I stand before you today a leader connected and ready to lead.”
These words came from Dana Watson as he stood on stage holding a large ring with ropes connected to a host of people standing with him who he said had made a difference in his life.
“Many have connected their lives with mine,” said Watson, a former resident of the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH) who now serves as a social worker on its Mobile campus.
And now, like the people standing with him — including house parents, representatives from the University of Mobile and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and ABCH workers — Watson said he wants to invest in the lives of ABCH children the same way in which he was invested.
“I want to guide them to make good decisions in life, but most of all I want to connect them with Christ,” Watson said.
He continued, “I believe in my work (at ABCH) because I’ve seen it make a difference.”
Watson was “a little boy with a tremendous need, and he didn’t know any of the resources we have here at the Alabama Baptist State Convention,” said Paul Miller, ABCH executive director.
“We went to Dana, because we have a God who came to us.”
As ABCH connected with Watson, the organization needs churches across the state to connect with it to help more children and families, Miller said.
According to ABCH’s report, in the first six months of 2008:
• Homes were provided for 110 children and youth at ABCH campuses, group homes and emergency shelters in Decatur, Oxford, Gardendale, Mobile and Dothan.
• Foster homes were provided for 90 children and youth.
• Temporary homes and other services were provided for 27 mothers and dependent children through family care in Alabaster and Mobile.
Pathways Professional Counseling is also up to 33 sites in the state, which makes it five sites away from its strategic goal of 38.
Pathways counselors spent more than 4,600 counseling hours with 1,510 children, families and individuals in the first six months of this year.
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