CHILDREN'S HOME SAVED FROM SALE

GORDONVILLE -- After much prayer and perseverance, Shepherd's Cove Children's Home got its salvation.

The home and neighboring Abundant Life Church were slated for sale by auction Tuesday morning on the steps of Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau. But a local family trust helped save the church and property.

The land, 10 acres along Route K and Highway 25, was purchased by the Vernon Rhodes Family Trust.

Despite being saved from the auction block, the children's home isn't "out of the woods," said Scott Rhodes, a son of Vernon Rhodes. They still need about $300,000.

Rhodes said he had been following the stories in the Southeast Missourian, and "when it came down to the wire we stepped in."

What the trust did by purchasing the property was give the church another year to pay off its debt. Within that year's time, the church will be able to buy back the property for the same price the Rhodes family paid.

The children's home and church faced foreclosure when a construction loan wasn't paid in full or transferred to another bank as a mortgage loan.

The Rev. David Butler, pastor of the church, said the purchase gives the church and Christian Ministry International, the group that oversees the children's home, a chance "to come up for air."

The really hard work is still around the corner, he said.

Within the next week, a new foundation board will be named to help oversee the fund-raising project. Its job is to find ways to raise the needed money within the coming year.

Rhodes said he has talked with several area businesses about making donations to the home.

Butler said people from Murphysboro, Ill., to Poplar Bluff have been sending donations to help save the home.

"There's been an outpouring of community support," he said. "I feel better than ever about the home. People put their money where their mouth is."

Support for the home shouldn't be drawn along religious lines, Rhodes said.

"It's not a religious issue," he said. "It's not church affiliated, although the church did start it. It must be funded in some way."

The children's home is licensed by the state as a foster-care home. At its outset, neighboring landowners opposed the home because they were unsure how it would be run or who would be living there.

Howard and Danielle Bellew and their six foster children have been living in the house since December and will remain.

"Children are housed there because they have nowhere else to go," Rhodes said.

The children's home was started as a project of Abundant Life Church, which paid for its construction. Church members volunteered their time and labor and donated materials. Others set up prayer chains and telephone trees.