The Heart of Texas Foundation, Inc.

February 2010 ~ Foundation News ~ Trips, Prisons, Events, Donors, People!

Our Texas Team with Burl Cain, Senior Warden at Angola. Greetings!
 
 
Lots has been happening at The Heart of Texas Foundation.  We are a group of Christian men and women who have been loosely allied over the years in various projects.  Now, we have come together as an organization in order to focus our efforts on opportunities God has opened for us. 
 
This Newsletter will begin the process of giving you an inside look at what God is doing, what He has brought before us, and how YOU can get involved.  We are dead serious:  if you feel you have plateaued, or even if you feel you are "soaring" in the faith, there is still room for you to find real joy in the work placed before us at The Heart of Texas Foundation.
 
We will make this one short and sweet.  We'll give you just some high points, and tell you more in our next Foundation News.  We want to welcome Susan Strickland to our team of volunteers.  She is our Foundation News Editor, and can be reached at [email protected].
 
 
 
This picture is our team with Senior Warden Burl Cain of the Angola Penitentiary in Louisiana.  You'll learn more about that remarkable trip in a future newsletter!  We spent 3 full days inside America's largest maximum security prison with Warden Cain and his staff.  It was a remarkable adventure to experience Angola!
 
Cordially yours in Him.... Grove Norwood
 
Angola Group Pic
IRS APPROVES HEART OF TEXAS
HOTFI RECEIVES 501(c)(3) STATUS
 
DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE!

 
Guard Tower at Angola PenitentiaryWe are happy to announce that The Heart of Texas Foundation, Inc. received its official endorsement as an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  We now may accept donations that are tax deductible, retroactive to our first date of incorporation, in 2006.  Our Tax EIN Id number is 20-4007150.
 
We will now be working to achieve the coveted ECFA endorsement (Evangelical Council for Fiscal Accountability), which will take over a year to achieve.
SISTERS IN SPIRIT:
LESSONS LEARNED IN LOCKHART WOMEN'S PRISON

by Susan Strickland

 
What happens when four well-intentioned but somewhat-hesitant women visit a prison for the first time?  On February 5, 2010, we found out.

The goal of a faith-based prison ministry is not only to help prisoners understand God's love for each and every one of them but also to help them understand how God transforms lives. 

But how were we volunteers to know that the lives transformed that day would be our own?  Read More...


 
ADVENTURES IN ANGOLA
LIVES CHANGED IN A MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON

Inmates during a Heart of Texas Program
Ten men drove to the little end-of-the-road town called Angola, Lousiana.  The road ends at the Gate.  The signs says, "Louisiana State Penitentiary."  It's the largest maximum security prison in the United States.  Home to 5,300 men, over 90% of whom will die inside the walls; most are there for life. 
 
We went at the invitation of Warden Burl Cain and his staff of wardens and chaplains.  The prison wanted to show "The Heart of Texas," and asked us to come speak after each showing.  Wonder what life is like on a penitentiary of 18,000 acres, where every other man is a murderer?  And where 83 men are locked down on Death Row? Read More...
SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING PRISON PROGRAMS

The State of Texas has asked us to visit all 113 prisons and penitentiaries in Texas, and to present our message of forgiveness and reconciliation after the Chaplains show the documentary, "The Heart of Texas."  See our upcoming events and trips by clicking Read More...

 
TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS ACCEPTED NOW!

Donate pic2Because of our new IRS Approved 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Non-Profit status, The Heart of Texas Foundation can now accept tax deductible donations.  Donations can be made via Google or Paypal, and we accept all major credit cards.  To donate to The Heart of Texas Foundation, please Click here to donate
 
 
 
                     Google Donate Button                    PayPal Donate Button
 
 
Thank you in advance for your kind help as we undertake this five-year project.  We've been asked to take our message to every State prison in Texas.  We can't do it without your help....