Today was the 8046 Foster Care conference and it was simply amazing. I feel so blessed to have been able to attend and be witness to the awesome movement God is leading in the hearts of Oklahomans as it regards children in the foster care system. It was shared that when the conference was being developed the creators hoped it would draw about 60 people from the local Church community. Praise God there were over 300 people in attendance today!
We heard testimonies from two former foster children who were touched by the Lord through caring foster families and who grew to be successful adults, a pediatrician who was lead by the Lord to give up on a dream of being an ER doctor to instead be a physician and advocate for foster children in the shelters and through her own clinic for foster children, several foster and foster-to-adopt families, and ways each of us can either get involved with a foster care ministry or gain the tools to start our own local ministry with the help of countless nationwide resources and our church home. It was inspiring and gut-wrenching at the same time.
I will keep this post fairly brief because as much as I enjoyed today and all that I learned, it was a truly draining and emotionally taxing day with A LOT to process. I'll post more of the details in coming days but a few things I wanted to mention tonight are below.
The 111 Project (ONE Church ONE Family ONE Purpose) is a pilot program in Oklahoma created to get the Church involved with the foster care community. Their goal is to recruit 111 additional Christian foster families (or Bridge Families) within the 2011 year. The statistic was noted that there are about 6,100 churches in Oklahoma. There were 8,046 children in the foster care system as of January. If one church committed one family, we'd make huge strides towards placing all foster children in loving, Christian foster homes. The purpose of this program is to leave no Oklahoma child without a father or a family. See the 111 Project Video.
Lastly, a quote from Andy Stanley's sermon series titled One, Not Everyone... 'Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.' - Andy Stanley
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