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From the Heart

Blog

Forever Families

By: Logan Nelson with Steve Vaughan,  May 5, 2017

Logan Nelson is a freshman at TCC and feels God is calling him into the ministry. He and his brother were residents of the Florida Baptist Children's Homes (FBCH) and were adopted by TRBC members Jesse and Linda Nelson in 2015. Today he shares about how FBCH has impacted his life.

"It is thanks to the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes that I am where I am today as well as who I am today. The staff and house parents at the Florida Baptist Children's Homes showed us who God was through their love and commitment to my brother and me. For the first time in my life, I was shown the joy that is to be had when things work the way God has commanded them to work. My first real father figure, Mr. Brent, exemplified everything it took to be a true man of God. Though I wasn’t his son, he taught me everything from how to shave to how to treat one’s wife. A large part of my values and ideals are a direct result of the men who shaped me at the FBCH. They showed Landon and me that there is a peace beyond all understanding, and that despite the pain of our circumstances, there is a God who loves us and has a plan for our lives. In love and patience they guided us through the most challenging times of our lives and were committed both to influencing our current situations as well as our eternal ones.  When the time came for adoption, they took the utmost care to ensure that we would be loved and cared for in a home that put God’s will at the forefront of every decision. God used the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes to draw near to my brother and me, and they continue to do so in the lives of countless children across the state. It thanks to them that my brother and I know salvation. It is thanks to them that two souls that were dead and lost have been raised to life!" 

Logan with his new forever family on Adoption Day.

The Florida Baptist Children's Homes (FBCH) brings hope to hurting children, showing them that the love of Jesus changes lives. From the opening of the first orphanage in 1904 to their present-day ministries that have expanded to provide safe, stable, Christian homes and services to children and families in need across the state and around the globe, FBCH is honored to be helping children in tangible ways.

Last year, FBCH had the privilege of serving more than 171,000 children through their campuses, foster care services, adoption services, Brave Moms, emergency care, compassion ministries and more. Whether it’s providing clean diapers to a newborn baby, food for a hungry child, safety for an abused child, or foster or adoptive homes to children in crisis, they work to share with children who have been abused, neglected and abandoned the protective and healing love of Jesus.

At TRBC we have always valued our Florida Baptist Children’s Homes and sought many different ways to partner with them.  We are a host church for Carlton Cottage at the Tallahassee campus and have had the privilege of sharing in the lives in care of hundreds of residents.  Throughout the years many of our small groups have worked and ministered alongside the house parents of Carlton Cottage and the staff of FBCH. Through these partnerships several of the residents have so impacted the lives of our members that those young people have been adopted formally into those families or a the time of aging out of the Children’s Home have become official members of those families. 

But the FBCH is not only about resident care for children, they do international orphan care, parent counselling, fostering, adoption, ministry and rehabilitation for young women coming out of human trafficking and so much more.  To see all that ministries and programs the FBCH has to offer please visit their website, www.fbchomes.org.  One way TRBC has been able to support the FBCH is through giving financially to their annual Mother’s Day offering.  There are three ways you can do this.  You can give an offering to the church through your offering envelop or online at any time and just put “Children’s Home” on the special offering line and it will go directly to them. On Mother’s Day, you can give a one-time gift the same way and place “Mother’s Day Offering” on the special offering line.  Or you can give throughout the year to TRBC’s Mission Impact Offering and 25 cents of every dollar given goes directly to the FBCH**.  Our goal this year for the Mission Impact offering is $150,000.00, which means if we reach that goal, $37,500.00 goes directly to the FBCH.  This is far and away the largest percentage of what TRBC gives each year to the FBCH.  Due to the Mission Impact offering, our annual giving to the FBCH has more than doubled since its inception and has gone up incrementally every year.  Please prayerfully consider how you might give or volunteer to help the FBCH continue in its godly and necessary mission to children and orphans in the state of Florida.

**For a breakdown of where all of the money we receive for the Missions Impact Offering go, please see the TRBC Missions page on our website.  

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