Faith in Action: Uplifting Sauk Village through HOPE Packs

July 24, 2025

Without the partnership of local churches and ministries, HOPE Packs could not have grown into the program that it is today. One of the long-standing churches that has expanded Elim’s mission is Faith Church Dyer in Dyer, Indiana.

Pastor Dave, Faith Dyer’s Outreach Pastor, works to help the church serve beyond its own walls, reaching into surrounding communities. Sauk Village, the third impoverished community in Illinois, is one of the neighborhoods that Faith Dyer partnered with as part of their ministry outreach.

“God gave them to us as a neighbor, and we want to love our neighbor as ourselves,” Pastor Dave shares.

Several of Elim’s students and Adults have Faith Dyer as their home church. While the church has always known about Elim’s ministry, it was through this connection that the church became involved in the HOPE Packs Program.

Partnering with Faith

For the past five years. Faith Dyer has teamed up with Elim’s HOPE Packs to fundraise and provide School Kits for students in Sauk Village. In just this past year, they created and delivered over 1,200 kits, and they plan to continue growing that number with the help from other local churches.

One of the churches receiving HOPE Packs School Kits is Holy Praise Tabernacle in Sauk Village, led by Pastor John Pitts – and he is ready to get his parish more involved.

“When Pastor Dave told me how many supplies were in those boxes, it was amazing to look at.” Pastor John shares. “I took a few boxes to give to the children over at my church and the parents said these supplies could last the whole year! I just thank God that I got to be a part of this.”

Pastor Dave adds, “As a church, we are not okay with any student going to school and not having the supplies that they need. We can’t let that be the reason they don’t succeed in school.”

Getting Involved as a Church

As HOPE Packs continues to grow and serve more communities, the need for churches and parishes to hold HOPE Packs drives grows in numbers as well.

“The beauty of HOPE Packs is that it is a win for everyone,” says Pastor Dave. “The School Supply drives could not be easier to set up as a church leader. Elim delivers the kits to the schools, and we just need to show up and help deliver the kits to the students.”

Fundraising for the kits is just as easy, Pastor Dave reports. “We even do our school supply drive through Elim – if you send two kids to school, you buy two of the School Kits. I think that there are so many other churches that would love to have this tradition, and it is something churches and community leaders can get behind.”

He finishes by sharing this: “Every year, we donate more. And every year, we have more children excited to go to the first day of school.”

At Elim, we are excited to see this program continue to grow and reach more people and create more vocational opportunities for our adults to give back to their community.

Pastor John is working alongside Faith Church to help deepen their partnership with Elim’s HOPE Packs. “This needs to be everywhere,” he says. “People need to see this work.”

This summer, with the help of donations received from local churches and community groups, Elim’s adults are hoping to assemble and deliver 15,000 School Kits to students in need.

Are you interested in getting your church involved with Elim’s HOPE Packs program? Please contact Joshua Beaton at (708) 293-3678 to see how you can get your church involved today, or visit www.elimcs.org/hope-packs