One Voice Tour Serves Orphans

By Analiz G. Schremmer

Montgomery, ALABAMA — More than 90 people from the One Voice Choir of First Baptist Church Montgomery herded into the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid on June 11 to sort shoes for orphans.

For the past 50 years, the First Baptist Church Montgomery high-school choir has done tours that involve singing at churches and mission-oriented concert venues in the evenings, and volunteering during the day.

“Our theme this year was “I’m adopted by the king,” said Chip Colee, the church’s minister of music. “We highlighted adoption stories in our choir where we had kids who were either themselves, had adopted sibilings, or their parents/grandparents were adopted, so it was really neat to do Shoes for Orphan Souls. It just fit so well with our theme.”

Colee said that he learned about Buckner International through a friend who had volunteered with Shoes for Orphan Souls in the past. “Buckner handled our group’s large size very well. We felt like we accomplished something helpful and exposed kids to that great ministry, great experience for us to be there and work.”

The group also posted a landing page on their Web site asking people to donate money for Shoes for Orphan Souls. They collected more than $3,000 worth of shoes and are still receiving donations.

“The kids started sending Facebook messages and e-mailing their parents,” he said. “Next thing you know, money was flying in.”

Coley shared the story of an experience that his group had with a lady working at the shoe department in Wal-Mart.

“I walked in to talk to her and said we are buying shoes for a ministry that gives shoes to orphans around the world and asked her for a discount and she almost started crying. She said just a few moments ago she had marked down shoes to $3 a pair and she said ‘I knew God had a blessing for me today.’

“The kids felt good about their whole experience at Buckner. They were glad to be a part of  helping children get shoes. It turned out to be neat thing,” he said.

Besides volunteering with Buckner, the One Voice group also worked with Mission Arlington several days and sang for churches, groups of homeless people and people who were just getting out of prison, Colee said.

Click here for more information on how your group can take a mission trip to Texas to help Buckner sort shoes in its Center for Humanitarian Aid.