Golf can be many things: relaxing, challenging, thrilling, or infuriating. It is a pastime for some, a way of life for others. But at the STCH Ministries Golf Classic, golf takes on a new dimension. No longer is it just a game; it is a “game-changer” for the lives of children and families in need.
Every year, dozens of teams gather for some friendly competition on the golf course while at the same time raising funds to support the work of STCH Ministries. All of the children in care benefit from this event, but the ones most impacted are the young people who attend the event as ambassadors for the children’s home.
“Normally we take six to eight kids,” says Greg Huskey, Boothe Campus Administrator, who notes that aside from the occasional teen who has played on the high school golf team, this sport is a “foreign concept” to most of them.
“They may see it on TV. Rarely does anybody have a golfing background, and that’s primarily because of the background where a lot of our kids come from.”
Huskey says the teens have several responsibilities at the tournament. “It may be to carry the bags. It may be to pass out lunch. It may be helping with registration.”
And these interactions give the young people one of the most important experiences of the day: coming face to face with people who care about, support, and believe in them. Just as the golf course is a new world to the kids, the Golf Classic event shows them a whole new world of people who are committed to their success in life.
“For me it’s great to see them interact with those people,” says Huskey. “They’re genuine people. They care about kids and what we do in this ministry.”
If you haven’t yet signed up for the 2018 STCH Ministries Golf Classic, we invite you to register online today. No matter your score on the golf course, this is one tournament where you are always on the winning team.
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Mary is a young mother in Phase I of Homes for Families who recently got into a disagreement with another resident. After staff intervened, she felt the need to get her Bible and looked up ‘communication’. This led her to James 3, which talks about it only taking a spark to start a fire.
Mary recognized that God was telling her that she was that spark, and went to the other resident to confess that she was wrong. Mary heard something that didn’t sound like herself, knew it was God speaking, checked it with scripture, and took action!
We are amazed by the work that God has done in Mary’s life, and look forward to seeing her continue to mature and grow closer to Him.
* Names changed for confidentiality.
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“My goodness, how you have grown!” How many times have we said those words to others whom we knew yesterday as small children? Days melded into months and years so quickly, and it seems overnight that the child has become a young adult. We have experienced similar moments with our sponsored Samuel’s Fund children, especially during the mission trips this summer.
It seems only a short time ago that we carried food and resources to the home of a Samuel’s Fund child. How their eyes widened and glowed at the sight of bread and milk, and special treats like peanut butter and cookies! Now some of these same children, grown into young adults, have joined our mission teams as translators. They assist in delivering food and resources to other sponsored children and their families and help with construction projects, orphanage ministry, and VBS classes.
Recently we asked Harold to share his testimony with a missions group. He is married to Sara, a lovely Christian girl, and works for Fed Ex. He expressed his gratitude for the sponsorship that paid for his schooling and allowed him to learn English. Today he is a leader in the IBQ church and pastors another “daughter” church during his off time.
“Samuel’s Fund sponsorship enabled me to get an education and learn English. That is the reason that today I have a good job and can support my family and my church,” he says.
Harold is just one of many examples of the impact of the Samuel’s Fund sponsorship program. It is an investment in the future of churches and families in the Dominican Republic.
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Ginger Bailey set the record for the longest continuously serving staff member at STCH Ministries with a career of 42 years and counting. (Click to enlarge photo.)
PETTUS – In a time when median job tenure for professionals is 5.5 years, 42 years of service at the same organization is extraordinary. Ginger Glynn Bailey began her social work career as a foster care worker/case worker for the South Texas Children’s Home (STCH) right out of graduate school in 1976. July 12th is the anniversary of her employment with STCH Ministries and makes her the longest continuously serving staff member in the organization’s sixty-six years of history.
Equally remarkable is the fact that this distinguished career began as a dream in the heart of an eight-year-old girl while visiting a children’s home in San Antonio. While in high school, Bailey sent letters to children’s homes all around the state looking for summer internship possibilities and STCH responded. The connection eventually became a full-time position in which Bailey would touch the lives of thousands of children.
In 1985, Bailey moved into the role of Director of Social Services and continues to serve faithfully in that capacity today. In a career that bridges more than four decades, Bailey has witnessed many changes, ranging from technology to procedural polices and state standards. Bailey notes that the needs of children and families in crisis remain the same. The situations that bring children to the home may vary, but the emotional and physical requirements for personal healing are constant.
Bailey most enjoys building relationships with families and “being there” for former students needing support. “When a family has a concern about their child, they may be tearful or even angry,” she said. “They need someone to listen and to help them work through the process. I’m glad I can be there for those that are hurting.” Especially heartwarming for Bailey are phone calls from former students sharing good news, or alumni who drop by to show their own children the place they called “home.”
STCH Ministries is honored to count Ginger Bailey as a member of our team. We celebrate her steadfast commitment and exemplary service to children and families.
Bailey received the Award for Excellence from the Association of Christian Childcare Administrators in 2018.
As the Director of Social Services at STCH Ministries, Bailey has assisted thousands of children like the ones pictured here.
Bailey began working for the children’s home in 1976.
Bailey began working for the children’s home in 1976.
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STCH Ministries is a faith-based, nonprofit organization that has been caring for children and families since 1952. We provide homes, support, counseling, and life-skills training to those in need, and also reach beyond our borders through international missions. We provide all of our services regardless of an individual or family’s ability to pay for them. We are 100% supported by private donations and do not accept any state or federal funding.
https://www.stchm.org/wp-content/uploads/Ginger_Bailey_Featured_Image.jpg17072560Alisha Holthttps://www.stchm.org/wp-content/uploads/stchm_h-logotagline-e1704238942591-1030x257.pngAlisha Holt2018-07-12 10:35:062020-03-16 14:23:07Bailey Sets Record 42 Years of Service at Children’s Home
For the last 10 years, every mission team has included at least one day of orphanage ministry in their busy schedules–providing training and needed resources, building needed projects, and sharing enrichment activities like an outing to the aquarium or the underground caves. Through every activity, our desire was to share Christ’s love and encourage the staff.
Over the last year, however, we sensed God drawing our attention to the ineffectiveness of our “hit-and-run” ministry to those children. Because our IBQ headquarters are between 1.5 and 3 hours distance from the orphanages, a “day” with the children actually consisted of 4-5 hours—a shared meal, a few games, and a devotional—and we were loading up the bus and saying goodbye. We realized that spending more time at the orphanages was a prerequisite for building a relationship, and a relationship was necessary to effectively share love and encouragement.
This summer we are grateful for the flexibility of teams as we have experimented with more time invested at the orphanages. This required packing an overnight bag, towels and a favorite pillow, groceries, and the all-essential coffee maker; loading up sports equipment, baking supplies, crafts and paint, saws, hammers, screws and nails. It also required spending several nights in unfamiliar situations, sometimes without air conditioning, and adjusting to a menu not quite up to the standards of the IBQ kitchen.
Each mission team came prepared for various activities. Bear Creek Baptist Church from Katy painted orphanage roofs and ceilings, added screens to windows, and shelves for clothes. University Baptist Church from Clear Lake built playhouses–a workshop complete with toy hammers, saws, and measuring tapes. And a kitchen with plastic fruits and vegetables, pots, and dishes. They shared training for caregivers in one orphanage and nurturing activities and Bible studies for the staff at another. All spent quality time with the children.
How can a mission team give value to a child who has been traumatized and placed in an orphanage? We can love. We can get on their level and make eye contact. We can listen. We can hug. We can sing and play and laugh with them. We can admire and affirm their “wins” in games or crafts. By faith we can plant seeds of love, and trust God to germinate in each heart. We may never see the results, but sometimes God gives us a glimpse of His work.
Jose sat angrily, arms folded on the sidelines, refusing to participate. “Can we talk together?” asked Emelin. “No, I don’t want to talk to anybody.” “Okay, can I give you a hug?” “No, I don’t want anyone to touch me!” Emelin affirmed him and the activity continued. The next day Jose approached Emelin. “Today, I would like to talk to you.” The conversation began and ended with a hug…which Jose initiated!
Spending more time at the orphanage created a relationship. Love germinated and sprouted a hug!
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“Gifts of handmade quilts wrap people in God’s love and symbolically demonstrate that Jesus and His disciples care;
the quilts represent the ultimate security blanket.” – Stitches of Love Quilting Ministry vision statement
For nearly as long as European immigrants have been on our soil, American patchwork quilts have represented comfort, security, and a place to belong. For more than sixty years, STCH Ministries Homes for Children has provided the same for children in crisis. For thirteen years now, the quilting ministry, “Stitches of Love”, of University Baptist Church (UBC) in Houston has partnered with Homes for Children to create unique quilts for each graduating class. These handcrafted gifts ensure that the assurance of comfort, security, and a place to belong continue long past high school graduation for the young people in our care.
Erin DeCola has lived at STCH Ministries for almost three years, and she is one of the five high school graduates we celebrated at Homes for Families this spring. After receiving her quilt, Erin tells us, “I really love my quilt and it means a lot that these ladies made it. It is something that I can pass down for many generations to come.”
Kyrenda Lambert grew up watching both her grandmother and mom quilt by hand. She remembers the wooden quilting frames that hung from the ceiling at her grandma’s home where the women gathered and worked together. When she and her longtime friend Donna Bennet saw the opportunity to take a quilting class at San Jacinto Community College, they were hooked. Stiches of Love is the result of that class.
“It’s about fellowship and living life together. We minister to each other as we sew, “ Kyrenda says.
Stitches of Love functions as both fellowship for believers and an outreach ministry for the church. The group is described as “women of all ages (early 30s – 93 years old) who enjoy quilting, coming together for learning, sharing experiences, working on their own quilts, and working on quilts that will be donated as an outreach to those within and beyond our walls.” Kyrenda and Donna wanted the group to have a purpose, to create ministry quilts for people experiencing difficult moments in life.
Every year, UBC quilters create a personalized quilt for each of the high school seniors who graduate while in care at Homes for Children. Each blanket is personalized to showcase the teen’s interests and favorite colors. In 2018, the graduating class received their quilts during a special graduate celebration of “Senior Chapel” at Wednesday night Chapel on Boothe Campus.
Isaiah, Haley, Erin, Joshua, and Mary we here at Homes for Children are proud of you. Our prayers and support go with you, we hope the quilt is a physical reminder of that support as you move forward to the next step God is showing you. Ezra 10:4 states, “Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act.”
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Julie Strayer has a passion for teaching money management, and she can’t imagine not doing so.
As a volunteer teacher for STCH Ministries Faith & Finances, Julie helps individuals, couples, and entire families learn how to make a spending plan, manage debt and loans, live more simply, and set goals for saving.
“Faith and Finances is the best title in the world to me,” Julie explained, “because I’m sold out on people getting their finances in order and I’m sold out on faith.”
“Julie Strayer is one of the most passionate and high energy volunteers we have ever met!” said Jimmy Rodriguez, Director of Faith & Finances in Corpus Christi. “She is a busy and successful businesswoman who finds time to follow her calling to help others, and she also recruits business colleagues and fellow church members to help out.”
Julie’s conviction that wise money management is the key to a successful life runs deep. She and her husband Stewart both grew up in homes that modeled how to spend and save wisely. Their habit of always setting aside reserves enabled them to survive three-month stretches without a paycheck as they built a small business and raised their family.
It stirs Julie’s heart to hear students’ stories about the consequences of poor money management.
“One sad situation is people taking out payday loans to hold them over until their next paycheck,” Julie shared. “God says the borrower is slave to the lender, and these six-month payday loans are charging 60 to 70 percent interest! We’ve got to do something to help people overcome the obstacles that keep them trapped. Faith & Finances classes are a beginning.”
“I love that you don’t have to be brilliant to learn about personal finance,” Julie continued. “You can be normal and average and become financially secure. Managing finances is a basic life skill you have to learn, just like driving a car. It burdens me that people aren’t learning it. The world is broken, and it encourages us to be broke…to spend every penny we have. When you are financially broke, it is easy to get beaten down. Before long, every aspect of your life gets broken. But, when a person is willing to look at their finances and begin getting them in order, other areas of their life start falling into place. I truly believe that!”
STCH Ministries is grateful for volunteers like Julie who serve others through the things they are passionate about. What is your passion? To learn how you can serve, visitwww.STCHM.org/Ways-to-Help.
Living in the light of God’s Word is convicting. James writes that religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27).
Many of our kids come from functionally fatherless situations; it may be that there was a divorce, a death, absentee, or situational fatherlessness. The children’s home does not receive the parental rights to the children when they come into care. The individual placing the child remains the one with rights to the children. We are called to come alongside, ministering to the family and children with the love of Christ, being family-like.
As Father’s Day came this year, as in previous years, my phone received many text messages of “Happy Father’s Day!” As I age, I can gauge the era in which the sender of the text lived at the South Texas Children’s Home. If the text refers to me as “Greg”, then the sender lived here during the 90’s; and if they call me “Mr. Huskey”, then they were from the 2000’s. I am grateful for having all these kids in my life. Whether in church, at school, or at the home, I have never tried to be a father to the students. However, I have tried to be “father like” to all.
Thus, that brings me back to why we are called. We are called to love. Love is what God did for us to the point of the death of His son. No greater love than a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). Love is more than words, it is a call to action, a call to love “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40), to show the love of our Heavenly Father. He is our Daddy, Abba, and Father to the functionally fatherless.
And a final thought: without receiving God in our lives, we are functionally living, but spiritually fatherless. Let us freely give what we have freely received.
Submitted by Greg Huskey
Boothe Campus Administrator
STCH Ministries Homes for Children
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The story of a family, like that of an individual, can take many twists and turns along the road of life, and few know this better than the Parker siblings. Over the past fifteen years, seven Parker children have called Boothe Campus home; the oldest five are now grown, and thirteen-year-old Laura, the youngest, is still a resident at Love Cottage. Eighteen-year-old Josh, a brand new high school graduate, stands in the middle with one foot across the line of adulthood while he savors his last summer before starting college. To look at them now, one can see great potential and a promising future, but this family has seen their share of unexpected events, separations, and hardships. Looking back, Josh now clearly recognizes the hand of God at work.
“It gave us a lot of endurance and a lot of courage to do the things we do now,” he says. “I feel like God has done that, and then He’s given us this place to kind of show us His way of doing things.”
However, the future was anything but clear when a four-year-old Josh and his older siblings arrived at the South Texas Children’s Home in August of 2003.
THE ARRIVAL
Josh has little recollection of life before the children’s home, but his oldest sister Lilly remembers their arrival vividly.
“I was terrified,” she recalls. “A new place, so many new people, new parents, a new ‘family’ as I called it. I imagined a huge house with 100 kids, twenty kids to a room.”
Lilly put on a brave exterior for the sake of her younger siblings. “I HAD to be the strong one and not let my fear show through,” she says. But underneath the calm façade, she felt just the opposite.
“My father dropped us off and never looked back, so as any thirteen-year-old would feel, I was scared and felt so alone.”
Soon Lilly realized that the quiet neighborhood of cottages on Boothe Campus was nothing to fear, but like most children, the Parker kids needed time to settle in.
“It took a lot of adjusting,” Lilly says. “Probably over a year, to be exact, to work through the pain of abandonment and feeling unloved and ‘thrown away’.”
One year after the arrival of the six Parker children on campus, the family grew by one. Laura Parker was born and soon came to Boothe Campus as an infant.
For the next several years, the seven siblings continued to live at the children’s home together. Time and love began to heal the emotional trauma while the children built positive new memories.
“I remember all the different activities and going to camp,” says Samantha, who was in elementary school at the time. “I also remember all of the friends I had made while being there, and then also friends I had made at school.”
Lilly recalls the sense of peace that she began to discover as she settled into her new home.
“By the end of my sophomore year, I finally felt like I had a family, that I had ‘real’ parents that loved me for me.”
Soon Lilly graduated from high school at Pettus ISD, and Matthew, Lindsay, Andrew, Samantha, Josh, and Laura occupied a stair-step assortment of grade levels down to pre-school. They experienced the normal ups and downs of school and family life that make up childhood, but Lindsay (the third oldest) remembers this as a time of restoration.
“STCH helped us all heal and learn what it means to really love and be loved,” she says.
Life finally seemed stable. But the summer of 2007 would bring major changes for the Parker siblings.
THE SEPARATION
Shortly after Lilly’s graduation, the Parkers’ father removed the three youngest children, Samantha, Josh, and Laura, along with their seventeen-year-old brother Matthew, from the children’s home. Lilly continued on to college with the support of STCH Ministries and Lindsay and Andrew stayed at Boothe Campus to complete high school.
“I chose to stay because I knew the home would be able to support my dream of going to college and making a better life for myself,” says Lindsay.
At the same time, she felt a great sense of concern for her younger siblings.
“Honestly, I didn’t think they should have left,” she says. “I knew my dad couldn’t and wouldn’t take care of them like they should have been.”
The younger siblings moved to Port Aransas with their father. The move was bittersweet. When asked if he felt that returning to his dad was a good thing, Josh says, “In a way yes, but also no…He wasn’t exactly employed.”
The next eight years were marked by instability for the youngest three siblings, Samantha, Josh, and Laura.
“We moved from place to place,” says Josh about life with their father. “A lot of times he couldn’t afford to stay there for a long period of time.”
School and athletics became an important anchor in their lives. Josh distinguished himself as a strong competitor in track and field and cross country, accumulating an impressive collection of awards. But these successes could not completely eclipse the difficulty of their living situation.
Josh recalls one period of time when their father was in a relationship with a hoarder. They lived amongst the jumble of debris and clutter until the landlord sold the property, and then they were on the move again.
Meanwhile, Lilly tried to find a way to get her younger siblings back to the children’s home.
“I knew how much of a blessing it was to me,” she says, “and by all means my father had not changed his ways one bit. I would come over to filth and clothes three sizes too small. They lived in a garage apartment with no wall separation, just one room, no food in the fridge. Most days they would go to school wearing the same dirty clothes from last week—random people in and out of their house at all hours of the night.”
Without legal guardianship, Lilly had no power to change the situation, but she continued to watch, wait, and pray. Meanwhile, she completed college to become a registered nurse and married her husband Adam Flores.
REUNITED
In December of 2014, the Parker family story came to another sudden turn as unexpectedly as all the ones that came before.
“Our dad went missing,” explains Josh.
Lilly and Adam were at the airport returning from a vacation when they received a phone call. It was Samantha.
“Our dad had dropped them off with someone random,” says Lilly. “The conditions were terrible and they were scared.”
Lilly and Adam immediately rearranged their small home in Aransas Pass to accommodate two high schoolers and a preteen. When their father finally resurfaced, he was persuaded to relinquish legal guardianship to Lilly.
“It’s kind of like, if you love something, set it free,” Josh says. “He couldn’t provide a better living situation at the point he was in.”
Samantha, Josh, and Laura completed the school year while living with Lilly and Adam. The couple, then in their mid-twenties, was willing to provide a permanent home for the three younger siblings, but they also knew they couldn’t provide everything.
“My husband and I couldn’t send three children to college; we were barely getting by just for the seven months they lived in our home,” Lilly says.
The siblings sat down for a family meeting to discuss the pros and cons of returning to STCH Ministries Homes for Children.
“STCH could give them so much more than my husband and I could offer at the time,” says Lilly, “but I let them know that it was their choice.”
The choice was perhaps most difficult for Samantha, who was about to enter her senior year of high school.
“I was a little wary of returning,” Samantha says, “because I had made so many friends back in Port Aransas and it was a little hard to leave them. I had also grown really close to my older sister, Lilly, because I had lived with her for a bit.”
Despite these apprehensions, the three youngest Parkers agreed to return to STCH Ministries in the summer of 2015, at least to try it out.
THE RETURN
Even though she knew STCH Ministries would be a good home for her siblings, Lilly says that the parting was painful.
“I felt like I lost my kids, that I had abandoned them. I felt like a piece of my heart was missing,” she recalls.
But unlike the day twelve years earlier when she found herself at the doorstep of a Boothe Campus cottage for the first time, the return of the younger siblings was a choice. Samantha, Josh, and Laura also had adult siblings who knew what they were going through and could support them as they adjusted to their new life. STCH Ministries encourages these family bonds while children are in care, and in the case of broken relationships with parents, seeks to bring reconciliation whenever possible.
Within months, the three younger Parkers flourished.
“One thing I love about STCH,” says Samantha, “is that the people there really genuinely care about you and that’s really amazing, and when I came back everyone was very welcoming. It’s also pretty easy to make friends because most of the children there are going (or have gone) through similar things.”
Samantha graduated from Pettus High School in 2016 and now studies computer science at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with a scholarship from Texas Baptists and support from STCH Ministries. Her two seasons living at Boothe Campus, separated by so much time away, give her a unique perspective on the impact that the children’s home had on her life.
“I think as a kid I didn’t really understand why I was at STCH or what was going on,” Samantha says. “But now I’m really grateful and glad that STCH and the people there have been a part of my life. Because I like who I have become and I also wouldn’t be where I am without them.”
Josh can recall the sensation of returning to a place that still lived in his early childhood memories. “It was cool coming back here the second time around and seeing the pictures of us when we were little.”
In his final three years of high school, Josh continued his distinguished athletic career, bringing home a slew of victories in track and field and cross country for the Pettus Eagles. On
June 1, 2018, he graduated as an honor roll student and intends to pursue a degree in kinesiology.
“Athletics is my passion,” he says. “I like the hustle. I like the competition. I like getting me and others better at what they enjoy doing.”
As Josh spends his post-high-school summer on Boothe Campus, he reflects on both the hardships and the opportunities that have influenced his life.
“I feel like this is something God had a set plan for us to do—come back here and just be a light to others, kind of share our story.”
For Laura, who left the children’s home as a three-year-old, returning as a preteen was uncharted territory.
“I thought it was really weird,” she admits.
Three years later, she is one of the kids that knows her way around and can make new children feel welcome on campus.
Laura says she especially enjoys summer time at Boothe Campus, often swimming in the pool and playing in the gym. She also enjoys volunteering for VBS at her church and taking part in the vocational training program at Homes for Children, in which the students get to spend time shadowing staff members on the job.
Older sister Lindsay says of Laura, “She is a very kind, funny, and loving young lady who I know will do great things.”
Lilly, the oldest sibling, lives in Aransas Pass with her husband Adam and their one-year-old daughter.
“My life was completely changed the day I was dropped off at STCH,” she says. “Without STCH, I would not be where I am today. I don’t think college would have ever been in the plans, and here I am a registered nurse like I’ve always prayed about.”
The rest of the siblings know that the door is always open at Lilly’s house. For holidays and special occasions, that is still the place they call “home”.
“It makes my heart extremely happy that this is where home is to them and that I can provide that for them,” says Lilly.
Lindsay, the second oldest sister, is also a registered nurse, now working in Waco, Texas. Although she doesn’t get to see her siblings as much as she would like because of the distance, she says they still have a special bond.
“As siblings we are the only people who really understand each other,” Lindsay explains, “and I believe we are all pretty close because of the situation we had to go through.”
Lilly adds, “To say my siblings and I struggled is an understatement. We have been through so much and I feel like we have come out so much stronger on the other side. There are those in our lives that know some of our story, some that know a lot of our story, and some that do not know anything at all. And I think to be around my siblings and I, you would never know the struggle, the pain, or the heartache that we have endured in our lifetime.”
Their resilience, Lilly says, is rooted in faith and family.
“At the end of the day we are the Parker kids. God has sent us through rough waters; we may fall, but we will always get up again.”
From left to right: Oldest sister Lilly and her husband Adam, Laura holding her one-year-old niece Harper, Josh, and Samantha. The Parker siblings enjoy spending time together and often congregate at Lilly and Adam’s home for holidays and special occasions.
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STCH Ministries is a Texas Baptists affiliated agency, one of twenty-eight Christian education and human care institutions across the state that are part of the extended family of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT). Each member of this family operates independently, but we are intrinsically linked by our faith and our mission to advance kingdom work. Consisting of more than 5,300 Baptist churches, the BGCT serves a vital role in supporting the ministry of its member organizations.
STCH Ministries President and CEO Eron Green (left) shakes hands with BGCT Executive Director David Hardage at the 2016 Annual Meeting.
“We are institutions that are cut from a very similar cloth,” STCH Ministries President and CEO Eron Green said about the relationship between STCH Ministries and the BGCT.
So how does this connection play out in the day-to-day work of STCH Ministries? One significant benefit is the support that Texas Baptists provide through the Cooperative Program. The program brings together financial contributions from participating churches to fund missions, evangelism, education, and ministry efforts.
Over the past ten years alone, the Texas Baptists Cooperative Program has given $5.85 million to STCH Ministries to help provide homes, counseling, and life-skills training to hurting families.
“The convention believes in the mission, the results, and the work of STCH,” said Steve Vernon, Texas Baptists Associate Executive Director. “We value the partnership and rejoice in the amazing work that is ongoing at this vital ministry.”
Tim Williams, STCH Ministries Director of Church Relations, is one of the staff members who travel across the state sharing with churches about the work of STCH Ministries. He often speaks to church members who do not realize that their regular church giving already helps support our ministries.
“There are a lot of different ways that the program makes an impact that people are not even aware of,” Williams said. “STCH Ministries is their ministry to children and hurting families because they support us and have supported us through the BGCT Cooperative Program. They help us do it.”
The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering provides groceries for families served by STCH Ministries International.
While the Cooperative Program supports the overall mission of STCH Ministries, there are additional resources for specific areas of need. The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering provides a monthly grant to STCH Ministries International, which buys food in the Dominican Republic for needy children. Our local ministry team members already have relationships with families who are benefitting from our medical, dental, and construction mission projects. The additional resource of Hunger Offering groceries brings another element of stability into the lives of children who are on the verge of breaking free from generational poverty.
Closer to home, the relationship between STCH Ministries and Texas Baptists helps open doors to the future for children who grow up at Boothe Campus. STCH Ministries Homes for Children has always maintained a commitment to provide an opportunity for higher education to the children who graduate while in care.
“Our kids placed in care have the opportunity to attend college or universities in the state of Texas through our STCH Ministries Higher Education Scholarship program,” says Greg Huskey, Boothe Campus Administrator.
Thanks to Texas Baptists, that scholarship program frequently gets an extra boost. Upon high school graduation, many students attend Baptist universities, which provide significant scholarships to students coming from a Baptist children’s home. Young adults who may once have had no prospects of college whatsoever are able to receive a private, Christian education without the burden of student loans. Frequently, these students are the first in their families to achieve a college degree.
While at college, many of these students find fellowship and spiritual support at their local Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) chapter, of which there are more than one hundred across Texas college campuses. BSMs are a ministry of Texas Baptists that serve college students, while at the same time empowering those students to serve others.
Students from the Corpus Christi BSM, at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Del Mar College, have donated weekends to serving at Boothe Campus. During this time, students interact with the children, cook meals for the cottage families, and do minor maintenance work around the grounds.
STCH Ministries participates in the Texas Baptists Annual Meeting, enjoying fellowship and collaboration with dozens of other Baptist organizations and thousands of Baptist churches.
Texas Baptist churches and institutions have invested in many different facets of STCH Ministries. One of the ways that we give back is through a collaboration of our Family Counseling and Pastor Care ministries with Texas Baptists Counseling Services. When a crisis arises in the family of a pastor or church staff member, STCH Ministries is equipped to provide confidential counseling.
“We feel that if we can help to strengthen those called to ministry, they will in turn help to strengthen those they minister to,” said Darin Griffiths, Vice President of Family Counseling at STCH Ministries.
“STCH and BGCT have partnered together offering ‘intensives’ to ministry couples who are experiencing difficulties which could hinder their ministry opportunities,” explained Griffiths. “The normal counseling experience provides a one-hour session every other week for about 10 to 12 sessions. An intensive is different in that a couple can receive about 10 hours (equivalent of 10 sessions) worth of counseling in one-and-a-half days.”
As with the other areas of partnership, Griffiths believes that this collaboration is a natural fit, saying, “Our values are very much alike. From my perspective, the BGCT exists to assist those who are on the front lines of ministry, sharing the gospel to a hurting world.”
STCH Ministries is grateful to be a member of the Texas Baptists family and we look forward to many more years of fruitful ministry together in Texas and beyond.
If you are a member of a Texas Baptist congregation, we hope you will visit our booth at the Texas Baptist Family Gathering this summer. The annual meeting will be held in Arlington, Texas, on July 29-31, 2018. Learn more at www.TexasBaptists.org/FamilyGathering.
https://www.stchm.org/wp-content/uploads/BGCT-2016.jpg17072560Communicationshttps://www.stchm.org/wp-content/uploads/stchm_h-logotagline-e1704238942591-1030x257.pngCommunications2018-06-28 07:00:482020-03-16 14:22:46An Agency of Texas Baptists
When Golf is More Than a Game
/in Event Recaps, News/by CommunicationsEvery year, dozens of teams gather for some friendly competition on the golf course while at the same time raising funds to support the work of STCH Ministries. All of the children in care benefit from this event, but the ones most impacted are the young people who attend the event as ambassadors for the children’s home.
“Normally we take six to eight kids,” says Greg Huskey, Boothe Campus Administrator, who notes that aside from the occasional teen who has played on the high school golf team, this sport is a “foreign concept” to most of them.
“They may see it on TV. Rarely does anybody have a golfing background, and that’s primarily because of the background where a lot of our kids come from.”
Huskey says the teens have several responsibilities at the tournament. “It may be to carry the bags. It may be to pass out lunch. It may be helping with registration.”
And these interactions give the young people one of the most important experiences of the day: coming face to face with people who care about, support, and believe in them. Just as the golf course is a new world to the kids, the Golf Classic event shows them a whole new world of people who are committed to their success in life.
“For me it’s great to see them interact with those people,” says Huskey. “They’re genuine people. They care about kids and what we do in this ministry.”
If you haven’t yet signed up for the 2018 STCH Ministries Golf Classic, we invite you to register online today. No matter your score on the golf course, this is one tournament where you are always on the winning team.
Communicating with Love
/in ChangePoint Moments/by Homes for FamiliesMary recognized that God was telling her that she was that spark, and went to the other resident to confess that she was wrong. Mary heard something that didn’t sound like herself, knew it was God speaking, checked it with scripture, and took action!
We are amazed by the work that God has done in Mary’s life, and look forward to seeing her continue to mature and grow closer to Him.
* Names changed for confidentiality.
Sponsoring the Future
/in ChangePoint Moments/by International“My goodness, how you have grown!” How many times have we said those words to others whom we knew yesterday as small children? Days melded into months and years so quickly, and it seems overnight that the child has become a young adult. We have experienced similar moments with our sponsored Samuel’s Fund children, especially during the mission trips this summer.
It seems only a short time ago that we carried food and resources to the home of a Samuel’s Fund child. How their eyes widened and glowed at the sight of bread and milk, and special treats like peanut butter and cookies! Now some of these same children, grown into young adults, have joined our mission teams as translators. They assist in delivering food and resources to other sponsored children and their families and help with construction projects, orphanage ministry, and VBS classes.
Recently we asked Harold to share his testimony with a missions group. He is married to Sara, a lovely Christian girl, and works for Fed Ex. He expressed his gratitude for the sponsorship that paid for his schooling and allowed him to learn English. Today he is a leader in the IBQ church and pastors another “daughter” church during his off time.
“Samuel’s Fund sponsorship enabled me to get an education and learn English. That is the reason that today I have a good job and can support my family and my church,” he says.
Harold is just one of many examples of the impact of the Samuel’s Fund sponsorship program. It is an investment in the future of churches and families in the Dominican Republic.
Bailey Sets Record 42 Years of Service at Children’s Home
/in News/by Alisha HoltGinger Bailey set the record for the longest continuously serving staff member at STCH Ministries with a career of 42 years and counting. (Click to enlarge photo.)
PETTUS – In a time when median job tenure for professionals is 5.5 years, 42 years of service at the same organization is extraordinary. Ginger Glynn Bailey began her social work career as a foster care worker/case worker for the South Texas Children’s Home (STCH) right out of graduate school in 1976. July 12th is the anniversary of her employment with STCH Ministries and makes her the longest continuously serving staff member in the organization’s sixty-six years of history.
Equally remarkable is the fact that this distinguished career began as a dream in the heart of an eight-year-old girl while visiting a children’s home in San Antonio. While in high school, Bailey sent letters to children’s homes all around the state looking for summer internship possibilities and STCH responded. The connection eventually became a full-time position in which Bailey would touch the lives of thousands of children.
In 1985, Bailey moved into the role of Director of Social Services and continues to serve faithfully in that capacity today. In a career that bridges more than four decades, Bailey has witnessed many changes, ranging from technology to procedural polices and state standards. Bailey notes that the needs of children and families in crisis remain the same. The situations that bring children to the home may vary, but the emotional and physical requirements for personal healing are constant.
Bailey most enjoys building relationships with families and “being there” for former students needing support. “When a family has a concern about their child, they may be tearful or even angry,” she said. “They need someone to listen and to help them work through the process. I’m glad I can be there for those that are hurting.” Especially heartwarming for Bailey are phone calls from former students sharing good news, or alumni who drop by to show their own children the place they called “home.”
STCH Ministries is honored to count Ginger Bailey as a member of our team. We celebrate her steadfast commitment and exemplary service to children and families.
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STCH Ministries is a faith-based, nonprofit organization that has been caring for children and families since 1952. We provide homes, support, counseling, and life-skills training to those in need, and also reach beyond our borders through international missions. We provide all of our services regardless of an individual or family’s ability to pay for them. We are 100% supported by private donations and do not accept any state or federal funding.
Germinating Seeds of Love
/in Joanna's Journal/by Joanna BerryOver the last year, however, we sensed God drawing our attention to the ineffectiveness of our “hit-and-run” ministry to those children. Because our IBQ headquarters are between 1.5 and 3 hours distance from the orphanages, a “day” with the children actually consisted of 4-5 hours—a shared meal, a few games, and a devotional—and we were loading up the bus and saying goodbye. We realized that spending more time at the orphanages was a prerequisite for building a relationship, and a relationship was necessary to effectively share love and encouragement.
This summer we are grateful for the flexibility of teams as we have experimented with more time invested at the orphanages. This required packing an overnight bag, towels and a favorite pillow, groceries, and the all-essential coffee maker; loading up sports equipment, baking supplies, crafts and paint, saws, hammers, screws and nails. It also required spending several nights in unfamiliar situations, sometimes without air conditioning, and adjusting to a menu not quite up to the standards of the IBQ kitchen.
Each mission team came prepared for various activities. Bear Creek Baptist Church from Katy painted orphanage roofs and ceilings, added screens to windows, and shelves for clothes. University Baptist Church from Clear Lake built playhouses–a workshop complete with toy hammers, saws, and measuring tapes. And a kitchen with plastic fruits and vegetables, pots, and dishes. They shared training for caregivers in one orphanage and nurturing activities and Bible studies for the staff at another. All spent quality time with the children.
How can a mission team give value to a child who has been traumatized and placed in an orphanage? We can love. We can get on their level and make eye contact. We can listen. We can hug. We can sing and play and laugh with them. We can admire and affirm their “wins” in games or crafts. By faith we can plant seeds of love, and trust God to germinate in each heart. We may never see the results, but sometimes God gives us a glimpse of His work.
Jose sat angrily, arms folded on the sidelines, refusing to participate. “Can we talk together?” asked Emelin. “No, I don’t want to talk to anybody.” “Okay, can I give you a hug?” “No, I don’t want anyone to touch me!” Emelin affirmed him and the activity continued. The next day Jose approached Emelin. “Today, I would like to talk to you.” The conversation began and ended with a hug…which Jose initiated!
Spending more time at the orphanage created a relationship. Love germinated and sprouted a hug!
Stitched with Love
/in ChangePoint Moments/by Homes for Children“Gifts of handmade quilts wrap people in God’s love and symbolically demonstrate that Jesus and His disciples care;
the quilts represent the ultimate security blanket.” – Stitches of Love Quilting Ministry vision statement
For nearly as long as European immigrants have been on our soil, American patchwork quilts have represented comfort, security, and a place to belong. For more than sixty years, STCH Ministries Homes for Children has provided the same for children in crisis. For thirteen years now, the quilting ministry, “Stitches of Love”, of University Baptist Church (UBC) in Houston has partnered with Homes for Children to create unique quilts for each graduating class. These handcrafted gifts ensure that the assurance of comfort, security, and a place to belong continue long past high school graduation for the young people in our care.
Erin DeCola has lived at STCH Ministries for almost three years, and she is one of the five high school graduates we celebrated at Homes for Families this spring. After receiving her quilt, Erin tells us, “I really love my quilt and it means a lot that these ladies made it. It is something that I can pass down for many generations to come.”
Kyrenda Lambert grew up watching both her grandmother and mom quilt by hand. She remembers the wooden quilting frames that hung from the ceiling at her grandma’s home where the women gathered and worked together. When she and her longtime friend Donna Bennet saw the opportunity to take a quilting class at San Jacinto Community College, they were hooked. Stiches of Love is the result of that class.
“It’s about fellowship and living life together. We minister to each other as we sew, “ Kyrenda says.
Stitches of Love functions as both fellowship for believers and an outreach ministry for the church. The group is described as “women of all ages (early 30s – 93 years old) who enjoy quilting, coming together for learning, sharing experiences, working on their own quilts, and working on quilts that will be donated as an outreach to those within and beyond our walls.” Kyrenda and Donna wanted the group to have a purpose, to create ministry quilts for people experiencing difficult moments in life.
Every year, UBC quilters create a personalized quilt for each of the high school seniors who graduate while in care at Homes for Children. Each blanket is personalized to showcase the teen’s interests and favorite colors. In 2018, the graduating class received their quilts during a special graduate celebration of “Senior Chapel” at Wednesday night Chapel on Boothe Campus.
Isaiah, Haley, Erin, Joshua, and Mary we here at Homes for Children are proud of you. Our prayers and support go with you, we hope the quilt is a physical reminder of that support as you move forward to the next step God is showing you. Ezra 10:4 states, “Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act.”
Volunteer Spotlight
/in ChangePoint Moments/by CommunicationsAs a volunteer teacher for STCH Ministries Faith & Finances, Julie helps individuals, couples, and entire families learn how to make a spending plan, manage debt and loans, live more simply, and set goals for saving.
“Faith and Finances is the best title in the world to me,” Julie explained, “because I’m sold out on people getting their finances in order and I’m sold out on faith.”
“Julie Strayer is one of the most passionate and high energy volunteers we have ever met!” said Jimmy Rodriguez, Director of Faith & Finances in Corpus Christi. “She is a busy and successful businesswoman who finds time to follow her calling to help others, and she also recruits business colleagues and fellow church members to help out.”
It stirs Julie’s heart to hear students’ stories about the consequences of poor money management.
“One sad situation is people taking out payday loans to hold them over until their next paycheck,” Julie shared. “God says the borrower is slave to the lender, and these six-month payday loans are charging 60 to 70 percent interest! We’ve got to do something to help people overcome the obstacles that keep them trapped. Faith & Finances classes are a beginning.”
“I love that you don’t have to be brilliant to learn about personal finance,” Julie continued. “You can be normal and average and become financially secure. Managing finances is a basic life skill you have to learn, just like driving a car. It burdens me that people aren’t learning it. The world is broken, and it encourages us to be broke…to spend every penny we have. When you are financially broke, it is easy to get beaten down. Before long, every aspect of your life gets broken. But, when a person is willing to look at their finances and begin getting them in order, other areas of their life start falling into place. I truly believe that!”
STCH Ministries is grateful for volunteers like Julie who serve others through the things they are passionate about. What is your passion? To learn how you can serve, visitwww.STCHM.org/Ways-to-Help.
Loving the Functionally Fatherless
/in ChangePoint Moments/by Homes for ChildrenMany of our kids come from functionally fatherless situations; it may be that there was a divorce, a death, absentee, or situational fatherlessness. The children’s home does not receive the parental rights to the children when they come into care. The individual placing the child remains the one with rights to the children. We are called to come alongside, ministering to the family and children with the love of Christ, being family-like.
As Father’s Day came this year, as in previous years, my phone received many text messages of “Happy Father’s Day!” As I age, I can gauge the era in which the sender of the text lived at the South Texas Children’s Home. If the text refers to me as “Greg”, then the sender lived here during the 90’s; and if they call me “Mr. Huskey”, then they were from the 2000’s. I am grateful for having all these kids in my life. Whether in church, at school, or at the home, I have never tried to be a father to the students. However, I have tried to be “father like” to all.
Thus, that brings me back to why we are called. We are called to love. Love is what God did for us to the point of the death of His son. No greater love than a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). Love is more than words, it is a call to action, a call to love “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40), to show the love of our Heavenly Father. He is our Daddy, Abba, and Father to the functionally fatherless.
And a final thought: without receiving God in our lives, we are functionally living, but spiritually fatherless. Let us freely give what we have freely received.
Submitted by Greg Huskey
Boothe Campus Administrator
STCH Ministries Homes for Children
Together Again
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The story of a family, like that of an individual, can take many twists and turns along the road of life, and few know this better than the Parker siblings. Over the past fifteen years, seven Parker children have called Boothe Campus home; the oldest five are now grown, and thirteen-year-old Laura, the youngest, is still a resident at Love Cottage. Eighteen-year-old Josh, a brand new high school graduate, stands in the middle with one foot across the line of adulthood while he savors his last summer before starting college. To look at them now, one can see great potential and a promising future, but this family has seen their share of unexpected events, separations, and hardships. Looking back, Josh now clearly recognizes the hand of God at work.
“It gave us a lot of endurance and a lot of courage to do the things we do now,” he says. “I feel like God has done that, and then He’s given us this place to kind of show us His way of doing things.”
However, the future was anything but clear when a four-year-old Josh and his older siblings arrived at the South Texas Children’s Home in August of 2003.
THE ARRIVAL
Josh has little recollection of life before the children’s home, but his oldest sister Lilly remembers their arrival vividly.
“I was terrified,” she recalls. “A new place, so many new people, new parents, a new ‘family’ as I called it. I imagined a huge house with 100 kids, twenty kids to a room.”
Lilly put on a brave exterior for the sake of her younger siblings. “I HAD to be the strong one and not let my fear show through,” she says. But underneath the calm façade, she felt just the opposite.
“My father dropped us off and never looked back, so as any thirteen-year-old would feel, I was scared and felt so alone.”
Soon Lilly realized that the quiet neighborhood of cottages on Boothe Campus was nothing to fear, but like most children, the Parker kids needed time to settle in.
“It took a lot of adjusting,” Lilly says. “Probably over a year, to be exact, to work through the pain of abandonment and feeling unloved and ‘thrown away’.”
One year after the arrival of the six Parker children on campus, the family grew by one. Laura Parker was born and soon came to Boothe Campus as an infant.
For the next several years, the seven siblings continued to live at the children’s home together. Time and love began to heal the emotional trauma while the children built positive new memories.
“I remember all the different activities and going to camp,” says Samantha, who was in elementary school at the time. “I also remember all of the friends I had made while being there, and then also friends I had made at school.”
Lilly recalls the sense of peace that she began to discover as she settled into her new home.
“By the end of my sophomore year, I finally felt like I had a family, that I had ‘real’ parents that loved me for me.”
Soon Lilly graduated from high school at Pettus ISD, and Matthew, Lindsay, Andrew, Samantha, Josh, and Laura occupied a stair-step assortment of grade levels down to pre-school. They experienced the normal ups and downs of school and family life that make up childhood, but Lindsay (the third oldest) remembers this as a time of restoration.
“STCH helped us all heal and learn what it means to really love and be loved,” she says.
Life finally seemed stable. But the summer of 2007 would bring major changes for the Parker siblings.
THE SEPARATION
“I chose to stay because I knew the home would be able to support my dream of going to college and making a better life for myself,” says Lindsay.
At the same time, she felt a great sense of concern for her younger siblings.
“Honestly, I didn’t think they should have left,” she says. “I knew my dad couldn’t and wouldn’t take care of them like they should have been.”
The younger siblings moved to Port Aransas with their father. The move was bittersweet. When asked if he felt that returning to his dad was a good thing, Josh says, “In a way yes, but also no…He wasn’t exactly employed.”
The next eight years were marked by instability for the youngest three siblings, Samantha, Josh, and Laura.
“We moved from place to place,” says Josh about life with their father. “A lot of times he couldn’t afford to stay there for a long period of time.”
School and athletics became an important anchor in their lives. Josh distinguished himself as a strong competitor in track and field and cross country, accumulating an impressive collection of awards. But these successes could not completely eclipse the difficulty of their living situation.
Josh recalls one period of time when their father was in a relationship with a hoarder. They lived amongst the jumble of debris and clutter until the landlord sold the property, and then they were on the move again.
Meanwhile, Lilly tried to find a way to get her younger siblings back to the children’s home.
“I knew how much of a blessing it was to me,” she says, “and by all means my father had not changed his ways one bit. I would come over to filth and clothes three sizes too small. They lived in a garage apartment with no wall separation, just one room, no food in the fridge. Most days they would go to school wearing the same dirty clothes from last week—random people in and out of their house at all hours of the night.”
Without legal guardianship, Lilly had no power to change the situation, but she continued to watch, wait, and pray. Meanwhile, she completed college to become a registered nurse and married her husband Adam Flores.
REUNITED
“Our dad went missing,” explains Josh.
Lilly and Adam were at the airport returning from a vacation when they received a phone call. It was Samantha.
“Our dad had dropped them off with someone random,” says Lilly. “The conditions were terrible and they were scared.”
Lilly and Adam immediately rearranged their small home in Aransas Pass to accommodate two high schoolers and a preteen. When their father finally resurfaced, he was persuaded to relinquish legal guardianship to Lilly.
“It’s kind of like, if you love something, set it free,” Josh says. “He couldn’t provide a better living situation at the point he was in.”
Samantha, Josh, and Laura completed the school year while living with Lilly and Adam. The couple, then in their mid-twenties, was willing to provide a permanent home for the three younger siblings, but they also knew they couldn’t provide everything.
“My husband and I couldn’t send three children to college; we were barely getting by just for the seven months they lived in our home,” Lilly says.
The siblings sat down for a family meeting to discuss the pros and cons of returning to STCH Ministries Homes for Children.
“STCH could give them so much more than my husband and I could offer at the time,” says Lilly, “but I let them know that it was their choice.”
The choice was perhaps most difficult for Samantha, who was about to enter her senior year of high school.
“I was a little wary of returning,” Samantha says, “because I had made so many friends back in Port Aransas and it was a little hard to leave them. I had also grown really close to my older sister, Lilly, because I had lived with her for a bit.”
Despite these apprehensions, the three youngest Parkers agreed to return to STCH Ministries in the summer of 2015, at least to try it out.
THE RETURN
Even though she knew STCH Ministries would be a good home for her siblings, Lilly says that the parting was painful.
“I felt like I lost my kids, that I had abandoned them. I felt like a piece of my heart was missing,” she recalls.
But unlike the day twelve years earlier when she found herself at the doorstep of a Boothe Campus cottage for the first time, the return of the younger siblings was a choice. Samantha, Josh, and Laura also had adult siblings who knew what they were going through and could support them as they adjusted to their new life. STCH Ministries encourages these family bonds while children are in care, and in the case of broken relationships with parents, seeks to bring reconciliation whenever possible.
Within months, the three younger Parkers flourished.
“One thing I love about STCH,” says Samantha, “is that the people there really genuinely care about you and that’s really amazing, and when I came back everyone was very welcoming. It’s also pretty easy to make friends because most of the children there are going (or have gone) through similar things.”
Samantha graduated from Pettus High School in 2016 and now studies computer science at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with a scholarship from Texas Baptists and support from STCH Ministries. Her two seasons living at Boothe Campus, separated by so much time away, give her a unique perspective on the impact that the children’s home had on her life.
“I think as a kid I didn’t really understand why I was at STCH or what was going on,” Samantha says. “But now I’m really grateful and glad that STCH and the people there have been a part of my life. Because I like who I have become and I also wouldn’t be where I am without them.”
Josh can recall the sensation of returning to a place that still lived in his early childhood memories. “It was cool coming back here the second time around and seeing the pictures of us when we were little.”
In his final three years of high school, Josh continued his distinguished athletic career, bringing home a slew of victories in track and field and cross country for the Pettus Eagles. On
June 1, 2018, he graduated as an honor roll student and intends to pursue a degree in kinesiology.
“Athletics is my passion,” he says. “I like the hustle. I like the competition. I like getting me and others better at what they enjoy doing.”
As Josh spends his post-high-school summer on Boothe Campus, he reflects on both the hardships and the opportunities that have influenced his life.
“I feel like this is something God had a set plan for us to do—come back here and just be a light to others, kind of share our story.”
“I thought it was really weird,” she admits.
Three years later, she is one of the kids that knows her way around and can make new children feel welcome on campus.
Laura says she especially enjoys summer time at Boothe Campus, often swimming in the pool and playing in the gym. She also enjoys volunteering for VBS at her church and taking part in the vocational training program at Homes for Children, in which the students get to spend time shadowing staff members on the job.
Older sister Lindsay says of Laura, “She is a very kind, funny, and loving young lady who I know will do great things.”
Lilly, the oldest sibling, lives in Aransas Pass with her husband Adam and their one-year-old daughter.
“My life was completely changed the day I was dropped off at STCH,” she says. “Without STCH, I would not be where I am today. I don’t think college would have ever been in the plans, and here I am a registered nurse like I’ve always prayed about.”
The rest of the siblings know that the door is always open at Lilly’s house. For holidays and special occasions, that is still the place they call “home”.
Lindsay, the second oldest sister, is also a registered nurse, now working in Waco, Texas. Although she doesn’t get to see her siblings as much as she would like because of the distance, she says they still have a special bond.
“As siblings we are the only people who really understand each other,” Lindsay explains, “and I believe we are all pretty close because of the situation we had to go through.”
Lilly adds, “To say my siblings and I struggled is an understatement. We have been through so much and I feel like we have come out so much stronger on the other side. There are those in our lives that know some of our story, some that know a lot of our story, and some that do not know anything at all. And I think to be around my siblings and I, you would never know the struggle, the pain, or the heartache that we have endured in our lifetime.”
Their resilience, Lilly says, is rooted in faith and family.
“At the end of the day we are the Parker kids. God has sent us through rough waters; we may fall, but we will always get up again.”
From left to right: Oldest sister Lilly and her husband Adam, Laura holding her one-year-old niece Harper, Josh, and Samantha. The Parker siblings enjoy spending time together and often congregate at Lilly and Adam’s home for holidays and special occasions.
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An Agency of Texas Baptists
/in Print Edition, Vol. 66, Issue 2/by CommunicationsSTCH Ministries is a Texas Baptists affiliated agency, one of twenty-eight Christian education and human care institutions across the state that are part of the extended family of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT). Each member of this family operates independently, but we are intrinsically linked by our faith and our mission to advance kingdom work. Consisting of more than 5,300 Baptist churches, the BGCT serves a vital role in supporting the ministry of its member organizations.
STCH Ministries President and CEO Eron Green (left) shakes hands with BGCT Executive Director David Hardage at the 2016 Annual Meeting.
“We are institutions that are cut from a very similar cloth,” STCH Ministries President and CEO Eron Green said about the relationship between STCH Ministries and the BGCT.
So how does this connection play out in the day-to-day work of STCH Ministries? One significant benefit is the support that Texas Baptists provide through the Cooperative Program. The program brings together financial contributions from participating churches to fund missions, evangelism, education, and ministry efforts.
Over the past ten years alone, the Texas Baptists Cooperative Program has given $5.85 million to STCH Ministries to help provide homes, counseling, and life-skills training to hurting families.
“The convention believes in the mission, the results, and the work of STCH,” said Steve Vernon, Texas Baptists Associate Executive Director. “We value the partnership and rejoice in the amazing work that is ongoing at this vital ministry.”
Tim Williams, STCH Ministries Director of Church Relations, is one of the staff members who travel across the state sharing with churches about the work of STCH Ministries. He often speaks to church members who do not realize that their regular church giving already helps support our ministries.
“There are a lot of different ways that the program makes an impact that people are not even aware of,” Williams said. “STCH Ministries is their ministry to children and hurting families because they support us and have supported us through the BGCT Cooperative Program. They help us do it.”
The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering provides groceries for families served by STCH Ministries International.
While the Cooperative Program supports the overall mission of STCH Ministries, there are additional resources for specific areas of need. The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering provides a monthly grant to STCH Ministries International, which buys food in the Dominican Republic for needy children. Our local ministry team members already have relationships with families who are benefitting from our medical, dental, and construction mission projects. The additional resource of Hunger Offering groceries brings another element of stability into the lives of children who are on the verge of breaking free from generational poverty.
Closer to home, the relationship between STCH Ministries and Texas Baptists helps open doors to the future for children who grow up at Boothe Campus. STCH Ministries Homes for Children has always maintained a commitment to provide an opportunity for higher education to the children who graduate while in care.
“Our kids placed in care have the opportunity to attend college or universities in the state of Texas through our STCH Ministries Higher Education Scholarship program,” says Greg Huskey, Boothe Campus Administrator.
Thanks to Texas Baptists, that scholarship program frequently gets an extra boost. Upon high school graduation, many students attend Baptist universities, which provide significant scholarships to students coming from a Baptist children’s home. Young adults who may once have had no prospects of college whatsoever are able to receive a private, Christian education without the burden of student loans. Frequently, these students are the first in their families to achieve a college degree.
While at college, many of these students find fellowship and spiritual support at their local Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) chapter, of which there are more than one hundred across Texas college campuses. BSMs are a ministry of Texas Baptists that serve college students, while at the same time empowering those students to serve others.
Students from the Corpus Christi BSM, at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Del Mar College, have donated weekends to serving at Boothe Campus. During this time, students interact with the children, cook meals for the cottage families, and do minor maintenance work around the grounds.
STCH Ministries participates in the Texas Baptists Annual Meeting, enjoying fellowship and collaboration with dozens of other Baptist organizations and thousands of Baptist churches.
Texas Baptist churches and institutions have invested in many different facets of STCH Ministries. One of the ways that we give back is through a collaboration of our Family Counseling and Pastor Care ministries with Texas Baptists Counseling Services. When a crisis arises in the family of a pastor or church staff member, STCH Ministries is equipped to provide confidential counseling.
“We feel that if we can help to strengthen those called to ministry, they will in turn help to strengthen those they minister to,” said Darin Griffiths, Vice President of Family Counseling at STCH Ministries.
“STCH and BGCT have partnered together offering ‘intensives’ to ministry couples who are experiencing difficulties which could hinder their ministry opportunities,” explained Griffiths. “The normal counseling experience provides a one-hour session every other week for about 10 to 12 sessions. An intensive is different in that a couple can receive about 10 hours (equivalent of 10 sessions) worth of counseling in one-and-a-half days.”
As with the other areas of partnership, Griffiths believes that this collaboration is a natural fit, saying, “Our values are very much alike. From my perspective, the BGCT exists to assist those who are on the front lines of ministry, sharing the gospel to a hurting world.”
STCH Ministries is grateful to be a member of the Texas Baptists family and we look forward to many more years of fruitful ministry together in Texas and beyond.
If you are a member of a Texas Baptist congregation, we hope you will visit our booth at the Texas Baptist Family Gathering this summer. The annual meeting will be held in Arlington, Texas, on July 29-31, 2018. Learn more at www.TexasBaptists.org/FamilyGathering.