Hurricane Harvey: Keys for Kids responds

USA (MNN) — After the recent strike of Hurricane Harvey, countless organizations flocked to Texas to provide aid to hurting families. Keys for Kids wanted to help, but they needed a partner who could get them on the ground.

That’s why Keys for Kids teamed up with International Aid to bring help to the hurting in Texas. “They were providing some resources to them including hygiene kits, etc, and one of the things they received at that distribution point was a Keys for Kids storybook,” said Greg Yoder of Keys for Kids.

And the impact of those books is already starting to show. Yoder heard one story of a single mother who was invited to church when picking up her care package. After reading through the book with her daughter, she decided to go.

Photo courtesy of Keys for Kids

“She had prayed that the Lord would just kind of lead her there, and when she got there she had tons of questions,” Yoder said. “She wanted to know ‘Why would a loving God allow this to happen?’ Well the pastor was able to talk to her and pray with her and, eventually, share the Gospel with her, and she came to Christ.”

Yoder says this is just one of many stories of the eternal and physical impact of the partnership between Keys for Kids and International Aid, and his organization is already actively searching out more partners and preparing for their next opportunity.

“We’re actually in discussions right now about how we can kind of make it a perpetual thing, responding to various needs in areas of the world in which they work, both in English and in some of the other languages we’re working in right now,” Yoder said. “Right now we’re using funds to make sure that we have thousands of copies of these devotional books and storybooks that we can distribute when there’s a need.”

Photo courtesy of Keys for Kids

Yoder believes that too often, kids are overlooked when disaster strikes, so he’s hoping “Keys for Kids will be that partnering agency who can see the spiritual side of the kids’ needs met.”

Want to help? Keys for Kids needs your prayer and support if they’re going to move forward and bring hope to kids facing crisis around the world. “We can have all the plans we want, but unless they’re God’s plans they’re just going to shrivel up and die, so that’s the most important thing to pray for,” Yoder said. “The second thing is that we have the funding and the resources we need. $100 actually provides 100 devotionals.”