By Ken Camp
Texas Baptists are collecting funds for Spanish-language Bibles, Buckner International is seeking children’s shoes, and Baptists in South Texas are gathering emergency items and soliciting volunteer nurses to help minister to unaccompanied minors and mothers with young children from Central America.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas has established a “For the Children” fund to purchase Spanish Bibles and other supplies for immigrant children in shelters. Dan Trevino, associate pastor of Baptist Temple in San Antonio, Texas, makes available the Bibles to children housed at Lackland Air Force Base, where he leads four worship services every Sunday.
Donations to the fund also will be used to meet needs when shelters open in Dallas County.
To contribute, click here or mail checks to Baptist General Convention of Texas, Finance and Accounting, 333 N. Washington Ave., Dallas, TX 75246. Make checks payable to “Texas Baptists’ Disaster Recovery” and designate them “For the Children” fund.
For additional information about the “For the Children” initiative, call Marla Bearden with Texas Baptists’ Disaster Recovery at (214) 537-7358 or email [email protected] or Gerald Davis at (214) 924-6401 or [email protected].
Rio Grande Valley Baptist Association needs paperback Spanish New Testaments for a triage and transition shelter for unaccompanied minors in the Weslaco, Texas, area. Pastors will lead worship services and provide the New Testaments to children. For more information, contact Robert Cepeda, associational director of missions, at (956) 371-8516.
Buckner International is collecting shoes for immigrants and refugees in McAllen and Laredo in the Rio Grande Valley through its Shoes for Orphan Souls program. The greatest need is for children’s sizes 7 to 13 and youth sizes 1 to 3, particularly for children ages 3 to 6. Shoes need to be lace-up, Velcro-strapped or slip-on with closed toes — not flip-flops or open-toed sandals.
To donate shoes, drop off or send shoes to the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid, 5405 Shoe Dr., Mesquite, TX 75149. The center is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call (214) 939-7179 or click here.
Volunteer teams of registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses are needed in McAllen to work with Calvary Baptist Church, the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley and Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The groups will serve mothers with young children. For more information about volunteer opportunities, contact Marla Bearden with Texas Baptists’ Disaster Recovery.
Texas Baptists in the McAllen area are collecting new undergarments and walking shoes for women and children, backpacks, some toiletries, cleaning supplies and other items for the ministry. For more information about donations, contact Vanessa Quintanilla at (956) 279-5515.
Laredo Baptists are collecting diapers, travel-size hygiene items, bottled water, walking shoes for women, new undergarments for women and children and other items. For more information, contact Maria Garcia at (956) 693-1136 or Gerald Davis with Texas Baptists’ Disaster Recovery.
The Laredo Baptist Association will provide evening meals for families at Primera Iglesia Bautista in Laredo, and the association also is providing benevolence funds for emergency medical needs and other necessities. Proceeds from the “For the Children” fund will help support those ministries.