In honor of Orphan Sunday this week churches and organizations all around the world will be focusing on sharing God’s love for orphans and shedding light on the children across the nations and in our own communities in need of safe and loving homes.
From the beginning of time God’s heart for the cause of helping orphans and people in need is made evident in His Word. He defends the cause of the fatherless (Deuteronomy 10:18), takes care of orphans (Psalm 146:9), is a father to those without an earthly father (Psalm 68:3-6), and accepts looking after orphans and widows as pure and faultless religion (James 1:27).
Working with foster families and foster children I see God’s heart reflected in a beautiful and tangible way as I witness the healing, restoration, and growth that takes place in a child’s life after being welcomed into a foster home and cared for and loved by foster parents as their own child. It takes a selfless and generous person to have compassion for children and choose to be the answer to their prayers and the needs of our community by opening their homes and hearts.
The need for more licensed foster parents is only increasing as the number of children entering out-of-home care continues to rise. In light of this crisis, churches across all of the states are prioritizing foster care and stepping up to answer the call to care for the orphans in our nation by building foster care and adoption programs with training, resources, and support groups in hopes of recruiting more foster families to provide safe homes for children in need.
Below are some statistics from nonprofit organization Partners for Our Children:
- As of 2017 there are more than 9,000 children in out-of-home care in the state of Washington and more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States.
- Approximately 50% of these children live in foster home, 44% stay with relatives and 6% stay at a non-family setting such as a group home.
- Children entering out-of-home care in 2014 had an average length of stay between 15-18
- In 2013 within three years of entering out-of-home care 57% of children were reunified with parents, 16% were adopted, 5% were placed with a guardian, 4% became emancipated, and 16% remained in out-of-home-care.
God calls us to love the orphans as He has loved us and as an agency it is our mission to see foster children cared for in safe, loving, and faith-filled families who provide them the stability and support they need as their birth families work toward reunification or they are placed in an adoptive home. It is our joy to walk alongside our families who make the incredible decision to foster children.
If you are interested in helping foster children, we are recruiting more foster families for full time, part time and receiving care. E-mail us at [email protected] for more information.
