Children in Little Rock, Arkansas, impacted by the recent tornadoes are receiving some extra comfort thanks to the Royal Ambassadors at Wooster First Baptist Church.
The RAs recently assembled “comfort packs” filled with toys and other items to be distributed to children in need.
The group is a missions organization for boys in first through sixth grade. It is geared toward helping them develop a biblical worldview with an emphasis on learning and doing missions.
For this missions project, the RAs collected backpacks and filled them with comfort gifts for children. They made seven backpacks, comprised of toys and stuffed animals for both girls and boys.
Greg Hutchison, RA and missions director, said their initial idea was to give the care packs to police officers to disperse. But when disaster hit Little Rock, Hutchison, who also serves as Disaster Relief coordinator for Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief, saw a different avenue to distribute the items to children.
Hutchison loaded the backpacks in his truck and brought them to Immanuel Baptist Church’s City Center, where he handed them off to the Disaster Relief chaplains to take them into the impacted areas of the city.
“When they encounter children they can give them a gift, visit with them a little bit, talk with them and love on them a little bit,” Hutchison said.
Many people needing assistance had small children with them. Susan Harrington, who has been serving with the Disaster Relief unit of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, has seen firsthand how one little thing, like one of the toys from the backpacks, can make the children smile.
“Sometimes just one little thing makes them smile,” she said. “It doesn’t take much to make a child smile, especially with trauma they’ve been through. It’s sweet to be able to hand them something special.”
Once all the toys were gifted from the bags, Harrington said even the backpacks themselves were then given to children who needed them.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Mary Alford and originally published by Arkansas Baptist News.
