January 8, 2001
Texans have multiple opportunities
to help international orphans
___By Russ Dilday
___Buckner News Service
___MONTGOMERY--Paula Cogdell sits on her porch swing and tells about how she fell in love last summer. Her husband, Blake, doesn't bat an eyebrow. Her two children grin and look at each other. They've heard the story before.
___With tears in her eyes, she holds up a photo of two thin boys, twin brothers Attila and Stefan, who live in a Romanian orphanage near Targu Mures. The boys are a pair, she said, "who changed my life."
___As a member of a team of volunteers from First Baptist Church of Conroe, Cogdell traveled to Romania with Buckner Orphan Care International in July as a volunteer worker in Buckner-led camps for children living in Romanian orphanages.
___Buckner again is offering the Romanian camps as an opportunity for service this year, as well as several other missions opportunities in Romania, Russia and China for church groups and individuals.
___The trips range from short-term volunteer missions such as leading evangelistic camps, working in babies' orphanages or delivering humanitarian aid, to longer-term commitments serving as an intern to orphanages.
___Cogdell, a school teacher, said that for her and other volunteers, participating in the Buckner mission trips was a double blessing. She will lead a group of her students back to Romania in June to participate in another camp.
___"We saw so much that these children wanted the human touch," she said. "The look on their faces and their appreciation. I couldn't fathom that they could be so loving and caring. I came over here thinking we would be leaving a blessing, but we were taking home the real blessing."
___"That's the truth," echoed Tiffany Taylor, who leads Buckner's most notable humanitarian aid project, Shoes for Orphan Souls. "Our volunteers go over to pour out their hearts with God's love and end up returning with hearts filled to overflowing."
___Mike Douris, vice president for Buckner Orphan Care International, said Buckner volunteers bring a rare commodity to children living in international orphanages--hope.
___"Hope is one of the few things a child living in an orphanage has to grasp," he said. "At Buckner Orphan Care International, we're offering light for children who have known so much darkness. We're providing hope for thousands of children living in orphanages--children who have never known the Good News of Jesus Christ."
___Many of the Buckner missions trips already have been filled by churches and individuals for 2001, said Missions Coordinator Bruce Thomas, but many more have yet to be filled. "And filling these trips means filling the lives of these children," he added.
___Trips to Russia include:
___April 23-May 5, orphanage/Russia tour for individuals and church groups.
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___Available trips to Romania include:
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___One trip is scheduled for China in 2001, a Shoes for Orphan Souls mission trip open to individuals.
___All trip dates are tentative and subject to change, but Buckner is flexible in working with churches to plan trips that are in line with churches' schedules.
___For more information on Buckner Orphan Care International missions trips, contact the missions team at (214) 388-1442 or their web site at www.helporphans.org.
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