Giving back: ABCHomes children find reward in helping others
By Stella Prather
From the Arkansas Baptist News
“It is amazing to help out the people in the community ...” said Sharquila, 17.

“I pray that we made a difference in Columbus, Ohio,” noted Julia, 16.
The trio was among 23 teens and nine adults who spent July 16-25 ministering at the Stowe Baptist Center in Columbus, Ohio. The youth are residents of the Arkansas Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries (ABCHomes), living at the Monticello Home and Boys Ranch in Harrison.

Often on the receiving end of ministry, the ABCHomes youth returned the favor, working on various mission projects at the Stowe Center. The Southern Baptist center offers weekly worship services, a daily soup kitchen, food pantry, dental clinic and an after school tutoring program. They also have a Christian Women’s Job Corps to help women learn job skills.

The teens spent the week cleaning up around the center, peeling and repainting at the center and area homes, unloading pallets of food, feeding the homeless, leading worship and cooking meals. Older boys busted up damaged sidewalks as part of the community’s neighborhood beautification project.

They spent afternoons in three local parks hosting block-type parties. Some dressed as clowns, the teens talked to children, played games and activities, face-painted and distributed cotton candy, snow cones and information about the Stowe Center.

The group also spent a day at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and Zoombezi Bay Waterpark.

Recalling her visit to Roosevelt Park, Kayla, 14, said she won’t soon forget the smiles on the faces of the neighborhood children. “After I saw the smiles on those cute kids, I realized that I was doing a good thing helping out,” she said, adding that, “I also realized that some of these people don’t have as much as I do. That’s why I want to help out as much as I can to share about Gods grace.”

April said she felt lucky for the chance to spend the week working in Ohio.

“It’s taught me that people here are more needy than we thought,” she said in the Dispatch report.

“Kids around here, some of them have never even heard of Jesus Christ.”
ABCHomes Executive Director David Perry described the trip and youth as, “Amazing. It is simply amazing that we were able to take 23 teenagers, who for whatever reason must live away from their families, from two very distinct programs and mold them into an effective mission team.

“ ... Our young people and adults alike were amazing in their willingness to do all they were asked to do and do it well:  interacting with complete strangers, sleeping on crowded floors, unloading pallets of food, feeding the homeless, swinging sledge hammers, scraping peeling paint, cleaning bathrooms, leading in worship, playing with children, cooking in a hot kitchen over an ancient oven.”

Perry’s brother-in-law, Michael Brooks, serves as director of the Center. Many of the ABCHomes young people have “come from a rough background and been through a lot of hard things, but they can really relate to the children around here who have difficult family things,” he told the Dispatch.

*First names used to protect teen’s privacy.