5
14 in Kinship
Placement
6 PRTF’s
15 Therapeutic Foster Care
20 in Group Care
51 Trial home placement or foster care
Many couples choose to devote decades of their lives to restoring confidence
and promise in children met by traumatic situations by serving as residential
childcare workers or house parents at Broyhill. Betty Porter and her husband
Will, have been childcare workers for a total of 35 years, with 31 of those years
spent on the Broyhill campus. Before working for children’s homes, the couple
worked with the youth in their church. “We just felt a deeper calling in wanting to
give back and to give hope to children in need,” says Betty. “Like the scripture says
in Jeremiah 11, God knows and has a plan for each and every child.” With support
and encouragement, Betty has seen children truly blossom. “They begin to grow.
You’ll start to see smiles and you’ll get hugs,” Betty says. “They begin to do better
in school. They begin to like school, because school’s always been such a hardship.
They’ve always been so different from other children; they’ve not had clothes
to wear, food to eat. It’s just a security for them. It thrills my heart to be able
to supply that and see first hand those first smiles and those first sparkles in
their eyes.”
It is evident that Broyhill is changing lives one child at a time. So, what can the
community do to help? “Well the number one thing we need from everybody
is prayer. It doesn’t cost anything. Pray for Baptist Children’s Homes, pray for
these children, pray that their needs get met, and that God leads them into a
future,” says Linda. “Other than that, anything that you use in your household,
we need – food, towels, laundry detergent, all those kinds of things.” During
the Christmas season, Broyhill has a special sponsor program available. Linda
explains, “We have different groups in the community that adopt a cottage, so to
speak. We have the children make a wish list, and we give it to that group. They
go out and purchase the gifts and bring them back to put under the tree
for Christmas. A lot of people say, “I want to see that the child gets the gift,”
and we have them come. They visit the cottage, and they give their child
the gifts.” What a special way to celebrate this season of giving.
Be sure to check out Nikki’s full interview with Linda and Betty where the
ladies share some heartwarming stories from their kids and additional
information about Broyhill and Baptist Children’s Homes.
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HAYWOOD DSS HAS 30 ACTIVE FOSTER HOMES.
Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina serve all of western NC. and
have 18 foster homes (4 in Haywood County). bchfamily.org/serve/western
/western