How much do you know about the foster care community where you live? Many people—both individuals and organizations like churches—want to support their vulnerable neighbors. But few are aware of the many practical ways they can help the children, biological families, foster families, and agency workers who make up their local foster care communities.
When our latest guest discovered the overwhelming needs of her local foster care community, she was passionate about getting her local church involved. But when she first set out to make this a reality, her mission turned out to be harder than expected. Her experience is a common one that’s happening all over America. The truth is, many people care, but they don’t always know how to help.
April Hobbs is a passionate champion for foster care as well as a devoted wife and mother. She and husband, Derrick, became foster parents seven years ago and they find tremendous purpose and joy in serving vulnerable families.
When April wanted to see her local foster care agency supported by the church, she joined our team of TFI Advocates and started her own ministry in Murray County, GA. It’s through this partnership that she was able to break through the barriers and get the church involved in meeting the needs of her local agency workers and the families they serve.
In this episode, April shares powerful words about how God calls us to act, what factors often prevent Christians from doing more to serve vulnerable families, the importance of sharing the difficult parts of the fostering journey, and much more.
TAKEAWAYS FROM TODAY’S CONVERSATION:
1. Our callings aren’t always crystal clear.
Whether you are feeling the tug to become a foster parent, to advocate for those in the foster care community, or to take up a profession as an agency worker, the path God is calling us to isn’t always clear. Sometimes we just have to take one step after another and see where He leads. Trust that God will open doors that He wants you to walk through, and close ones that aren’t right for you. It can be easy to look at families who are fostering and think: Wow, they really look like they know what they’re doing—they must have been 100% sure that this was their calling. But this isn’t always true—many foster parents follow their heart, take a leap of faith, and commit to learning along the way. What we have found is that over time, what initially led you to the foster care community is solidified into a deeper passion and direction.
“The emotional passion is replaced by this depth of ‘this is what we are called to do.’”
2. Raising awareness is step one.
In their hearts, people have a lot of love and goodness to give. But we can’t help meet a need that we are not aware of. This is the plight of many churches and Christians. They have a desire to make a positive impact, but they are unaware of the needs in the community. Before we can call others to action, we have to first help them become informed about what needs exist.
“I always felt that if more Christians knew, they would do something.”
3. Consistency is key to building trust.
Agency workers are often hesitant to be upfront about existing needs. Many times, this is due to past experiences where people offered to help them but didn’t end up following through on that promise. That’s why we have to start by being a consistent presence—showing up again and again with a genuine desire to help. Caseworkers need a faithful, consistent community to lean on, and like we always say—building relationships with caseworkers happens at the speed of trust.
“Showing up consistently for them has done a lot for caseworkers to trust us to meet the small needs.”
Meet Our Guest
April Hobbs is a TFI Advocate, foster parent, and stay-at-home mom to five beautiful adopted children. April and her husband, Derrick, became foster parents seven years ago. She joined the TFI team as an Advocate for Murray County, GA last year out of a desire to see the local churches meet practical needs in the foster care community. April believes that we would see more people respond to the call to serve orphans and widows if they just knew where to start.
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