Buckner marks 10 years of international orphan ministry

Posted: 8/05/05

Buckner marks 10 years of
international orphan ministry

By Scott Collins

Buckner Baptist Benevolences

Some say we live in a world without borders–that technology has made the planet a global village where travel and communications are instant.

But a world without borders still has its walls. Sometimes they are walls made of cold concrete blocks. Sometimes the walls are homelessness and poverty. For a growing multitude, the wall is HIV/AIDS.

Inside those walls, whatever they are made of, live millions of children. It's those children who were thrust upon Buckner Orphan Care International 10 years ago. After 116 years of transforming the lives of boys and girls in Texas, the world came calling on Buckner in 1995.

That's when President Ken Hall and Vice President Mike Douris made an exploratory trip to Eastern Europe, visiting Poland, Romania and Russia.

Douris recalls that Poland “was interesting, but there were no contacts to work with.” In Romania, they met with Immanuel Baptist Church, where they saw needs and opportunity but no immediate openings.

In St. Petersburg, Russia, Douris said, “the Department of Education rolled out the red carpet, and we met with key leaders” about international adoption. They also saw tremendous need and a willingness to work with Buckner from the directors at two orphanages.

Hall and Douris listened to a request for Buckner to help ease the growing orphanage crisis in Russia as it lurched forward from its communist past. Russian officials knew about Buckner's reputation as a “quality social service agency,” Hall said at the time.

Buckner's first international adoption soon followed, and by the spring of 1996, Buckner was sending volunteers to work in the orphanages.

Ten years later, Buckner is deeply involved with orphans in eight countries and sends humanitarian relief to another 30 nations. In 2004, 719 volunteers traveled with Buckner and completed 42 mission trips to Botswana, Bulgaria, China, Guatemala, Kenya, Latvia, Romania and Russia. Organization officials say that represents more than twice as many participants and mission trips from the previous year.

Also last year, Buckner delivered more than $2.6 million worth of humanitarian aid in the form of clothing, medicine and medical equipment, school supplies, toys, playground equipment, sewing machines, furniture and other essentials.

As the ministry has developed in the past decade, so has its focus, which is “to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by ministering to orphan children throughout the world.”

To accomplish that mission, Douris and the Buckner staff emphasize two core goals: Demonstrating the unconditional love of Christ to children and sharing the gospel with them, and creating a conduit for mission opportunities for Christians and churches to use their spiritual gifts and resources serving orphan children.

Buckner Orphan Care International has established a method of operation to support these goals that includes:

Mission trips designed to minister to children.

Providing huma-nitarian aid to enhance the quality of life for orphans.

Improving living conditions in orphanages through remodeling existing buildings and construction of new facilities.

Helping develop best child-care practices that are the least restrictive as possible and that promote preventive and aftercare programs.

Providing medical and dental services.

Providing Chris-tian families for children through local or international adoption and foster care. To date, nearly 30 children have been placed in adoptive homes in the United States. As well, Buckner's international foster care program has expanded to include Vladimir and St. Petersburg, Russia, Kenya and Oradea, Romania.

When Buckner Orphan Care International was born in 1995, Douris said the goal was to help countries like Russia. “These countries are starting over and they are trying to build an infrastructure,” Douris said in a 1995 interview.

Buckner leaders emphasized 10 years ago that Buckner was entering the international arena at the direct invitation of people in other countries. “We're not out there looking for new work,” Hall said. “But how do you turn down these people? They said to us, 'We've got hurts, and you've got expertise.'”

For the first four years of Buckner Orphan Care International's existence, the mainstays of the ministry were international adoption, developing social programs in orphanages and limited humanitarian aid.

But in 1999, Buckner took a big step forward when Ron Harris and KCBI radio in Dallas invited the agency to take over what was then the “Shoes for Russian Souls” program. For five years, the radio station had been collecting shoes and socks for orphans in Russia, where Buckner also was working. Feeling that Buckner had the ability to expand the project, Harris invited Douris to consider taking on the annual campaign.

Buckner launched its version of the campaign in 1999 and in 2000 changed the name to “Shoes for Orphan Souls,” ex-panding the program far beyond Russia. By summer 2004, Buckner had collected its 1 millionth pair of new shoes. Now, shoes are distributed to nearly 40 countries each year. Shoe drives are sponsored in all 50 states.

While the shoe campaign often is an end in itself, it also has opened countless doors for other Buckner ministries and brought additional invitations to help even more children in a variety of ways.

Looking back through the past 10 years, Douris, who has been part of Buckner Orphan Care International from the start, believes Buckner's international presence is an answer to the prayers of children touched by the ministry.

“When I look back at the last 10 years, it's not the usual measurements you would look at to determine impact and growth that make an impression, but the faces of individual children,” Douris said. “I see hundreds of them who now have the reflection of hope in their eyes. That is the true indication of God's work through Buckner.

“I've come to realize that it's not about Buckner but about God's love for children around the world who are crying out to him,” he added. “God is sending us out in answer to their prayers to show them how much he loves them. What a privilege and what a responsibility.”