We do that through loving care packages, called Blessing Bags, and at special events. This page will no longer be updated due to Facebook issues. This is our new page: be sure to follow it! https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084104464019&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Why are we so passionate about Blessing Bags? Some near and dear friends shared stories about their foster care experiences with
us. We heard a common factor. Trash bags. And it broke our hearts. So we called our local Children’s Services. They said having bags for children to carry a few things around in would be a huge blessing! That’s when we thought, “Hey! What an excellent vessel for our message!" The message that these kids are valuable to a God who loves them, that is. We’re all about letting children in foster care know they are valuable to God. We believe God created everyone for a purpose. Knowing you were created for a purpose by a God who loves you is a great source of comfort in times of uncertainty. If there’s ever a time when things are uncertain, it’s the day you enter the foster care system. If you want to help us with our mission you can sponsor a Blessing Bag on our website! The $20 sponsorship covers the nice quality bag, a pack of new socks, an encouraging book about God, plus a few other fun things appropriate for the age of the child who receives it! We love that Blessing Bags give us an opportunity to start conversations about the foster care system. Did you know more than 400,000 children are in foster care in the US? Every year 20,000-26,000 kids age out of foster care without a family to belong to. About 33% of kids who age out will become homeless in just one year. We did the math one day and realized that's 6,000-7,000 homeless people the system cranks out onto the street every year! In California they did a study that showed around 70% of their incarcerated had spent time in the foster care system.
48% of young women in foster care become pregnant by age 19.
25% of children in the system have PTSD. The Blessing Bags make a difference. They make the transition easier and help preserve a child’s self esteem and dignity. In the long run, though, these children need loving and committed role models. We want to encourage you to reach out to your local children’s services for information about becoming a foster parent or other ways to get involved. A family started Operation Blessing Bag in 2015 as a way to get involved while they worked on becoming a foster family. They became a licensed foster home in 2018 and have been actively fostering, while growing Operation Blessing Bag, ever since. The big numbers and statistics can be intimidating but impacting even just ONE child changes the world. We pray that, now knowing the numbers, you also feel called to get involved. "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
