So many things have happened since I last wrote here.

First of all, Judy and I have sold our house! You can see more details by reading the May issue of our newsletter found on this website. Long story short, we were expecting a rather lengthy selling period since the home selling market appears to be S-L-O-W. In fact, we were expecting it to take months. Instead it took just six days! Is God good or what?

Now we are racing around trying to get everything we own ready to move. But there’s one catch in that, we don’t know where we’re going right now.

That leads me to introduce to you our 100 Day Challenge. The 100 Day Challenge is simple really. We need to raise $60,000 before August 15 so that we can buy the land we’ve been trying to get for the past eight months. If we can’t buy the land by then the land will go back on the open market and we could lose the land we believe God is leading us to buy.

Soooo, Judy and I want to ask everyone reading this blog to consider three things:
1. Please consider becoming a monthly donor to SAM. It’s easy. All you would need to do is email me (Pat) at pat@smileagainministries.com and tell us how much you want to donate each month. Right now we have people giving $5 a month all the way up to $500 a month. We desperately need people to become regular givers. So please drop me that email with your commitment to give for the next 12 months.
2. If a monthly gift isn’t your thing, consider giving a one time gift. Just today I had some friends commit to donate $25 a month. But they sent us $300. My friend wrote, “I’m not very good at this monthly thing, so we’re just sending it to you all at once.” You can do that too. Just go to the donation link on our home page and click it. You can give via credit card or checking account simply by going to that link and giving via Pay Pal. OR, you can simply send your check to us at our current address, 336   9 1/2 St. N, Sauk Rapids, MN 56379.
3. Please tell your friends about SAM and ask them to consider giving too. Maybe you could challenge them to give a matching gift to yours.

Remember, no amount is too small or insignificant. SAM is being built by just such donations.

And what will your money help us do? It will help us help families like the ones who wrote me just this week. One couple had a son who was killed in a car accident. Another couple had a son who chose to end his own life. As with all parents who have had a child die, these people are going through intense pain and grief.