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HOUSEPARENTS Ray and Betty Brown help children feel loved.
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Baptist houseparents help troubled children live in lap of love
___By Jonathan Echols
___South Texas Children's Home
___BEEVILLE--Mayra came to the children's shelter in the spring of 2001. Like most children who arrive at the emergency shelter, she was frightened.
___"The first night, I was pretty sad and lonely," she recalled. "Mrs. B. came up to me and hugged me and told me it was going to be all right. She started a devotional. I didn't know what that was then, but she made it fun."
___Through those devotionals, "Mrs. B." helped Mayra find a Bible verse that she has made her own and has never forgotten. "Mrs. B. helped me find Psalm 27:10, which says, 'Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.'"
___"Mrs. B" is Betty Brown, a houseparent with South Texas Children's Home, a ministry affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Brown understands more than most people what it's like to feel sad and lonely, to live in an abusive situation, to be torn away from family members. In 1960, she was placed in a children's home in Ruston, La.
___While there, she was nurtured by Mrs. Beasley, a house-parent who made a deep impression on her.
___"I left the children's home with the thought that one day I would like to be a worker like Mrs. Beasley," Brown explained. "I told myself I would know how to love the children, listen to them, hug them, take time to teach and help them, and correct them in a loving way."
___Forty years later, she counts it a unique coincidence that she is called by the same name as her mentor, "Mrs. B."
___"Every time one of the kids calls me that, I always think about Mrs. Beasley and what she meant to me."
___Mayra is now 14 and lives on the Boothe campus of South Texas Children's Home in Beeville. She is one of thousands of children Brown and her husband, Ray, have cared for and loved over the years. The Browns came to South Texas Children's Home's Roberts Memorial Shelter in Corpus Christi in 1985 as relief workers. In 1990, they moved in as full-time houseparents and have remained there.
___The Browns have given more than food, clothing and shelter to the children. "We consider the children's spiritual growth to be very important," she said. "We give them the plan of salvation, teach daily Bible stories and teach them how to pray."
___Last year, the Browns celebrated 12 years of service at the children's home. They believe the rewards of the job far outweigh the sacrifices they have made.
___"For the last 12 years, I have lived my dream with the help of God, Ray, and the South Texas Children's Home," Brown said.
___"We have made sacrifices," her husband said. "There have been times Betty has stayed up all night talking to a child who had just come in and was in emotional turmoil. It's the little things that are rewarding, though. Seeing the smiles on the kids' faces, that's payday. It makes it worthwhile."
___"Houseparents like Ray and Betty, who feel a call to minister to children, are very critical to the ministry of South Texas Children's Home," said Jerry Haag, president of the ministry. "We are constantly in search of couples who are willing to love and care for these precious children who already have faced tremendous obstacles in their young lives."
___Roberts Memorial Children's Shelter was built in 1978. It is an emergency shelter licensed to care for up to 12 children through the age of 17. Children come from many places and circumstances at all hours of the day and night. They usually are helped at the shelter no longer than 30 days, while arrangements are made for them to be placed in long-term care.
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The Baptist Standard
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