Sack Lunch Miracles.

It was my privilege last fall to attend the Brown Bag lunch meeting of some amazing people in Richland Co. who lead local churches and ministries. It was humbling to hear how God was at work in their midst. These spiritual leaders brought their brown bag lunch and gave their time to support one another in their burden for their community.

That day I was given an opportunity to share about Fostering Family Ministries. For the past two years, Richland County Children’s Services has been asking us to become active in their county. The foster care crises does not stop at county boundaries. Children are sometimes placed out of county and foster families serve other counties.

After the meeting, God impressed me to make sure to leave a few extra brochures on the table, just in case! You never know who may pick it up at church!

The following week I received a phone call from a man who discovered the brochures. It was the custodian who was cleaning up after the weekend wedding. He wanted to know more about our ministry. After seeing our materials, he felt God leading him to give monthly support to Fostering Family Ministries.

We had been praying for an increase in monthly individual supporters to the ministry. This man is our first individual monthly supporter. Once he received a set of envelops, he faithfully sends in a $20 bill each month to support our work to engage the church in the needs of our vulnerable children in foster care!

This sacrificial gift of love humbles my heart each time it arrives. It spurs me on to be a more diligent steward of the time, the finances and the influence people contribute to Fostering Family Ministries so we can help the Church make an eternal difference in the lives of those touched by the trauma of foster care.

Is this gift the biggest gift? On the outside, no, but on the inside, it is the gift of abig heart. A heart enlarged by love for those in fosters care and a heart sensitive enough to hear the whispers of his Heavenly Father and obey, whatever the sacrifice.

What is God whispering to you? How does He want to enlarge your heart for the needs of children in foster care?

Is it to give your time and of your finances? Is it to help your church partner with Fostering Family Ministries and be engaged in solving the foster care crisis in your community? Is it to share your time to support a foster or kinship family as they care for hurting children on the front lines? Is it to become a short term missionary in your own home, giving a healing home to children in need for the next two or four years?

Join me in making the ripples of the sacrificial gift large enough to end the foster care crisis in our state, one community, one church at a time!

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