March 31, 2003
Buckner & CBF sign partnership to
launch KidsHeart along the border
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___PROGRESO—Buckner Baptist Benevolences and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have launched a partnership that will provide ministry to poor children around the world and offer ministry opportunities to Baptists from across America.
___Meeting at Progreso Community Center, barely a stone's throw from Mexico, Buckner President Ken Hall and CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal committed their organizations to the new program, KidsHeart.
___Now in its 125th year, Buckner is a Baptist General Convention of Texas organization that provides ministry to children, families and senior adults. CBF is a national fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches that engages in global missions.
IN ADDITION to Ken Hall (seated left) and Daniel Vestal, signing ceremony participants included Judy Battles of CBF Texas; Tommy Speed of Buckner Children and Family Services; Esther Fraire, a Buckner trustee; Felipe Garza of Buckner Children and Family Services; Cynthia Holmes, moderator-elect of CBF; Bob Newell, moderator of CBF Texas; and Tom Ogburn of CBF Global Missions.
___Through the KidsHeart agreement signed March 20, Buckner and CBF will "establish mechanisms for new funds, prayer support, volunteer involvement, field personnel connections, church partnerships and personal missions opportunities."
___ KidsHeart will minister to children and their families from Texas' poorest counties along the Rio Grande, to some of the most impoverished sections of the United States, to children's homes and orphanages in the poorest regions of Africa and Eastern Europe.
___The three-page KidsHeart agreement details almost 80 actions to be taken by the two ministry organizations. In general, Buckner will provide missions opportunities and social-service training for CBF volunteers. CBF will supply volunteers and financial support for ministry programs at Buckner facilities.
___ In the first two years of the KidsHeart partnership, CBF also will supply $120,000. Buckner ministries in colonias—poor, rural communities along the Mexico border—near Progreso, Laredo and El Paso will receive $90,000. The other $30,000 will be channeled to children Buckner serves in a Kenyan orphanage.
___"Nothing ever happens in a vacuum in a relationship," Hall noted at the signing ceremony. "Much has already been done in the past with the people of Progreso, the pastors of local churches, the association, the Baptist General Convention of Texas and CBF.
___ "We are building on that foundation. God has a way of bringing it all together to help hurting lives."
___ KidsHeart will mean much more than the details outlined on the pages he and Vestal signed, Hall added. "Partnership can never be reduced to paper. It happens in the heart, … based on trust. KidsHeart will make a huge difference in people's lives."
___ KidsHeart also will make a significant difference in the kingdom of God, Vestal added.
___ "There's something to be said for working together in every part of life," he observed. "But when it comes to the kingdom of God, there's nothing so important as working together."
___ Buckner and CBF were drawn together because of a common purpose—following the divine mandate of Jesus Christ to share the gospel and to meet human needs in Jesus' name, Vestal said.
___ "Partnering," the key concept behind KidsHeart, is a word that will become familiar to Baptists, not just as an idea but in practice, he predicted.
___ "For CBF, this is a historic day," Vestal said. "We see this as a great opportunity for the future. Today, the two of us sign the documents as Christian brothers, fellow Baptists and as leaders of organizations to help each other help people in a spirit of mutual trust and mutual respect."
___ KidsHeart expands an existing working relationship between Buckner and CBF to minister along the Texas-Mexico border.
___ Buckner already has supported CBF's Rural Poverty Initiative, designed to minister to people in the nation's poorest counties. Four of them are in Texas, stretching along the Rio Grande.
___ "We've been pleased with the initial partnership we've been able to have with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship," Hall said. KidsHeart "gives us a new impetus, a new enthusiasm to bring more people into the mix of helping hurting people."
___ Tom Ogburn, CBF associate coordinator for partnership missions, helped pen the agreement. The $90,000 to be sent to the colonias are "the essence of answering the needs of CBF's Rural Poverty Initiative, ministering to some of the most neglected, impoverished people living in the United States," he said.
___ Felipe Garza, vice president for Buckner Children and Family Services, called the gift incredible. "These funds will enable our ministries in El Paso and Progreso to continue, while opening up a new opportunity for service near Laredo at a time when the economy is recessed, missions funding is tight and not many ministries can expand."
___Likewise, Buckner Orphan Care International Vice President Mike Douris shared his gratitude for funding the Kenyan ministry, but said he was not surprised by CBF's generosity or commitment. "That's one thing we know from working with their missionaries in Kenya—they are true partners in ministry."
___"This is a great day for Texas, for CBF and for Buckner," declared Jorge Zapata, Border Ministries coordinator for Buckner and the master of ceremonies at the KidsHeart signing event. "We're here to celebrate God's work."
___ CBF volunteers will make that celebration tangible this summer, when it will sponsor a hands-on missions project in Progreso, said Judy Battles, administrator of CBF's Texas chapter.
___ The week of July 21, 30 to 50 churches are expected to spend the week doing vacation Bible school, sports camps, and home repair and maintenance.
___ Russ Dilday of Buckner News Service and Lance Wallace of CBF Communications also contributed to this article
___
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