FBCH dedicates new Piper Children’s Center at Lakeland campus

Courtesy photo

Paul and Shirley Piper are the major benefactors of the new Piper Children’s Center at Florida Baptist Children’s Homes’ Lakeland campus.

LAKELAND (FBCH)—The Florida Baptist Children’s Homes recently dedicated a new15,000-square-foot building on their Lakeland campus, which will be used to serve abused, neglected, and abandoned children statewide. The building is named the Piper Children's Center after the major benefactors of the building, Paul and Shirley Piper.

The building stands at the entrance to the 35-acre Lakeland campus, which has provided residential facilities and services to children since 1948. The Children’s Homes also provides residential care for at-risk children in Miami, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola and provides foster care in private homes throughout the state.

“What we do in this building every day is sacred,” Children's Homes president Jerry Haag said to a large group of people who had gathered to dedicate the Piper Children's Center April 19. “It will be our gift—our fast to the Lord—as we reach out to the children. What we dedicate here is not a physical asset. It's not four walls of concrete, of stone and brick. What we dedicate here today—what makes this building so very special—is the ministry that will take place within its walls.”

Haag spoke of the importance of the Children’s Homes ministry. He said FBCH has a Christian obligation to provide love and care to children whose parents or guardians couldn't or wouldn't fulfill those essential needs.

“We say we have a great opportunity to help these children, but this is not an opportunity that we share. This is a God-given mandate that we have,” Haag said. “No matter what the cost, no child should live in a world where they have to worry about their safety and where they have to worry about their family.”

The Piper Children's Center will house staff that provide various services such as social work, health care, information systems, and administration. Haag said that, on the many occasions when he has thanked the Pipers for the generous gift, the couple has said “they were the ones who received the greatest blessing. Their gift to the Piper Children's Center will change the lives and change the eternities of children for generations to come.”