Dec 3, 2009

  

 

 

BSU performs service work at county’s Baptist Children’s Village
By: Beth Todd

In an effort to carry out missions and service work on the local level, several members of Northwest’s Baptist Student Union regularly take time out of their busy schedules to visit children at the Baptist Children’s Village located in Tate County.

Baptist Children’s Village has been in operation since 1897. Churches, individuals, and the Mississippi Baptist Cooperative Program all support the mission. The Farrow Manor Campus is the one that Northwest’s BSU goes to visit, and there are 24 children there.

“The Baptist Children’s Village is a missionary opportunity to help kids who are going through rough times, but it’s not just for kids. It is also for families who need some short term help during difficult times,” according to Northwest BSU Director Tom McLaughlin.

He said that while the BSU was involved in a lot of different short-term missions that were not local, they wanted to start a local mission that would benefit people of this community.

“It is good for the kids to have the college kids coming to hang out and play with them,” BSU Intern Andrew Kappenman said. “I used to go when I was a student at Northwest and I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun.”

Sophomore Haley Pierotti, from Independence, holds the responsibility of organizing the visits to the village this year. She heard about it at BSU and was a little hesitant to go at first. But when she went, she wanted to go back every week.

“To see how much those children enjoy having college students to just come and visit them and hang out blesses me and makes me want to go back every day,” she said. She encourages other students to get involved with this program if they love the Lord and children.

She said she feels very blessed to have the opportunity to minister to the kids and show them love, and it makes her realize how blessed she is to have a family she spends time with on a daily basis, which is something many of these kids don’t have.

Rev. Bill Tate is in charge of the Farrow Manor Campus, which is only one of the seven Children’s Village facilities in the state of Mississippi. Tate said God led him and his wife, Peggy, to serve at the Baptist Children’s Village while he was working as a bivocational pastor, which is what he did for 15 years previously.

“Our kids look forward to the BSU students’ visits to our campus. They play games with our residents and help with homework,” he said. “We appreciate them for their continued help and support.”
According to Pierotti, there is no question as to whether or not the children enjoy the company of the older visitors.

“I never knew how much the children really liked it when we came to visit. I go to church with some of them, but when school was out, some of the children would always ask me when we are going to come back again. There is one little girl that will ask me that almost every time I see her, and it makes me realize how much they really enjoy it when we come,” Pierotti said.

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