Missions

Mission Trip 2010

Mission Trip 2010 will be in New Orleans. Mark your calendar for July 17-24. We will be partnering with Hands On New Orleans (handsonneworleans.org) on a number of different projects that may include construction and community gardening, as well as homeless, assisted living and HIV/AIDS ministries. Additional details will follow as planning proceeds, but please indicate your level of interest in this trip by completing this short survey:

www.surveymonkey.com/s/RLBCmissiontrip2010. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Garland Hamic or Sandy Washington.

2009 Gift Market

Royal Lane Baptist Church Annual Gift Market – Sunday, November 22, 2009 Family Hall, immediately after worship

This is an opportunity to do some meaningful Christmas shopping, and learn about and support some of our mission connections at the same time.  You can make a gift in memory or honor of someone and receive a card to be mailed to the recipient.  You can shop for Worldwide Gift items that help support Christian missions and other fair trade international cottage industries.  A form is provided to help you make your selections.  You may pay with cash, one check (made payable to Royal Lane Baptist Church) or one credit card.

New this year:

My Possibilities – www.mypossibilities.org

This is a full day, full year, daytime educational learning, training, and supervised care program for adults with developmental disabilities (Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Traumatic Brain Injury, and others).  My Possibilities focuses on helping adults who have “aged out” of high school to continue their transition to higher levels of self-sufficiency.  The HIPsters (Hugely Important People) attend to expand their social networks and participate in activities in the areas of pre-vocational training, independent living, leadership and health/wellness at the center located in Plano as well as on field trips around North Texas.  My Possibilities has been open since June 2008, and has 63 HIPsters enrolled from ages 19-66.  This program is a nonprofit 501(C) charity and relies on the community to help these great adults. Your donations ensure that My Possibilities provides a program to increase the self-sufficiency of adults in North Texas with developmental disabilities.  During 2010, $400 is the average projected cost per month of our program for each HIPster, above the fee the family pays. We look forward to meeting you to answer your questions about My Possibilities. With your support we will continue to keep our fees as low as possible.

Genesis Women’s Shelter – www.genesisshelter.org

Our mission is to provide quality safety and shelter to battered women and their children through crisis intervention and short term crisis therapeutics and to reduce the occurrence of violence against women and children in the greater Dallas area.  Genesis was opened in 1985 as a safe haven for women and children fleeing immediate threats of domestic violence, often with nothing but the clothes on their backs.   Services provided are a 24hr hotline, emergency shelter, food, clothing, in-shelter alternative school for children, transitional housing, outreach counseling, individual/group therapy to guide through healing process, children’s play therapy, teen/family/friends counseling, parenting classes, legal services, safety with protective orders, etc. to equip the recipients with setting up a new life and brighter, safe future.  Genesis is also committed to raising the level of community awareness regarding the pervasiveness and effects of domestic violence in all income and situational levels.

Continuing this year:

Worldwide Gifts of Green Lake Wisconsin

Worldwide Gifts supports missions around the world in countries such as Thailand, Republic of Congo, Benin, Czech Republic, Malaysia, China, North Africa, and many other villages and small communities where seed money is needed to start businesses that encourage women to find alternative, better means to support themselves.  By leaving prostitution, drug cartels, etc., the women find meaningful work to gain self-respect and self-reliance by creating gift items which are then sent to other more prosperous countries like the US, by groups like Worldwide Gifts who represent these fledgling business owners and the women who work in them.  By selling the handmade items these women produce in places across the US and other countries, the profits are then returned to the women and their businesses in these poverty-stricken areas to enable them to buy additional manufacturing supplies to in turn make more items to sell.

Kids First Vietnam – www.kidsfirstvietnam.org

“We’re changing lives … you can help!” Our vision is to create educational and vocational opportunities for disadvantaged young people, most with disabilities, in Quang Tri Province so that they may mature into adults with equal opportunities, full community inclusion, self-reliance, and economic independence. Specifically the rehab-village is in Dong Ha where presently there are classes teaching restaurant style cooking, silk art classes, sewing, computer classes, and metal work.  The metal work students are building wheel chairs to suit all sizes and disabilities. Most of the students are handicapped and not allowed to go to public schools. The first mission for Kids First was to build a school equipped for the handicapped, with permission of the Vietnamese government, and is filled with over 400 students every year since its completion. Quang Tri Province is the poorest of the 58 provinces in Vietnam. Over 1/3 of the land has too many unexploded ordinances to allow it to be used and an average of one child/week is killed or maimed by accidentally coming in contact with one of these mines. In the first 4 years I went to Vietnam, two of my new friends and their families were killed while walking on what they thought were cleared paths.

L.E.A.P. Foundation – www.leap-foundation.org

A group of medical professionals who form teams and travel to places like the Dominican Republic, La Romana, Guatemala, Laos, Belize and other areas to assist hospitals in providing much needed surgery to children and adults with craniofacial abnormalities and other medical procedures, sometimes only weeks after their birth.

Youth Believing in Change (YBC) – www.ybc-live.org

YBC is a faith-based, non-profit organization whose mission is to give children a spiritual and educational foundation while offering a safe place to go after school to receive a hot nutritious meal as well as help with their homework.  YBC’s children’s choir performs in nursing homes, retirement villages and other places throughout the community. Each summer YBC hosts an eight (8) week Summer Evangelism, Reading and Life-Skills Training Program.  We are located at 8574 Stults Road, Dallas, TX 75243.

Southeastern Guide Dogs – www.guidedogs.org

This is a non-profit organization which manages all the various aspects of procuring suppliers, finding dedicated families to raise and train the puppies, leaders and trainers that finalize the transition of the puppies by coaching recipients of the young dogs once they leave their raisers and trainers to become the life-saving aide to people who can no longer function without additional assistance in their daily lives, due to blindness, mobility, and other medical issues, etc.

Wilkinson Center 214- 821-6380 – www.wilkinsoncenter.org

Since 1982, the Wilkinson Center provides pathways out of poverty for families in East and Southeast Dallas through a food pantry, case management, financial assistance and education. The Center serves over 400 children in after-school programs in Dallas ISD, resulting in the raising of their TAKS achievement scores significantly. Over 1,000 adults participate in computer training, career development, GED, English as Second Language, and financial literacy classes, including first generation college students taught by our instructors at the new Eastfield College-Pleasant Grove campus which has attracted national support.

Cornerstone Baptist Ministries – www.cornerstonedallas.org

Cornerstone Baptist Church lives the great commission every day.  They are truly a mission-oriented church. Working together with other organizations, the Cornerstone Kitchen provides free lunches and Bible study for the homeless several days a week.  They also operate a free medical clinic one or two days a week as staff availability permits and provide ongoing computer literacy training for those who need to acquire job skills.  They have had an outreach intervention program for prisoners which assists them on release by providing housing as they transition from prison back into everyday life.  An academically rigorous elementary education with a Christian belief focus is taught by the Cornerstone Crossroads Academy for low income and last chance, alternative school children.  While only a partial list of Cornerstone’s outreach, it gives a good overview of ministries sponsored.  Your support is greatly appreciated and will have immediate and significant  impact. 

Dallas Christian Women’s Job Corps (DCWJC) – www.dallascwjc.org

For eleven years, Dallas Christian Women’s Job Corps has provided a life skills and job readiness program for women age 18 to 65, designed to help them prepare to enter/reenter the workforce.  Each day begins with Bible study, and classes provide instruction in personal discovery, conflict resolution, basic computer skills, money management, parenting, women’s health and safety issues, resume building and interviewing skills.  For many of the women, DCWJC is the first step on a new journey toward self-sufficiency.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for Global Missions – www.thefellowship.info

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship identifies “the kind of Baptists we are” at Royal Lane.  The Global Missions ministry of CBF reaches out to the most neglected people around the world.  Sometimes those ministries fall within pockets of deep poverty within the United States, and sometimes the ministry is beyond the United States—but it is always to “the most neglected.”  In the gift catalogue you will receive, you will discover 24 pages of numerous and varied opportunities for giving that will make a difference in people’s lives.  From buying a sack of potatoes or buying a sheep for African immigrants who have fled to Spain—it’s all here.  You can provide a well for 250 people or provide a Bible for a Roma (Gypsy).  You can give $50 for a North African “start-up” micro-enterprise business or you can sponsor a medical clinic in India.

North Dallas Shared Ministries (NDSM) – www.ndsm.org

NDSM is an interfaith community providing charitable assistance to persons in need.  Founded in 1983, it’s a cooperative effort of 48 congregations that combine resources to provide effective, appropriate and efficient assistance to over 50,000 people each year. In 2009 over 500 volunteers will assist vulnerable populations with services including: Financial Assistance with Rent and Utilities; Food; Clothes; Medical and Dental Care; School Supplies and Uniforms; Eyeglasses; ESL Classes; Job Counseling; and Transportation Assistance.

2009 Fall Festival

Church Family Camp Out

Friday September 25 5pm – Saturday September 26 5pm

Special Camp Retreat for 2 Days and 1 Night for RLBC Church Families to Enjoy Indoor or Outdoor Camping

Many Wonderful Activities both in and outside Camp Lodge
Please bring Guests to be a part of our retreat
Located at Springhill Retreat off of Renner Rd. in Richardson
http://www.springhillretreat.org/

2009 RLBC Mission Trip

Saturday, August 1st – Friday, August 7th

Partnership with Cornerstone Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas

Volunteer opportunities include collecting school supplies, construction, VBS, soccer camp, drama/music camp, visiting nursing homes,  preparing food for homeless, serving food for homeless, computer classes and much more!

Those wishing to participate can stay on-site or commute.
Application Form for 2009 Mission Trip (Please return to the Church office)
Alternative Ways to Participate