HOINA - MADRAS, INDIA
In 1986, Cornerstone Fellowship began supporting its first
missionary outreach, an organization called HOINA (Homes Of The Indian Nations).
HOINA is an interdenominational organization whose purpose is to care for
abandoned, orphaned, and handicapped children.
HOINA accomplishes its mission through the operation of
several residential homes. In India, these include a home for boys located in
Andhra Pradesh, a home for handicapped children in Bapatla, and a home for girls
in Madras. In addition, HOINA has medical clinics in villages and cities around
India, providing medical care for these children. Operations are often provided
to help correct birth defects.
Cornerstone Fellowship currently provides support to the
girls‚ home in Madras. We receive monthly newsletters from HOINA letting us
know how much our gifts help them improve the lives of these children through
education, medical care, and Christian love.
We often hear about how young girls with severely
debilitating birth defects are brought to the United States to receive
operations which give them the ability to become productive citizens. It is
exciting to see lives transformed both physically and spiritually through the
support we are able to offer this organization.
B.A.L.M. - MARSHA STEVENS (Born Again
Lesbian Music)
Cornerstone Fellowship began to support Marsha Stevens in
1997. Marsha began her musical career at the age of 16 when she wrote the modern
hymn "For Those Tears I Died," which has been included in most church hymnals
since 1972. She sang and toured for 9 years with the Christian folk group known
as The Children of the Day. The group made six albums for which Marsha wrote
most of the songs. During this time she also sang and did back-up vocals on
several of the Maranatha & Praise albums and toured in the United States,
Canada, Europe and Israel.
Marsha came out as a lesbian 16 years ago and she spent most
of the first 5 years sorting out and establishing her new life. Then, 11 years
ago, Marsha began singing and writing again, this time as a ministry to the gay
and lesbian Christian community.
She released three albums and a concert video. With the
exception of one re-arranged hymn, all three albums are made up of songs written
especially for our community by Marsha and a number of other Christian and gay
collaborators. All of these are released on the B.A.L.M. label, a publishing
company that Marsha and her spouse, Cindy, own and operate.
EVELYN SCHAVE - Houston, Texas
In October 1993, Cornerstone Fellowship began supporting a new work done by
Evelyn Schave from Houston, Texas. Evelyn and her husband Dennis were actively
involved in the Assemblies of God when God began to convict her of the need to
start a unique new ministry. Little did Evelyn know that she was being called to
be an evangelist to churches in the gay community! Now she travels around the
country encouraging and challenging our congregations, and also goes to non-gay
churches where she tries to help them see that God accepts us and uses us the
same as all believers.
