Former resident of TBCH thanks convention for his care
- Jan 5, 2010 - 1 -
{REL[6708][photo]OgceoiP9REL}JACKSON, Tenn. – Patrick Tippit is now a policeman for the City of Franklin and a former U.S. Marine, but just a few years ago as a child and teenager he lived in a home in a rural area of Middle Tennessee “filled with abuse, drug abuse, alcohol abuse,” he said.
He spoke during the report of the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes, based in Brentwood, at the Tennessee Baptist Convention annual meeting Nov. 10-11 held at West Jackson Baptist Church here.
He often was scared and hungry, he said. Then he started having trouble with anger.
He went to live with an aunt. After a while she told him he couldn’t live there anymore. He started staying with friends but couldn’t stay in those homes for long periods of time.
“I didn’t have anywhere to go,” said Tippit.
He was studying martial arts and his teacher, a deacon, told him about the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes.
Soon he was being greeted at the Brentwood Campus of TBCH and shown to his home and his bedroom which included items for a fan of the Dallas Cowboys.
It was his 14th birthday. He wasn’t actually a fan of the Cowboys, he noted, but he appreciated the presents anyway. He had not received many birthday presents. The houseparents also took him to eat at Sonic for his birthday.
Those houseparents, he reported, “took care of me from that moment on. They were like Mom and Dad to me.”
His houseparents took him to stores and bought him clothes and a pair of Nike athletic shoes. In contrast to what he had been wearing, said Tippit, his new shoes were “like walking on clouds.” And with seven outfits of clothing, he didn’t know what to choose from, he recalled.
They showed him God’s love, taught him the Bible and about Jesus Christ. He became a Christian. He also learned God had a plan for him and received a lot of encouragement there.
Today Tippit has a family including his wife Michelle and two children with another on the way.
He explained that he is “incorporating those values that the children’s home instilled in me to be an effective father, … police officer … husband. That’s the only example that I really had.”
The path of abuse “ends with me,” he declared. “My children are raised according to God.”
The crowd gave him a standing ovation.
“We pray together as a family. We attend church together.”
“I didn’t have a hope. I didn’t have a future. The only thing I had to look forward to was escaping the situation.
“I don’t feel that I’d be in law enforcement. I feel that I’d be on the other side.”
He realizes now he was just acting like his father.
He thought “not much is expected of me so I’m not really going to do anything with my life.
His life at the children’s home gave him “the opportunity to know there is somebody – and a whole bunch of you are sitting here today – that believed in me and knew that I could make something of myself.
“I needed you and you were there for me.
“Thank you each and every one of you for what you’ve done for me and for what you continue to do for children today.”
This article is reprinted with permission from the Nov. 25, 2009, issue of the Baptist & Reflector, the newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
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1 On Jan 6th, 2010, at 10:34pm, Kent wrote:
What a tremendous story of redemption. Praise God for the BCH.