Paula Cracium invited me to share about Royal Family KIDS Camp and Mentoring on her KKLA radio show, Lost and Found. In this interview, we talked about how churches create life-changing moments for children in foster care through camp and mentoring. Thanks, Paula, for helping us to spread the word!
It’s always an honor to share with my brothers and sisters at Oakhouse Church. This message on being interruptible is focused on Jesus’ ministry. (Message starts around 10:30.)
TraumaWise is a new(er) organization focused on creating trauma-informed environments. Here’s a clip from my recent conversation with TraumaWise founder Renae Dupuis, which was recorded for the TraumaWise Ministry Summit.
Focus on the Family invited me to share a story of courage in foster care.
Oakhouse Church invited me to share about foster care, adoption, and God’s heart for the fatherless through a message on Psalm 68. Learn more about Royal Family KIDS Camp and Mentoring by visiting For The Children.
(Message begins around 12:30.)
The good folks at Wait No More, an initiative of Focus on the Family, asked me to write an article on kinship care.
“You may have wondered before, “What is kinship care?” If you are caring for a relative’s children, you may not have heard the term “kinship placement” before you welcomed them into your home. I once met a grandfather who told me, “I didn’t know anyone else who was raising their grandkids—or that there was a name for it!”
“An estimated 1 in 30 children in the United States today live in a kinship placement. That number works out to about one child in every classroom or several children in any neighborhood! You are not alone…”
Here’s a video of encouragement that Focus on the Family asked me to do for kinship caregivers. I was touched by this comment: “This was the first time in 8 years I’ve felt understood through the thoughtful statements in the video.”
It’s such an honor to walk with kinship families! (And yes, I cry in every video!)
When my sister read the article that I just published at Focus on the Family, she commented, “I personally never considered how I could help youth aging out of foster care.”
That’s coming from my own sister, who hears me talk about foster care all the time, who has been a dedicated aunt to 13 foster children, and who personally has a heart for adoption.
If she hasn’t thought about transitional age youth, maybe you haven’t either!
The statistics on youth aging out of foster care are grim, but they don’t tell the whole story. There is great work being done to help them succeed, and many are overcoming the odds beautifully.
Here’s the article. I would be honored if you shared it!
Looking for ideas about mission trips and partnerships?
Over the past few years, Food for the Hungry has asked me to write a series of articles on churches who work with them overseas. These stories come from churches across the United States, partnering in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Here’s a collection of stories highlighting innovative and life-transforming work!
Orphan care goes hand in hand with understanding poverty. Why? Many–if not most–of the world’s orphans and vulnerable children have experienced devastating physical poverty.
If we tackle poverty, it’s possible to actually prevent children from becoming orphans in the first place.
Here’s an excerpt from a post I wrote for the Faith to Action Initiative, where I participate on the leadership council. Continue reading “If You Care About Orphans, You Must Understand Poverty”
