“Matthew 9:36, that’s a verse that’s become very important to me.”
So said Kevin Carrothers, Executive Director of Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS), as he delivered his report to messengers at the IBSA Annual Meeting in reference to his first months in the role. Reciting the verse, its relevance became clear, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Carrothers said BCHFS “values the protection, healing, restoration of families and marriages.” It does so through its five agencies: Angels’ Cove Maternity Center, Children’s Home, Faith Adoption, Pathways Counseling, and GraceHaven Pregnancy Clinic. Carrothers said three people have come to faith in Christ through Angels’ Cove with two baptized in local churches this year. There have been four professions of faith through the Children’s Home.
In line with IBSA’s For the Pastor focus, he said “Pathways Counseling offers six free sessions to pastor and wife. We believe in the health of the pastor and his family. We want to see him thrive and then we can see his church thrive.” The ministry is on track to serve a record 1,000 clients in 2023.
In a poignant video testimony, Kay, a client at GraceHaven, shared her story of post abortion recovery over 40 years after undergoing one.
When she learned she was expecting, Kay said she “was a preacher’s kid” who couldn’t see how her “father could stand in the pulpit and preach with his daughter pregnant out of wedlock.”
Then a sophomore in college, the abortion clinic staff told her it was just a “procedure.” But when she was laying on table, Kay said, “I heard the suction of my baby being aborted. I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I had taken that baby’s life into my own hands. I took that life and it wasn’t mine to take.”*
The regret and shame drove her to become a drug and alcohol addict. Years later she learned about the counseling ministry offered by GraceHaven for women who regret their abortions and seek forgiveness in God. She’s since confessed to her father what she did so long ago to “protect” him and received no condemnation.
“Kay’s story is one of redemption,” Carrothers told messengers. “It’s why we serve the Lord. To see lives transformed. To see how God uses his people to help people who are hurting and need the gospel.”
In other business, messengers approved the following for 2024:
– Budget of $3,937,000, which is $35,926 above the 2023 budget.
– BCHFS Board of Trustees Officers: Chair—Eric Bramlet, FBC Mt. Carmel; Vice Chair—Sarah Bordewick, FBC Mt. Zion; and Secretary—Cheryl Dorsey, Beacon Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago Heights.
* Updated November 29, 2023 to revise misattributed quote.