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RADIO SHOW
Sponsored by
Dave & Carol Hanna
Ralph & Mary Clinard
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Would you consider becoming a Sustaining Contributor? A small monthly gift would make all the difference if all of our friends would join us in this effort.
Dear Friend,
It's hard to believe: 2015 is our fourth year of the full operation of the SOUTHWESTERN SEMINARY AT DARRINGTON and the 6th year of operations by the The Heart of Texas Foundation supporters, donors, and volunteers. We can honestly say that through the "inside" work of the Seminary students and graduates, we will cause a major culture change in the Texas Prison System from the inside out. This will cause a reduction in violence, and the pain inflicted on citizens, families, and children.
Would you be able to become a "sustaining contributor" in 2015? Help sustain the work of The Heart of Texas Foundation, so the Darrington Seminary may continue operating on the private funding we provide! No matter how small the gift!
As the size of the Southwestern Seminary at Darrington penitentiary has grown to its full size, our financial needs have grown as well. We will never need millions to operate, but we do need to be able to meet the monthly bills to operate the Darrington Seminary. We at The Heart of Texas Foundation ARE the source of the "private funding" that keeps our Seminary's supplies, bills and professors' salaries paid.
We now have four full classes of students in school together, but in separate classrooms, just like any other college: we have a full class of Freshmen, one of Sophomores, another of Juniors, and one of Seniors who will graduate in May, 2015. It's just too spectacular to believe. There is no doubt but that we're the largest school of our kind anywhere in the world.
In the love of Christ,
Grove Norwood, Founder & CEO The Heart of Texas Foundation
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|  NEWS SAVE THESE IMPORTANT DATES FOR 2015 ---------- 5TH ANNUAL "HEART OF TEXAS FUNDRAISER BANQUET": OCTOBER 16, 2015 Location: Sugar Creek Baptist Church, Sugar Land, Texas, 6 pm, with one-of-a-kind "Inmate Hobbycraft Silent Auction"!
Volunteers: Email your to serve on the Banquet Staging Team to Brenna Norwood, brenna@heartoftexasfoundation.org
Volunteers: Email your interest to serve on the Silent Inmate Hobbycraft Auction, to Kristy at kristymaniscalco@gmail.com
------------ 4TH ANNUAL "DAY WITH DAD AT DARRINGTON": NOVEMBER 6-7, 2015 Locations: Darrington Penitentiary and Sienna Baptist Church, Vicksburg Campus in Sugar Land, TX. Volunteers needed, limited spaces for volunteers, please sign up early!
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NEWS BUILDING RENOVATION CAMPAIGN UNDER FULL SWING
SUGAR LAND, TEXAS -- With Mr. Pat King and Mr. David Shaw at the helm, our fundraising campaign for the total renovation of the "old gym" in the Darrington Penitentiary is progressing!
We have almost 1M in cash and pledges, still needing the donors who will put us over the top! We are already in discussions with TDCJ about the renovation project. Can you help put us over the top?
Call Pat King at 832-723-2428 if you would like to make a substantial donation, or
See the Animated "Fly-Through" of the new Seminary Building when renovated! |  We now have 183 inmate men in Darrington Seminary, four full classes-- each with their own Professors (PhD's) from Southwestern Seminary. We have freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and our first Senior class! Graduating on May 9, 2015 in full caps and gowns, with the President of Southwestern Seminary, Dr. Paige Patterson, to deliver his personal congratulations. Texas history will once again be made-- nothing like the Southwestern Seminary at Darrington has ever existed in Texas.
The Seminary is equipping men to graduate with accredited B.S Degrees in Biblical Studies. They will then be transferred to other prisons in Texas, to join the Chaplains at those prisons, and begin serving their long sentences in service to others and to the Kingdom of God. | 
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NEWS
FIRST GRADUATION DAY SET AT DARRINGTON SEMINARY FOR MAY 9, 2015.
ROSHARON, TEXAS-- Mark your calendars to pray for the first Graduation Day at the Southwestern Seminary at Darrington (Darrington Maximum-security penitentiary).
The Heart of Texas generous "Sustaining Contributors" make it possible for our private funding to pay all the bills associated with running the 4-year Seminary inside this large state penitentiary.
Thirty-three Seniors will walk across the stage in the Darrington Penitentiary "Chapel of the Resurrection", and there receive their fully-accredited (SACS) Bachelor of Science degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth. The President, Dr. Paige Patterson will be on hand to congratulate the men!
Why would we be going to all this trouble? Because the men in this particular seminary are all doing extremely LONG prison sentences, and when they graduate with will be appointed as "Field Ministers" and will be sent out to other prisons in Texas to continue service those long sentences, but they will be working with the Chaplains and Wardens to help bring greater levels of peace, forgiveness, reconciliation, and moral rehabilitation to America's largest prison system: ours. No one has greater influence over a prison inmate than.... another inmate with a longer sentence! These men will be able to share the spiritual and moral transformations they have undergone, and do it with their own peer group-- other inmates! Read more about our total support of The Darrington Seminary...
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|  NEWS
WE OPEN TWO NEW FATHERHOOD PROGRAMS FOR MEN AT DARRINGTON AND COFFIELD PENITENTIARIES: "MALACHI DADS" MOVEMENT COMES TO TEXAS, SPONSORED BY HOTF
Palestine, Texas; Rosharon Texas -- Coffield and Darrington Penitentiaries.
In another historic first for Texas, The Heart of Texas Foundation has been given permission by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to systematically introduce the powerful "Malachi Dads" movement to the Texas men's prisons. Malachi Dads is now fully operational in both the Coffield and Darrington prisons. Coffield unit began theirs in June of 2014, and Darrington men began theirs in January of 2015.
Local Houston Pastors and volunteers have joined The Heart of Texas Foundation in helping to bring the Malachi Dads program to Texas. Beginning in May of this year, Seminary Graduates who leave Darrington as "Field Ministers" will be able to help other prisons begin Malachi Dads programs of their own. Visit our Web Site for more about Malachi Dads.
Malachi Dads was birthed in 2005 by a number of Angola Seminary students and graduates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, with on-site assistance provided by the international children's ministry, AWANA, Inc. These men were responding to the heart cry of incarcerated fathers who, embracing their identity under God as the spiritual leaders of their families, sought to become equipped to reach and to disciple their children under the protective care of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With the support and guidance from the Senior Warden, from faculty at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and from the world-wide children's ministry, AWANA.org, all of whom came alongside the men in the Angola penitentiary to help create the Malachi Dads program.
The Heart of Texas Foundation, in a new partnership with the international children's ministry, AWANA, Inc., will now go on to assist the new Texas inmate "Field Ministers", their Chaplains and their local volunteers, to systematically bring the Malachi Dads program to all Texas men's prisons. The Texas Department of The Heart of Texas Foundation will identify, recruit, and train local volunteers from area churches to facilitate and support the modest expenses of curriculum materials for each group of Malachi Dads. The remote prison's team of Seminary Field Ministers will be on hand to help organize, recruit members, and facilitate the Malachi Dads meetings within their prison. From what we have learned from the Angola Malachi Dads experience, our other prisons will see remarkable changes in the prison inmates who go through the program. These changes are due in large measure to the fact that the Seminary Field Ministers, most of whom are doing life sentences, will have a large impact on their lives as a result of their credibility as being inmates themselves--- and inmates who are doing extremely long prison sentences.
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RECENT ANGOLA TRIP WITH GROVE & BRENNA FOR THE PARKS FOUNDATION AND LUTHERAN HOUR MINISTRIES
Grove & Brenna Norwood were pleased to host a number of Christian leaders on last month's trip to Angola for the monthly "Prison Seminary Orientation Trip". Among them were two Trustees from the Houston-based Parks Foundation journeyed to Angola to meet Warden Cain and to see the effects of a prison seminary after 20 years of its operation. Foundation President Jim McClellan, and Ms. Debra Marfin, Trustee, enjoyed the three day trip and came home more aware of the historic implication that the Southwestern Seminary at Darrington is having on the State of Texas. Welcome, Parks Foundation! |
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NEWS
WE OPEN "HANNAH'S GIFT" MOTHERHOOD PROGRAM FOR WOMEN IN TEXAS PRISONS, WITH PARTNERS AT DISCIPLESHIP UNLIMITED.
GATESVILLE, TEXAS -- The idea for a ministry for incarcerated mothers that paralleled the "Malachi Dads" fatherhood program for incarcerated men was born in the heart of Angola penitentiary's Senior Warden (Burl Cain) heart last year. He immediately called Dr. Kristi Miller, Chaplain at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, and enlisted her help, along with AWANA's.
Once the Hanna's Gift program was born in Louisiana, we at The Heart of Texas Foundation made formal application with Texas Department of Criminal Justice to bring Hannah's Gift into all the women's prisons in Texas. We were approved, and we then sought the partnership of the experienced women's prison ministry in the Gatesville, TX area, Discipleship Unlimited. Their Founder, Ms. Linda Strom, and her top volunteer leaders then went with Brenna and Grove to Angola, to visit the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, and to learn how we together might begin Hannah's Gift in all the women's prisons in Texas. We are currently working with AWANA's Executive Director, Mike Broyles, and Ms. Linda Strom, to begin the process of beginning our first local chapter of Hanna's Gift, in a women's prison in the Gatesville area. Systematically, Discipleship Unlimited will help us begin Hannah's Gift in all of our Texas women's prisons. Visit DiscipleshipUnlimited.org They have worked with us to become the facilitators of this new women's ministry. To volunteer, email Discipleship Unlimited at their web site.
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NEWS
New Prison Seminary Opens in West Virginia! Based on The Heart of Texas - Angola Model. Heart of Texas hosted to Angola many West Virginia delegates, businessmen, and Senior Prison Officials, who made numerous trips to Angola with Grove to gain the vision.
Heart of Texas Foundation consults with West Virginia for nearly a year, providing guidance and help.
Mount Olive Penitentiary, West Virginia -- West Virginia inmates can now pursue a four-year college degree through a program launched in September of this year at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex, a maximum-security penitentiary for men. The new Moral Rehabilitation program aims to provide just that, Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein said. "I believe we have the opportunity to make some truly positive changes not only within our Corrections system but that our efforts can be far reaching throughout the state," said Rubenstein, who is also a deputy secretary of the W.Va. Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.
Graduates will receive a bachelor of arts in Bible and Theology through Appalachian Bible College, located in Raleigh County. The Mount Olive Correctional Complex is located in Fayette County and has a current capacity of 1,030 inmates.
Nearly 30 Mount Olive inmates successfully applied to form the program's inaugural class, which meets Monday through Thursday with independent study sessions on Fridays. (wva.com)
West Virginia's equivalent non-profit (like The Heart of Texas Foundation) is "Catalyst Ministries", founded by our friend Calvin Sutphin, former businessman and now a force for penal reform in West Virginia! Catalyst Ministries provides all the private funding to keep their Mount Olive Bible College open. In the same way, The Heart of Texas provides all the private funding to keep the Southwestern Seminary at Darrington penitentiary open!
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NEWS
GROVE AND BRENNA HOST MONTHLY GROUPS TO SPECIAL ORIENTATION AT ANGOLA STATE PENITENTIARY IN LOUISIANA
HOUSTON, TEXAS -- Each month of the year, Grove and Brenna host a small group of influential Christian and business leaders to a two-night stay at the famed Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as "Angola." This trip has been described by many who have gone as "life changing." We agree. If you feel led in your heart to learn more of the work of The Heart of Texas Foundation, and how we came to create a Seminary in Texas like the Seminary at Angola, and if you would like to join us on one of these trips, please email Grove at grove@heartoftexasfoundation.org.
Here are the dates for the remainder of this year. You will stay in comfortable and safe private quarters built especially for the Warden's special guests--- and room and board will be free!
ANGOLA PENITENTIARY TRIPS FOR REST OF YEAR, 2015
April 22-24, 2015
May 20-22, 2015
June 24-26, 2015
July 22-24, 2015
August 26-28, 2015
Sept 23-25, 2015
October- no trip
November 18-20, 2015
December - no trip
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 | | Officials from TDCJ, Southwestern Seminary at Darrington, and The Heart of Texas Foundation meet regularly to forge new policies and procedures for the Field Ministers program in Texas. We are privileged to have the support of Bryan Collier, Marvin Dunbar, Chaplain Vance Drum, and many others. |
NEWS
Coming to a Prison Near You: A "Field Minister" From Southwestern Seminary at Darrington, Beginning with Graduation May 9, 2015
Leaders from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Southwestern Seminary at Darrington faculty, and The Heart of Texas Foundation meet to forge new policies to manage the deployment of the Field Ministers who graduate from the Darrington Seminary. Creating the "Field Ministry Advisory Council" to set Field Ministry Policy and Strategy
We have been meeting regularly with officials from Southwestern Seminary and with Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials in 2014-2015 to write policies and procedures that have never existed in Texas. These policies must answer the following kinds of questions:
How do we send our new Seminary graduates into other prisons to serve as Field Ministers To which prisons should they go and in what order? How do we prepare the warden and chaplains to receive their team of Field Ministers? How many should we send to each prison? What will their new duties be, and how can they best assist the Chaplains and Wardens of those prisons? How can The Heart of Texas generate local church support for those ministry activities in each prison where Field Ministers serve?
These and a host of other issues have been the subject of our meetings in 2014, and will continue in 2015. With our first graduating class scheduled to "walk" the Darrington Chapel's stage on May 9, 2015, we will be ready to begin transferring the graduates, on a voluntary basis, to other prisons in Texas to begin serving the Chaplains in their ministries. A new TDCJ Policy has been drafted, to provide details on what these new graduates will be allowed to do to help bring new levels of safety, forgiveness, and reconciliation to our Texas prisons--- just as the Angola Seminary graduates have done in Louisiana prisons for nearly 20 years now.
Beginning shortly after May 9, 2015, key Seminary graduates will be transferred in "teams" to other Texas Prisons as "Field Ministers". Imagine that. Men serving life sentences going out with Seminary Degrees, into other Texas Prisons, to join the Prison Chaplains in their ministries. Beginning in 2015, our graduates will have Bachelor of Science degrees in Biblical Studies. They will have taken courses in Counseling, Hermeneutics, Exegetical Bible Exposition, Teaching. They will know how to counsel, comfort, and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to hurting men in Texas prisons. Their goal is to help foster new levels of spiritual transformation within the hearts of inmates in Texas, and thus lead to new levels of moral rehabilitation within our inmates. Safer prisons will result. Fewer Victims will be hurt. Families on the outside will see new levels of reconciliation. Field Ministers will help us begin Malachi Dads chapters in every prison to which they go.
The very first year of Angola's Bible Seminary (Angola, Louisiana), the violence rate in the prison began to shrink. Today some 19 years later, Angola's violence rate has plummeted more to nearly 80% of what it was when Warden Cain first went to Angola. And now, Angola is known as "America's Safest Prison." Louisiana has 8 prisons. Texas has over 112 prisons. Texas needs a large prison seminary sending men out into our huge prison system, to help reduce violence, reduce victims, teach moral change, help lead men to a new life of Spiritual Transformation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Men serving life sentences will be around a long time to help influence the new culture. The longer we wait, the more victims. Help us provide the long range funding to keep pumping out our graduates into the huge populations within our Texas prisons.
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NEWS
NEW SEMINARY "Old Gym Renovation Project"-- Needed: $2.5 Million
Texas Now Has the Largest Prison Seminary: And we're out of space! $2.5 Million Needed for more space, for our own stand-alone building. Think of it! We need your help.
ROSHARON, TEXAS. We are out of space for the growing Darrington Seminary! We now have nearly 150 long-term and full-time student inmates, and we plan to bring in another 40 in 2015. We have been given an historic approval to remodel the virtually unused "old gym" at Darrington prison, and turn it into a two-story fully equipped, 4-year Seminary building! We plan to have a new space for the Theological Library, a special chapel for the men to practice their sermons and studies, computer labs, conference rooms and classrooms. With our Building Committee consulting on the project, and with our God's blessing, it will be an amazing thing to watch happen. We hope most of the planning phase will be completed by the end of August. We have opened a special account for the DARRINGTON SEMINARY OLD GYM RENOVATION PROJECT, AND INVITE YOU TO email me at grove@heartoftexasfoundation.org. We have a capital campaign committee, and for more information on how to give, please contact Pat King, at pkingtexas@gmail.com. The building fund has close to $1M in cash, with additional pledges. But Texas state rules require that we must have it all raised before we may begin construction. We need $2.5m for renovation, fixtures and equipment.
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NEWS
Why Have a Prison Seminary for Men Serving Life Sentences?
To help create a new culture of safety forgiveness, and reconciliation... from the inside out.
Men serving life sentences are the best ones to teach other inmates about living a moral life in prison. Free-world volunteers do not have the credibility among prisoners that their own kind has-- and they don't live with the inmates 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, with no privacy to be had anywhere. Thus, the imprisoned men who are spiritually transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ are lights on a hill-- pearls of great price. And when they are given 4 years of advanced training in the content and application of the Bible, and then sent out to other prisons, they become a formidable force for the transformation of a prison system. In that one statement is the power that will transform a prison system's culture.
Our Seminary graduates will be transferred into other Texas Prisons as "Field Ministers". Imagine that. Men serving life sentences going out with Seminary Degrees, into other Texas Prisons, to join the Prison Chaplains in their ministries. Beginning in 2015, our graduates will have Bachelor of Science degrees in Biblical Studies. They will have taken courses in Counseling, Hermeneutics, Exegetical Bible Exposition, Teaching. They will know how to counsel, comfort, and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to hurting men in Texas prisons.
The very first year of Angola's Bible Seminary (Angola, Louisiana), the violence rate in the prison began to shrink. Today 19 years later, Angola's violence rate has plummeted almost 80%, and now it is known as "America's Safest Prison." Louisiana has 8 prisons. Texas currently has 109 state prisons. Therefore, Texas needs a large prison seminary regularly sending seminary graduates out as Field Ministers, into our huge prison system. Working as Field Ministers, the graduates will help reduce violence, reduce victims, teach moral change, help lead men to a new life of Spiritual Transformation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just as the graduates have at Angola penitentiary, for nearly 20 years. Men serving life sentences will be around a long time to help influence the new culture. The longer we wait, the more victims. Help us provide the long range funding to keep pumping out our graduates into the huge populations within our Texas prisons.
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NEWS
Heart of Texas "Seminary Orientation and Vision" Penitentiary Trips 2015. We go to Angola Penitentiary in Louisiana each month. If you are a Christian leader in your church or community or business, we want to invite you to join us. Room and Board are free!
ANGOLA, LA-- LOUISIANA STATE PENITENTIARY. Our goal is to help Texas see the vision of what will happen in Texas' penal system as a result of a faithful implementation of the Angola Model, which we are pioneering. If you are a Christian pastor, lay-leader, or a business person who has a heart for reforming the prison system, I personally invite you to join me on one of my trips to Angola Penitentiary, where we enjoy the hospitality of the State of Louisiana and the Senior Warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, LA.
- If you have any special guests who could help us in our work if they knew the big picture, please feel free to contact us about them. The door continues to remain open for us to receive favored hospitality from the State of Louisiana and Warden Burl Cain, as they support our efforts.
- For more details, contact Grove at info@heartoftexasfoundation.org
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NEWS
Texas Now Has What is Probably the Largest Prison Seminary in the World. And YOU have funded it! Help us sustain ourselves on into the future, for the sake of reducing victims in Texas. We can only use private funding. That means US
We continue taking Texans each month to Angola, Louisiana. They want to see how the Angola Seminary has caused "Bloody Angola" to become "America's Safest Prison."
We can continue to grow if the private funding continues to grow. If you are a person who could help Texas continue to fund the work of The Heart of Texas Foundation, a major part of which includes funding the Darrington Penitentiary Seminary, please contact us! We need your help to bring in another 40 inmates in 2015; and to renovate the "Old Gym" into a "New Seminary" building that will house the large student body of nearly 160 students; and then to furnish the new building. Would you, your firm or your Foundation like to talk with us about building the building that will help change the penal system in America? Email us at info@heartoftexasfoundation.org.
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NEWS
A WORD FROM THE FOUNDER: PLEASE BECOME A "SUSTAINING CONTRIBUTOR. "
A MONTHLY GIFT OF ANY AMOUNT WILL HELP US KEEP THE SEMINARY FULLY FUNDED EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR.
Dear Friend of our work,
Our Seminary will grow to about 200 men. That is our goal. Then, we can graduate about 50 men every 52 weeks, and send them out to other Texas prisons as "Field Ministers." We will not need tons of money as Seminaries in the free-world do, but we will need to pay the bills inside the prison on into the future, if this movement in Texas is to sustain itself to bring short-and-long term prison reform to our precious state.Think of it! With you as a "Sustaining Contributor," in 10 years we will have graduated 10 classes, and sent approximately 450 inmates with extremely long prison sentences to serve out their length sentences as "Field Ministers", morally rehabilitated, and ready to help others find new spiritual and moral transformation.
That's why we need you to become a SUSTAINING CONTRIBUTOR. We love and appreciate our donors, and will always need them, but it is the "SUSTAINING contributor," the regular giver, that will keep the Seminary at Darrington in full operation. Peter Drucker, who was until his death one of the world's leading business consultants, said that it must be the goal of every non-profit organization to turn "donors" into "regular contributors." We believe this is sound advice. You can help us do that. We need you to become a contributor this year, for no matter how much an amount. Just help us regularly. Everything we do in the prison system must be privately funded by God's people.
You can help us today by simply forwarding this newsletter to a friend-- we need your help in letting Texas and other states know what we're doing. Can you come alongside us and help us? Will your church consider putting us in your missions budget so that our work can continue to have impact in Texas? We believe other states are beginning to see what we are doing, and want to know more. This is not just about Texas, this is about all of America's penal systems--- they need spiritual transformation from the inside out, and the bottom up. We believe there is no more effective way to add to the work of volunteers, Kairos, and other efforts, than to
add an accredited Prison Seminary in every state in America, and enroll only lifers and inmates with very long sentences. We focus on TEXAS, but we are ready to be a good neighbor to any other state who wants to do what we are doing! We really do need your help.
- Pastors and Church Leaders: you are invited to join me for a trip to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, LA this year. The dates for my orientation trips ("How a Prison Seminary Changes Prisons") are posted above in this NewsLetter. Just email us at info@heartoftexasfoundation.org indicating your interest.
- Let us come to your church, association, prayer group, Sunday School, or university-- and let us tell our story.
- How You Can Help...
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Write a check for $25, $50, $200, $500 or more, payable to
"Heart of Texas Foundation," and mail to: HOTF, POB 991, Fulshear, Texas 77441
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Please become a regular contributor! Donate Using Paypal. You do NOT need a PayPal Account to do this.
Click here to become a Sustaining Contributor.
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Use a Credit Card to donate over the phone. Just call Stephanie at 832-600-4263.
- If you wish to be a major donor, please allow us to properly recognize, memorialize and direct your gift by calling Grove Norwood at 281-850-8103, or David Hanna, Chairman of the Board, at (713) 594-2858.
Standing alongside you under the waterfall of God's grace, with thanksgiving for you,
The Heart of Texas Foundation, Inc.
Connally Dads
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The Heart of Texas Foundation is a public charitable, educational, and religious tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is qualified to receive tax deductible contributions. Financial information may be obtained by request, and our IRS Tax exempt number EIN is 20-4007150 and as such may receive tax deductible contributions under Section 170 of the Code. We are also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, and transfers of gifts under Sections 2055, 2106, and 2522 of the Internal Revenue Service Tax Code. Our Annual IRS Tax Return Form 990 is available upon request. Our CPA Firm is Keller & Denman, of Katy, Texas. Our mailing address is The Heart of Texas Foundation, POB 991, Fulshear, Texas 77441. Our phone is 281-850-8103.
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