FOSTER FRIENDLY COMMUNITY
Closing Speech
Weld Faith Partnership Breakfast
05/09/24
One More Day
Thank you, I am honored to be in a room full of heroes in the room with DHS and parents who have rescued those closest to God’s heart. You are heroes in a big story that has an eternal ending and you are my superheroes. And I would like to close today’s story by ending in hope and a call to action.
Do you have a book or story where you know the ending, but you reread it over and over anyway? How many here know who wins in the end? That is our life on earth. You know the ending. Your life story should be a thriller if you care for the things the Lord cares about, because you will never be short of adventure when you enter the Lion’s den. The Lion fights back in ways that will strip you of every last reliance on yourself, so you have to look towards God.
How many of you here are guilty of doing things in your own strength? How many have done something in your own strength only to find out you are exhausted beyond hope? I have a suspicion that we are built that way, to turn us back to the source of hope and strength so we can’t become our own gods. This is a reflection on what is happening in foster care– no heroes are meant to walk alone, they need community.
Anything worth doing is hard, including and especially relationships after the fall of Eden. Whatever role you are given in God’s kingdom, being persecuted for righteous sake will earn you the only rewards that last.
And the faith community will continue to be persecuted for doing righteousness sake. But we are in the land of Goshen here in Weld County with our wonderful staff like Kristi DeAnda that encourage the faith community to be the hands and feet of Christ in this journey of foster care.
But most don’t know of the brokenness that surrounds us in our own communities. Mayor Martinez’s adoption story makes me reflect on a suite of state legislation that affected one of six people in Colorado. It allowed birth parents to contact adoptees and adoptees to contact birth parents, siblings, and reconnect to their tribe. That last time legislation on this topic was attempted was 40 years ago. Wellington Webb told me that when he attempted to pass this, he received so many threats. A noose even appeared over the railing at the state house.
And I was facing some of those same forces in 2014. I was threatened and meetings called in my name to spread disinformation. I told that the most powerful lobby in Colorado would not let my bill out of the first committee.
Adoptees in Search invited members of the legislature to see a new independent movie that made it to the big screen, Philomena, a real story about a mother ceaselessly searching for her son. And it broke the heart of a church and everything changed. And the now Lieutenant Governor helped shepherd these bills out of the committee and house.
I pray that the same phenomenon takes hold when the Sound of Hope (Possum Trot) comes out. I pray when others are awaked to the trauma of children in their community, that it strips aways all the scars that have turned hearts to stone.
When we attend to the broken and love our enemies by holding fast to the truth despite political winds, we are fulfilling his will as it is in Heaven. We bring heaven to earth in those spaces where we meet the spirtual enemy on occupied territory and rescue those from the jungles of darkness, and pain, torture, and neglect.
The most important mission trip you ever take could be the one in your own neighborhood. And the one you rescue from the darkness could be yourself if you still need to learn that God uses evil for good. You cannot be saved by works, but faith without works is dead. In order to be part of that goodness, it is imperative that we respond to the call here today and act.
Being the hands and feet can look as simple as providing a respite night for foster parents, providing one meal a week, mowing a lawn, doing laundry, fixing a hole in the wall. But all those small things give a foster family one more day together by having an immeasurable impact on reducing one more stress.
And give a child a chance to grow in their dream of belonging to a family. And our biggest challenge in Weld County right now is finding families who are willing to foster siblings and older children who haven’t had a chance to belong.
Taking care of those who are most vulnerable reflects God’s heart, and reuniting families is the first goal of Weld County after making sure kids are safe. You can show the love of Christ not only to these children but model it for the foster families and the birth families when you wrap around them in love. If you are interested in knowing what a wrap team is and how your church and community can be a part of that, please talk to Tracee Rudd with Colorado Kids Belong.
And coming around foster families creates community. When God’s people go on a mission trip, when they trust the Lord of the Universe in the uncertain and the adverse, Jesus always breaks the bread and multiples it. And he builds you and the community in the process. If you feel the call on your heart to foster, please contact Kristi DeAnda with DHS.
As Pastor Thomas said, we can do anything together because we can do everything through Christ who strengthens us. And as Mayor Martinez has said, you can be someone’s superman by doing small things that have immeasurable impact. Small immeasurable things can save lives now and in eternity.
God bless.