Out of Compassion We Are Moved to Action

By Tricia Herren

In 1994, a Houston newscast reported a tragic story of a teenager who was stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver.  I began to pray, I was grieved.  Unsure in what way I could help, I became a volunteer with the youth in our church.  A year later, I led an outreach activity to a Child Protective Services (CPS) shelter for teen girls who had been abused, neglected and abandoned.  We scheduled our first visit armed with snacks, board games, twelve teens and three adults. We hung out with them, and the ice broke quickly!  We had a blast!  Who would have thought outreach would be so much fun?  After a few visits, we invited them to church and the staff person who brought them gave her heart to the Lord.  It appeared God was up to something.

A few simple outreach activities with the teens from our church lead to a weekly ministry at two different shelters over a seven year period.  Those seven years of volunteering lead to a vision for providing a new kind of support: an entire church community of foster families and children. That became the foundation for Homes with Hope.  God transformed a ministry of visiting children in a shelter into a ministry of the church taking these children into their homes.

Through a series of events that are nothing short of miraculous, an agency was born. The time between forming the agency and opening our doors spanned nearly one and a half years.  In that time many people worked together to accomplish all that needed to be done, including sharing the vision with our church pastor, recruiting the board of directors, filing for our incorporation and bylaws, opening a bank account, fund raising, applying for our 501(3)c non-profit status, our state license and our contract with CPS, setting up our office space and hiring a social worker.  The task was  daunting.  I was still busy running my own interior design business and felt unqualified to start this agency.  I am thankful for how God demonstrated his provision by bringing so many skilled and helpful volunteers to meet the needs and encourage me along this path.

As I began the process, the owner from the first shelter we served decided to help me establish the agency.  Her involvement brought twenty years of social work experience to the table, and she began writing policies for our state license application.  Unfortunately, after six months of work, she had to withdraw to support her husband’s business.  With fear and trepidation, I took what she had written, read the state license minimum standards and proceeded to figure out what I could do to complete it, which wasn’t much.  I was allowed three submissions of the application to the state.  If the license was not granted by the third submission, we would have to wait another year before reapplying.  I mailed the application, and it came back riddled with corrections in red and a list of the missing pieces.  I was overwhelmed by what was left to do.  Two days later, a contractor arrived with his new assistant to finish remodeling my bathroom.  I discovered that his assistant had helped three local agencies get their license.  I thought, could my help come from a stranger in my bathroom?  Surely not.  But, with his help, the application was accepted on the third try, and we were officially a licensed child placing agency!

We opened our doors in April 2004, and in December 2006, became an adoption agency as well, finding permanent homes for children.  Since that time, we have placed eighty-five foster children in great homes; twenty-five of them have been adopted.

The heart of Homes with Hope is caring for abused and neglected children.  Out of compassion for children in crisis, we are moved to action.  We believe that the Lord demonstrates his heart for these children through our practical expressions of love.  We believe community is the key to supporting and serving our children, our families and the church.

Our desire is to network with other churches, encouraging them to organize orphan care ministries of their own and help them serve the Lord in this way.  How do we do this with limited staff and resources?  How do we build and enlarge what we have established when we are often so weary?  How do we find others like us who are called to the same work?  We will do what we did from the beginning:  take it one step at a time, be faithful in the small things, be faithful to serve, intent on finding God's heart, seeking him, and the rest will come....

Tricia Herren attends the Vineyard Church in Houston, TX, and has served in most every area of ministry for the past twenty-nine years.  Educated as an interior designer, she ran her own design business for ten years before embarking on the adventure of directing a foster care and adoption agency.  For more information, visit her website at www.homeswithhope.org.  Contact Tricia at tricia@homeswithhope.org,or call Homes with Hope at (713) 864-1885.