Called to Care
by José Chinchilla, Honduras National Director
Unfortunately, around the world, there are many children without families. This is for many reasons: parents who continue using past cycles of abuse and mistreatment and who have decided to live the same cycles with their children, spiritual death, poverty, migration, etc. Many children have not had the opportunity to raise their voices and say, "Mom, I'm hungry," "Daddy, I want to play with you," or "Mom and Dad, can you hug me." Many of these children are going through life without much hope of having a family. Many are being placed in children's homes and orphanages. This is not an unpleasant option, but it's not the best space God provided for a child to grow up and live in a safe place.
It is within a loving, flawless/flawed family, where peace and security reign, that a child needs to live. We see in the Bible the importance that God gives to the concept of family. We can observe entire lineages. The books of Kings and Chronicles are full of offspring. This is a great sign that family is very important to God and has a lot to do with our identity in Jesus. In these 30 years of serving vulnerable children, Family Life Missions has realized that working for the family is what God wants us to do. These children from "hard places," as Dr. Karyn Purvis called them, need a family where they can heal their wounds and trauma. Sadly, they remain the most forgotten population today, with the church forgetting the call to care "... for the youngest of my brothers...". For this reason, we work with the churches of Catacamas to embrace this call so that we can give a family to these children who need it most.
In answering this call, we have had to create programs to provide family solutions for vulnerable children that include training, physical, mental, and spiritual guidance and help, and follow-up. The Foster Care program at Family Life Missions has been full of great experiences and challenges but, ultimately, has been a great blessing for the children.
One child, who was physically abused by his mother and in a state of malnutrition, was not given much hope of life by doctors. But God. Because of God's grace for this child, Family Life Missions had a Foster Care family ready to give him a home and a family where he could have love, care, and godly instruction. This is how he had life again. After eight months, he was reintegrated with his father (his father knew nothing about him and thought he had died), who thanked God, the Foster Care family, and Family Life Missions for caring for his son. How powerful is this story of care, safety, and a family reunited.
With Foster Care families, we can give a dignified and loving life to a child who needs it. Up close, we can see the beauty and wonder of Psalm 68:5-6: "Father of orphans and defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families."