Second Prayer Letter

Bridge House for Children


A Place for children to call home.

Bridging the gap with real love

and hope so that children can

experience God's grace lived

out toward them.

Dear Family and Friends, February 18, 2010

Thank you all for your prayers as we traveled to Mississippi to visit Palmer Home. We are very overwhelmed and excited, as we expected. By the end of the day we had gained so much knowledge and help. While we were at Palmer Home we met with the President and Executive Director, Vice President of Youth Service, Social Worker, and one set of house parents. Our first meeting was at 8:30 a.m. and we ended the day around 5:00 p.m. The time went by very quickly and we really enjoyed ourselves. The men and women at Palmer Home were very helpful and genuinely cared about our plans. They shared many stories and gave us a list of things to start working on over the next few weeks.

During our time with the house parents we played with one of the children in their care. She is three and a half, very happy and well adjusted. We learned that she has two sisters and two brothers. All five live together in this home.

While we were in Mississippi, Rachel and Joe kept Ethan and LaRue for us. What a blessing. Kyle went with us and did such a great job. He traveled very well and was content to play on the floor or sit in our laps all day.

Our next step is to file our 501©3, not for profit status. We are planning to use a company in Nashville to help with this process. This company has a great track record of efficiency and speed. The total cost will be around $2000 and this includes all filing fees. Until our 501©3 is complete we will not be considered a not for profit and cannot accept tax deductable gifts, but we still hope to raise these funds.

God has already answered so many prayers. He has provided us with an enormous prayer support network. We are so thankful for each of you.

Love, Brent, Anna, and Kids

Specific Prayer Requests

1) That the finances come together so we can quickly file our 501©3.

2) That God provides a location so we can begin building and serving children quickly.

3) That we find the right people to serve on our board of directors and in all other staff positions.

4) That we would have patience to wait on God’s timing in every area and that we continue to trust God to provide.

Our Visit to Palmer Home

Brent, Kyle and I left Murfreesboro on Thursday afternoon and headed to Mississippi to visit Palmer Home for Children. We were very excited about going and learning all about their program. The drive down went very smoothly and Kyle was a real trooper. We arrived around 11:30 and picked up the keys to the West Gym Apartment where they had arranged for us to spend the night. The apartments are beautiful and very large. Of course after sleeping most of the way there Kyle was ready to play and crawled all over the large living room floor, eating cheerios and having a great time. Around 2:30 a.m. we finally got him to sleep and headed to bed. At 8:30 Friday morning we were standing in a three story building that is the original Palmer Home building. It was built in the late 1800's and is a beautiful building. We started our morning meeting with the President and Executive Director of Palmer Home. He asked us what our vision was and we shared our dream with him. He was able to advise us on many things and helped us understand a lot of things that we had heard about but hadn't quite been able to grasp. At 9:15 the Vice President of Youth Services joined us and shared with us what he does for Palmer Home and then allowed us to ask him any questions that we had about his job. He took us on a tour of the campus and inside a few of the buildings. The campus is beautiful and the kids have so much going on.  They have so many great oportunities there.  We went to the office complex and met with the Social Worker that is on staff and again asked a lot of questions and had her explain what she does. One question we asked each person we met with was, "what do you see being the biggest challenge that we might face in starting?" We got a few different answers and that was great because it gave us a lot to think about. After we finished there we were introduced to one set of house parents and shown around the house by one of the children who lives there, a three year old little girl. She was precious and very well adjusted and so happy. It was great to get to meet her and spend some time playing with her while we visited with her parents. We had lunch with the house parents and really enjoyed them. It was great to be able to see the organization from so many different sides. We had so many unanswered questions when we got there that now we feel we have great answers for. After lunch we went back to the apartment for a few minutes to regroup and then back for a second meeting with the President and Executive Director. This was where we spent the rest of the afternoon and were able to iron out a lot of things we weren't clear about. Everyone was so helpful and we came away with a wealth of knowledge and encouragement. We are very overwhelmed but also very excited. We have 20 pages of notes to go through, sort out, make to do lists from and get started on.

    We have really seen God's hand in all of this so far and know that He will continue to do His will. We are so excited and will continue to share our progress with you all as we go. You’re your eye out for our next e-mail newsletter. Please share this blog with everyone you know. The more people involved the better. We are so encouraged by the outpouring of love from all of you. You are each such a blessing to us.

Our First Prayer Letter

Bridge House for Children
Bridging the gap with real love
and hope so that children can
experience God's grace lived
out toward them.

Dear Family and Friends,
We hope and pray that this will be the first of many letters sharing with you our hopes and dreams for our future. We are asking each of you to pray with us as we begin moving toward our dream of opening a home for foster and troubled children/teens. Brent and I have been thinking, dreaming, and praying about this for several years. God has used several situations in our lives to challenge us to seriously consider developing this dream, although we realize there are years of hard work ahead of us before we will be a working organization, but we are excited to see what God will do.

I will try to paint a picture of our dream so you can know better how to pray. We want to stay here in our community so will need land with buildings or space to build; land that can become a small ranch where the children learn, in part, by gardening and caring for animals. We envision several family style homes with several children in each home. This will allow us to keep sibling groups together. We also desire to provide a place for children with special needs, which will add another difficult but rewarding element to our ministry. As many of you know, my passion for children with special needs began when, at 13, I was privileged to work with little Dana Kappel. Then through my years as a dance student, then instructor and studio owner, my desire to teach dance to special needs children grew. Because of this, we hope to incorporate a dance program, particularly for special needs children. The children, programs and needs will require the commitment of mature, wise, caring adults as house-parents, counselors, tutors, medical staff, therapists, and more. Our goal will be to help these children develop real relationships with God and other people - people who become family - as we teach, train and disciple them with the hope of them each becoming productive members of society.

This is the vision that we have right now. We are still in the very beginning stages and understand that there are many small steps that are necessary. We also understand that this may need years to develop fully, and we are learning new levels of patience as we work and wait. On Friday, February 12, we are meeting with the director of Palmer Home for Children in Mississippi. Their organization is one we would like to use as our model. We will be staying on campus Thursday night and begin meetings and tours at 8:30 Friday morning. We are very excited about this meeting and are putting together our list of questions for them. They have sent us a list of things we need to do as starting steps, and we have begun to work through those. Our organization will need to be a non profit 501( c )3 which is long and expensive process. It may take a year just to complete the non-profit process, and it will require the services of a lawyer. After the 501( c )3 is in place, we will begin organizing fundraisers, finding property, and working on buildings, with the goal of working with children as soon as possible.

We are asking you to commit to pray with and for us as we walk through these many complicated steps. At this point, we are very overwhelmed and very excited. Here are our specific prayer requests:

1) That we keep God at the center of this organization and trust Him to provide.
2) That God would provide us with the land needed to begin.
3) That God will put people in our life to guide and encourage us and that we will be eager to

listen to the advice of others.
4) That our meeting with Palmer Home in Mississippi will provide needed answers and

wisdom which we will be able to understand without becoming overwhelmed.
5) That we are able to find the balance in working, being parents, caring for our home,

working with the youth group and other church involvements, and working at starting this

organization.
6) That God will give us wisdom and grace in our decisions.

As we consider and take steps to develop this dream, we realize the tremendous importance of prayer warriors walking with us every step. Feel free to ask questions and offer wisdom. The questions we will attempt to answer and the wisdom we will attempt to absorb. Please share this with others who will join us in prayer.

We love you all and thank you for your prayers.
Brent, Anna, and kids