by Melissa Cargill, Village Community Coordinator
Summer is a beautiful season! It’s a time of sunshine, fruitfulness, and abundant life. I’m always grateful to see the flowers in bloom and trees with full green leaves. In late summer, we enjoy fruits and vegetables that were planted much earlier. It’s easy to forget that, not long ago, those trees were bare, and what is now ready to harvest started with just a tiny seed.
Family Advocacy Ministry and healthy community can be much the same. It’s fun to see a ministry in full bloom and a thriving community in action, but it’s important to remember that it all starts with one willing heart and one small step forward.
A Small Beginning
A few years ago, I took a call from an adoptive mother in Morgantown who was curious to know what it might look like to start a foster care-related ministry at her church. She had a passion to show the love of Jesus to vulnerable children through foster care and adoption. She also hoped to share the great need surrounding foster care in West Virginia with those in her congregation and give them the opportunity to serve.
Eager to learn, she connected with our team at The Village for training and an introduction to the Family Advocacy Ministry model. The model gave her a framework for the idea the Lord had put on her heart. Soon, she invited a friend to come alongside her on the ministry journey. Before long, both women completed FAM Advocate training and were ready to formally launch their ministry.
With the blessing and support of their pastor, they planned an event, ordered some Chick-fil-a breakfast, and invited their congregation to learn about foster care and how the church can help through Family Advocacy Ministry.
Starting with One Family
They started small. It wasn’t a big production or a whole lot of fanfare, just a few volunteers committed to providing wraparound support for one foster family in their community. They planted a small seed that day, and now it has bloomed into something beautiful!
A Community That Shows Up
Fast forward a couple of years, and that church is still faithfully engaged. The advocate who first called me a few years earlier is now fostering four children, along with two others that they had previously adopted. She and her husband have grown tremendously both as foster parents and as advocates. When they have the opportunity, they also encourage biological parents, caseworkers, and the siblings of their foster placements. Her dear friend, the church’s second advocate, has organized a supportive Christ-centered community around their family. This care community allows others within the church to be a part of their foster journey as they provide prayer, spiritual encouragement, meals, babysitting, and extra hands as needed.
Foster families need support around them to lighten the load, and children thrive when they are surrounded by a loving Christ-centered community! No one person can do everything, but a strong community is built when different people simply bring what they can and show up where they are needed.
This same congregation is also now meeting tangible needs for other local children and families through CarePortal.
Do What We Can
Their pastor continues to be a strong advocate for local children and families and recently joined us to share with other pastors the motivation for this work at his church. As he explained, churches do not have to solve every problem or meet every need to make a meaningful difference:
“Jesus said of the woman who anointed his feet with costly ointment, ‘She has done what she could’ (Mark 14:8). I don’t believe God is calling any of our churches to address the whole state of West Virginia’s foster care need, but I do believe that God is calling each of us, and each of our churches, to do what we can.”
It’s beautiful to see the fruit the Lord has produced through this ministry over time, but it all started with one phone call, one conversation, and one small, faithful step.
Could Family Advocacy Ministry be a next step for your church?
Learn how FAM helps churches organize their people to care for vulnerable children and families in practical, meaningful ways.