Christmas Eve Offering
To give toward the 2022 Christmas Eve Offering, text “Summit” to 45888 or you can give online. Select the Christmas Eve Offering fund any time between December 24th and 31st.
Here in Central Florida, there’s been a sad reality lingering just outside our periphery, a full-blown crisis that most people aren’t even yet aware of…
Currently, in the greater Orlando area, there are 1,694 children, 4 to 12 years old, in foster care. An all-time low of 36% are placed with a relative, 50% are placed in foster homes, and 9% in group homes. There are 402 sibling groups in care, and 41% of siblings are split up, sent out of county or placed in separate homes. There have been significant increases in reports of domestic violence (up 92%) and medical neglect (up 500%) in the past year, and many of these children came to the foster care system due to substance abuse of a parent, inadequate supervision, or physical abuse.
Commission 127 is a non-profit organization aimed at equipping churches to support foster, adoptive, and biological families in crisis. They helped us set up our own Family Advocacy Ministry, and we’ve only just begun to hear the stories of how our support teams are helping foster families in and around Summit. We’ve seen the fruit of their work first hand, and we believe they can do the same for other churches in our area. That’s why we want to take our support of this great organization a step further this year by making them the recipient of our annual Christmas Eve Offering.
The founders of C127, Rechaud and Betsey Bell, are ministry all-stars! Before starting their non-profit, Betsey served as the Executive Director of the Foundation for Foster Children. During Betsey’s leadership, the organization grew every year–from educational and enrichment support of 100 children per year to a more holistic approach supporting more than 1000 local children. As a part-time missionary through CRU, Rechaud used to lead an outreach ministry at the RDV Sportsplex, connecting men with each other and with the Lord.
Not only that, they’ve been foster parents themselves. After 17 years of marriage, Betsey and Rechaud have grown their family to six children after beginning their personal journey of foster care in 2013. With three little ones at home, they welcomed their oldest daughter into the family when she was 15. Then, they had another little guy through birth, and soon after welcomed their next oldest daughter when she was 18. They have an intimate knowledge of the struggles foster parents face, and they have a unique gifting as leaders to inject some hope into this local crisis.
Before starting C127, Betsey and Rechaud researched and saw that Promise 686, another non-profit out of Atlanta, GA, had a Family Advocacy Ministry (FAM) model with a successful track record. They became inspired, and wanted badly to bring this model home to Central Florida. Rechaud and Betsey knew that a number like 1,694 children in foster care can sound daunting to many, but with the number of churches and believers in our area, it shouldn’t be impossible. Through the FAM model, C127 would help create support teams, like we have at our church, and allow churches to join up as a larger network to better tackle the foster care crisis.
It's a real crisis too. Statistics show that the chance of achieving placement permanency decreases from 74% down to 12.5% after a child receives just one case worker change. In Florida, as a whole, children are likely to change placements twice per year, which is disheartening, but in Central Florida, the number gets worse. Here, children are likely to see three placements per year, and the number goes up from there for children who are non-Caucasian. This is why this work is so important, and this is why we want to help get more churches in our area involved.
With the money coming from our Christmas Eve Offering this year, C127 hopes to support programs that enable positions like Teen Family Specialists to perform important roles. These specialists walk along families fostering teens and provide a listening ear, encouragement when it’s hard, aid those considering fostering as they take their next step toward providing homes for 15-18 year-old kids, who currently have no consistent placement.
C127 is also expanding to Osceola County! Our offering will greatly support this growth and will allow them to begin creating new Family Advocacy Ministries (FAM) in churches located there. There are currently two FAM’s in Osceola County, but C127’s goal is to grow that number to at least 20.
On Commission 127’s website, it clearly states, “Not all can foster. But all can care.” Some of us might be called to become a foster parent after we learn more about this crisis, see the numbers, or hear the stories around Summit, but that’s not all we can do to help! Thanks to C127, we have a Family Advocacy Ministry here at Summit, and you can join a Care Community. Another simple way to be a part of this cause is raising awareness, and letting people know there are ways to donate and get involved!
With the help of Commission 127 though, it’s become clear to us, here at Summit, we can’t just sit on the sidelines. We want to be a part of supporting the systems and structures that serve vulnerable children in our area, and we have no doubt that the money we give this year in our Christmas Eve Offering will go a long way toward strengthening and supporting those on the frontlines of this important issue in our city.