The woman in the white sweatshirt with large sparkling blue and pink hearts on it greets others at the door.

The place is neat --

almost immaculate -- with each item carefully place on top of wooden furniture adorned with white and cream crochet doilies.

"Welcome to mothers in touch," Judy Bramblett says and takes the coats from the women entering. They sit on the light blue velvet-like chairs and submerge themselves in small talk. Every Thursday night for one hour, five to seven grandmothers meet in this house and pray for children, schools or anyone who they feel needs to be prayed for.

Their group, Moms in Touch International (MITI), a non-denominational Christian prayer ministry, is one of the several in Austin. In this group however, the women are grandmothers who pray for their grandchildren.

"We are the branches of the trunk. We pray for the moms who are praying for their children." Mary Gallaher another grandmother says in a warm, delicate tone.

The idea of MITI came to Fern Nichols, the founder, in the fall of 1984 when her family was living in Canada. Concern over the well-being of her two older children as they began their junior high years she seek other women who felt the same concern for their children and their schools. With time she found more mothers and began to meet weekly for prayer. Groups were formed to pray for children in elementary to high school levels.

The following summer the Nichols family moved to Poway, Cali. Fern felt the need to continue what she had started in Canada. So she continued her work in the United States; Moms and grandmothers formed MITI groups all across the United States and other countries .

"We heard someone speak about MITI at our church, so we decided to make our own group." Bramblett says as she hands out the groups meeting calendar and outline for the night. Bramblett explains that they follow a format. Because moms began to ask for guidelines for how to start a group and how to pray more effectively, Nichols created a prayer format for the groups to use.

Before starting the meeting, the women fill a form where they write the names of the grandmother, the child being prayed for and the reason for the prayer.

"Paulette usually does the reading, so I hope I can do it well. First we worship-praise God for who he is, his attributes , his name and his character. We read some verses from the bible. Then we do confession in silent prayers. Next we give thanks and finally do intercession for our grandchildren one at a time.

We also take the names and pray for them throughout the week," Bramblett says.

Paulette Lewis, the leader of the group, arrives later that night from a previous meeting

and excuses herself for being late. In an assertive, and confident tone she takes over the final prayer.

"MITI groups have been in Austin for about 15 years, but this is only our third year." Lewis explains. The group has adopted Sumner Elementary school as a the focus of their prayer since the school did not have a mom group.

With the purpose to reach the local growing Hispanic community, the group has put together "Madres Unidas Para Orar," an information pamphlet in Spanish. The group wants to form a prayer group for

Hispanic and other women of ethnic groups in the area. "We want to include all mother of the community. Even if the group is small, two or three moms. The important thing is that they're praying together," Lewis says.