Mark Your Calendars!

Christian Adoptive Families Summer Picnic

August 23 @ 4:00pm at Eureka Lake

More details to come later.

Christian Adoptive Families is a group of adoptive families from all over central Illinois that meet together to encourage and network together. Several of our OHOH families have attended one or more of these events and have found them to be a lot of fun. Often there is a speaker of some type to do with adoption and time to meet families that have adopted from literally all over the world.

Mark your calendars for this date and we will get you more details closer to the date!

National Foster Care Month

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8

Because May is National Foster Care Month I thought that I would send out a few thoughts about praying for those involved in any way in foster care. These are taken from the "City by City, Church by Church, Child by Child: Praying Together for Children in Foster Care".

"Pray for the Workers:

• that God would raise up laborers to fill every void.
• that God would move more Christians to launch careers in the foster care system.
• for the families of the workers, that the overwhelming realities they experience each day will not prevent them from giving 100% at home.

Pray for the Families:

• that God would draw foster children's biological families to Himself and that they would experience the life transformation that will allow them to parent their children well and with great wisdom.
• that God would intervene in the lives of other at-risk families and provide them with mentors who can help prevent the removal of their children in the first place.
• that God would raise up an army of godly foster parents who are equally committed to reunification and adoption when necessary, trusting God alone for the outcome He desires.

Pray for the Children:

• that the children in the foster care system would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
• that these children would experience God's love through the love and care given them by all involved in the system.
• that God would heal the deep hurts these children have experienced.
• that God would transofrm the children's lives and hearts and that they would be able to forgive those who have wronged them.

Pray for the Church:

• that God would raise up people in many churches throughout our city to launch ministries for orphans and waiting children.
• that believers all over the state would be consumed with compassion for the children in foster care, and would make themselves available for how God wants to use them.
• that believers in our state would be unified in Christ and that our unity around this issue would draw others to Him.
• Ask God what He would have us do in the future in relation to the foster care system and the children it serves."

With more than half a million children in foster care in the U.S. this group of people seems difficult to wrap our minds around. However, there are several families in the Bethany Fellowship of Churches that are already licensed for foster care, are in the process of becoming licensed for foster care, or have adopted through foster care. These are families right here in our own community that would be encouraged through your prayers.

When you pray, ask the Lord how He desires for you to respond to the needs of the many people that are involved in some part of foster care.

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves..." Proverbs 31:8a

2009 National Foster Care Prayer Vigil

The National Foster Care Prayer Vigil is calling followers of Christ together across the country during the week of May 17-24 to cry out to God on behalf of children and youth in our nation's foster care system, their families, their workers, and the church as it responds to the needs of those involved in the foster care system,

Please join the Open Hearts, Open Homes Ministry on Thursday, May 21 between 6-8pm to pray for those involved in any way in the foster care sysem. You can come and go as you need or join us for the entire time.

We will be meeting at the Farmhouse of Bethany Community Church in Washington.

Directions:

From Peoria: Rt. 24 East to Washington, turn North (left) on Nofsinger Rd., turn East (right) on Dutch Lane

From Washington: North on Nofsinger Rd., turn East (right) on Dutch Lane

From Morton: Washington blacktop past Rt. 24 to Dutch Lane, West (left) on Dutch Lane

From Metamora: Washington blacktop to Dutch Lane, West (right) on Dutch Lane

Farmhouse address is 27265 Dutch Lane

Or go to http://www.bethanycommunitychurch.org/

Any questions? - Contact Chuck Boysen or Amy Park, if you don't have our contact info just leave a comment here and we will respond to it.