Christmas Miracle Offering - Building Goodness Foundation

One of the local recipients of the this year's CMO is the Charlottesville based non-profit organization, Building Goodness Foundation (BGF).  Peace funds are earmarked for a project with the Mattoponi.  The Mattoponi People are part of the Algonquin Nation of the Powhatan Confederacy.  The Mattaponi Indian Reservation is one of the last and oldest of the 32 tribes that were ruled by Chief Powhatan.  The great Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahantas, ruled most of Tidewater, Virginia when Europeans arrived in 1607.  The story of Pocahantas and Captain John Smith began here.

Through the years both the Reservation's physical size and the number of Tribal members have been diminished.  Today the Reservation consists of mostly woodlands and marsh, a portion being protected wetlands.  At present nearly 60 people live on the Reservation. The Reservation sits on the banks of the Mattoponi River, one of the most pristine rivers in the Eastern United States.  There are a small number of living facilities on the Reservation.  The Peace Christmas Miracle Offering is earmarked for an identified need.  The next project that BGF will undertake on the Reservation is the replacement of a worn out old trailer home.  Two orphaned Tribal teenagers presently live in the trailer.  Funds are needed in order for Building Goodness Foundation to proceed.  Completed drawings have already been donated for the home.  Next, BGF will use its resources of volunteer labor and reduced material costs to construct a modest durable wood framed home.  Once complete it will allow these two young Tribal members to stay on the land, near family.  The home will be owned by the Tribe and be passed on to future generations of Mattaponi Indians.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  James 1:27.