Listening In preview: Patti Garibay

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: developing Christian character.

Maybe you associate Girl Scouts primarily with Girl Scout cookies.

But increasingly, Christian parents associate Girl Scouts with something less sweet: liberal ideology.

The Girl Scouts recently awarded its top service award to a project that promoted abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Families looking for something different for their girls have flocked to a rival organization: American Heritage Girls.

Patti Garibay is one of the founders. It’s a Christian-based group that began in 1995. It’s grown today to more than 43,000 members all across the country.

On this week’s Listening In, host Warren Smith talks to Garibay about American Heritage Girls’ mission and focus. Let’s listen now to a preview.

WARREN SMITH: Are you finding that Christian families are actively seeking out Christian alternatives like yours maybe greater than they have in the past?

PATTI GARIBAY: I think they find a benefit of eternally impactful organization or ministry for their kids to be part of. Sports are great. They’re not always eternally impactful. They’re looking for things that will create a moral barometer for the kiddos, that will be beyond what the family’s teaching, but what other adults are breathing into them, and other peers to come alongside and gird them so that they can, these girls can stand alone in their faith and say, this is what I believe and this is why. So really the Biblical world view, understanding who you are and Whose you are. So critical. Girl identity is really what we focus on.

SMITH: What kind of a girl do you want to come out the other end? What character qualities do you want to see built into their lives and what more practical skills do you want to build into their lives?

GARIBAY: Really a woman of integrity that loves the Lord. That’s what our product would be ideally. And we do that through service, badges and advancements in leadership and also outdoor skills where the girls can learn a little bit about self reliance and the beauty of God’s creation. All of these things working together make their faith very relevant and puts legs on their faith, takes it off that Sunday shelf and puts it into everyday life.

(Photo/American Heritage Girls)

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