BRIDGETON – It was all smiles with the added promise of future laughter at the July 26 Board of trustees meeting for the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH).
Board members heard reports from MBCH’s various agencies, including MBCH Children and Family Ministries (CFM). Year to date, CFM fielded 354 requests for residential services, including therapeutic group homes, crisis care, pregnancy services, transitional living, and developmental disability services. Those requests represent 179 families.
Children and Family Ministries also served 433 families through foster, adoptive or “kinship” services. Fifteen have accepted Christ as their Savior during CFM’s work so far in 2011.
“They’re not just a number,” said CFM Board Chairman Ron Robinson during the CFM report. “They’re families Jesus loves. It’s why we’re here.”
Robinson has been instrumental in organizing an annual camp Aug. 8-15 in Mt. Vernon for 80 MBCH children, often times the first and only camp experience they’ve had. The camp is funded purely by donations, and costs approximately $110 per child.
“What a great opportunity to let them have some fun, just be a kid, and learn that someone loves them,” he said.
One of MBCH’s key fundraisers, “A Night with the Stars,” has outgrown its host of recent years, Skyline Baptist Church in Branson. Thanks to a donation from a Branson comedian, the 2012 event will be at the Yakov Smirnoff Theatre on the main strip in Branson. Tickets to the April 21, 2012 show go on sale Dec. 1 and are $40. Several Branson stars will later be announced as the event’s headliners, and although Smirnoff has not been confirmed, there is a possibility he will perform.
Bobby Springate, chief operating officer for the MBCH Foundation, urged board members and all Missouri Baptists to contact their legislators and urge them to look favorably on MBCH when considering tax credit reform in an upcoming special session, specifically Senate Bill 100. MBCH and its ministries benefit greatly from Residential Treatment Agency (RTA), Developmental Disability Care Provider, Youth Opportunity Program (YOP), and Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP) tax credits.
BRIAN KOONCE/staff writer
bkoonce@mobaptist.org