Prayer Points:

Pray for the people involved: 

• Pray for the foster care and permanency planning workers that bear the weight of finding placements for children in the foster care system.

• Pray for children and youth being placed in foster care. If an able caregiver knows the children is not identified, then the children are placed in traditional foster care. Over 60% of children placed in traditional foster care will have to leave their home communities. The majority will not be able to stay with their siblings. 

• Pray for foster families. Foster families, unless relative or kinship placements, will be strangers to the children they are hosting. Pray that they can practice biblical hospitality well. Pray for peace and wisdom as they welcome and love the new guests in their homes. Children can often be placed in their homes for months and even years, and although the goal of foster care is reunification with their parents, the hope is that the children will feel safe, loved, and a part of a family. 

Pray for the places involved:

• Pray for local communities to have a passion for seeing that every child in their city, county, and region has a home. 

• Pray for local churches, that they would be intentional about finding up-and-developing homes that have a heart for biblical hospitality. 

• Pray for institutions that often have to assist in not ideal scenarios to care for children because of a lack of foster homes. Whether this is a shelter, group home, treatment center, or hospital.

Activity:

Where are the foster families? Whether it be a grandma that is now having to raise grandchildren or it be someone that is fostering children locally, foster families are the front line of God’s work of biblical hospitality. From Matthew 25:35, Hebrews 13:2, or Psalms 68:6, we see God’s plan for placing vulnerable children and families in a family context. If you haven’t been practicing biblical hospitality, how could you take a next step? Could you invite a neighbor over for tea or coffee? Could you host a gathering in your backyard? Could you support someone who is making this part of their faith journey by assisting with some meals or helping with caregiving if they are doing foster care? In Oklahoma, the Prudent Parenting Act allows anyone who knows a foster family to care for their foster children on a short-term basis (less than 7 days) if the foster family is comfortable with them caring for their children. There are so many ways to provide respite and support, you have to know where to help.

Get Involved:

• Interested in foster care or adoption? Let us help you learn more!

• Look for epicenters of need by volunteering at a local shelter (see OAYS.org), group homes, or foster care child-serving organizations. Faith-based organizations like Royal Family Kids Camp or Tulsa Hills Youth Ranch.

• Consider volunteering for a significant role, like becoming a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). CASA’s get assigned to advocate for a child in the child welfare system and typically only get assigned to a few cases at a time. The CASA’s role is to be the natural advocate for the family and child navigating the child welfare system and to be a non-biased perspective to the judicial process. There is typically not enough CASA’s in every community for every child to have an advocate. Learn more about CASA here.

• Want to support foster families? Consider giving a discount through the Oklahoma Fosters discount program to foster families or become a sponsor of the Foster Care and Adoption Association of Oklahoma. Contact 111Project and we will help you learn more about these awesome opportunities. Contact us!

Sophia’s Story (Continued):

After being at the local child welfare office that was hours from her home, Sophia and her brothers tried to settle in. The office was filled with cubicles, there were limited toys, and Sophia’s brothers were hungry. One of the workers had some prepackaged peanut butter crackers in their desk and said, “Hopefully this will help until we get you settled in for the night somewhere.” “Where would that somewhere be?” Sophia wondered. She knew her mom had a sister but she wasn’t around much and when she was, she was always drinking. Sophia heard the workers making phone calls. “Yes, there are three of them,” the worker would say. “Yes, the oldest is 11. No, she doesn’t have any behavioral issues that we know about. She just came in tonight. Ok, I understand…” Then, she heard the *click* of the phone being hung up. That was the end of the phone call. The worker was on the phone a lot. She said several people all around the State were trying to help find a place for Sophia and her brothers to go. It was getting late into the night and Sophia started to doze off. She just hoped she could stay with her brothers. A little nudge startled her. It was the worker telling her it was time to go. She had tried her best, but there was no place that could take all three of the children, so Sophia and her brothers had to be separated. “Who would care for her brothers?” Sophia thought. It was heart-wrenching to leave them. They would go to a foster home and she would go to a shelter hours away because there was nowhere else for her to go.