Buckner International is a global Christian ministry that seeks justice for ‘the least of these’ by providing care and resources for orphans and at-risk children in the United States and more than 50 countries around the world. Through international orphanage support, humanitarian aid, short-term missions, foster care and adoption, Buckner has made a lasting impact in some of the world’s most poverty-stricken and socially desperate countries.
For 130 years, Buckner has been a progressive leader in the movement towards justice for orphans and widows. Today, Buckner works in an advisory role with many international governments to educate leaders on children’s issues and create new legislature ensuring lasting changes for at-risk children.
Simply put, we seek to make life better for orphans, at-risk children and families.
R. C. Buckner didn’t come to Texas with plans to start an orphan’s home. He and his family rode the 900 miles from Kansas for health reasons. But the Baptist preacher did God’s work wherever he landed.
He settled in Paris, Texas in 1859, when the state was still recovering from the Mexican War and settlers were fighting off Native Americans, not to mention disease and drought. And the Civil War was getting ready to break out. There was a lot of need. One of the biggest needs was that of an orphans’ home.
Buckner had the ability to feel for others, especially children. This drove him to organize a Deacon’s convention in 1877 to discuss the creation of an orphanage. Buckner initiated his first fund raising campaign, dropping a dollar in his hat and passing it among those gathered under a large oak tree. He raised $27, which provided the initial funds for the opening of the Buckner Orphans’ Home, now called Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas, Texas. The home admitted its first three orphans in 1879.
After that, Buckner used his favor with people and his mastery of words to rally people together to fund other Baptist orphanages, as well as hospitals, schools and support for the elderly. Houses for the elderly were lined up around the orphans’ home, with the retired missionaries and pastors doubling as grandparents for the kids.
It was a new movement of service. Before Buckner, there weren’t any organized Baptist benevolences in Texas. But he pulled Baptists of all convention affiliations in a new direction in the name of charity. And the effort wasn’t limited to Baptists. He also gained the support of Methodists, Jews, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Catholics who shared his values of helping those in need.
Buckner was ahead of his time. He worked towards healing between the races, founding the first high school in North Texas for blacks. He also broke ground for women, who had nowhere to study theology before he submitted a proposal to establish a women’s training school.
When Buckner died in 1919, his sons, Joe and Hal, and his grandson, Robert Cooke, took over his ministry. They were able to witness the organization’s continued growth and branching out to other parts of the state.
And Today, Buckner International operates programs throughout the world. The organization’s fifth president, Kenneth L. Hall, oversees what is now one of the largest private social care agencies of its kind in the United States.
Buckner International provides services that include residential child care, orphan care, adoption and foster-care services, prevention programs, senior adult services, missionary opportunities and a global humanitarian aid program, Shoes for Orphan Souls, which provides shoes for needy children around the world.
For 130 years, Buckner International has sought to minister to the needs of those Jesus called “the least of these.” Or as James wrote in his epistle, “true and undefiled religion is this; to minister to widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27) This is who we are, and we want you to be a part of what we do.
Join us in our quest to improve the lives of at-risk children and their families as we seek to change lives in the name of Jesus Christ.
