Mattie's Miracle!

Many of you have asked for an update on Mattie. If you remember, Mattie was the young girl from China whose adoption was disrupted several months ago. A family at First Baptist Church, Decatur heard her story (by way of Children's Hope) and immediately sensed God's call to bring Mattie into their family. This would be the Ponter's 10th adoption. The adoption would cost approximately $13,000. Another family at FBC, Decatur wanted to help with raising financial support for them, so they set up a paypal system on their blog at http://www.pattersonposts.blogspot.com . I discovered the good news today that between the Patterson's blog and a Sunday morning bake sale at FBC, Decatur over $12,000 was raised within seven weeks! For those of you concerned about the cost of adoption, please let this story serve as a reminder that your church family and people in community are ready and willing to help you!

The Lord continues to work in Haiti. Is seems as if we stuck the tip of our toe in the water and the Lord has parted the Red Sea! Jay and Chip will accompany Andy on a short vision trip in May (24 - 26). I should be able to share some more information about Children's Hope future in Haiti towards the end of May.

Finally, Children's Hope would like to have several volunteers that will lead the way in getting FBC Mtg. and others committed to praying for this ministry. Andy and I will work with this group in designing a prayer guide that could be given to SS classes and placed in the foyer as well as posted on a blog entry. This ministry has been so blessed by those of you already covering us in your prayers. Therefore, we want to broaden our prayer support by having a team organize and visit the SS classes explaining the ministry and requesting prayer. Perhaps the prayer team could meet monthly as well. We are also open to other ideas. Please let us know if you are interested in helping to lead this effort.