LAKELAND, Fla. – Dewey Bland pulled his van up to the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes’ campus in Lakeland, and as soon as he parked, his wife and three children started unloading backpacks stuffed full of school supplies.
When they finished, sixty backpacks lined the sidewalk in front of the Children’s Homes’ office. The Bland family delivered the backpacks from Cornerstone Baptist Church in Inverness where they are members and where Dewey serves on the missions committee.
This was a scene that was played out across the state this summer during the Children’s Homes’ Mission Backpack campaign that they conducted in partnership with Orphan Outreach and Moody Radio.
According to Dr. Jerry Haag, president of the Children’s Homes, the goal of the campaign is to share the love of Jesus with disadvantaged kids in Florida and in the developing world by providing backpacks and school supplies.
“We have already distributed backpacks to children in our care as well as to many other disadvantaged children in Florida. Later this year, we will be distributing the remaining backpacks to children in mission locations in Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras. We have a few remaining openings for these trips and would encourage people to prayerfully consider joining us,” Haag said.
“The success of this campaign would not have been possible without our partners at Orphan Outreach and Moody Radio. I listen to Moody Radio every day, so it was great to actually be able to work directly with them on this project.”
“I pray that each person who donated a backpack will be blessed as much as these backpacks will be a blessing to disadvantaged children across Florida and the developing world.”
Randy Rankin, administrator for the Children’s Homes’ Miami and Fort Myers campuses experienced a unique witnessing opportunity that came about from a request for backpacks.
“We received a call from Christ Fellowship Church that a police officer with the Miami-Dade Police Department’s community relations division wanted to know if we could provide backpacks for some of the disadvantaged kids in one of their areas. This organization was not on our distribution list, but due to the generosity of others we had some to spare.”
“The police officer was very grateful for the backpacks, but she kept asking why we would give backpacks to someone we didn’t know for kids we didn’t know. The pastor at Christ Fellowship and I simply said that we just want kids that are in need to have a backpack and school supplies. And more importantly we want them to know that someone loves them because God loves us.”
“We were kind of surprised when she replied that she wished that her God loved her that way. We asked her if she had a relationship with Jesus and she said that her God was different and that she was a Muslim.”
“We used the opportunity to share with her the love of Jesus. She initially contacted us for backpacks, but she received more than just backpacks. She heard a message about Jesus.”
“These backpacks opened the door for us to share the good news of Jesus Christ. I am praying that the message we shared will eventually lead to having a new sister in the Kingdom one day.”
“God provided extra backpacks and it was obviously for a reason. When God gives us something extra it’s usually so we can do something extra for someone in His name.”
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