It has been a difficult year, but also a year filled with hope and promise amidst difficult and messy circumstances. Everyday, individuals enter our doors desperately in need of refuge. In Psalm 46:1, the writer proclaims: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Over the past year we have held onto this message of hope and proclamation over our lives. He has indeed been our refuge and strength. He has indeed been our ready help in time of trouble. Because of God’s impact on our lives, we stand ready to share this hope, this promise with those whom God entrusts to us each day.
Why live in the messiness of this work?
Why live in the hurt, pain, and trauma caused by the darkness and lostness all around us?
Why minister to a hurting desperate world?
We minister because God rescued us! Because God saved us, it is our desire to see the gospel shared with everyone who turns to us in search of help and hope. After all, it is God’s unconditional love that mends the most broken of hearts.
We do not do this alone. You make a difference. Baptists across North Carolina make this ministry possible.
Over this past year we have not slowed down. In fact, we stepped out in faith to include a new adoption program and an expanded foster care program––more children to care for with the love and grace of God!
God has called us to be light, to impact the darkness and the lostness around us. Recently, we witnessed light arriving on our campuses by the truckful. Yes, trucks of food arrived on our campuses from all over the state with hundreds of thousands of pounds of hope and love.
Every day, children come to us hungry. Some need their bellies filled, but all need their souls filled. “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’”
Suzie came into care at age 14. She moved from home to home because her parents were on drugs. She witnessed the drug abuse and had to call 911 because both parents overdosed. When she came to us, she had “no one.” She was angry and very hostile. The houseparents were patient and kind. They gave her the space and ability to grieve over her situation. Once trust was developed, she said to the houseparents, “I have no one in my life now, everyone is gone.” The houseparents opened their arms saying, “If you will let us, we want to be a part of your life.” She no longer worries about having “no one.”
“If you love me, feed my lambs…”
Trey came from a very traumatic situation. He had been abused by his father––whipped and deprived of food. He was greeted by his houseparents and for the first three days he was a happy eight-year-old little boy. One day, his houseparent came into the room and the boy looked at him and started screaming and running the halls. He hid in the closet and screamed “ No! No! No!” The next day he was fine. But the following day it occurred again. He was finally able to share with his case worker that he had been beaten with a belt that had brads in it, and it hurt so bad, and that was what his houseparent wore on occasion. Unknowingly, his houseparent was triggering a flashback to the trauma Trey had experienced––being beaten with the bradded belt his father wore. The houseparent took the child aside and together they threw the belt away. This is an example of light illuminating the dark trauma in this child’s life through caring Christian houseparents. The little boy never had another incident while he lived in a cottage. Today, he is in a loving BCH foster home.
“If you love me, feed my lambs…”
Three-year-old Ana arrived at our orphanage in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, beaten and bruised so severely by her family that her skull was shattered in pieces. Many surgeries, numerous painful nights, and countless prayers later, Ana is now a precious little girl who loves to run, play, and dream of her future.
“If you love me, feed my lambs…”
In the dead of night the alarm sounded. The home for sailors was on fire. On the upper stories of the home men were crying for help. A long ladder was placed on the home, but it was too short. A sailor on the ground climbs the ladder placing his feet securely on the top rung of the ladder with his fingers grasping the window sill. “Quickly, men,” he says. They climb over his body to the ladder and down to safety. The ladder was essential to saving the lives of many men that night. However, it was short the length of one man’s body. For many of the precious lambs who come to us, the house is on fire and the ladder is too short. Each year between 16,000 and 17,000 children in North Carolina are removed from their homes due to unsafe conditions. Like Suzie, Trey, and Ana, they are hungry, abused, lost. BCH is their ladder. Through your faithful support you become the man on the ladder. You span the gap.
“If you love me, feed my lambs…” Thank you for saying, yes Lord, I Love you…yes Lord, I will span the gap. To learn how you can “feed my lambs,” both their tummies and their souls, contact me at 336- 689-4442 or bbgray@bchfamily.org. You can change a child's life right now by giving online at www.bchfamily.org/givenow.
Worthwhile Investments is written by Brenda B. Gray, Executive Vice President of Development & Communications