Breaking Ground on Hope
Through the years, we’ve seen many families torn apart due to job loss, financial difficulties, substance abuse, domestic abuse, or other life circumstances. While serving at-risk children and their families (often led by single mothers), we saw a great need to help them get back on their feet. That was why we started the Family Care program.
This program for single moms and their dependent children can last for up to 12 months. Due to limited space and location, our home in Mobile closed in 2015 with plans to rebuild in order to offer even better services to families in that area, and we are quickly heading that way. On December 4, 2016, we broke ground there on a state-of-the-art facility that will serve up to seven families at one time!
Mothers who come into Family Care are given the tools to rebuild their lives in a safe and healthy space during this transitional time. Dana Watson, Chief Operations Officer for South Alabama has served with Alabama Baptist Children's Homes (ABCH) for over 10 years, and in that time, has seen many lives impacted through this program.
Construction progress on Family Care home as of March 27, 2017
He says, “Family Care is a unique ministry that allows the family to stay intact while direct care staff addresses the spiritual, financial, and physical needs of the mother and her child(ren). Through this valuable program, we’ve seen mothers leave better equipped to live independently, provide for themselves and their children, maintain steady housing, meet their educational goals, and gain employment. This positively impacts the family, but also strengthens the community in which they live.”
Every day in Family Care, we see a direct impact on multiple generations as these mothers work hard to ensure a better life for their children’s present and future. How fitting, that our key donors for our new home in Mobile also recognize the value of investing in the future through what God has placed in their hands today.
One of those donors was the people of Central Baptist Church. After many years of ministry in the Mobile area, they decided it was time to close the doors to their ministry and invest in another. They gave us the proceeds from the sale of their building, and combined with some existing assets they had, that gift became the seed money that allowed us to begin this new ministry opportunity for families in Mobile.
Long-time supporter of the work of the Children’s Homes, Dr. E. Grace Pilot of Mobile, also has a vision for the future. She has faithfully labored to impact communities in need and has passed those values down in her family. Having been a part of the Family Care project in Alabaster years ago, most recently, her generous spirit has influenced two other generations of Pilots.
Together, she and her family were instrumental in helping us see our Family Care Mobile project come to fruition. Not only were her children involved, but they got their kids involved too. Her son, Curtis Pilot, said, “We got her grandkids involved because we want to teach them now, to be sure the next generation is thinking that way (of helping others) too.”
We are extremely grateful for the support of both Central Baptist and the Pilot family. There are many, many families whose lives have been, and will be, wonderfully impacted through their kindness and generosity. This kind of giving legacy is part of what has helped sustain our ministry over these past 125 years, and will continue to help lead the way for the future.
And those future days are readily on the mind of ABCH President/CEO, Rod Marshall, and how Family Care distinctly fits our ministry model, “The purpose of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries is to protect, nurture and restore children and families through Christ-centered services. Our Family Care ministry clearly addresses all three of our core objectives. We protect these mothers and children from a sometimes brutal and hard-hearted world. Once they begin to feel safe, they can accept our nurture as we disciple them and befriend them. It is a delight to watch a family go from victim to victor, from hopeless to hopeful, from fragile to strong as they are restored to healthy independence from us, but dependence upon God.”
Last year, ABCH was able to serve 49 mothers and children through our other Family Care homes in the state. We look forward to a day later in 2017, when our new Family Care doors will open and even more families will be forever changed through those serving as the hands and feet of Christ in Mobile.
