CFC Q2 Newsletter

Forming the Next Generation

Christian Family Care has a vision of every child loved and nurtured in a Christ-centered family. Your generous contributions make that happen for our most vulnerable children in a variety of ways.

CFC’s services are deeply relational and span from infancy through post-adolescence. We provide:

• Hand-in-Hand pregnancy counseling— with continued support after the child is born

• Preschool for children 0-5 years old

• Comprehensive adoption and foster care services

• Shared parenting for those fostering children whose biological parent(s) are in drug and alcohol rehabilitation

• Family coaching sessions for all ages

• One-on-one counseling/trauma therapy and mentorship programs

• Transition to adulthood services

In every aspect of our ministry, Christian Family Care strengthens families and serves at-risk children across Arizona!

Saying "Yes" to Foster Care and the Unknown

The idea of fostering a child can be scary—but through the generous support of people like you, it is often a beautiful story.

That’s what Christian Family Care foster mom Sarah discovered when she and her husband Ian, already parents to a 13-monthold and a 17-month-old, decided to foster a two-day-old baby girl—when Sarah was five months pregnant!

“Sometimes God asks us to do things that are outside of our timelines, ideas, and comfort zones,” testifies Sarah. “I can remember sitting on my couch, crying and telling God that I was so scared to say ‘yes’ to foster care again.”

Sarah’s biggest fear was that “I wouldn’t have the capacity for what I felt God was asking me to do. Three babies under 18 months

old. How was I supposed to have the capacity emotionally, physically, spiritually, or mentally?”

(continues on page 2)

IN THIS ISSUE

1 Forming the Next Generation

1 Saying "Yes" to Foster Care and the Unknown

2 Meet our Mentor

2 Last Year in Numbers

3 How Can You Get Involved?

3 Did You Know?

4 Letter from the President

Meet our

Erik Maness

Erik Maness, CFC’s Mentor Program Specialist, felt called by God to fill his role.

“It was a bit of a leap,” Erik explains, “because I hadn’t worked with foster kids before,” but when he saw how his skills lined up with their needs, he knew he was in the right place.

The keys to mentorship, says Erik, are “consistency, understanding, and relationship.” He models these every day; Erik is empathetic and celebrates the joys of fostering with others.

“Every mentor journey is a story, and I get to see that story unfold,” he says.

There are currently 37 matched mentors and mentees and 39 more mentees on CFC’s wait list.

Saying "Yes" to Foster Care . . . (continued from page 1)

But Ian was up for it, recalls Sarah, so “we stepped out in faith and answered His call.”

Sarah called Christian Family Care and asked to be put on the fostering list. That very day, a baby girl named Kenzee was born just 20 minutes away. Two days later, Kenzee joined Sarah and Ian.

Kenzee’s biological mom, Sheena, was determined to overcome her personal problems and get her baby back.

On Kenzee’s first visit to her birth mom, Sarah sent a letter “to tell her how much we adore her baby and how we were excited that she gets to visit with her.” Sarah and Ian were praying for Sheena and wanted to let her know that. Sheena replied with a note of her own, and it was “the beginning of our beautiful friendship. The love we shared for this little girl is what brought us together.”

There were rocky times. Sheena badly wanted to get her baby back, and in seeking custody she said some things that hurt Sarah.

But Sarah told her husband, “I believe this will be one of the most beautiful stories of reunification in the history of Arizona. God is up to something far greater than I could ever imagine.”

He was.

The hurt healed. Sheena got her life together and was reunited with Kenzee. The night before

Prevention

Our first pillar focuses on preventing problems before they arise, with the goal of strengthening the family and preventing kids from having to deal with the hardships of a broken home. Prevention programs include:

• STRONG Families for Children

•Hand in Hand Pregnancy Counseling

•KIDS Preschool

Preparedness

With a focus on preparing both families and children for the difficult yet joyful process of adoption and restoration:

• Church Resources

• Parenting Classes

• Family Coaching

• Therapeutic Foster Care

• Foster Care Support

Restoration

The Bible teaches us that, despite our human failings, God can restore His creation to serve His divine purpose. CFC works to lift up struggling families with our:

• Family Counseling

• Trauma Therapy

• Parenting Courses

• KIDS Preschool

Our foundation is rooted in these four pillars.

the reunification, Sheena texted Sarah: “This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you later. You will see Kenzee again. We’re family now.”

Today, Sarah treasures this as one of the richest experiences of her life. She says, “Sheena and Kenzee come over all the time, and she is one of my best friends. God completely redeemed every broken thing in this whole experience.”

There is a lot of brokenness in foster care, but when you allow the great Healer to work through the situation, an amazing transformation unfolds.

(To protect the privacy of these families, we are not using their actual names or photos.)

Did you know?

Preservation

CFC strives to ensure that what Christ's redeeming love has restored shall not be lost by providing ongoing support to ensure families maintain an upward trajectory:

• Family Counseling

• Individual Counseling

• Mentoring

HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?

Christian Family Care has many needs that you can meet. We are grateful to all who share the Gospel in these ways.

Please prayerfully consider how God is calling you to:

• Volunteer

• Pray

• Donate

Donors to Christian Family Care qualify for the 2023 Arizona Foster Care Tax Credit through April 15, 2024! You receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit and reduce what you pay the state in taxes—all while making a difference in the lives of vulnerable youth and doing the Lord’s work.

You can donate to the tax credit at https://cfcare.org/ways-to-give/ arizona-foster-care-tax-credit.

God’s provision and your generosity never cease to amaze me.

Letter from the President

Dear Friends,

Is the start of your year as full as mine?

We are three months into our fiscal year, and God’s provision and your generosity never cease to amaze me.

This new year is already active with the addition of our expansion into young adult services for youth aging out of foster care. We are well on our way to meeting and exceeding last year’s impact—which was already so encouraging. You can find some of the stats in the newsletter, but to give you a brief snippet:

In 2023, CFC:

• Served more than 1,800 children and families and 291 foster children

• Facilitated 116 adoptions

• Provided over 6,800 counseling hours

What a gift it is to work alongside you in this endeavor! Together, we can accomplish so much.

But unfortunately, there is still so much to do. Recent numbers show that there are still more than 9,700 children in foster care in Arizona. Early childhood trauma is ever increasing, and our churches are struggling with how to meet the social and emotional needs of a generation of children suffering from adverse childhood experiences. These children desperately need us, and they desperately need you. Most of them come to us feeling abandoned, unimportant, and hopeless.

With your support, we can not only help fix these issues through counseling, mentoring, and foster care services, but also prevent them by building up at-risk families and individuals throughout Arizona through our family counseling, preschool, STRONG families, classes, and so much more so that fewer children enter foster care in the first place.

I know you feel as strongly as I do about restoring our communities so children and families can thrive in relationship with Christ and with one another.

As such, I invite you to prayerfully consider how you can put those beliefs into action—whether by simply signing up to pray, dedicating your time to becoming a mentor, or donating.

CFC needs you. Society needs you. These children need you.

Should you have any questions about ways you could get more involved, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at mupton@cfcare.org. We would love to get to know you better as we fight for the most vulnerable Arizona families in Jesus’ name.

May God Bless You!

For the Children,