This weekend is a special time of year. My sister’s birthday
and a good buddy of mine had his birthday on the 12th. And it’s Mother’s Day.
Scrolling through Facebook there are so many pictures of
friends with their mothers. Most sing praises of their Moms. Some photos are of
Moms that are no longer here. This is my first mother’s day without my Mom. But
they are happy pictures. They are celebrating with flowers, a nice dinner out,
family.
Pastor Alex of the Church at churches is preaching a series
called RISE. It is a charge for church goers to RISE to the needs of our
community as we have never done before. But he’s educating too. How can you be
convicted to help when you don’t know there’s a need? Last week he talked about
the refugee crisis. I strongly encourage you to watch it. It was convicting and
it made me proud of all that our church is doing. He will also teach on poverty
and racism in this series.
Today he talked about foster care and adoption. He invited
the women of Duck Dynasty to join him. The women shared stories of adoption in
their family. They spoke about opening their homes to people in the name of
Jesus. Apparently the whole clan lives on the same street. So grandma, great-grandma,
siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins are all there for each other.
After church I bought some gift cards, groceries and
birthday gifts and visited a few families in need. I went to four subsidized
housing complexes. One in particular was in horrible disrepair. Broken windows,
weeds growing high everywhere, cars broken down, mattresses and couches thrown
on the ground by the dumpster. Open doors and sadness and unhappiness abounded.
I went there to give some birthday gifts to two little boys
who have their birthdays next week. They’re getting so big! I’ve known them
since they were babies. Mom was at work and her brother was watching her four
kids. She works two jobs and can barely afford to live in this apartment. She’s
wanted to give up many times because she feels like she can never catch up. She
doesn’t know what getting ahead is. She’s never had money in the bank or gone
to a nice restaurant on her birthday or driven a new car. DHS has been called
on her. We’ve helped her often over the years. I am so proud of her because she
has incredible resilience and determination despite learning disabilities.
When I was leaving the complex I saw a Mom with her two kids
at a picnic table. They were eating sandwiches. No Dad in sight. But, she was
pregnant again. I wondered how she was making it. Does she have a support
system? Where does she go when she needs help? I wondered if she gets afraid
when she thinks about tomorrow. Have her kids been in DHS custody?
We were given a card in church today with pictures and
descriptions of five kids in the Tulsa area who are going to age out of the
foster care system if they are not adopted. We held that card in our hands and
we prayed for each child by name. We prayed for God to divinely intervene and
provide families for these kids. Where two or more are gathered..
Pastor Alex reminded us that we’re not all called to foster
or adopt. But, he said we are all called to serve. The needs of foster parents
can at times be huge, like respite for special needs kids or simple, like a
rocking chair. Check out Careportal.org
and watch the video. You’ll see what many of our local churches are doing to
tangibly support our foster families’ right here in Tulsa. The Church at
churches support the care portal.
Another way to love on families is to be a prayer warrior,
mentor, and/or volunteer for at risk kids. Poverty, teenage pregnancy, school
drop outs can all be generational. As the bride of Christ we need to
physically, tangibly, spiritually and emotionally step into the lives of kids
and love them into a new direction. God is the God of making the impossible
possible. These kids are doing what other poor kids are doing because they
don’t know what they’re missing; like a whole world of possibility that we need
to introduce them to.
This is hard stuff because it is so important. As the body
of Christ we need to step into these subsidized housing projects and be the
hands and feet of Christ. Just because Mom got pregnant at 13, dropped out of
school at 15, became a drug addict at 19 does NOT mean her kids have to follow
in her footsteps. But that is what is
happening, by the hundreds. This is one
way that brings kids into the foster care system. How will they know they can
take a different path if we don’t show them?
These low income housing complexes manifest isolation,
depression, anger and hopelessness. Imagine every day is literally a day of
survival. Will the electricity be cut off? Is there any money left on the food
stamp card? Will the neighbor give you a ride to work without charging you $20?
Will your man come home drunk again? Will something else break down, like the
plumbing which will take weeks to get maintenance out? Will you go to bed
listening to the guy beating your friend next door?
It’s Mother’s Day. If you are the person you are today because
of the impact of a great mother, you have a lot to be thankful for. If you live
in a nice house, pay your bills every month and have extra for a vacation and
drive a nice car, you have a lot to be thankful for. If you have children who
you tell, they can do anything they want to do and they believe it, you have a
lot to be thankful for. If you send them to camp, and to Christian schools and
put them in new clothes each time they grow an inch, and redecorate their room
every time their interests change, you have a lot to be thankful for.
There are kids within a mile of you who started out with
dreams just like your kids. For many of them their dreams have turned into
nightmares. Will they eat today? Will they sleep in the car tonite? If this is
all there is to life, why bother?
We are called to serve in community. Talk to your life group
and pray for divine appointments and then do something. Be willing to go and visit
these complexes. You have to believe this is a problem and there is a real need
before you can do anything that will really make a difference. Call me and I
will take you. We will always need foster care if we don’t intercept
generational sin while the kids are still kids.
We are so far beyond
just cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for people in these complexes. Or dropping
off Christmas gifts. Or taking hygiene items and tossing the Gospel at them. If
we only do drive-by outreach for these folks, if they do say ‘yes’ to Jesus how
are we going to disciple them?
We are not all called to foster or adopt. But, we are all called to
serve.
This is your divine invitation.
Know that you are prayed for.
In His service,
deni A. fholer
We can do more. We can do better.
