One More Child is one of the church’s most longstanding and impactful partnerships. They exist to provide Christ-centered services to vulnerable children and struggling families. One More Child is able to do amazing work through specific ministries, including Foster Care, Child Hunger, Single Moms, Anti-Trafficking, Family Support, and more.
We are grateful to serve alongside One More Child and would love to share more about what they are doing!
Foster Care
One More Child provides loving, Christian homes for children through licensing and equipping families to care for children who desperately need stability and hope.
They equip churches to create and maintain foster care ministries to support and empower foster families. They also provide fully furnished Foster Family Homes in eight locations across Florida to foster families who will care for at least four foster children at a time. This provides the needed space for families who are willing to go the extra mile in serving as foster families.
This focus is vital for our community as Manatee County has the second-highest removal rates in Florida. Through our partnership with One More Child, our church can help make an impact in Foster Care!
global
One More Child also provides Christ-centered services to meet the physical, spiritual, emotional, and medical needs of vulnerable children and families worldwide. They operate in fifteen countries, including Guatemala, Romania, Kenya, Latvia, and more. In each of these locations, they are able to provide year-round ministry to the families. They facilitate many short-term mission trips a year to these global ministry areas.
Our church has had the opportunity to send teams with One More Child to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Romania. The Guatemala trip is one we are able to take each year and is the primary mission trip for our Student Ministry. This coming year, we are also looking at joining One More Child in a new work in India.
Azinger family compassion center
One More Child opened the Azinger Family Compassion Center in 2021. It is a 12,000-square-foot facility in Palmetto designed to serve vulnerable children and struggling families in Manatee and Sarasota County. It serves as a resource hub for distributing food, diapers, and many other needed items directly to vulnerable families and over 100 local nonprofit partners.
In the first year it was open, the Azinger Family Compassion Center distributed over 1.7 million meals and over $3.9 million worth of household items such as diapers, cleaning supplies, and hygiene items. Our church has had the privilege of serving at the Azinger Family Compassion Center during our Serve Days.
Single Moms
One More Child has an awesome program that serves single moms working towards self-sufficiency as they provide for their children. Specifically, they offer a residential program single moms can go through that equips them with the essential life skills they need.
One More Child also partners with local churches to equip them to provide mentors and launch Single Moms Community programs at each of the partner churches.
Serve One More Child – Diaper drive!
As part of the Serve the Neighborhood emphasis, we are asking everyone in our church to step up and serve one of our mission partners. With One More Child, this year we are asking people to bring diapers and wipes as part of our diaper drive. Providing diapers is a basic but essential part of serving foster parents, single moms, and more in our area. When we donate diapers and wipes to One More Child, they go on to be used by ministries throughout Manatee and Sarasota Counties through the Azinger Family Compassion Center.
Bring diapers (any size!) and wipes by the church anytime between now and May 7!
