Funding on the decline: Children’s homes still a core church ministry?
A little girl named Ashley can be seen through the window, reading in the Bollin Cottage at Carpenter Place in Wichita, Kan. Carpenter Place began as Maude Carpenter Children’s Home when the Riverside Church of Christ saw a need to help orphans in the congregation. (Photo by John D. Morrison)
New on The Christian Chronicle’s website:
DUNCAN, S.C. – Southeastern Children’s Home cares for neglected and abused children on a 50-acre campus overlooking the Smoky Mountains.
Boys row out in a boat to catch bass and bream in a spring-fed pond. A beekeeper teaches girls how to cultivate honey.
The home’s residents ride horses as part of therapy and enjoy swing sets, basketball goals and a volleyball court.
As the Christian child-care agency meets physical needs, it fulfills a more important mission: sharing Jesus with children and families, executive director Robert Kimberly said.
“We’ve had eight of our kids become Christians this year, and so it’s been wonderful,” Kimberly said.
Yet he and many colleagues across the nation question if Churches of Christ are as passionate about caring for children in need as they once were.
In a survey of 20 children’s homes in more than a dozen states, The Christian Chronicle found widespread concern about declining church support amid trying economic times and shifting ministry priorities.
Read the full story.
See my June 2007 Inside Story column on my mom and dad’s 25 years as houseparents with Christ’s Haven for Children in Keller, Texas.
Read a December 2006 Chronicle story on the difficulty finding Christians willing to serve as houseparents.
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FeedbackAs someone opposed to abortion I have said for many years that when Roe vs Wade is overturned we need to be prepared to care for these women and be well prepared to minister to them and their families. This article is distressing and I’m sorry to hear this.David EllisDecember, 8 2011Where can we send help the official address?Linda St.JulianDecember, 8 2011
