Four-year-old Tammy’s foster mother kept finding Tammy’s bed empty at night and the little girl curled up in the smallest chair in the living room.
Over time, as her foster mother began to share about the love and protection of Jesus, Tammy began to sleep in her own bed.
“Through our foster care ministry, we have the amazing privilege to share Christ, who is their very present help in times of trouble,” said Bobbi Olson, a Montgomery-area social worker for Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH). “They have many needs … but we can be the hands and feet of Christ to them, offering them a hope and a future.”
Rod Marshall, ABCH president and CEO, said the ministry’s goal is to “protect and restore families through Christ-centered services.”
ABCH has nearly 100 foster homes across the state as well as Pathways Professional Counseling, a Family Care program and group homes. Altogether ABCH served 3,769 children and families in need — 167 more than last year, according to the Book of Reports.
More than 150 of those were foster care children.
But there are 6,400 foster children in the state, and “it’s a shame that any child has to be in a non-Christian foster home in a state with so many Baptists,” Marshall said. “If the Baptist Children’s Homes took in all the children, it would bankrupt us. But I’m not worried about that.”
God will provide, he said, and ABCH continues to recruit and train foster parents.
“Please pray for us as we equip those laborers,” Marshall said.
In the past year ABCH has seen “tremendous growth in the area of foster care,” according to the Book of Reports.
ABCH also said goodbye in January to longtime president Paul Miller, who had served Alabama Baptists and the children of Alabama for nearly 40 years. Marshall, a 17-year employee of ABCH, stepped into the role Feb. 1.
“We seek daily to bring hope, healing and wholeness to children and families through a loving heavenly Father,” Marshall said. “We seek to reflect the image of God to our foster care children.”
At least 26 children chose to follow Christ last year while in the care of ABCH, according to the Book of Reports.
For more information, visit alabamachild.org.
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