- Contact the SBCV Missions Team about starting a Family Advocacy Ministry in your church today at missions@sbcv.org.
- Give through Vision Virginia to to the James 1:27 Initiative which comes alongside foster care ministries across Virginia.
- Support Fostering Champions, a ministry serving teens who are aging out of the Foster Care system.
Sunday, May 12 was Foster Care Awareness Sunday
How will your church be involved in serving the vulnerable?
Pray
Pray for children in foster care to know the love of God through SBCV church members willing to get involved in their lives.
Pray for foster families in your area and ask the Lord to call out even more foster families from your church.
Pray about starting a Family Advocacy Ministry in your church to meet tangible and spiritual needs in your community.
In Your Community
Start a Family Advocacy Ministry (FAM) at your church. This will open opportunities to support foster families in your church and community, support local social services, meet needs to help keep children out of foster care, help aging-out teens—the possibilities are endless.
FAM is a church-based ministry designed to coach you and your congregation to use your God-given gifts to make maximum impact.
Children entering foster care often have just 10 minutes to gather all of their belongings into a garbage bag before being ushered into a police car or social services vehicle. They then enter the home of a stranger with only a few possessions—imagine the fear and anxiety.
On Foster Care Awareness Sunday, churches are encouraged to use a plain garbage bag as a reminder of all the children in foster care and to fill these bags with items needed to help them through frightening times. You can reach out to your local social services or Fostering Champions for guidance.
Watch the Garbage Bag Initiative Video →
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1:27 (ESV)
With the SBCV
Staff Contacts
Brad Russell
Missions Strategist
Mona Hewitt
Administrative Assistant for Ministry Support