Children in Foster Care: If Christians won’t help, who will?
/
Scripture and Statistics:
God’s deep concern for orphans and the fatherless is very evident in scripture. *The Bible also makes it clear that Christians are to have this same depth of concern. **These scriptures are not only a command, but also a definition: This is what Christ followers do. They care for kids without families.
In the U.S., thankfully, we don’t have orphanages any more. But we do have children without families. Our “orphans”are children in foster care – over 21,000 in LA County alone. Many of them live in group homes (our nation’s“orphanages”), going through each day with the knowledge that no one really wants them.
Consider the difficult life of a child in foster care: Taken from his or her family without warning and dropped off at the homeof a stranger, often without his or her siblings, and without familiar toys, clothing or anything else. It’s confusing, destabilizing… terrifying. Trying to adjust to an unknown family, sleeping in a strange bed, figuring out an unfamiliar school setting, trying to make new friends – all without the support of familiar faces.
And then far too often the child is moved again. And again. There are instances of children living in more than 15 foster homes within a period of a few years, and each move deepens the damage to the child.
The Christian church hasn’t done enough for these kids. We help the homeless, an important ministry – but are we aware that over 50% of the homeless spent time in foster care? We are concerned about sex trafficking – but do we know the FBI estimates that over 70% of American girls/women in the U.S. sex trade have a history of foster care? We have prison ministries – but have we heard that 40-60% of inmates were once in foster care? These statistics reveal that to attack the root of these problems, we must help kids in foster care.
Some additional statistics – if a child “ages out” of foster care without a stable and caring adult in their lives:
• 1 in 3 will experience homelessness in the future
• 1 in 2 will be unemployed at age 24
• 96 in 100 will not get a college degree
• 1 in 5 will end up in jail
• 4 in 5 will become parents in their teens or early 20’s, and the cycle will likely repeat
Every day, 54 of America’s foster children “age out” of the system, often with nowhere to go. That’s 1,620 every month, 19,440 a year.
If Christians won’t help, who will?
Christians: the solution to the statistics
The Christian community can change the statistics – in fact, they are called to do so. Christians are uniquely positioned to help kids in foster care not just with their physical and emotional needs, but with their deep spiritual need to hear of the Father who loves them.
There are so many other avenues to help – here are just a few ways loving Christian singles or couples, old or young, can make a major impact:
• Assist at a youth group for kids in foster care—serving a meal, talking with kids, doing crafts, playing games
• Be an educational advocate for a child in foster care, making sure his/her educational needs are met
• Provide encouragement and guidance to a foster youth aging out of foster care, providing job/life skills
• Be a camp counselor at a Christian summer camp for kids in foster care, loving and encouraging them
• Befriend a child waiting to be adopted, providing him or her with support and encouragement
• Be a court appointed advocate for a foster child
• Become a foster parent – couples and singles of varying ages can open their home to a child
• Support a foster parent in your congregation with meals, prayers, babysitting, etc.
• Adopt a child – if one family from every church in your county adopted one waiting child, there would be no waiting children. No county in the U.S. has more children waiting for a family than it has churches.
We can make an eternal difference
The really great news is that by getting involved with children in foster care, Christians are not only able to love and serve as Jesus demonstrated, but are also able to tell them about their Heavenly Father who loves them. Christians can make an eternal difference in the life of a child by helping them develop a personal relationship with Jesus. That is great news.
So step in! If Christians won’t help…who will?
*Ps 68:5, Deut 10:18, Deut 14:29, PS 19:14, IS 1:23
**Ps 68:5, Deut 10:18, Deut 14:29, PS 19:14, IS 1:23