Foster Care Prayer Vigil

I copied the excerpt below from the blog of another mother who is passionate about adoption and the plight of orphans abroad and here at home. Prayer is definitely needed when we are talking about the state of foster care here in the States. Sometimes I think it's not a lack of caring and willing people to step in that is the problem but rather the crud they have to put up with in order to help the kids. I have BTDT and don't have a problem saying that things need to change. I'm realizing that the saying " Be the change you want to see" is right on. Nothing is ever going to change by just talking about it, something has to be done. I believe that prayer is powerful, especially corporate prayer like they are calling for. I hope that thousands of people in churches around our nation get involved with this. I look forward to seeing God work in the foster care system of America, I'm ready to see kids' lives change.

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National Foster Care Prayer Vigil and Your Church

"All of a sudden I was awakened in the middle of the night by people wearing black clothing with badges. I didn't know what was happening ... my brother (Anthony) and I were crying. We were hurt, and we were full of pain. Only God knew what was to become of us.The police took us to the police station. There, they let us sleep in the back of the car until it was morning. The next day Ant and I were taken to a big house to live until our social worker came to take us to a new family ... whenever it was nighttime, I lay awake while Ant was fast asleep. I was crying so much it really hurt, and I was full of sorrow and pain. Sometimes I would even sit at the edge of my bed and call out my mother's name frantically ..."-- Chris, 11, who entered foster care with his brother at ages 5 and 4

Children quietly enter foster care due to circumstances beyond their control, including abuse, abandonment, neglect, and substance abuse on the part of their primary caretakers. They're often shuffled from home to home. Some are eventually returned safely home. Others are blessed through adoption. Unfortunately, so many fall through the cracks and languish for years in group homes, long-term foster homes, and shelters.

Co-sponsored by FamilyLife's Hope for Orphans, Focus on the Family, and Shaohannah's Hope, the first annual National Foster Care Prayer Vigil will be held the week of May 19-25, 2008. During this momentous week, Christians will gather in churches and elsewhere across the United States to go before God in praying for our nation's foster children, as well as their foster and adoptive families, their birth families, and their workers.

Would you consider participating in a prayer vigil in your city? If there is not currently one scheduled, would you consider organizing one? If you are led to participate in or facilitate a prayer vigil in your city, please take the time to visit our website at www.fostercareprayervigil.org to learn how. There you will find materials to help you, as well as a registration page and map displaying local vigils throughout the nation.
For more information, visit www.fostercareprayervigil.org or contact National Coordinator Phoebe Dawson at pdawson@familylife.com.