Christmas in July? A Great Time to Celebrate!

I want everyone to know that at about the same time I was reviving this blog, I was contacted by a friend, Laurel Griffith, about contributing posts about missions for a website she was starting. I felt that God was calling me to write about how we can all do missions right here right now, so I told Laurel that "yes" I would contribute my writings to her to use on her website instead of posting them here at my blog.

Laurel Griffith: Walking Toward Wisdom is the name of the website.

You can read my lastest post, Christmas in July? A Great Time to Celebrate!, at the link below. Please spend some time at the website. Laurel is a talented writer, inspiring speaker, and great Christian role model! You can subscribe to the website and receive her new posts via email by going to the Home page at the website and typing in your email address.

http://laureljoycegriffith.com/christmas-in-july-a-great-time-to-celebrate/

Walk For Water With Kate

My daughter, Kate, who is a senior in high school, is heading up a Walk for Water. Here is a little information about it:

You are invited to be a part of it on Saturday, May 11. The purpose of this walk is to raise money and awareness for the people of Kenya who have to walk miles daily to reach clean water. The money raised from this walk will be donated to 410 bridge, a non profit organization that builds wells in Kenya. You can check out their website at 410bridge.com for more information.

To give you a little more info, I interviewed Kate about this Walk.

Me: How did you get involved with Walk for Water?
Kate: My friend, Amanda Woodson, was in charge of the Walk for four years. She did a great job and I really liked helping her out. I enjoyed their mission, bringing water to those who don't have it, and I thought they were doing a great thing that was different than other projects. It was unique. Amanda asked me to take it over because she went to college this year.

Me: What first drew you to be involved at first?
Kate: I just really love missions, so any time I hear about a mission project, I just jump on board.

Me: Why do the walkers have to carry a gallon jug?
Kate: The gallon jug represents the jugs that Africans have to carry and they have to walk hours daily to get their water, some more than the 3 miles that we will walk, so we thought why not walk a few miles in their shoes and get water from the river just like they have to.

Me: What does the money raised go to?
Kate: 410 Bridge, check them out at 410bridge.com. They build wells in Africa. And they also tell people about the Living Water.

Me: You are very busy right now, and about to graduate. Why did you want to head this up?
Kate: I love mission projects, and like to be busy.

Me: Why do you like missions so much?
Kate: I just love spreading the Good News. That is God's one call for us.

If you would like to participate, just let me know and Kate or I can get you a registration form. You can register up until the day that it starts!

Three Ways to Help

You are invited to a Bake Sale

for Children's Promise - the Orphan Ministry of FBC Decatur

Sunday April 14

2-5 p.m.

Mallard Stables

2321 8th St. SE, Decatur

This is a mission project of the Hurst/Stephenson Family Sunday School Class.

Three ways you can help:

1. Attend the bake sale and buy some goodies!

2. If you can't attend on the 14th, you can support the Orphan Ministry of FBC by making a monetary donation on this page. There is a Paypal link in the right column on this page. 

3. If you would like to make baked goods for the sale that would be wonderful! Contact Jenipher Patterson for more details!

Bake Sale for Children's Promise!

 

You are invited to a Bake Sale

for Children's Promise - the Orphan Ministry of FBC Decatur

Sunday April 14

2-5 p.m.

Mallard Stables

2321 8th St. SE, Decatur

 

If you can't attend on the 14th, you can support the Orphan Ministry of FBC by making a donation on this page. There is a Paypal link in the right column on this page. 

Children's Promise Orphan Ministry of FBC Decatur strives to promote orphan awareness among believers. We want to create a passion and call to obedience for believers to care for the orphans. We hope to encourage and support families fostering or adopting. We desire to assist in projects and mission trips serving orphans.

 

 

Reviving the Blog!

I am reviving the blog! I set this up when I headed up a fundraiser to help with adoption expenses for Maddie Ponter in the Spring of 2011. God used those posts mightily, and when the fundraising was over I didn’t post anymore. I couldn’t decide what direction I wanted to go with the blog. At that time I had named it Patterson Posts, so I thought about doing one of those family blogs where you tell about what you eat for supper and what your family had done all day complete with pictures.

Well, I do cook supper, but people might get tired of seeing the same pictures over and over, because we also eat leftovers. Once, when Meg was young, and after I had cooked a large casserole, she told me that we had eaten the leftovers so much that she couldn’t remember when we had eaten the original mealJ. I would also have to keep my kitchen cleaner if I were going to take pictures of cooking. I decided against moving the blog in that direction.

I love to look at blogs where a family has young children and you get to see all the cute things they have done during the week. I’ll just say to the moms and dads of young children: Snap those pictures! Every day! And post, post, post! Take all the pictures you can right now, because a day is coming (I’ll just say: teenage) when you pull out the camera that you have to promise to your child that you won’t put more than one or two of the pictures on Facebook and you have to pinky-swear and spit-shake that if the pictures aren’t very good you won’t tag your kids in them.  We do fun things as a family, but I would not win mom points with a 17 and 19 year old if I posted pictures of our trip to Dairy Queen or our family card game! So I had another thought…

A craft blog! I love to craft, but decided I would rather spend my time actually crafting instead of taking pictures and writing explanations of what I was doing. That’s what Pinterest and YouTube are for, right? I know many blogs have a particular focus, like an adoption blog, which is wonderful!, but that is not us. I just don’t feel that our family had any special skill or interest worthy of writing about. And I have to consider the time factor. I work full-time, if I am going to do a blog it needs to be deserving of the time I am going to put into it, and you are busy too!

I started thinking that there are things in our world worthy of my time to write and your time to read. I began thinking of all the ways that people, ordinary people, are sharing God’s love and his message of salvation in our community and throughout the world.  These stories are what this blog is going to be about – ordinary people who are sharing God’s love and message. The blog is still Patterson Posts, but the theme verse is Romans 10:15 "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"  I want the focus to shift from our family to what others are doing. And if someone in my family shares God’s “good news”, well, maybe my daughters won’t mind me posting a picture of that.J

 

The Big Day!

We gave the Adoption Fund (the money raised) to the Ponters yesterday morning! I know you are anxious to know the total amount that was collected, so here it is ... (drumroll, please)...$12,164.95!! God is so good! He far exceeded my expectations of what could be raised! I am so happy that the Ponters have this gift and won't have to worry about where they will get this money. This is confirmation that Mattie is where God wants her to be! Everyone was so generous!

Easter Sunday! The day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus which allows us all to have a new life in Him. We can now all be adopted into God's family and live as his children forever. That is why we chose Easter Sunday as the day to present the money. There was no better day than Easter to celebrate the adoption of a child into an earthly family.

We had collected the money for 7 weeks, and what a work God did in those 7 weeks. God had laid it on my heart to do some fundraising, so I started this blog and passed out some flyers at church. God spoke to many people because the message got out far and wide. Thanks to everyone who gave so generously!

Help Bring Mattie to Her Forever Home!!

I want to tell you about some friends of ours. The Ponters are a precious family who goes to our church. Because of their huge hearts they are making plans to adopt their 10th daughter! (Yes, you read that right!) This newest daughter is thirteen and from China. She was adopted last year by a family in Ohio and when that didn't work out she has ended up in foster care in Birmingham for the past two months. The Ponters were contacted about adopting her and they said that, of course, they want to bring her into their family! They are truly amazing people!

Even in these unusual circumstances, the Ponters will still have to shoulder the cost of the adoption. I have realized in the last few weeks that even though we are not all called to adopt children into our homes, we can all participate in "helping to care for orphans" like it says in James 1:27. I would like to give you the wonderful opportunity of helping the Ponters bring Mattie home! Giving money is really the easy part, so if you could give even a little bit (or a lot!), we could all see a life changed forever! (And ours might be changed a little too!) No amount is too small. We can give to them since they have given a forever home to so many girls!

Ways to give: You can donate by clicking on the Paypal link on this blog (at the top of the right sidebar), you can hand me the money when you see me, or you can send your donation through the mail. If you are writing a check make it out to Corley Ponter, but mail it to me at: Jenipher Patterson; P.O. Box 625; Decatur, AL 35602. I will collect all the money and give it to them on April 24. The amount collected will be a surprise for them! Thanks!

I will be collecting the money until Easter Sunday morning, April 24, 2011. I would like to present the money to them after church that day. There is no better day to do that than Easter Sunday, the day that reminds us of the new life that is possible for all of us through a relationship with Jesus Christ! Easter is the day to celebrate our new life in Christ, the day we were adopted into God's family, so that is the day that we can celebrate Mattie's new life of being adopted into her forever family with the Ponters! Thanks for giving!

The Ponter girls!

These are the 7 who live at home now. The adult children are not pictued.