SummerEdition2014

GO YE INTOALL THEWORLD1

A LISTING OFOUR NEEDS

3BEATING THEODDS

5CAMP OFCHAMPIONS

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outhern Baptists are, perhaps second only totheir commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,known to be a missional people. OurInternational Mission Board and our North

American Mission Board have rich histories and brightfutures. Our disaster relief missionaries are alwaysgreeted with open arms and appreciative hearts when theyrespond to disasters in their community or in other commu-nities. Our Southern Baptist Children’s Homes care for hun-dreds of thousands of children every year. Right here inAlabama our house parent missionaries and foster parentmissionaries cared for 530 fatherless children in 2013. Thepurpose of your Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & FamilyMinistries is to protect, nurture and restore children and fam-ilies through Christ-centered services.The vast majority of the children forwhom we provide care are here inAlabama, but we are beginning to seeopportunities to be obedient to the callof Jesus to “go into all the world.”

A missionary family was recentlyhome on furlough. They love being mis-sionaries to an African nation, but thestress of being so far from home sometimes isdifficult for their children. While inAlabama on furlough, they heard aboutPathways Professional Counseling, aministry of your Alabama BaptistChildren’s Homes. They contact-ed one of our counselors andreceived intensive family coun-seling sessions while inBirmingham. When theyreturned to the mission field,other missionary familiesnoticed the changes in theirfamily and asked what hadmade the difference. Our mis-sionary friends bragged on ourcounselors who worked withthem and taught them somenew parenting strategies.

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This relationship led to a group of missionar-ies in this African nation to pool their resourcesand host one of our counselors and one of oursocial workers for a week long trip to providetraining and consultation to families in Africa!Our team stayed very busy while in Africa andsaw dozens of families and provided training for teachers in aninternational school. Seeds were planted in these families andthey all asked when our team would be able to come back.

In June and in August, two teams from your Alabama BaptistChildren’s Homes went to the Dominican Republic to help a sis-ter ministry by building houses to provide safe homes for chil-

dren and families there. These teams are made up ofChildren’s Homes employees, and Alabama Baptists who are support-ers of our ministry and who possess a burden for hurting children inAlabama and beyond. God is doing amazing things here at theChildren’s Homes and it is a privilege to serve God by servingAlabama Baptists. I was privileged to go with our first team to the

Dominican Republic in June. Six individuals withChildren’s Homes ties and 11 individuals from one of ourtop supporting churches spent 5 days in the DominicanRepublic and built the walls for 3.5 houses. But we builtmore than houses. Strong relationships were built with

the children in the community where we were building and Bible storieswere shared with them through songs, coloring books and conversation.On the last day at the construction site, one young man who went on ourtrip had the opportunity to share his faith with a young man from theDominican Republic. It was the first time that this young man fromBirmingham had ever had the opportunity to share his faith. Due to lan-guage barriers, he had to repeat himself several times. Walls were erected,relationships were built and strengthened and seeds were planted. Wehope to provide more international service opportunities in the monthsand years to come.

Sincerely,Rod MarshallPresident/CEO

If you would like to know more about opportunities for short-term international service with the Children’s Homes, please visit www.alabamachild.org or contact Dr. Bob Dewhurst at 205-982-1112.

Alabama BaptistCHILDREN’S HOMES& Family Ministries

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by: Nicole Walker

he foster care system was created to take care of children experiencingneglect, abuse, and tough family situations. Too often when these youthturn 18 they are given a $100 check and expected to transition into adult-

hood on their own. The concern for these children doesn’t end when theyturn 18, but too often the resources to help them does. According to the lat-est statistics, 20% of children released from foster care at the age of 18become homeless by the age of 24, less than half of them are currentlyemployed, only 4% obtain a college degree, and almost a third of them are notable to pay their rent. *

When the church steps in to care and defend the fatherless, the oddsstacked against youth aging out of foster care can be overcome. Because ofthe generous support from churches and individuals, we at Alabama BaptistChildren’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH) are able to help the youth inour care transition into a successful adulthood. We are able to provide schol-arships and full tuition support for these youth going on to receive a post sec-ondary education, whether that is college or skills based training. EmilyLepper and Stephan Reach are two examples of youth in our care that havebeen able to overcome the odds.

EMILY LEPPER“When I first came to ABCH at age 16, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to

finish high school,” Emily Lepper shares. Having been to so many differentplaces before ABCH, Emily began to see things with a negative outlook. Theidea of college felt even more out of reach because she had no idea where shecould find support. While she was in our care, though, she gave her life to

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Christ and her perspective shifted. “I began to see the opportunities providedby ABCH and the support they provide after high school financially, emotion-ally, and spiritually. I don’t think I would be where I am today without theirsupport.”

Emily is currently attending the University of Montevallo and workingtoward her degree in Elementary Education. Because she found school to bean outlet while growing up, she hopes to one day be there for other childrenin similar situations. “Sometimes kids in the classroom have no one but thatone teacher or that one person at the school they can rely on. I’ve realizedbeing a teacher can make an impact in someone’s life and to be a safe havenfor those children.”

STEPHAN REACH“If it weren’t for the Scotts and ABCH, I don’t know if I would have been

in the position to have good enough grades or the ambition to make a career,”Stephan Reach shares. “I doubt I would have had any faith in God at all.” Atthe age of 11 Stephan and his three siblings were brought into foster care byDr. C. B. Scott, pastor of the church Stephan’s family had only been attendingfor two weeks at the time. Despite adding four more children in the home, Dr.Scott and his wife Karen saw that these children had a great need andreached out to ABCH for help. “The Scotts took care of us like they were myparents, like they had always been there.” We were able to help the Scotts dur-ing their time as foster parents, providing training and resources while theycared for Stephan and his siblings.

Stephan is currently attending Samford University and was recentlyaccepted into the McWhorter School of Pharmacy. He aspires to one day havehis own pharmacy. “I would not have even thought about becoming a phar-macist, but because of the supportfrom ABCH I can.”

It is because of your support thatStephan and Emily are able to achievetheir ambitions and dreams. Goingthrough difficult family situations doesnot mean that the odds should bestacked against them at every turn. Itmeans that God’s people stepped in tohelp these youth aging out of fostercare to have an education, stable liv-ing, spiritual growth, and an opportu-nity to beat the odds.

*Information based on July 2013 AFCARS Report.

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or 362 days out of the year, you are likely to find me dressed in neatlypressed khakis and a conservative dress shirt. My conservative dresshides my playful nature. But for three days every summer, I trade in my

dress clothes for a pair of shorts, a favorite T-shirt and my legendary Ranger’sHat. Like a comic book superhero, I transform myself into Ranger Riley, a hero tochildren who have come from hard places. At Camp of Champions, you can see myplayful side and my passion for caring for children and families.

And, for the 48 hours of Camp of Champions, you see children being trans-formed. Children, who have been neglected, abused or traumatized, get theopportunity to just be kids who are at camp. They laugh and sing. They play andswim. They eat too much and stay up too late. They do the same things all kidsdo when they go to camp.

House parents and foster parents also transform themselves at camp. Themission field of Christian childcare can be lonely. Very few people understandwhy someone would choose to offer unconditional love to children from hardplaces. These children may look and behave differently from their new family.House parents and foster parents can feel alone and can get overwhelmed. But,at Camp of Champions, house parents and foster parents are the normal ones.They build relationships and bear one another’s burdens. They receive greattraining, but they also get to catch their breath and experience renewal of theirspirits.

Once a year, Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH)hosts its annual Camp of Champions at Shocco Springs in Talladega, Alabama. 2014was another great time for the ABCH family to gather together for what hasbecome one of the most significant events in the life of the ministry for the chil-dren we serve, our house and foster parents, and our staff. Camp of Champions isunique to ABCH and it is one of the distinctive characteristics of our approach tothe ministry of Christian childcare. As one national foster care expert indicated,“You guys are the only ones I know in the US that provide a camp like this fortheir foster parents.” He went on to say, “My hope would be that this campexperience could be replicated all across the country.” This year’s camp was thelargest ever with nearly 650 attending!

Camp is always a fun and meaningful time in the life of the ministry. Whilethe children and students attend classes and experience different camp recre-ational activities (high ropes course, paintball, and bazooka ball), the house andfoster parents receive training specific to their work. This is one time of the yearthey are able to receive specialized training in how to best love children fromhard places. This year, one area of training focused on family worship. It becamepractical on Monday night when Matt Mason, Worship Pastor at The Church at

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Brook Hills,walked chil-dren andadultsalikethroughfamilyworshiptimefocusedon Psalm23. Throughsong, the Word,and prayer, campersfollowed Matt through a large-scalefamily worship time. It was great!

In addition to the training, ABCH leadersand board members, along with several leaders in the forefront of foster care tookpart in a roundtable conversation on foster care growth, trends, risks, and bestpractices and what these could mean for ABCH and those we serve. Participatingin the conversation were: Jason Weber, Director of the National Foster CareInitiative, Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO); Johnny Grimes, ExecutiveDirector of Altar84; Polly Bice, Co-Founder of Altar84 and second year Camp ofChampions volunteer; Rick Valore, Executive Director of 200 Million Flowers; AnitaBucher, Administrative Assistant to David Platt and Foster Care Coordinator atThe Church at Brook Hills; and Dr. Bart Box, Pastor, Christ Fellowship Church,Birmingham.

Thank you to all the churches and individuals that gave financially, donatedsnacks and supplies, along with the many volunteers that helped make this year’scamp a huge success. And for the third year in a row a group from Shades CrestBaptist Church were on hand at snack time to provide healthy snacks, to helpwith snack time and to spend time with the kids at camp. We are also very grate-ful that the students at Samford University chose our Camp of Champions as theirStep Sing philanthropy for 2014. We’ll rest a few months before we begin plan-ning Camp of Champions 2015, but in order to provide our wonderful house andfoster parents the training they expect, we will not wait long!

Camp is a big deal and we would love to find a way to get your church involved in our campnext year. Contact camp@abchome.org to learn ways to be a part of Camp of Champions 2015!

by Riley P. Green III

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e have a variety ofneeds at our locationsacross the state, includingschool supplies, cleaning sup-plies, food and pantry items. Visitwww.alabamachild.org/needs orcall (888) 720-8805 to obtain aneeds list of the location closestto you. Engage and share withyour church, Sunday school class,or small group ways they canprovide for needs of the childrenand families in our care!

We are offering anonline version of ourLifePrints newsletterthat can comedirectly to your emailinbox! Sign up toreceive your digitaledition of LifePrints

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