The work at the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH) is one of the most emotionally draining ministries a person could participate in, but it’s also one of the most rewarding, said Steve Moses, a foster parent with ABCH in northeast Alabama.
“You don’t have to knock on doors. You don’t have to talk to strangers. You can sit in the privacy of your own home and hold in your lap a child desperately needing God’s love,” Moses said.
Paul Miller, executive director of ABCH, said he told foster parents in training if they did not have an explicit call from God to minister to children, they shouldn’t do it. “But I told them if they do have that call, they are going to make an impact on the lives of many.”
Reaching record numbers
That impact reached record numbers of children and families this year despite having to not open any new locations and reduce staff in order to contend with rising insurance costs, Miller reported.
In the first six months of 2004, homes were provided for 184 youth and children, 19 more than the same time last year.
Temporary homes and other services were also provided for 14 single mothers and dependent children in that time period, nine more than the first half of 2003.
“Thank you for your continued prayers and your support of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes,” Miller said. “Without you none of this would’ve been possible.”
Michael Jefferson, a senior at Athens State University, spent the last eight years with ABCH houseparents Mark and April McCurry. He said that during that time a lot of uncertainties existed, but he was never uncertain about the McCurrys’ love for him.
“God continues to use me in ways I could never imagine,” Jefferson said. “Externally it may be viewed as a foster home, but internally it is so much more. It offers children the love of Jesus Christ.”
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