The highlight of our summer was to be launching a Global Foster Care Partnership. The vision was to gather host families-foster parents from two continents to forge relationships, talk about highs and lows, and leave mutually encouraged and strengthened. Preparations for it were what brought Thomas on the trip with Philip in January 2016. It was what brought their family back this summer. It was going to be so fun.
For reasons we won't discuss here, it didn't happen as we imagined.
Instead, our ministry leader came to us, spending a couple of days talking and listening with Thomas and Sara, and returning home with all the supplies and materials to lead the workshop himself.
It has been a raging success. The host moms are saying, "This is what we've been needing to know!"
It's taking longer to get through the material than anticipated each day because the material is in French, but the best languages for communicating effectively with our host moms are Jula and Cherma, so every little thing must be said in three languages. Not to mention Jula and Cherma don't have words for "attachment", "trauma", and the other concepts of raising kids from hard places. Aye yie yie, what a labor of love!
One of the biggest bonuses of the workshop working out this way is that it is 100% West African led, which means it's 100% West African reproduce-able, if the opportunity arises in another village. Our other favorite aspect in what was a disappointing situation is that it lets the local church be the hero. That is always a win. In this case, the government people we work with who came to observe the workshop said, "This is better than our training. You need to share this with us." May high quality-big love continue to be the mark of the Church!
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