For our family, becoming foster parents is what led us back to the church. We were living a life away from Christ when we watched an episode of the TV show 7th Heaven that focused on how hard it was to find families for sibling groups in foster care. My son was about eight at the time and was constantly asking about a brother. After we watched that episode, he said, “See? We could do that, Mom!” 

The show inspired all of us, and we began our journey into foster parenting. It took us about a year to get all the paperwork, classes, and home inspections done, but then we were off to the races with our first foster child, an eight-year-old boy. 

At the same time, our family joined a leadership company and began to hear messages pointing us to make faith a priority in our lives. We were in the foster world without God and without any kind of real support. The challenges we were facing in parenting our foster son that brought out anger and control issues in me. 

God kept speaking to us, sending us messages to focus on Him and the rest will fall into place. We went to church for the first time in years. That day, we heard the same message: put God first. My husband and I agreed that maybe it was time to listen. We started focusing on church and family as well as work and leadership. 

One week, the pastor asked for volunteers to go to a Celebrate Recovery seminar. I went that Saturday to discover what this program was all about, so that we could maybe bring it back to the church to help foster families and the biological families of children in care. I felt that, while I could not run such a program, it would be beneficial. I determined I could help people get involved.

Around that time, our foster son had been transitioned to a new home, and our new placement was a sibling group of girls. We weren’t yet prepared for multiple children with needs, and these girls had come from severe neglect. It was a long road of ups and downs learning to care for them in our home. 

As we became more involved with foster care, we also became more involved in church. We desperately needed support. Our family was helpful, but busy and hesitant to take on three or four kids at one time. The reason we were able to get everything under control is because there were people at the church who stepped up to help us. From that time on, we knew were not alone on this bumpy journey.

Eighteen months later, our foster story became an adoption story. The whole church came to support us. I think we had the most people in the courtroom that day. After it became official we had a party where the girls changed their names and were baptized. Fellow church members wrapped their arms of support around the girls and helped them to discover their relationship with God and each other.

“It is our belief that churches are the best resource for foster families needing support.”

We settled into life growing in our faith, in church, and I began leading the Celebrate Recovery program. We had several more foster kids come through, along with more challenges, and we are so thankful for the church that supported us and helped us raise each child. Church members built a wall in our home to create another room when we needed more space, and they supplied us with gifts, clothes, and respite care whenever we needed help. 

It is our belief that churches are the best resource for foster families needing support. We would never have survived this calling without the help of the church. Now, as a pastor myself, I love getting the opportunity to serve foster families whenever I can.

Rev. Bethanie Young is the lead pastor at Sweet Home Church of the Nazarene. She has served in pastoral ministry for over 10 years. Rev. Young served as a Celebrate Recovery leader for over nine years and has a passion for foster children and their families. She has recently been very active serving with the homeless in her community and has organized a plan for transitional housing and housing for survivors of domestic violence. Rev. Young and her husband are proud parents of six children and grandparents to one grandson. They reside in Sweet Home, Oregon.