I AM EXCITED!

I am so excited.  In fact, Scott is calling me an orphan nerd.  But that is ok with me, I am excited.  In the fall of 2011 when our church was starting an orphan ministry, we started contacting DHS to see how we could help and/or be involved in foster care.  We were hoping to be able to support the social workers, provide duffel bags for kids being taken into custody, provide diapers, bottles, formula, blankets, etc for the families taking in babies, offer training classes at our church for foster families, anything really.  But we were met by a stone wall.  I can not even tell you how many phone calls and letters I have made and sent.  Nothing.   I am a foster parent and still I could not get through.  It has been such a frustrating experience.  I have been praying about how we should proceed in this arm of our orphan care ministry.  Well, today, I received a phone call asking if I would be willing to meet with  Rick Valore!  I know most people do not know who he is, but to me, this is better than meeting with any celebrity!  He is the executive director of Project 127 in Colorado.  What an amazing organization.  Equipping the church to care for children in need right in their own backyard.  The number of children waiting in foster care to be adopted in Colorado has dropped dramatically.  The church in Colorado is taking care of business.  It is very exciting.  I have watched videos about this group and have read about this group and now Rick  is coming to Mississippi to talk about the state of our foster care system and how to get the church to care and get involved.  And....I get to go to the meeting!!!  Really, have I mentioned that I am excited?!  There are so many kids languishing in our foster care system.  Kids who deserve a family.  Someone to care for them.  Someone to show them God's love.  Yet, we are failing them.  We are scared.  We are turning a blind eye.  Well, watch out Mississippi.  I think things are about to change!  We need young parents, we need empty nesters.  There are infants needing homes.  There are teens needing homes.  There are teen moms who need a home for themselves and their baby/babies.  They need someone willing to show them a different lifestyle.  They need someone to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  It is time for us to step up.  We are all so very loud when it comes to abortion, yet strangely silent when it comes to the children who were not aborted.  Let's back up our words with some action!  How awesome would it be to be shutting down orphanages instead of building new ones?!  In the U.S. we like to call them group homes.  Sounds so much prettier.  Let's shut them down.

Project127.com   -   check it out

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.  James 1:27