Gospel Mission to stay at the Ruth House, our home for single women. One year later, life for Emily is better than it has ever been. Her child-like love for Jesus has returned stronger and deeper than ever. She has joined a local church and likes the people. God has planted her in a pleasant place. Peace has come. She looks ahead, confident of the promises God has given her. One of her favorite verses is Romans 15:13 … “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”