How An Alabama Woman Turned Dough Into Cash For Orphans

Patricia Barnes, better known as Sister Schubert, is known for her successful rolls--Sister Schubert’s Homemade Rolls.* A single mom with two daughters, twelve and sixteen, had to come up with a way to support her family. She had some business sense from working in her family’s furniture business, but didn’t know how to parlay those skills into a pay check. After her homemade rolls became a regular hit at church fund raisers, she decided maybe others outside of her congregation might also enjoy them. The business that began humbly in her home in Luverne (near Troy), Alabama quickly expanded to a warehouse, then a showplace facility, until she sold her business to Lancaster Colony Corp, of Ohio for $40 million! When she received her lump sum of “dough,” she asked God, “Why did you trust me with all of this money? I’m just a little bitty person.” After a few bad experiences with new “friends” with extended hands, and the loss of $2 million on a defunct dot com business, she got serious about seeking God’s will for her life and how the money should be used. Through a missionary couple from the Ukraine, she learned about orphaned and abandoned children who were being placed in state-run facilities that were nothing better than prisons. Two years after making a trip to the Ukraine, she adopted her son, Alex. Barnes continued visiting the Ukraine and eventually secured a building that was converted into a lovely facility for orphaned and abandoned children, naming it Sasha’s Home. Sasha is the Russian nickname for Alex. Only a few days ago, on January 1, 2013, a new adoption law went into effect--signed by Russia’s president Vladamir Putin--banning all adoptions by U.S. citizens.** I have no idea how, or even if this new law might impact Sasha’s Home, but think it would be appropriate to pray for this worthy work, established by Sister Schubert, now known to you as Patricia Barnes.

* - Source: Will Jesus Buy Me A Double-Wide? by K.S. Zacharias, The Sister, pp. 39-49. ** - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323530404578207390201149074.html