For the month of October, applications are open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. This only happens twice a year! Learn more and apply here.
I love meeting others who are deeply passionate about both the foster care community and the Church. Those are two of our passions here at The Forgotten Initiative as well!
Becoming a TFI Advocate starts with filling out an application. However, for each person who takes this step, the journey starts long before that, often beginning with an awareness that leads to action and a deep passion.
This is a journey I get to explore with Abby Callison in today’s episode. Abby is a TFI Advocate in Mason City, IA and a foster parent as well. Long before she could support the foster care community directly, she was exposed to the importance of supporting vulnerable children through a mission trip to an African orphanage and seeing foster care lived out through multiple families at her local church.
In this episode, Abby reminds us of the significant role the Church can have in the foster care community, the unique circumstances that led them to become foster parents, her experience navigating the application process to become a TFI Advocate, why it is important that we identify our unique motivation, advice she would have for people interested in becoming involved, and so much more.
Listen in!
TAKEAWAYS FROM TODAY’S CONVERSATION:
1. God uses the local church.
We are reminded of this over and over when we see the impact the local church can have on families in need and children in foster care. God has a desire for His people to be His hands and feet. When the local church nurtures this passion for the foster care community, we see lives transformed and communities strengthened.
“When a church takes ownership of supporting the foster care community, our communities look different.”
2. Sacrificial love and self-care are not opposites.
Supporting the foster care community in any role often requires sacrifice. God calls us to that sacrificial kind of love. At the same time, there is freedom and space for you to take breaks or change roles entirely. This can be challenging work and it’s important to be aware of how a role is wearing on you and when you are on the verge of burning out.
“God-honoring love is sacrificial.”
3. Focus on your why.
Abby shared that it’s so important to take the time to reflect on and identify what motivates you to support the foster care community through both the joys and the challenges. If we are going to succeed, we need a have deeper motivation. Our energy is limited and will eventually wear out, but when our motivation is rooted in God, we gain access to a deeper motivation. Christ is the one that fills us back up again when we are feeling low. When we receive deeply, we can give generously.
“At the end of the day, I have to be motivated by the Gospel. If our love is not directly from the Gospel of Christ to give that hope to others then the motivation falls flat after our energy runs out.”
- Apply to Become a TFI Advocate
- [BOOK] Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard
- Mason City, IA Advocate Website
- Connect with Abby on Instagram or via email: [email protected]
- Join Team 3:10
Meet Our Guest
Abby Callison is a TFI Advocate, a foster parent, and adoptive parent. Her husband, Jared, is the Pastor of Discipleship and Youth at the church where they started dating. Abby and Jared are the adoptive parents to their daughter Suzy after being her foster parents. Although there is rarely consistency, perfect balance, or a lack of chaos in their household, it’s in those moments that they see God at work in their lives and the lives of others.
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