Grant Recipients

We would like to congratulate Bob & Lynn on the grant that they have received from FBC Mission Hope Adoption Ministry!!

Bob & Lynn are in the process of an adoption of two beautiful girls from Ethiopia and applied for a grant in 2008.

We love that Mission Hope could be part of bringing this forever family together!

We hope to introduce you to the girls within the next few months (or so). Please keep this family in your prayers as they proceed with their adoption.

I'm so glad we can can share this with everyone, because this is one of the reasons that this ministry was started and it's just such a blessing to see fruits from the labor, and families come together! God is good!!

Blessings,

Melissa & Robin

Adoption Auction Results!!!

We had a wonderful night list night! The Mission Hope Adoption Ministry Silent Auction was a great success. We had many (MANY) wonderful items to bid on, and there were quite a few people there to place bids!

If you missed our auction here are some of the great items that were there......We had a week vacation at a beach house, a desk-top computer, handmade jewelry, Fresh Christmas tree from W'boro Garden Center, Micah's coffee certificates, home-made baked goods, an antique pie-pantry, art-work, brand name handbags, certificates for local restaurants, gift certificates for professional dental whitening, handy-man services, personal cooking lessons, and wonderful gift baskets full of lots of goodies - from baked goods, bath items, family movie night items, and children's goods.

We are still getting payments for items won, but at this point, we have a rough total .... drum roll please......

$2,025.00 !!!!!

Thanks to all who donated, participated, and came out to bid. It was a wonderful night!!!

Thanks,
Melissa & Robin

Adoption Ministry Auction!!

On Wednesday, November 12th we will have the FBChurch Adoption Ministry Auction to raise money for the ministry.

If you or anyone you know would like to donate items to the auction please e-mail us and we'll be happy to help you get items to the Church.

If you are not able donate items to the auction, but would like to support the ministry by coming to bid on items that are up for auction, please join us at First Baptist Church on Wednesday, November 12th at 5:00pm. The bids will end promptly at 6:00pm. If you would like to join us for dinner you will need to make reservations by Tuesday, November 11th at 12:00noon, so please contact the Church or you can contact us and we'd be happy to help you with reservations. ($4 per adult & $2 for children - $1 for pre-school children)

Looking forward to seeing you all there!!

Melissa & Robin

May is Foster-Care Awarness Month

Dear Friends,

Did you know that May is national foster care month? There is an estimated 514,000 children in US foster care, and of those approximately 115,000 are "legal orphans" waiting to be adopted.

In recognition of the great need of these precious ones, a National Foster Care Prayer Vigil is being held from May 19-25.

Won't you please join this effort and commit to praying during this vigil? Another great way to participate in foster care month is to do something special for a foster family! If you know a foster family personally, you might know of some of the challenges, and certainly the commitment and sacrifices they make to care for children in great need.

Would you like more information? Please visit the webpage below:

http://www.fostercareprayervigil.org/


If you all know of a local foster family that might need help please post a comment and your phone number in the comment field or e-mail us at fbcmissionhope@yahoo.com.

Melissa & Robin

Walk For Life... Come Join Us!!

The Mission Hope Ministry is joining together with another ministry at First Baptist Church - BrokenHearts, to walk in the Walk For Life on Saturday, May 10th.

We are all gathering at FBC parking lot at 8:30 a.m. The walk will start at 9:00 a.m. at Westwood Elementary School.

You can do one of three things :

1. You can walk and be raise money for the Women's Center
2. You can donate to one of the others that is walking and trying to raise money
3. You can just come and walk with us.

Please e-mail us at fbcmissionhope@yahoo.com to let us know if you're interested in walking, or donating and we would be happy to give you further information.

We are also going to wear matching T-shirts. If you would like to purchase a Mission Hope T-shirt to wear during the walk, please contact us at fbcmissionhope@yahoo.com. The cost of the T-shirt will be $10.00 - part of the proceeds from t-shirt sales will benefit the Mission Hope Ministry!! Please make sure that you e-mail us the quantity and size of t-shirt by April 30th, 2008.

What a GREAT way to get our ministry together and to raise money for a wonderful cause at the same time!!

God Bless,

Melissa

Pot-Luck Dinner

On Saturday March 8th we had our first "official" Mission Hope community get-to-gether. We had a pot-luck dinner and invited families in our community that have been touched by adoption. We had a nice turn-out. There were families in all stages of adoption and it was wonderful to see so many children!! We all shared stories, talked about the future of mission hope, and ate some GREAT food!!

We discussed a little bit about what the families would like to take away from our group and talked a little about what we saw coming in the future. Please check back often as we will post upcoming events on the blog so you can plan to join us.

We were so glad to see so many families join us and hope we can get together again soon! For those of you who were not able to attend, we missed you & hope you can join us next time! Families enjoying some GREAT food!!

Spreading the Word

On February 20th Robin and I agreed to speak about Mission Hope to a small group at Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton.

Trinity has been having other local Churches from around the area come each Wednesday during Lint to speak about missions those Churches are participating in. On the 20th Robin and I took the girls, a PowerPoint presentation about our ministry, and pictures of our trip to China and Guatemala to share with this group.

This was our first speaking engagement outside of First Baptist. It was a little scary, but we were so excited about sharing our story and our vision (and God's vision) of what Mission Hope is all about.

We are so excited about the future of Mission Hope!!

Melissa