A Cry to Help Distressed & Hurting Kids

Statistics show us that there are many more children needing to be fostered and adopted than there are families available to place them in. 

This is a problem that seems to get worse, rather than better.

We are working with an agency called Child S.H.A.R.E that is determined that all 597 of Montana’s waiting children will be adopted into the love of a forever family by 2020. We want to help them accomplish this goal, and we are determined to put a dent in that number by summer of 2013. We are expectant that God will lead many to jump on board with us and start praying for some specific things, and even doing things that will assist in our helping as many kids as fast as possible.

Pray for provision of a property. We are currently looking seriously at a property we have mentioned before that seems to be perfect, but it is in a very mixed up foreclosure case involving the IRS. The property is up for Sheriff's auction on December 6th. We have an opportunity, depending on the cooperation of the current owner, to buy the option to purchase the property within a year of the upcoming sale no matter who should happen to purchase the. This would be a huge blessing as it would give us the time necessary to raise funds and get all of our paper work done and still have the option to get into this property a few months down the road. 

Pray for our staff and families as they wait. God has provided most of the staffing required to run a facility that would house up to 36 children soon after the doors are opened, although we initially would start with facilities for half that number. He has brought each of these precious people to us in many different ways, but we have therapists, cooks, horse people, house parents, office staff, maintenance and grounds people, and directors...all ready to help these children, but we are waiting for God's perfect timing to pull everything together.

Pray for the Horton family. Tamara and I are working as hard and fast as we can with all of our myriad of other responsibilities to get our non-profit paperwork done just as soon as we can so that we are ready to receive what God provides. In the meantime, we are working less on our other jobs and finances are tight. Please pray for provision and pray for wisdom as we try to balance everything. We have received much much confirmation that we are heading in the direction God wants us to, but there are moments when things seem overwhelming from a physical standpoint. Please pray that we stay focused on God and have faith to resist being distracted from the vision He has before us.

Pray for financial provision to get us rolling. The state of Montana offers a stipend for each child that Harmony Acres would provide care for, which, in a normal family situation would be adequate to meet their needs. However, with a facility that requires about half as many staff as children to keep running, the purchase of a multi-million piece of property even for a fraction of it's worth, several buildings and remodels to house staff and residents, vehicles, equipment, staff salaries, and everything else, it simply costs more per child to keep operational than a family setting does. We will need to raise a lot of money to secure a sound financial basis to get off the ground and running. We will also need faith for God to provide on a long-term basis for all these children. Our annual budget will be astronomical.

You may say, "why don't you place these kids in a family, then, if it costs so much in a group home."

While that sounds like probably the best solution, and while there is indeed a shortage of families out there to meet all the needs, there is still a group of kids so hurt that they will require some focused care and healing before they will be ready to be placed successfully into a family. There are very few options available that are really helpful for these hurting kids. A solution must be found.

This is the problem Harmony Acres exists to address—the need we will strive to fulfill:

We believe that a group home with proper management and focused therapeutic care is the best way to impact the most kids. Once on the road to recovery, we wish to see these kids placed in safe, loving, permanent families.

They are trapped—hurting more than most of us could bear to acknowledge—waiting and crying for someone to rescue them.

Once the 600 kids in the system have been placed, there are more that will replace them, and the child placement agencies will have their hands full again. I know it sounds dismal and what's the use...right?  Well I hope that is not your attitude because it certainly is not ours, or Christ's. If one of His sheep were lost, He would leave the others and go searching for the one who was lost and afraid and hurting. That is the example we are tasked to follow.

You may have heard the story of the boy on the starfish-littered beach who was flinging the sand-bound creatures one-by-one back into the ocean.  His father asked him, "What are you doing that for? There are so many, you're not going to make any difference." As he threw yet another starfish back into the water, the boy replied,

"I'm making a difference for THAT one!"

We have one of these sweet kids in our home today that God used us to help rescue from a life of severe abuse. Just one of endless others that need to be "thrown back into the water." Nightmares plagued her everytime she closed her eyes, with past abuses still controlling her mind...that is until she had been surrounded by Love and safety for several months. We will share her story sometime. The exciting part is she is now not only physically, but also spiritually safe...forever, by God's grace! Oh, and guess what she wants to do when she grows up? She wants to help others just like she used to be...stuck and hurting, without hope.

Until they are rescued, many of these children, like her, don't rest.

They are in a constant state of fear, anxiety, and pain from severe physical and emotional abuse. These kids are told they are worthless and they are objects for someone else's use or perverted pleasure. They have no self value, and many would rather be dead than keep living and reliving their constant nightmare.

They are scarred for life...

...but there is hope in Christ and hope in obedience to the command to love these kids. I don't mean just pray for them, I mean do something about it—something active. That's what LOVE is....action! What can you see yourself doing to help these kids that our hearts and the hearts of each God has put on our team cries out to help? 

We want to rescue more hurting kids!

If you know someone near you that is hurting, please help them...but if you don't know anyone, please help us rescue these kids as soon as possible. Prayer is important, and it's value cannot be underestimated, but... 

Prayer does not replace the command to LOVE by actions.

There are many humanly insurmountable obstacles that we face, but we serve a God much bigger than any, and by comparison, the needs for property and finances amount to very little in God's economy. We are confident He will provide and we are seeking to network with individuals, churches, and agencies who are on board with us and want to... 

Help us save children's lives, not only from a temporary perspective, but for eternity.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27, NIV)