She came to the Friendship House of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH) at nearly 5 years old. She was dirty and hungry — the victim of severe neglect. Her brother, little more than a year old, was severely malnourished. Their parents had been arrested on drug abuse charges.
But what Ted Embry, director of ABCH’s Oxford office and its Friendship House, remembers most about that 1 a.m. arrival is the tears in the little girl’s deep blue eyes as he tried to reassure her that she was safe and would be cared for. As he finished talking, her tears began drying up. She took a deep breath and focused on her bowl of Cocoa Puffs.
For 25 years now, ABCH has been providing places of safety, comfort and care to children whose lives are suddenly plunged into crisis. Approximately 3,000 children have passed through the doors of ABCH’s emergency shelters like the Friendship House since ABCH’s first shelter opened in 1983.
Since then, shelters have been operated at almost all of ABCH’s regional locations. Currently there are two, the one in Oxford and one in Decatur.
Whatever the reasons for their arrival at an emergency shelter, the children share a common need for safety and stability.
Because of the temporary nature of emergency shelters, the house parents there focus on meeting the immediate needs of the children. Beyond safety, this includes food and clothing. Many children arrive with their belongings in a garbage bag or with only the clothes they are wearing because they had to leave so quickly.
Area churches and donors work to keep both Decatur and Oxford stocked with basic items, such as pajamas, socks, underwear, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
"We also have individuals that help us shop for special needs for special sizes," Embry noted.
Gifts by Alabama Baptist churches to the Annual Children’s Homes Offering help supply clothing and necessities beyond what the shelters have on hand, as well as the maintenance of the shelters themselves. Those gifts also provide for the children that go on to live with ABCH foster families or in the residential or group homes.
Many children have had their spiritual needs met through ABCH shelters and homes, according to ABCH leaders, and they decide to follow Christ after experiencing the love of their house parents and hearing about God’s love from them.
It is hard to know the long-term impact of the shelter ministry on children because it is a temporary solution, said Michael Smith, director of the Decatur campus and emergency shelter. "They’re only in our lives for a minute."
But it does make an impact, said Paul Miller, ABCH executive director. He was at the Troy campus before ABCH left that location years ago, and saw a man in his 20s staring at the outside of the emergency shelter house. Miller asked if he needed help, and the man replied, "I wanted to come back because I was brought to that building there. I was only here about 30 days, but it was the first place anyone seemed to care about me."
Situations like this, Miller said, show ABCH shelters have "the potential to make an impact in someone’s life during a crisis, and love them and care for them to the best of our ability." (ABCH)
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