Foster Care is Evangelism

 The following is an older post from a site I wrote for that is folding.  I'm reposting some of the posts here so they are not lost. The following is one of those:

My wife and I are foster parents. As I write this we have a little boy named Joshua that my wife gave birth to and a little girl named Anna that was just born on Groundhog’s Day. And we have the sweetest little girl that my wife didn’t birthe.

We’ve fallen madly in love with all three of our kids. We’ve also fallen in love with the mother of the little girl that we get to help raise for now. We love her mother deeply and are cheering for her to succeed and to break our hearts when the sweet young girl leaves our home and goes back to hers.

Many have asked us why we do foster care. There are many reasons. For one, the Holy Spirit lives in us and He causes us to love mercy and to act justly (Micah 6:8). We desire to honor God by practicing the true religion that cares for widows and orphans and those temporarily, legally orphan-like (James 1:27). We want to serve Jesus by serving the least of these (Matthew 25:40).

Recently when being asked why we chose to do foster care the question was phrased like this: “Why are you doing foster care? Is it a calling?”

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.”

—Matthew 28:19-20a

We are called to foster care because it is evangelism. This doesn’t mean that anyone who isn’t doing foster care and/or adoption isn’t a regenerate soul, but it does mean that foster care and/or adoption is a powerful way to do one of our greatest callings.

On January 28th Phil Newton while speaking at the Bethlehem Pastor’s Conference in Minneapolis used the term “withness”. Our most powerful witness is often withness. He said, and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t have the transcription of his sermon, “The Twelve began to absorb what they heard from Jesus after they observed what they saw of Jesus.” This means that our words are absolutely essential, but discipleship is fueled with rocket fuel by our modeling of the Christian life.

Foster care is evangelism because it displays the glory of God.

Those who believe in Jesus are those that have seen His glory. We are drawn to Jesus when we recognize His immense worth, when we see Him like a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). God can show His glory in any way He chooses and one of the chief ways He’s chosen to do that is through the good works of the saints. All good works are to reveal His glory. Our good works are like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Triune God.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden… In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.”

—Matthew 5:14 & 16

When we take children into our homes we reflect the glory of our Great Father who has freely adopted us (Ephesians 1:5). When we work hard to help mothers and fathers get their children back we display the glory of Yahweh who has made us ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).

Evangelism is often seen as how we help people get into Heaven. It’s the telling of Good News, a.k.a. Gospel. Well, receiving the Gospel is something that happens all at once and every single day. We are justified in the moment we believe and we will be glorified upon the moment of our death or Christ’s return, but the process of our sanctification is one that lasts all during the time in between.

Foster care is self-evangelism.

I say it is self-evangelism because it sanctifies us. It is sanctifying my wife and me in so many ways. For one, we get the joys and sorrows of participating in God’s reconciliatory work. We join in Him in having His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). It also causes us to rely heavily on His amazing daily grace. Every morning we need a fresh supply of His mercy (Lamentations 3:22-23) and this exercise in trust is most certainly sanctifying us.

So, why are we foster parents? In part, because foster care is evangelism. Every day we pray, and pray hard, for the salvation of this sweet little girl and her mother. Every day we have to strive to have a walk worth imitating. And every morning we need to cling to our Father’s hand for support.

Foster care is evangelism.

If your heart is stirred to make disciples in this way I encourage you to look into it. Foster parents aren’t super-parents, my wife and I certainly aren’t. We, like so many other Christians (and thank God that through His common grace there are non-Christians who care deeply for thousands of children in foster care) are simply people that believe that our God is big enough to help us follow Him. And we know that there is no such thing as a sacrifice for Jesus; He will outdo us mightily and will do the same for you perhaps in the here and now and definitely in eternity to come.