Faith and Foster Care: A Call to the Church
Tim Noel, ABCFM Director of Church Partnership & Mission Advancement
I remember growing up at Eastside Baptist Church in Paragould and looking forward to the times when Greg and Jackie Meeks would return stateside from the Philippines, where they served as IMB missionaries. I found myself enthralled with the stories they would share. To me, it was the closest I would ever come to meeting celebrities. Not only did they serve in a country all the way across the globe, but they got to fly on an airplane—something that, for a kid in Northeast Arkansas in the early 80s, was a big deal!
I have always held missionaries in high regard. Then, in 2014, I had the opportunity to lead our church to adopt an unreached, unengaged people group in India who had minimal, at best, exposure to the Gospel. This only fueled my respect for both home and foreign missionaries who leave the comforts of the familiar to step into unfamiliar areas of the world with the hope of the Gospel.
It wasn’t until joining ABCFM that I realized something truly amazing. My family had served as an open foster home for three and a half years, yet this thought had never hit me before: all across our state, we are blessed to have faith families serving as missionaries—right in their own communities. They are leveraging their personal homes as mission fields.
Think about it. When children enter foster care through ABCFM, they are coming into Christ-centered families. These families are showing them the Gospel—day in and day out. They are part of a local church, which means these children are being exposed to Jesus, maybe for the very first time.
How incredible it is to know that pastors and church leaders can come alongside their church members as they step into the local mission field—right outside the church doors! These are not short-term mission trips. These are real relationships being built with children who deserve our very best efforts. These children—though they come from difficult situations—are created in the image of Almighty God.
Are they not just as much a part of the Great Commission as the people in the uttermost parts of the world?
Pastor, will you lead your church to join and support our very own homegrown missionaries here in Arkansas?
Church member, is God leading you to open your home as a mission field to the most vulnerable among us?
May we all rise up and see the harvest before us!
Find out how your church can get involved at abcfm.org/churches
or email tim.noel@abcfm.org