BRIDGETON – Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH) trustees received financial reports, a clean audit and pages of numbers and figures, but the highlight of their April 24 meeting was MBCH’s Children and Family Ministries (CFM) report.
“Each one of these numbers represents a precious child,” said Ron Robinson, MBCH trustee and pastor of First Baptist, Van Buren.
In the first quarter of 2012, CFM tallied 328 residential service opportunities, which is just below 10 percent more than the first quarter of last year. Those 328 included 14 families with development disability services, 37 in pregnancy services and 71 in therapeutic group homes. CFM served 444 through family foster care and helped reunite four families. Two children have made professions of faith this year.
All told, MBCH currently maintains 267 foster homes and 59 “relative/kinship” homes.
MBCH is benefitting from the national and Missouri uptick in Cooperative Program (CP) gifts this year. So far in 2012, the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) has passed on $126,875.72 in CP gifts. Gifts from individual churches and the Rheubin L. South Missouri Missions Offering to date total $258,177.73. MBCH has a total budget of $3,329,600.
Robinson also made plea for people to sponsor 120 children within the MBCH system so they could go to camp at Baptist Hill in Mt. Vernon Aug. 6-12. The camp is funded purely by donations, and costs approximately $100 per child.
“If you get up and explain that you can send a kid to camp for the very first time and they’ll get to hear about Jesus, there’s not a church or a Sunday School class around that couldn’t raise $100,” he said.
The next MBCH trustee meeting is July 24.