It’s the season of giving, so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite Christian mission organizations. All of the below organizations are supported by my church, and are very near and dear to my heart. I have been personally involved with a few of these wonderful missions for years now, so I’m really excited to share what they’re all about!

To not make these posts super long, I’ve decided to split them up into a few different posts. Be on the lookout for the second post later this month!

1. Shiloh Christian Children’s Ranch

I’ve blogged about Shiloh once before, when I first became involved with this awesome mission. Shiloh Christian Children’s Ranch is a non-profit mission that provides Christian homes for abused and neglected children in Kahoka and Clarence, Missouri. The ranch has six sets of “home parents” who live in houses on the ranch and take in children to live with them. Some of the families are big (up to ten children), and have kids from age 0-18, and other families include the home parents’ biological children along with abused children.

The focus of Shiloh is to meet the spiritual, emotional, social, and physical needs of each child they take in. The kids are exposed to a stable family environment, and have the opportunity to take care of farm animals, learn how to cook, and get involved with the local church. There’s also an on-site Christian school at the Kahoka location and everything is absolutely free for the kids taken in at Shiloh.

A few years ago, a representative from Shiloh visited my church and told the congregation about a young, grade school-aged girl they had taken in from a rough living situation. He said that he took her to the dentist for the first time and almost all of her teeth had cavities. They got everything taken care of, and he said the girl was a trooper through all of the dental work, but the story just broke. my. heart. It made me realize that so many people in the U.S. are suffering, and for children to be able to experience the love of Christ at such a young age can really make in impact on their lives.

The youth group from our church went on a trip to visit and serve at Shiloh two summers ago, and the kids from our church made deep bonds with the kids at Shiloh. They still tell stories from their time on the ranch. Each year, our church youth group goes Christmas shopping for the families, and we have a blast picking out gifts that the kids want, but would otherwise never receive. It’s always such a special day. You can read more about how I’m involved with Shiloh in this post. There are a lot of ways to support and become involved with Shiloh, including volunteering, becoming a home parent, and donating needed items or money.

2. International Disaster Emergency Services (I.D.E.S.)

I.D.E.S. is a Christian organization that meets the needs of people throughout the world that have experienced some type of disaster situation. I.D.E.S. is based in Noblesville, Indiana, and has been helping people since the 1970s. The amazing thing about I.D.E.S. is that 100% of the money donated to the organization goes directly to helping people in need. This is amazing because, unfortunately, organizations like the Red Cross, use around nine cents of every dollar for administrative fees. This sounds minuscule, but it really adds up. If a company were to donate one million dollars to the Red Cross, $90,000 of it would be used towards administrative fees (you can read an article on that here).

I.D.E.S. has many programs, including mission trips, disaster relief, medical services, hunger relief, youth programs, and more. As an example of some of the work I.D.E.S does, I took a screen shot from its website.

A lot of I.D.E.S.’ work is abroad, but it also helps here in the U.S., most recently with relief and repair of homes in South Carolina after flooding, fire relief in California, and more. You can read about the work I.D.E.S. is doing here.

3. Ninos De Mexico

Niños de Mexico is a mission organization in Mexico City, Mexico that is supported by churches and individuals throughout the United States. Mexico City is one of the largest urban areas in the world, and there are hundreds of thousands of “street children” throughout the area. Some of these children have been orphaned, abandoned, and/or abused. Niños de Mexico focuses on showing these children the love of Jesus. This is done by actively sharing in Jesus with the children and people of Mexico through Niños de Mexico’s children’s homes, Christian school, medical outreach, and church plants.

Niños de Mexico operates four children’s homes in the Mexico City area: Casa Génesis, Casa Bethel, Casa Ágape, and Casa Esperanza. Each home is designed to function as a family, with Christian house parents, their kids, and 11-19 children. The homes at Niños are loving and caring places for the children of Mexico to grow and learn the love of Jesus.

The fourteen boys who live in Casa Bethel on the east side of Mexico City.

There are quite a few ways to get involved with Niños, and you can check them out here.

What are some of your favorite mission organizations?