Wayne Naugle - Families 4 Families

Well, good morning. We were here back on the Sunday

after Easter in 2023. And so we're glad to be back

today. So just a little bit about

families for families. We are, we're a faith-based

foster care agency here in the state of Georgia.

We have 9 contracts with the Department of Family Child

Services and we just started our office in that Kenneth runs up

here in Cartersville in January of 2023.

You guys were our first partner church that we spoke at.

We were working through contracting and stuff still and

so you guys have been a great partner.

We have several foster families in this church and then we also,

you, you guys have hosted our gala 2 years in a row here.

And so last time I was on this stage I was asking for money.

I will not be doing that this morning, but you guys have

hosted 2 galas for us here. We raised $100,000 this past

year. And so we had a great gala.

And just leave a little bit about this area up here.

We have, we're getting ready to complete our 10th adoption in

this office in about two years because we just started a couple

years ago, placed over 80 kids. Hey, let me show you something

about Northwest Georgia. So we have 10 regions that we

work in Georgia. The way we divide it up

Northwest Georgia has more kids in foster care than any other

region that we work in the state of Georgia.

In fact, your kids in this area come into care at a 50% higher

rate here than they do in Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett

counties. And so we've pulled all kinds of

data and stuff. We last year, I'll go this

minute, we denied 2330, nine, 3223 kids, 691 of those kids

were right around your church here that we just didn't have

enough homes for it. So this morning I just really

want to share with you kind of what's going on in your

community, what's going on with kids and how you can, how you

can help with that. I did not grow up doing foster

care, never thought about going into social work.

I was in construction. So if you want to talk

Caterpillar bulldozers and Komatsu's and stuff after

church, I'm more than happy to do that with you.

I grew up in that. And then in 22,008, see if I

remember 2008, if you don't, you were not in construction.

OK. But in 2008, my wife and I

reorganized financially. That means we filed bankruptcy

and lost everything we had. We were, we were developing land

and we were clearing land and we were doing all this stuff and we

lost everything. In 2017, we started Families for

Families with our first office out in Loganville, GA.

And so our whole mission was to connect with churches.

And so we really believe that the church is an untapped

resource for foster care. And so we went into foster care

with this. We were going to connect with

churches. We were not going to charge them

any money. We were going to raise money

from the business world. And so we wanted our families to

be a member of a church, have a pastor's reference, sign a

statement of faith, a positional morality, and hold a biblical

view of marriage. And so as we started talking

about that and sharing with that, people told us that will

never work. You will never get enough

families with that model and and you'll never be able to scale

that. Today we are the largest

nonprofit foster care agency in the state of Georgia with 9

offices. We have placed over 1500

children and completed 250 adoptions since we started.

So I say that, I say that, I say this, I still believe God's way

is the best way. I still believe the answer for

foster care is the church and, and I'm, I want to share with a

little bit about that this morning.

So here's the first slide here. Just share a little bit.

Last year, so last year we placed 287 children in Christian

foster homes. We did 120 reunifications, 44

adoptions. We open 93 new foster homes.

We're trying to do 110 this year.

And this is the number I want you to remember.

Last year we denied 3223 kids. That means the state of Georgia

called us 3223 times and said we have an abused or neglected

child that needs a home. And we said no.

And so people want me to come talk about the 287.

How'd y'all do 287 kids? How'd you open 93 foster homes?

And I'll say this, as long as we're denying kids, we're going

to keep pushing and we want to keep growing and we want to keep

connecting with churches. And so part of my job is that

I'm in a different church every Sunday speaking.

Next week, I'm somewhere. The next week I'm down in

Albany, GA at Sherwood Baptist. They called us.

It's the last place we haven't worked in Georgia.

They got 92 pastors that are coming to a pastor's lunch to

hear me come speak next Sunday afternoon and partner with

Sherwood to plan an office down there in southwest Georgia.

I believe it is so. So I want to share with you this

morning here. If you don't hear anything else

me say this morning, I believe the church is the answer for

foster care. So let me show you my first

verse this morning. We're going to start here in the

book of Exodus. And so if you've been in church

for more than a week or two, we have the book of Genesis and

then we have the book of Exodus. And so it says this first part

of that verse says you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless

child. And so here's what I want you to

hear. First.

Think point number one, this is not a new problem.

Foster care, the orphan and the widow are not a new problem.

In fact, if you read the book of Genesis, we know Adam and Eve

have two two sons, Cain and Abel.

Cain kills Abel, so Abel's wife was the first single mom raising

kids in the Bible. It's very possible that Adam and

Eve were the first grandparents helping raise their grandkids.

OK, but in Exodus, God starts to deal with the orphan and he

starts to deal with the fatherless and he starts to deal

with the widow. It's interesting in Scripture we

always see this word widow and fatherless together.

Or we see the word widow and orphan together, depending on

what translation of Bible you have.

They're together and Isaiah they're together and Ezekiel

together. And James, Jesus talks about

them together. And it's kind of weird because

you look at the the widow and you say, well, she's older.

And you look at the child, the fatherless child and you say,

well, they're younger and you say, well, why do they always go

together? And here's the reason why is

they both lack a male protector. The fatherless child doesn't

have a dad and the widow doesn't have a husband.

Can I just say something? You don't have to look around at

our culture very much today that there there's a plot to get rid

of men. There there is a plot to get men

out of our culture today. Every movie they make makes men

look stupid. Everything we do, we're trying

to get rid of men. And let me just share this with

you today. Satan's got something figured

out. If he can get rid of men,

society will do everything he wants to to women and children.

And so there's this. There's this idea where God

calls us as men to come in and to fight.

He says you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.

Now, I've invited some friends of mine today, and some will be

very careful what I say next. But when this verse was written

back in Exodus, there were no Rotary clubs, y'all with me?

There was no Kiwanis clubs. There was no Department of

Family child services, There was no state government.

So this verse was not written to any of them.

This verse was written to us as believers.

And I have people tell me all the time, and I said this in the

last service, they say, Wayne, there's so many problems and

there's so much going on. And just just hear me say this

with love this morning, the biggest problem we have with our

kids in the state and really in our nation, the biggest problem

we have with the Department of Family Child Services is that

the church has left their post. God never called the government

to find homes for kids. He called the church to do it.

And we talked about, we say, hey, Wayne, there's so many

issues and there are issues. But let me tell you, the biggest

issue is us. The biggest issue is that God

called us to do it and we chose not to do it.

And we gave it back to the government.

And then we look at the government, we say, you guys

aren't doing it right. And I just want to say this, If

God called us to do it, he will not hold the government

accountable for what happened to kids in our communities.

He'll, he'll, he'll hold us accountable.

And so he says, you shall not mistreat.

And he says, and if you do mistreat them at all, and they

cry out to me that I'm going to hear their cry.

I tell my staff all the time, I'm like every time a child's

abused, every time a child's neglected, every time a child

goes hungry, every time a child's cold and they cry, God

hears that cry. Did you know that a tear has

never fell from a child's eye that God didn't know about and

God didn't hear? And you say, well, Wayne, how

come? How come sometimes abuse goes on

for days and weeks and sometimes for years?

And I don't know, but I know God hears that cry.

And I know if I read my Bible right, I know who he's going to

send to help him. And it's me and you.

It's us as believers. This week we placed four kids,

two abandoned babies, another child, actually 5 kids, and a

sibling group of two. All five of those kids this

morning are in church for the very first time.

All five of those kids last Sunday were in an abusive home.

And this Sunday they're all going to church for the first

time. And so God sends us to help.

I hear all this people talk about COVID and how much mental

health worse since COVID and drug uses were since COVID.

And I'll say, listen, look at foster homes in Georgia.

We're down like 3000 homes since 2019.

And I would just ask us as believers, if we believe that

kids are creating the image of God.

If we believe that God ordained those kids all the days of their

life before they were born, If we believe that God's got a plan

and a purpose for their life, then what is Our Calling in

answering that in our communities?

I believe the church ought to lead the way in social work.

I believe our church is not in. Your church has done a great

job. You guys have done a lot here.

There's several families here that foster.

I'm getting ready to share a story about one of those

families. But as a church, we're not

called to be silent in this part here.

And so on the next slide, there is a fatherless.

And so we talked about the fatherless.

And now this is federal data. This is not from the Southern

Baptist Convention or anything. OK.

So listen to this. 63% of all youth suicides are fatherless

homes. 90% of our runaways are from fatherless homes. 85% of

children who show behavior disorders are fatherless homes.

71% of all high school dropouts are fatherless homes.

How much money we spend trying to keep kids in school?

My family, we had a program for keeping kids in school.

It was me. You know what the program was?

My dad. Mom, I don't feel good.

Today. My mom would be in the kitchen

making me chicken noodle soup and saltines.

You know what my dad would do? Get up.

You're going to school and when you get off, when you get home

from school, you can go to bed because you don't feel good.

My idea was I lay in bed all day when my friends got off the bus.

I could go play with him that afternoon.

But my dad, there was no option of going to school.

And if you couldn't throw up, you went to school.

And if you did throw up, my dad said, OK, you know, you're

better now, go to school. 71% of all high school dropouts,

fatherless homes, 75% of adolescents who show behavior

disorders or who chemical abuse. There is possible 85% of youth.

This was from Fulton County and a county in Texas that are youth

that are in prisons, are from father's homes.

So people tell me all the time they say Wayne Satan's working

so hard in our culture and he's destroying families and he's

working through drug use and runaways and trafficking.

Let me tell you what Satan's got figured out.

All he has to do is remove you men from being the provider and

protector for your home and society will take care of

everything else. He doesn't have to do anything

else. Once he gets once he breaks

down, the family society will take care of almost everything

else he wants to do. Let me share a story with you.

In October of 2023, not far from your church, a little 6 year old

girl was with her mom and dad and they had some pretty

significant drug issues. They were homeless, they had

drug issues, there was neglect and there was abuse.

And her family was working with the Bartow County Resource right

up the road here and doing a pretty good job.

And it got so bad that they couldn't take care of her

anymore. And a lady who worked there

ended up taking care of this little girl for a couple weeks.

She moved in with her. The judge let her go there and

she stayed with her. And she stayed there for a

couple weeks. And the family just said, it's

too much, like we can't do this anymore.

And so they are going to surrender her over to the

Department of Family and Child Services.

And on that day that families destroyed, this little girl's

already been removed from her family.

She goes to another family. Not not anything they did wrong.

They just couldn't do it. So you think about this little

girl, my mom and dad don't want me.

So I go live with a friend for two weeks.

They don't want me. And it's six years old.

Her view of family and stability is gone.

And so this lady that has this little girl at six years old

remembers that there's a church in Cartersville that started a

foster care, foster care ministry named Cartersville

First Baptist Church. So she picks up the phone and

she calls your executive pastor Stephen James says, hey, I know

y'all started a ministry. I know you're working through

the licensing process to get your home open.

And his response was our home just opened yesterday.

Now you talk about God's timing. Let me tell you something.

There's a lot, there's somebody a lot bigger than any of us in

here fighting for these kids. And so God's timing was that his

home opened yesterday and he got a phone call and we took a

little bit through courts and judges.

In October of 2023, she moved in with the Stephen James family in

your church. And the family continued to

struggle and visits and all the stuff that happened.

In March of 2025, her 13 month old brother also came into care

and the James family said yes. In November of 2025, this little

6 year old girl was adopted by the James family and your

church. And I was talking to my staff

this week and I said tell me some, you know, I can't keep up

with 300 kids. And they said tell me some, tell

me some information about what's going on with the little boy.

And they said we'll call you Friday.

And so Friday they called me. And on Friday, this past Friday,

like 3 days ago, the James family signed 30 threes, which

is an intent to adopt and they'll be adopting the little

boy named Michael who they're changing his name to Matthew.

So all that happened, none of that happened because of

families for families. That happened because of your

church. Now let me let me share

something with ready that little girl and I know a little bit

about her. I actually got to meet Matthew

just a few minutes ago. I know about her.

She understands an abusive dad and she understands a neglectful

dad. And now she understands the dad

that adopted her and chose her. She understands what family

dysfunction looks like and drug use looks like and neglect look

like. And now she understands what a

church family loving on her looks like.

And she understands what it's like to be homeless.

And now she understands what it's like to have a warm bed

every night. And now she understands what

it's like to have food. And now she understands what

it's like a church family. And I believe one day, because

right now while we're sitting in here, she's back there in kids

ministry and I believe she's going to go to vacation Bible

school and she's going to go to youth camp one day.

And you small group leaders that sitting here, you guys are going

to pour into her. And Matthew's in the nursery

right now and somebody's probably rocking him and singing

Jesus loves him. And someday those kids are going

to give their life to Jesus in this church.

And let me tell you what's going to happen when that happens is

generational sins have been passed down from that family

from years and years and generations will all be broken

and strongholds in that family will start to come down.

And alcoholism and drug use and abuse will end because of those

kids and because of what this church did in those kids lives.

Now here's the only question we got to figure out this morning

is how much of our life are we willing to give up so that can

happen for a child. That's the only question about

foster care. The only question about foster

care is this is what part of the American dream is your family

willing to give up so that a kids nightmare can end?

And what's my life really worth because of travel ball?

So important that I don't have time to take care of another

kid. Nothing wrong with travel ball.

My kid play sports. They were terrible, but they all

play. I'll be honest, we didn't play

travel ball. We weren't that good.

Nothing wrong with all that, but taking another kid and take him

to play ball with you. But what happens because that

little girl now understands she's got a mom and she's got a

dad that love her. Those kids are here this

morning. So church when you're teaching

Melinda in the 1st grade, 2nd grade, whatever 6 year olds are,

I guess they're first grade when you're teaching her and you're

holding Matthew, just know you stole one from the enemy and put

them back in God's Kingdom. That's what this church ought to

be about. That's what God calls our

churches to do. Here's the next verse says this.

He says learn to do good, seek justice, right, correct

oppression, bring justice for the fatherless and plead the

widow's calls. Now some versions say to fight

for the fatherless. Some versions say to take up the

cause. Some versions say to defend.

But the word here is this. If God calls us to bring justice

to the fatherless, the the the issue is there's begin in just

things done to them. Does that make sense?

If God calls us to defend something, it means they're

being attacked. If he calls us to bring justice,

it means there's been in just things done to our fatherless

children, OK. And so I told you, well, we had

five kids growing up. I had three girls and two boys,

OK. And we were watching National

Geographic with our kids. You ever watch the National

Geographic with your kids? I don't know if it's good or

not. My kids are grown, so it's too

late. But we don't watch that.

And these little gazelles be going down towards the watering

hole, and you know, it's waiting for the gazelles before they get

there. The lions, you guys watch that

with your kids too. And so the lions and the lions,

they call them a pride of lions. And they all wait for the

gazelles to get right in the middle.

And then they all jump out at one time and all the gazelles

run. And there's three gazelles that

get left behind. Now my girls scream for the

gazelles. They can run.

Gazelles run. What are my boys screaming for?

The lions? They're going to kill them.

I shouldn't say that. Get them.

They're saying get them. And so they all start running.

Now there's three gazelles that get left behind.

The old gazelles that can't run as fast.

That would be some of y'all. You don't have to be the

fastest, but you cannot afford to be the slowest.

OK, so some of the old gazelles get left behind.

The second gazelle that gets left behind is the gazelle that

maybe got a broke leg and maybe got wounded in a previous

attack. But the third gazelle that gets

left behind is the one the lions want.

Which one is it? The babies.

The lions want the babies first. Peter 58, says your adversary,

the devil, walks around like a roaring lion looking for someone

to devour. Do you know what stands between

Satan and those kids in the nursery back there?

You know what stands between them?

You do, mom and dad. You fight for them.

Your health is important because you fight for those kids.

And before Satan's going to get to those kids, he's got to go

through you. So if Satan can just remove you,

he wants those kids. This what I believe about men.

Men, I, I think the church has done injustice in this.

Men are called to fight. We are called to protect and

provide. But more importantly in that we

are called to fight for our families and we're called to

fight for kids that cannot fight for themselves.

That is Our Calling as that is Our Calling as a biblical man.

I know we don't say this in church, but I'm not a real

pastor. I told you all that so I can say

it. You guys watching NASCAR for

four hours, you know what you're hoping for in the back of your

mind that you don't say. What are you hoping for?

A wreck? We're all the same.

We want to see metal flying and cars flipping and bodies flying

out because there's a part of us it's like, yes, that's exciting.

We watch a football game in the end of the game ends in a brawl

in the guys are taking their helmets.

I don't know why they take their helmets off, but they take their

helmets off and they start hitting each other.

And ESPN will say, oh, this is terrible for college football.

We hate to see the game in this way.

But they showed the clips 30 times on Sunday afternoon.

You know why they show it? Because they know who's watching

ESPN. It's men.

And we're like, we want to see a fight.

We watch MMA. We watch people getting an

Octagon with bare knuckles and beat the slop out of each other

and going to come to church and say bless your brother.

You know why? Because God put that in US.

God put that in you. I grew up in construction.

I've shot everything there is to shoot.

I've mounted everything there is to mount.

I've catch. I've caught everything there is

to catch. I still drive a four wheel drive

truck. I don't need it for anything.

It's a diesel. I don't even know why, but I

drive that because I feel like, you know, a little bit of

manhood hanging on, you know? Let me tell you something, man.

The most manly thing you might can do is put down your golf

clubs and your guns. Don't sell them.

Just put them down and go pick up a kid that doesn't have

anybody to fight for him. And you look that kid in the eye

and you say before anybody gets to you, they're going to come

through me. And before anybody ever hurts

you again, they're going to have to deal with me first.

And you stand between that child in harm's way and you say it

stops today. We have no right to complain

about people abusing kids when we're not willing to take them

after they need a home. Well, you don't understand.

We're busy. Everybody's busy.

You don't understand. I got hobbies.

If there weren't kids in here, I could go into detail with you

what happens to our children and our state.

And the main reason it happens is because the church is

silence. Because we're as men were silent

as families, we become silent. I want to read a letter to you

we got a few years ago. I got to put my glasses on to

read it. A few years ago.

We got a sibling group of four, three boys and a girl.

The girl was the oldest and the mother wanted to get the girl

back, but she didn't want her boys back because she could use

the girl to make money to get her drugs.

And there was a talk about reunification until somebody,

families for families heard about it and started meeting

with county directors and people going, this is not going to

happen and they can't override me.

But if they do, there's going to be a lot of meetings.

And that was about six years ago.

And she was in my office last week.

I wasn't there and she left a letter on my desk for me.

And I want to read it to you this morning. 12 year old girl

and all this abuse happened from 5 between she was five and six

years old. And because of who's in, I'm not

going to details, but you can figure it out.

This is what it said, she said. Dear Wayne, thank you for your

company because if it wasn't for you I would have never been with

a great family. Sorry that I didn't get to talk

to you in person. You are the reason I got saved

and I'm safe because if you never made this company I would

be lonely and probably wouldn't even be here right now.

Thank you for being friends with my dad and being there for me.

So tell me what's more important than that?

That girl just spent three days at my house because she's

friends with my one of my daughter's.

And I'll just say the church like these kids are going to

spend eternity somewhere. There's kids that are going home

to an abusive home today and it's a church.

Sometimes I think we're just like, well that's OK.

There's nothing we can do about it.

And I just, I want to encourage you, we can fix this.

We can fix this churches. We you guys, you guys can fix

this. This church 2 services 1000

people on Sunday morning. Y'all could change your county

for foster care. Next verse is James 127.

It says this. It says religion that is pure

and undefiled before God is to visit the orphans and the widows

and their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the

world. It's pure religion.

It's investing in people that can't pay you back.

It's loving on people that can't love you back.

It's you bringing something to the table when they don't bring

anything back for you. I go and go next slide.

And so James 2 talks about how that James 2 talks about if you

see somebody, if you see somebody who needs clothes and

food going to the next slide and you don't and you pray for him.

James 2 basically says that what good is that?

Because if you pray for somebody that's hungry, they're still

hungry. If you pray for somebody that

needs a coat, they still need a coat.

If you pray for a kid that needs a home, he still needs a home.

And I so I kind of put this down.

Church should provide the practical and pray for the

supernatural. As churches we ought to provide

the practical and we ought to pray for the supernatural.

Y'all remember Moses when he went up on the hill to pray and,

and Josh was in the battle fighting the Amicon Knights?

Y'all remember what God told him to do?

God said, I want you to hold your hands up, right?

And I'm going to make the sun stand still and you're going to

hold your hands up and the sun's going to stand still as long as

you hold your hands up. Josh was going to win the

battle. And so Moses is praying and his

hands starting to get tired and start to come down and Joshua

starts losing. And so Aaron and her are with

them. Y'all remember what Aaron and

her did. Y'all can talk if you want to

what they do. They held his arms up.

Now if the God of the universe can make the sun stand still,

can't he make Moses hold his hands up?

But God wants us to be involved in his work.

So think about this. I know they weren't Baptist

because if they were Baptist, Aaron and her would have prayed

for Moses to have more strength to hold his hands up.

They wouldn't have done anything else because they were busy.

That make sense, But no, they said, oh, we have a we have a

Moses is over here. He's praying and he's tired, so

maybe we should help him. That's a novel approach.

Here's a another Remember when Jesus called Lazarus out of the

grave? He's been dead for four days.

Jesus speaks into his Jesus speaks.

He said Lazarus come out of the grave and Lazarus walks out of

the grave. You know what God told people to

do? Take his grave clothes off.

Jesus can give him life after four days and he wants us to

take his grave clothes off. Why didn't Jesus make his grave

clothes fall off? Because he wanted us to be

involved in the work. We call these banner churches.

We call them Banner because of the the story in Moses.

So I'm going to, I'm going to share a story.

I'm going to we're going to do an illustration, then I'm going

to share a story with them. Then we're going to then we're

going to close. Is the Hamilton.

Where's the Hamilton family at? Y'all come on up here, all of

you. Your pastor recommended you.

I'm sorry. We got some kids for you.

They're in the nursery. I'm just kidding.

All right, Have you ever thought about fostering?

Good. OK, you're going to be a foster

dad. Be a foster mom right here.

OK, so this is a foster family. Now I'm going to share

something. You guys ready.

Half the foster family is going to foster care quit within the

first year. Now, we hold about a 90%

retention rate with our foster families and I'm about to show

you why, but you guys all have a part in this, OK?

So y'all have boys over here. OK, We are going to give you boy

who takes care of the boys mostly.

That's what I thought. All right, so and y'all are

married, right? It's good because Steven told me

y'all were. So that's good.

Husband, wife. OK.

And we have. All right.

Sorry these got mixed up. We have a mom.

You're a mom here. Make sure we can see all that.

OK, Dad. OK, this is good.

All right, y'all ever thought about how many kids you're going

to foster? What's that?

How many kids y'all want to foster?

I can put some pictures of kids that need homes up there.

OK, we're going to say 3. That's great.

Thank y'all for volunteering for three.

There we go. 3. Here, hold that for me.

OK, so this is a foster family, right?

This is a foster family in your church that's struggling Now,

what are y'all going to do? You're going to help, right?

You're not. You are going to pray for them,

but you're going to do more and pray for them, right?

Oh, we're praying for y'all. You know, they got these boys.

Do y'all like to eat? Yes.

OK, so all right, so as a foster family, he's still a still a

mom, still a dad, still a husband, still a wife.

Now they're foster parents, OK. And now they bring these kids in

the home. They have traumas and they don't

understand what's going on and they act out sometimes.

OK, so this what we try to do. We need a family.

You're going to volunteer. I need a family that says, hey,

I'll cook a meal once a week, or my small group has four people

in our small group and once a month somebody will do a meal.

And that was just illustration. So who's going to volunteer?

Come on. I was going to say, if nobody

raises their hand, y'all are all Baptists for sure.

Because you're just going to pray for them.

OK. Tell me your name.

Aaron. Bring your wife because we don't

want you cooking. OK, There you go.

All right, Aaron. Aaron and his family, his him

and his wife, they're going to work through a small group and

they're going to bring a meal once a week for this family.

Is that important? Thanks, Aaron.

Thanks, Aaron. OK, now, as a foster family, you

can't just leave your kids with anybody, OK?

You can't just leave them at the neighbor's house, OK.

So you have to find another family that goes through the

whole process. And so your wife's been doing a

great job taking care of the boys, taking care of you.

She needs a break. You're going to take her.

Where you going to take her? To Apple?

No, no. You're going somewhere, like for

three or four days. Would you like to go on a

cruise? She's going on a cruise.

OK, Sure. Can't take the foster kids out

of state, out of out of they don't have passports.

So we need a family that would go through the whole process,

but not bring kids in your home and just be a respite family.

OK, They're going to stay with you for a week.

Husband and wife. Anybody, anybody.

OK, come. Y'all come on up here.

This is going to be this is going to be great work.

Kenneth, you're getting all these guys information.

Good. All right, so here's the respite

family. What's your name?

Tom. OK, Tom, you're going to get the

foster children, OK? And then you guys get all three

of these kids, OK? You want to give your boys up

too, OK, We're leaving them. I'm not sure, but anyway, we'll

talk about that later after everybody leaves, OK?

So because now, oh, you know what, when y'all are on the

cruise, by the way, you're not a dad.

You're not just husband and a wife.

You're not a foster mom. Because it's important for our

foster family sometimes just to be a husband and a wife.

Sometimes it's important for them just to be a mom and a dad.

Now, don't tell me when you see families in your church or

struggling. Oh, we're praying for y'all.

They, they need you to pray. They need help.

Your families need help. So now I'm losing my stuff here

sometimes even if you weren't to go to is Appalachian Grill is

that close here? Even when the Appalachian Grill,

you won't leave your kids for a couple hours.

How old are y'all? 14 and 13, OK, You aren't

allowed to keep kids by yourself.

You got to be 18 to keep kids by yourself.

So is there a 18 year old in here and say hey, listen, I

would do a background check and ACPR check and I could keep kids

for two or three hours so they can go on a date.

Anybody. I'm look, come on up here.

I was about to say I'm looking around.

Most of y'all look over the age of 18.

OK, What's your name? Name.

All right, so May's going to babysit.

OK, so now we're going to take the foster children.

They're back from their cruise, by the way, and you're going to

keep them for a couple hours. So now they can go out and be a

husband and wife. Let me tell you something else

about our kids too, though. You ready?

Sometimes, a lot of times these kids have behaviors and traumas

that we don't understand that that none, that none of this

helps. That therapies help control

behaviors, but it doesn't change their hearts.

Therapies can help rebuild their minds, but it can't change their

hearts and sometimes their behaviors that only Jesus can

fix. We have a church in Snellville.

56 couples in their senior citizens ministry have adopted

56 of our families and they pray for our families every week.

We've seen some stories of our time.

I could share with you of what we've seen God do in families

this year at Famous for Families.

So I need somebody that could just call this family once a

week and not do it like Baptist do it, but really do it and just

pray for them. Is there a couple here that

could do that? Y'all come on up here.

All right, tell me y'all's name. Jansen.

Jansen. All right, Jansen and Jenna are

going to pray for this family. Y'all go to Santa?

Barbara Jansen. And Jenna are going to pray for

this family question, wonder if every foster family, and this is

what we do at Families for Families.

What if every foster family had this around them?

Let me tell you what would happen.

You wouldn't have half the families leaving in the first

year. Now I shared a number with

y'all. Earlier y'all remember how many

kids we denied last year 3. 1223.

I spoke a couple about a month ago at the Georgia Baptist

Convention. I don't think they'll ever

invite me back because you know what?

He, I asked him. I said you.

Know how many Jimmy just Southern Baptist churches are in

Georgia not non denominational not independent not Methodist

not Lutheran not just Southern Baptist churches are in Georgia

3400 3400 Southern Baptist churches in Georgia if.

Every church. Had one family and supported

that one family. We could have said yes to every

child they called us for last year.

In fact, that's not even true because most of the kids we get

are sibling groups. So really 3002?

123 was. Probably only 1600 phone calls.

Does that make sense? Can I tell you something?

There is no problem with defects.

There's no problem with the foster care crisis in Georgia.

The problem is believers obeying God's Word and being doers of

the Word and not just hearers of the Word.

That's the problem and I speak to.

Myself when I say that too. All right, y'all put those down.

Thank y'all. We do have your information.

You will be will be expecting a response.

All right, I got one more thing and I'm going to be done.

Let me show you what's going on right around you.

You hear 12,000 kids in foster care.

How's our church going to do that?

Bartow County, 126 kids in care right here.

Just the counties that touch your county, 13147 kids.

I really believe this. I believe there's enough

churches in Bartow County we could take care of all those

kids. I was coming this morning.

I live in Gainesville. I drove past the churches at

cross point and up the road here.

Big old church. We could be doing a lot more 13,

147 kids. People ask me all the time that

when how did you go from construction like land clearing

to this right? How did how did you go from land

clearing to, to doing this? Since I want to share a story I

told you all. We have 5 kids.

We're a weird family. We homeschooled our kids.

They all have jobs and so they're doing well.

And so, but we, we, we always took our kids overseas like

Honduras, we took them to Africa, we took them to India.

And so we heard, we heard through this guy, he said, Hey,

y'all know, there's, there's like kids in in the US that need

homes and we're like it, but not in Georgia.

They're like, no, there's kids in Georgia.

This has been 14 years ago. And so we began to do some

research. My wife and I did at the time,

there was about 8000 kids in foster care in our state.

And so we're like, hey, we could probably take in one kid and

just foster them for a while, help mom and dad.

So that was kind of our goal. And so we we went to D fax and

we tried to get open and they said, well, they didn't think

we'd be a good foster home. So the wind went to private

agency. And so in God was just using all

of that. And so we went to private agency

and we got approved in a couple months.

And I was at church, I was on staff at my church and my wife

called me on a Monday morning at 10:00 and she said, hey, the

state just called us and said her home's been approved by the

state. I'm like, honey, what does that

mean? She's I don't know.

I think we're done with paperwork.

That's good. That's good because it's a lot

of paperwork. By the way, it should be a lot

of paperwork. They're putting a human life in

your home. And so they called back like 6

minutes later and then hey y'all ready for a placement And I'm

like. We have 5 kids.

We've been open. For six minutes.

And y'all think we're the best option, you know?

And they said, well, yeah. And I said, well, honey, what,

what do we know about her? And she said, well, we know

this, that there's a little girl.

And last night she was born and left behind a dumpster in

Atlanta. And she's got 5 drugs in her

system. Cocaine is the worst.

Mom has some significant mental health issues, like bipolar, the

other words, schizophrenia, that I can't say very good.

She aged out of foster care at 18.

There's a lot going on. And I'm like, honey, we, we're

remember, we're Baptist. We need to pray about this for a

few days and she's like, well, you can pray all you want to,

but they're on hold on the other line waiting on your answer.

And I'm like, I'm just a youth pastor.

I don't know. Honey, no.

And we, we joke, but all my kids are in the background.

GoDaddy, can we have her? Can we have her?

And so we said yes to her immediately.

And so we, I'm going to teach my students on Wednesday nights.

My wife's going down to Grady Hospital, pick this little girl

up and nobody wants. I'm going to be honest with you,

I'm here this morning because I never got over that first phone

call that in a state with 20,000 churches and 10,000 kids and we

don't have enough homes for kids.

And so we bring her home and. For a year we have trips to.

Chowa and seizures and detox and courts and court.

We go sit in court all day and the next day judge will come out

and we'll see y'all tomorrow morning.

And so we go sit in court all day the next day.

And for a year we did all this stuff with this little girl and

visits and it was tough. It was tough on my family.

And so here's the picture. That first little girl we

brought in her home. By the way, there's. 12,000 kids

like that some of them are older, some are younger so

that's her and after a. Year goes by 53.

Weeks later, the phone rings. And they're like, hey, would

y'all like a baby? And I'm like, no, we still have

the first one, remember? And they said, well, mom's had

another child. By the way, mom aged out of

foster care at 18 years old because she never had a family.

I have lots of opinions on that and.

So they said, would y'all like another?

Little girl. And we immediately said yes.

And so here's a picture of our next little girl.

That's Ashley. Ashley has what they call

absence corpus callosum. Her left side of her brain

doesn't talk to the right side of her brain.

She's in a special needs class. Ashley will probably never leave

home. So we have Ashley for a year.

Phone rings again. I'm like honey, don't answer the

phone. It's not a.

Law that says we have to answer it.

Once you answer it, now we're kind of on the hook, but we're

in the car. This time on speakerphone.

And all my kids are in there. And this was the phone call I

got. And I still can hear Miss Sarah

Moton's voice in Fulton County. And this is what she said, She

said. We have looked for mom, dad,

brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles.

We have exhausted all family members and nobody wants those

girls. Nobody wants them.

How do you live in a state like Georgia as a child and nobody

wants you? There's a website you can go to

called My Turn Now. And look at 3 or 400 kids and

nobody wants and really. What we're saying is our life is

more. Important than their life.

And so we said yes. And on April 8th, 2014, going to

the next picture there, the only picture on the last April 8th,

2014, we adopted both those little girls.

We celebrated their gotcha day. We celebrated their gotcha day

on Wednesday. I was supposed to be meeting

with some candidate that's running for something.

I won't go into all that, but I stayed home because my girls

want to have all the little friends over there. 12 and 13,

getting ready to be 13 and 14. May 6th and May 15th.

And as adoptive dad, people ask me.

A lot of questions. They asked me questions like, do

you love those? Kids like they're your own kids.

Those are my kids. They got an Ogle birth

certificates and they. Asked me.

Like, do you ever worry? About, like, generational sin,

like what they're going to do when they can become teenagers.

Can I tell you something? I'm worried about what my own

kids were going to do when they were teenagers.

And my favorite? Question people ask me.

And I know we live in a culturally sensitive world.

They say, are you going to tell those girls they're adopted?

Yeah, conversations come up. In fact, my.

Oldest daughter who's 13. Got in an argument with my 20

year old bio daughter and she said and my adopted daughter

said well dad chose me. I'm like, don't say that, but

that's well. Played and let me tell you.

Something you. Know people tell me they're

like, you know, you know those kids.

Don't look like you. And I'm like, yeah, and this is

usually mean, people telling me this stuff.

And I'm not like Kenneth Aycock. I'm not as nice as he is.

But you know what I want to say? You don't look like God.

In most days, you don't act like God, and God let you and his

family. And when you came to Jesus in

vacation Bible school when you were eight years old, He knew

what you were going to do at your freshman year in college,

and He still let you and his family.

He knew what? Your life was going to look

like. And adoption in foster care,

it's the work of the family, has nothing to do with the behaviors

of the child. And God's love for you is the

work of him. Nothing to do with your

behavior, has nothing to do with your behavior.

And I'm glad because I've made a lot of mistakes in my life.

I made a lot of mistakes. One reason I started Families

for Families, I interviewed with three different foster care

agencies. I just want to come recruit

families. They all said I wasn't

qualified. I started my own thing.

Let me show you a last picture here.

This my whole family, my daughter on the.

End over there on the right hand.

Side, she was pregnant with twins.

They're six months old now. My other son and daughter on the

other side, she's pregnant now with our fifth grandchild.

And the Ezra, the little girl he's holding Ezra was born in

October 21st of 2014. She was born blind and she has a

feeding tube and she gets a shot every day for growth hormones.

And so she is what if she was in foster care?

She would be considered medically fragile and last year

we started a project called the Ezra project with families for

families and we we we intentionally go after specialty

medically fragile. Watch for oversight SMFWO we

have 12 kids in our Care now that are medically fragile.

We have. Two kids that the doctor gave

them. A year to live and they're one

of our families down in South of Atlanta, so we're intentionally

going after children like my granddaughter.

And I've told my son, I said, Kayla may be the reason God had

her born in her family so that we could use her story all over

the state of Georgia to help kids all over our state.

And so you say, what do you want us to do with all this?

Information like this is a lot and I just, I want you to say

this. You can't change the whole

world, but you can change the whole world for one child.

You can do that. It's a let me give you your next

step. This is just, this is the next

step. I'm not asking you to do

anything crazy. Just I, I want you to consider

taking one step this morning, April 26th at 5:00 in the

Chapel. Kenneth's going to be back.

I'll watch to be in Albany. Kenneth's going to be back and

we're going to do what we call an information session.

We don't bring kids with us and say, do you want to take these

home? That's not the way it works.

But we want you to come that day and we'll talk to you about what

it looks like to cook a meal. And we'll also be a babysitter

and a rested family and a foster parent.

We call them partnership parents and a foster parent.

We'll talk about what it was like to do a date night and be

in just everything that you can do on April 6th at 5:00 PM.

If for some reason you can't make it, you can scan that QR

code and we do 2 online information sessions every

month. It's better to come because you

can ask questions If you're like Wayne, I got some more

questions. I'm not sure I'm.

Ready to take a step? Yet that is my cell phone number

and my e-mail. You guys can get a hold of me

easier than my staff can, and I want you to know that.

If you need something, I'd love to give me a call.

I'd love to talk to you. I would love to share with you

about what you can do for a child and that you could be the

answer to a child's prayer. Hey, there's two of my friends

this morning I want to introduce that are here.

And I told you guys, I believe in partnering with the state and

partnering with our legislators. And I believe that families for

families that none of us can do this work alone, but we could

all accomplish it together. And I want to introduce them to

you. And then we're going to pray for

them and then we'll turn it back over.

So Candace, you and Katie, y'all come up here.

They didn't know I was going to do this.

So if I don't have a job tomorrow morning, you'll know

why. This is Miss Katie Dempsey, and

she is the chairman of the Department of Human Services for

on the subcommittee on the House side.

I say the budget. She's in charge of the budget

and the money. And so we work with her and her

committee a lot, and they really have an impossible job to do.

And so, and this is Candace, bro.

She is the commissioner of the Department of Family and Child

Services. And so we work with Candace and

her team a lot. And I want to, I want to share

something. Listen, there's no way they can

watch what goes on everywhere and they have a tough job.

And I want you to remember these two names, Katie Dempsey and

Candace Bruce. And y'all pray for them.

Y'all pray that God will give them wisdom.

Pray that God will give them wisdom to see what they need to

see. And I'm going to pray for them

and I'm going to turn it back over.

We'll all three be in the lobby when it's over.

And thank you guys for letting me share.

Thank you all for letting me go over.

That clock's been red for about 15 minutes, so I know I'm way

over. So thank you guys.

Let's pray and I will turn it back over your church.

Lord, thank you for today. And God, I thank you for for

Candace and for Katie and for the work that they do and for

the work they do for kids in our state.

And I know sometimes when you work with kids, only thing

people remember is what you did wrong.

It's I pray this morning's encouragement as we hear about

kids being fostered in this church.

We hear kids about being adopted.

Well, I know families are going to be here on April 26th.

And God, I pray you help us to just put in front of us this is

about today, but this is about seeing these kids saved and

spending eternity with us in heaven.

So God, I pray you give this church a passion.

I pray you speak to families as they go to lunch, as they lay in

bed and couples talk tonight and they talked this week.

And God, I pray that your Holy Spirit, we'll just pursue them

and bring them back on the 26th. God help us to lay our life down

for a child, just like you laid your life down for us.

It's a God, we thank you for what you're doing here.

Thank you for this church in Jesus name, Amen.