[Worthwhile Investments] Be a child’s hope and give to offering
This is why I unashamedly ask you to give!
“Get out of here. Leave me alone. Go away. I want to die.” These are hard words for a young girl to hear her mother say. She leaves the room and calls for help.
“My mother left us when I was five, and I never saw her again.” A little boy’s life is shattered as his mother leaves him and his one-year-old brother.
“I was so hungry. Some days we would eat, some days there would be no food. That’s just the way it was.”
“In my neighborhood a gunshot was more common than a doorbell ringing. Our home was infested with roaches. I joined a gang to have a family.”
“I am 18 years old and last week I had a baby. I had no family, no place to go, no home for my baby.”
These are just a few of the lives who have recently turned to Baptist Children’s Homes (BCH) for help. These boys and girls’ lives were devastated. They had no hope. But when they entered our doors, we embraced them and loved them with God’s love. Thank you for making it possible for us to provide what they so desperately needed.
In just a few short weeks, Baptists churches across North Carolina will be collecting BCH’s annual Thanksgiving Offering. Some of you have already started collecting your mile of pennies. One church decided to go for a mile of dollars.
I unashamedly ask you to give! I ask you to make an investment in the life of a child that will reap a return unlike any investment you have ever made. I ask you to advocate for these children and families by encouraging your church to also invest in the lives of these precious boys and girls.
Our offering theme this year is “As One.” When we join together, we are able to do so much more. We cannot provide this ministry without you. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 reads: “Two are better than one, because they have good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up.” In verse 12 it reads: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
Each individual child that comes to us has several things in common. Each has experienced trauma. Each has felt alone. Each child has known what it is like to fall and have no one to pick them up. Each one of them has been overpowered by the darkness and hopelessness. The good news is they have come to a place where hope is shared by the cup full. They have come to a place where someone is there to pick them up when they fall. They have come to a place where darkness is overpowered by the light of God’s love shining.
It takes the body of Christ to join with us to form the strands of hope that will not be broken. We need you! The children need you!
In addition to caring for 15,690 children and families in North Carolina last year, we began taking care of babies in Guatemala. Just days ago, God sent another baby to us. Did you know that for $11 a day we can rescue and care for a baby in Guatemala?
The baby is a 16-day-old boy named Pablo (Paul). He came to us from the public hospital. His mother does not want him. His family does not want him. We are this child’s only hope.
Noe is another precious baby boy at the orphanage. His father is an alcoholic. Noe’s mother died at his birth from sepsis following a cesarean section. The father has two other children, but they do not live with him due to his alcoholism. We are this child’s only hope.
Hamilton was born in prison. Mom is still in prison. The family and environment in which Hamilton was born is steeped in the dark world of the drug cartel. We are this child’s only hope.
Today, we have 10 babies in the orphanage. BCH’s chief operating office Keith Henry is the point person for the Guatemala orphanage. He has shared with us that each of these babies would probably not be alive if it were not for this ministry.
So, I unashamedly ask you to give! Matthew writes: “Whatsoever you have done unto the least of these you have done unto me.” Each of these children, both those we serve in North Carolina and in Guatemala are definitely one of the least of these.
For many years, BCH’s Thanksgiving Offering has been referred to as the “umbilical cord” of our ministry. Will you make the cord even stronger by being one of the strands of hope for a child? Together we are stronger!
Learn more about Baptist Children's Homes' Annual Offering at www.bchfamily.org/offering. Contact Brenda at 1-800-476-3669 ext. 1230 or bbgray@bchfamily.org
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