Churches across the state are planning to focus on the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home June 10.
MONROE – Churches across the state are planning to focus on the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home June 10.
That’s the Sunday set aside by messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention last November when churches can take up a special offering for the Children’s Home.
“The plight of the children that come through our doors is just heartbreaking,” says Perry Hancock, executive director of the Children’s Home. “Through the prayers and contributions of churches across our great state, this ministry of offering hope to children in need continues. For well over 100 years, you’ve put smiles on the faces of thousands of boys and girls, and we thank you for your commitment.”
The Children’s Home two weeks ago sent a four-minute video to every Southern Baptist church in Louisiana – designed to be shown June 10 – to help give the essence of Children’s Home ministry to children and families across the state.
“We offer all ministry services without regard to a family’s ability to pay,” Hancock said. “Fewer than 1 percent of our income comes from our children’s parents, and that’s okay.”
But costs rise each year, and programs and facilities are added when the need arises. As the Children’s Home always has done, it’s moving forward on faith. For example, state law now requires that when children reach 18, they no longer can live in the cottages. So the Children’s Home started the Pathfinders program this year for its 18- to 21-year-olds who are already in residence and need to complete their education.
Educational programs are currently housed in several locations on campus. The new Brenda Hall Abney Children’s Learning Center, now under construction near the chapel, will bring all educational services under one roof and enhance these important programs.
“The Lord is using our incredible staff every day to share His love,” Hancock said. “And our best days are those when we see children and adults come to know Christ as Savior.”
This the first time in its 107-year history that the Children’s Home has been allowed to receive an annual offering from all Southern Baptists in Louisiana, though the Sunday before Father’s Day for years has been a day when churches were asked to pray for the ministries of the Children’s Home.
Individuals and churches with a heart for children have sent contributions from the time the Children’s Home opened in 1899 in Baton Rouge (in Keatchie from 1900-03, Lake Charles 1903-25, and Monroe since 1925) to care for Louisiana orphans. In those early years a fluctuating income led at one point to a 40-percent reduction in salaries.
In 1955 the Children’s Home was added to the Louisiana entities receiving money from the Cooperative Program, the Southern Baptist Convention’s acclaimed way of pooling mission dollars from the churches for missions and ministries in each state as well as globally.
Hancock, new since 2003 at the Children’s Home, looked at how the 21 other children’s homes across the Southern Baptist Convention received income. He learned that the state conventions in almost every state but Louisiana received an annual offering from the churches in addition to Cooperative Program giving, regular giving by some churches and individuals, and special projects such as a fall food roundup.
The Children’s Home’s $4.3 million operating budget includes the Monroe campus, Baton Rouge campus of the Sellers Maternity Home, and the Granberry Counseling Center, located at 12 sites across the state.
The 22-building Monroe campus includes 10 one-level “cottages” designed to provide a family home environment for up to a dozen youngsters, but eight is a more manageable number for cottage parents, Hancock said.
“Once a child knows he has food to eat and that he can sleep in the same bed every night and be safe, he settles down,” said Arlene Hudson, cottage mom – and, to hear the five boys and two girls tell it who are living in Hope Cottage, cook extraordinaire. “When they get in a routine, their grades go up, their behavior gets better as they learn to make better choices, and the smiles come back to their eyes.
“It’s good to see a child act like a child,” she added.
The Children’s Home accepts children from Kindergarten through twelfth grade, and a foster care program is in place for younger children. Youngsters are referred to the Children’s Home by pastors, parents or grandparents.
Few of the children are true orphans, said Darrell Washam, director of development and public relations. Most are there because of life circumstance. About 125 youngsters a year stay at the Children’s Home. A third stay one year; a third, three to five years; and a third, the remainder of their childhood and teen years at Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home.
“They gave me a safe place to stay and I have something to eat every day,” said Jesse, 16. His mom died when he was nine; over time his dad grew less and less able to care for him.
“If we can make a difference in one child’s life, we are doing what the Lord told us to do,” said Hudson, who with her husband, Kenneth, has cared for 77 youngsters over the last 11 years. “We’re entrusted with their care, and we take that very seriously.”
A Christian foundation underlies everything done at the Children’s Home, Hancock and other officials explained at a recent orientation for Children’s Home associational representatives. This is taught through daily family devotions, weekly chapel services as a campus-wide family, and active participation in a local Southern Baptist church.
The Children’s Home provides a variety of ways children can succeed – music, sports, ceramics (new in the last couple of months) as well as schoolwork, chores and successfully being part of a family.
“Every day Louisiana Baptists are meeting needs and changing lives at the Children’s Home,” Hancock said. “Thank you all for your prayers, your support, and for the joy and hope we see in the lives of our children.”