Missions agency takes on worldwide hunger

Thirty cents doesn’t buy much these days, but surprisingly, it’s enough to provide a meal for a starving person.

Heaven Sent Ministries (hsminc.org) in Princeton, West Virginia, coordinates the purchasing and packing of thousands of 30-cent meals and sends them to hungry people around the world. It’s a ministry that was born out of a single short-term mission trip.

In 1996, Lyle Mullins went to Guatemala on his first-ever mission trip. As the pastor of a Baptist church in Princeton, Mullins’ experience on the mission field inspired him to shift the focus of the church from just a local vision to an international one.

However, at that time, there were limited opportunities for short-term missions within Baptist agencies.

“A friend and I decided to start a ministry that would facilitate people wanting to go on short-term missions, and that’s how Heaven Sent Ministries [HSM] began,” Mullins told The Stand. “That was in 1997, and after having people do that for several years, we saw so much hunger and starvation in the different countries we were visiting that we had a real burden to help in that arena.”

The recipe for health

In 2001, Mullins connected with a Minnesota man who was assembling food packets for the hungry. In those packets were the ingredients of a recipe that some of America’s top nutritionists had specifically formulated to meet the needs of starving people. With that recipe, he returned home with a new mission for HSM.

“The recipe is basically four ingredients: rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables, and a blend of 21 essential vitamins that will impact children wherever they are in the world,” Mullins said. “We came back and started putting together those packets here in Princeton. Over the years, we’ve sent food to more than 20 countries around the world.”

HSM not only feeds the hungry but also stays true to its original mission of sending people on short-term mission trips. Additionally, the ministry focuses on Mullins’ passion for discipling and mentoring church leaders and creating training materials and resources.

“We have partners that we send the food through, and all of them are Christians,” Mullins said. “Our goal is not only to send food but to share the gospel.”

The Hunger Challenge

Many churches are eager to join the mission of feeding the hungry, which is why HSM started organizing Hunger Challenge events. A Hunger Challenge provides an opportunity to actively participate in feeding those in need. Participants have several options: They can attend an event where they actually pack meals, sponsor meals financially, or both.

“We’re able to put 30, six-meal packets in a five-gallon bucket, which is 180 meals, and that ends up costing $53 a bucket,” Mullins said. “At a Hunger Challenge event, each person who comes fills one five-gallon bucket.”

Mullins explained that each participant signs up for a two-hour time slot during the event. The goal is to fill an entire shipping container with 1,000 buckets.

HSM organizes local events and travels to larger events out of state, providing all the necessary equipment and food for each gathering. This includes a 40-foot shipping container that allows food to be loaded quickly, transported to a port, and sent to those in need.