Location: Citadel Square Baptist Church

Address: 328 Meeting St, Charleston SC 29403.

Date: May 10th, 2024

Time: 6:30pm -8:30pm

Event Overview: We will play 10 rounds of Bingo.  Each round will have two winners – an adult and a child.  Your bingo card allows you to play the whole night – all ten rounds!  The suggested donation for an adult card is $100 and the suggested donation for a child card is $10.  Each round will have a wonderful prize valued at $300-500 or more for adults and about $40 for children.

If there is a particular prize that you’re interested in winning, you can get additional bingo cards for that round only for the suggested donation of $10 each, the night of the event.  More cards means more chances to win the prize.

Our Bingo Night Fundraiser is a great family event.  Bring the kids and the grandparents!  We’ll serve some snacks and take breaks throughout the night so you can stay for all 10 rounds – past prizes of rounds 9 & 10 have included diamond earrings, a $500 Marriott gift card, and a stand up paddle board.

The Need:

3,800 children and youth are in South Carolina’s foster care system. Today.  And not all are placed with long-term foster families because there simply aren’t enough.  This results in children being moved from home to home, placed in already full foster homes, sometimes far from home taxing an already overwhelmed system, sometimes in group homes, but rarely being given the opportunity to join a family. As a member of the family, not just a temporary house guest.

Day after day, our team receives requests for placement.  Children in need of temporary care. Dozes of emails and calls from morning til night and beyond. Siblings, teens, and babies who are in need of a home. And we believe, children in need of hearing and knowing the ultimate care of their Creator along with a home.

This must change. And the church must act as commanded in James 1:27.

The Response:

We as the church must lean into the mess of the system in the midst of its brokenness to bear witness to the ultimate Light of the World.

Through our foster care ministry, our desire at Lifeline is that children, who are removed at no fault of their own, are placed in missional, Christian homes during their time of need. We do this in partnership with DSS, at no cost to the state. We have the opportunity to provide this ministry to the state and children in foster care because of individuals, churches, foundations and private organizations who generously support us.

It costs $3,000 to recruit, train, assess, and maintain the license of one foster family. And that family then goes on to serve, on average, 4 children over their 3 year ministry. You can be a part of their work by financially supporting our ministry and registering to attend Bingo Night.

Our Goal:

Our goal is for 100 people to gather together and enjoy a fun night, each donating $100.

100 for $100.

This funds 3 families in their fostering ministry; this supports churches who are caring well for biological families and youth leaving the system. This brings 12 collective years of service to the system and collectively cares for dozens of children and families involved with SCDSS – providing them a place of hope and healing and ultimately a church family who can share the Gospel with them.