The chapel at Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home brings new meaning to the term “church family.”
MONROE – The chapel at Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home brings new meaning to the term “church family.”
Each
Wednesday all the residents of the 10 cottages on the 110-acre campus
gather in a just-the-right-size chapel with Corinthian columns, gentle
sea-green walls, stained glass that illustrates in simple images the
life of Jesus Christ, and a sloping floor that gives the sense of
bowing before the Lord, who is depicted at the front, in the largest
stained glass window – Jesus with the children.
“Children should have a place of refuge, and we’re that place,” said Julie Cupples, LBCH communications director.
The
Children’s Home is “to provide love, care and a positive Christian
witness for children and families in need,” according to the LBCH
mission statement.
“It’s
a biblically-based ministry,” said Executive Director Perry Hancock
during a recent presentation to new Ambassadors, people assigned to be
the local ‘go-to’ person in their association for people with questions
about the Children’s Home. “We value the people we minister to. We
believe God sends them to us.”
Members
in Southern Baptist churches across Louisiana have the opportunity this
Sunday, June 10, to make a special offering to benefit the
life-changing ministry of the Children’s Home. For the first time in
its 107-year history, the Children’s Home has been given approval by
the messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention to make a direct
appeal for funds.
You
read last week in the Message of the need and the opportunity to give,
and you’ll hear more of that Sunday in church. This article is to
include you in information Children’s Home Ambassadors recently
learned. In next week’s issue you’ll learn what life is like in two of
the cottages.
About 80 people statewide are LBCH employees, counting both full-time and part-time workers.
The
Children’s Home was started in Baton Rouge in 1899, said Darrell
Washam, 16-year staff member and now director of public relations and
development. Disease was rampant; parents were dying and children were
left to fend for themselves. But, with advances in medical science, few
children today are true orphans.
However,
the 21st century’s societal ills – drugs, alcohol, dysfunctional
families stretching back in some cases three generations or more – has
resulted in youngsters who might be called ‘orphans of the living,’
Cupples said in a pre-conference conversation.
Tommy
Frost, a 14-year staff member and now director of campus life, talked
to the Ambassadors about the principles for successful living taught to
residents.
“Many
children come with no boundaries,” he said. “They’ve been disrespected
all their lives. … Respect is a big issue in cottage life. Number
one we teach them respect – for themselves and others.”
Acquiring a sense of responsibility is the second linchpin of cottage life, Frost said.
“This
is where we give them a responsibility and expect them to do it,” he
said. He spoke of chores at the cottage and at church.
Third,
being in relationships – with each other, authority, and God. “Children
learn to swim by swimming, and relationships by being in relationship,”
Frost said. About 15 youngsters each year make a profession of faith in
Jesus.
“You
don’t talk bad about a person’s biological family,” he continued a few
minutes later. “We help them understand we’re there for them. … How do
you know you’re succeeding? When I hear a child say what I would say if
I were there, then I’d say we’re succeeding. If he or she is
respectful, responsible and properly relating to their world, then I’d
say we’re succeeding.”
Olin Hall spoke next to the Ambassadors. He’s director of family services and director of Sellers Maternity Ministries.
“We
require the parents to come here with their kids,” he said. “Our job is
to maintain contact with the family and reunification.” Parents can
have day visits the second and fourth Saturday of each month.
“What
we say to people is they don’t lose control” of their children when the
children stay at the Children’s Home,” Hall said. “We tell them, ‘We’re
going to help you raise your child.’”
Hall then moved to his other responsibility, Sellers Maternity Home.
Several
mothers-to-be have been as young as 12, he said. The average age is
15-16 (and fathers, 20-22); about 60 percent of mothers choose to keep
their child. The majority of the adoptions are for biracial children.
Sellers’
recent move from Tallulah to Baton Rouge has resulted in “more contacts
in the last month than in the last four or five months,” Hall said.
Across
the Southern Baptist Convention, no more than five state conventions
have a maternity home, and those that don’t miss an opportunity to make
a pro-life statement, Hall added.
“I believe God really wants us to have that opportunity,” Hall said. “What we have at Sellers is care for the pre-born child.”
Kelly Barnett, director of the Granberry Counseling Center, explained that ministry to the Ambassadors.
“We
help people deal with life’s problems in a way that Christ is glorified
and people find help and hope,” Barnett said. Granberry counselors are
professionals, who use the same tools and techniques employed by
secular counselors, but with a spiritual difference that makes a
positive difference in a person’s life, he said.
People
are charged a fee to see a Granberry counselor because studies have
determined “if people pay, they work harder to achieve their goals,”
Barnett said. A sliding fee scale is used, and no one is refused who
cannot pay.
“We seek the Lord’s guidance to help people,” Barnett said. Granberry counselors conduct about 6,000 counseling sessions a year.
Barnett
is leaving the Children’s Home to teach at a college in Texas. A search
is underway for the next director of the dozen Granberry Counseling
Centers. Applications are being accepted.
Qualifications: must be a licensed professional counselor or licensed marriage and family counselor, with supervisory status.
The job will entail regular travel to Granberry’s 12 sites across Louisiana.
For more information, contact Dr. Hancock at LBCH: 318.343.0613.
“The
Lord is taking care of Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home,” Executive
Director Perry Hancock said. “He sends people our way, with needs and
people with long fuses to help meet needs.
“We’re
grateful for the support of Louisiana Baptists,” Hancock continued. “If
we had more sustained income, we could do more to help Louisiana’s
people who need help. “