Project Recipients

Today the 2006-2007 Master's Commission students were presented to the church. These are the students for whom we are making the costumes and I thought I'd post some pictures so you can see what I've been talking about.



























These are most of the students(Along with our senior pastors and the program directors) the camera didn't really take a wide enough angle to get them all. But I am partial to two :














DD is doing her third year; she has experienced so much personal/spiritual growth in the last two years and I am excited about what she will do the next year. But, DS of the Rolling Eyes is also now a Master's Commission Student.


You'll remember he was Valedictorian of his Senior class; he had a full tuition/fees scholarship to our local university. His plan was to study engineering, participate in the co-operative education plan, live at home and graduate with no debt.

However, as the summer progressed he began to feel more and more drawn to Master's Commission and less and less ready emotionally for college. He really surprised us about the third week of July by stating that he wanted to do HMC instead of college this year. He applied to and was accepted into the HMC class, but at our first inquiry, the local university said that they normally only allowed Mormon students to defer scholarships for this kind of program, but they agreed to review Master's Commission and consider it. After they checked it out, they contacted us to say they would allow David to defer his scholarship for one year. Wow.

Now his problem was simply money. He had all the money he needed for college...and zero money for Master's. He sent out inquiry letters, not so much asking for support at that time, but asking if anyone would be willing to support him. The fact that he neglected to put any contact information in his letter may have had something to do with the fact that he had only one response...it didn't look good. We told him if he managed to get enough funds for the initial move-in expenses (about half the year's total tuition), we would agree to him going to Master's. BUT...UAH started classes a week and a half ago. However, he could withdraw during the first two weeks without penalty and still keep the scholarship.

So, he spent $400 on books (well, he put $400 on the credit card...hopefully he can use them next year...), started classes, and prayed hard.

Thursday night, he got a phone call from the HMC directors and learned that there was a $3000 scholarship available for him. On Friday, he cashed in some savings bonds for the other $300 he needed, withdrew from his classes, carried the necessary paperwork over to the Financial Aid office, and packed up his clothes. Saturday, he moved out (all HMC students board in an apartment complex across town; it's part of their training to learn to work together). And I don't know if he or his sister was the most excited.

Yesterday afternoon, I walked by his room and noticed that the ceiling fan was still running. "Well," I thought, "That's not necessary," and walked into his neat, clean, very empty looking room and pulled the chain to turn it off. Then I just stood there a while....

At least I have enough fabric left from DD's costume to make one for him, too...they are going to have an amazing year...we are going to experience leftovers at mealtime again.

And keep praying that the rest of the financial support comes in. ;)