The theme for this year’s Children’s Home Day Offering is “We Believe!” When you read the words of Dr. Kenneth M. Dobbs, president and CEO of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, Inc., you will understand the meaning of this year’s theme, “We Believe!”

Dr. Dobbs recently made the following statements: “We believe that every child should have a safe, warm home to live in – that’s why we have three campuses and five group homes throughout the state. Our kids live with married couples who create a loving, Christian home where they can grow strong spiritually and physically.

“We believe that no child should fear abuse or neglect, so we operate emergency shelters throughout the state that are available to take children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When these children come to us, we give them teddy bears, Bibles, and most importantly a place of refuge. We believe that young, unwed mothers need to be cared for physically and emotionally. We have a maternity home where these girls can receive proper medical care, parenting classes, and life skills.

“We believe that teens struggling with addiction deserve a chance to start over. We have the Nelson Price Treatment Center where teens can go through the 12-step recovery process in a Christian environment. We believe that children with developmental disabilities deserve the chance to have a positive camp experience. That’s is why we have Camp Hawkins where children with Downs Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and other developmental disabilities can come for five days and see what a traditional summer camp is like. We believe in meeting the needs of children TODAY and have expanded our ministry to serve these needs.

“We recently added Good Shepherd Therapeutic Riding Center to our ministry. Good Shepherd provides residential care to troubled adolescent boys through a unique farm-based treatment program and has long been known for its creative equestrian treatment for people with physical and mental disabilities. We believe in caring for all the children God sends our way. For 136 years, Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries has reached out to hurting children and broken families.”

You will be pleased to know that in the fiscal year 2006, your Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes served 673 children in residential programs. This care provided 67,134 days of care. Fifty-five young people dealing with substance abuse were helped through the Nelson Price Treatment Center. Seventeen young girls found hope and healing through the maternity program located on the Palmetto campus.

Two hundred and forty-one children were rescued from abusive situations and found a safe home environment through the Children’s Homes emergency shelters and group homes. One hundred and thirty-five children with development disabilities were given a chance to experience summer camp fun through Camp Hawkins located in Mt. Airy, Georgia.

Without a doubt, the most important statistic for your consideration is the fact that this past year 88 of the residents at our Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes asked Jesus Christ to come into their hearts and lives! What a great cause of rejoicing this is.

It takes a tremendous amount of funding to be able to provide all of these ministries to families who desperately need to know that someone cares for them and for their children. Twenty-four percent of the funding for our Children’s Homes Ministries comes from our Georgia Baptist churches. Approximately one-half of our GBC churches give an annual gift or contribute monthly to this ministry.

The Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries depends upon special gifts from our churches to provide the outstanding ministries that they extend to these hurting children. I can think of no ministry that is more Christ-like at its heart than the ministry to children. Surely every Georgia Baptist will want to make a generous contribution to our Children’s Home Day Offering on Sunday, May 13.

I hope you will pray about the offering that you will give. Ask God to guide your heart and then express your love for these children and for this outstanding ministry by doing more than you have ever done before to help our Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries. God will bless your faithfulness.