If you are a team, organization, league, or school and would like to join us in this fight against poverty, please use any flyers and or materials you wish for your scheduled food/clothing drive.

Download the Sports vs. Poverty Flyer Here.

If your team, organization, league, or school has already participated in fighting poverty in any form, please send us your information and any pictures that you wish to send, and we will add them to our Sports vs. Poverty photo section on our Facebook page.  We will also highlight your team/organization/league/school in our next E-Newsletter.

Thank you for joining us in an effort to conquer poverty and seeing the face of Christ in the least among us…and for using the power and the great lessons of sports , such as team and community, rooted in the Lord’s Prayer, to do so.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me…” Mt 25:35

Phoenixville Area High School
Spring-Ford High School
Coatesville High School
Great Valley High School
Owen J. Roberts High School
Hatboro-Horsham High School

Please see our scholarship details for more information.

The Message of Hope Foundation is teaming up with The Daniel Foundation (www.danielfoundation.net) to co-sponsor a scholarship program so that any interested young man or woman of high school age can attend a summer sports camp run by ‘The Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ (FCA).

FCA camps couple athletic development with spiritual formation in a winsome way. Those who attend generally arrive at camp from a wide variety of economic, racial, and religious backgrounds. Over the course of the camp those differences are transcended and the bonds of friendship begin to take root and blossom. It is not uncommon to see the spiritual, moral, and social trajectory of the lives of attendees, altered in a remarkable way. It is our further hope that a regular/local gathering of high school athletes, who long to live lives of greater faithfulness, will consequently emerge in which we will help facilitate the meetings.

2012 FCA Camp Information

This years camp runs the week of June 26th thru June 29th at Kutztown University in which the boys and girls stay the week.  The cost is $395, and although we request that a $50 minimum be paid by you, we will scholarship any additional money that you may need so that your son or daughter may enjoy the week.

For more information, please contact us.

2012 FCA Camp Informational Flyer

— Thomas Merton

Scholarship Program
The Message of Hope Foundation Scholarship/Award is a $1000 scholarship given to a high school senior who demonstrates and understands the importance of living their lives for others. The scholarship/award is not based on academic or athletic achievement, rather on the capacity to view your own individual successes based upon your relationships, life’s purpose, character, and connection to the community.

We believe that we can start to change the culture from apathy, silence, and indifference to a culture filled with HOPE by creating a community of young adults who are secure with their own identity, filled with empathy, and have a desire to positively change the community.

Join us as we move towards our goal of providing a scholarship to every public school district in the Philadelphia Area.

Current and Past School Districts:

Phoenixville School District
Coatesville School District
Owen J. Roberts School District
Great Valley School District
Spring-Ford School District
Lower Moreland School District
Council Rock School District
Upper Darby School District

Meet past Message of Hope Foundation Scholarship Recipients…Click Here

The complete list of colleges and universities are scholarship winners have attended ….Click Here

For complete scholarship details… Click Here

The Goal of the Message of Hope Foundation: To Propose the Hope of Jesus Christ in common and uncommon places.

Are we athletes/coaches/fans/parents who are trying to fit our faith into sports?

Or

Are we children of God participating in sports?

The Message of Hope Foundation understands the importance and positive influence that sports can have in today’s culture, yet we also believe that at its root, there is a great contradiction that reflects the inner turmoil found in many who take part in sports. On one hand, we recognize that sports can give us a sense of discipline in our work ethic and a sense of community by being part of a team despite our race, religion, or socio-economic background. While on the other hand we recognize that the same culture of sports can sometimes fuel a sense of unhealthy power and dominance over others, while promoting and embellishing an unhealthy and unclear definition of competition which often times leads to the exploitation of others and the erosion of our ability to make moral and ethical decisions on and off of the field.

Proposing a “Message of Hope”

Join us in the conversation to renew the athletic culture. Join us as we invite hope in our young athletes, propose a sense of purpose to our coaches, and to help promote the unconditional love in words and deeds from the parents on the sidelines. Join us as we propose Christ’s “Message of Hope” to the stands and playing fields of our communities.

With your support we can continue to provide these services to the community.

Presentations:

Sports from the Heart:

A comprehensive workshop and seminar that: looks at the current present day realities of today’s sports culture, discusses cultural issues at the root of much of today’s sports negative issues, while providing a foundation to build a healthy athletic community for coaches, parents, and players. For more information…Click Here

Coaching from the Heart:

A comprehensive workshop and seminar that: highlights the important role and impact of being an athletic coach in today’s American culture, while providing ideas and practical tools to create a healthy atmosphere for your players and parents. For more information… Click Here

Summer FCA Scholarship Program:

The Message of Hope Foundation is teaming up with The Daniel Foundation (www.danielfoundation.net) to co-sponsor a scholarship program so that any interested young man from Phoenixville high school can attend a summer sports camp run by ‘The Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ (FCA). For more information… Click Here

Proposing Christ to Sports (Website) Coming Soon:

An interactive place full of prayers, introspection, ideas, conversation, and thought-provoking discussions on ways we can live out our faith in today’s sports culture.  This will have resources for coaches, players, and parents who are “wrestling” with trying to be faithful to their Christian ideals as they participate in sports.  More details will be coming soon.

Baseball Lessons: (Coming Soon)

Founder/Director of the Message of Hope Foundation, Brett Illig, will be offering baseball instruction with a faith and community component.  More details will follow.

If you would like to receive updates on our work within today’s Athletic Culture, please contact us to receive our monthly E-Newsletter.

St. Ann Parish (Phoenixville, PA)
Founder and Director, Brett Illig, has been very blessed to be working with the people at St. Ann Parish to help develop and expand their youth programs within the parish for the last two years. Much of the work has consisted of running their Junior and Senior High Youth Groups and interacting with the CYO Athletics Program. It has been a great learning experience, as well as a way for the Message of Hope Foundation to provide services in conjunction with our goals and mission…. Click for More

“Message of Hope” (Youth Ministry Presentation)
A presentation and/or round-table discussion that dissects today’s teenage culture and proposes the Hope of Christ, in the lives of today’s teenagers…. Click for More

Christ-Centered Life:
To help young teens to understand and internalize how to live their lives in a Christ-like manner through teachings, small-group discussions, videos/music and interactive activities… Click for More

Founder and Director, Brett Illig, has been very blessed to be working with the wonderful people of St. Ann Parish to help develop and expand their youth programs within the parish for the last two years. Much of the work has consisted of running their Junior and Senior High Youth Groups and interacting with the CYO Athletics Program. It has been a great learning experience, as well as a way for the Message of Hope Foundation to provide services in conjunction with our goals and mission.

One of the great aspects of this role has been working with both of the Junior and Senior High Youth Groups. Every given week, Brett has an opportunity to interact with 50 to 60 of today’s youth who are made up of all different social groups within their schools. Yet for about an hour or two a week they come together as One, with no pressures, no expectations, no need to fit in, only a realization that they are indeed connected in some deeper way, even if they can’t put their own words to that feeling.

Over the course of the year, the discussions range from personal and cultural topics that affect them on a daily basis. Topics such as self-image issues and the messages from the culture, the impact of music in their lives, the pressures in school and athletics, all of which end with a question of how and where does our faith fit into this? Is God present here?

The discussions also surround the many community issues that are around all of us every day, such as poverty, which if spoken in the context of our faith, challenges us to then act. In which the groups are engaged in many service projects throughout the course of the year.

Through God’s will and grace, we look forward to another wonderful year. Thank you for helping make this possible.

The goal is to open the door to a conversation that will lead to finding Hope in Christ.

Some of the places we have been:

XLT: St. Jane de Chantal, Easton, Pa

Youth Night: St. Norbert, Paoli, Pa

St. Peter Church Teen Light: West Brandywine, Pa

Ss. Colman-John Neumann: Bryn Mawr, Pa

Please contact us for more information.