Dare to Care: A Christian Response to Foster Care - Softcover

Sterling, Joy A

9781945190049: Dare to Care: A Christian Response to Foster Care

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1945190043 ISBN 13: 9781945190049

Publisher: Intellect Publishing, LLC, 2016

A myriad of tragedies assaults our eyes and ears daily...parents arrested in a drug bust, children found locked in a closet, a single mom killed in an accident, a neighbor arrested for incest. But what happens to the children involved? Usually they are whisked off into the care of overburdened Child Protective Services. While sometimes a grandparent or other relative steps in, often these uprooted kids join the more than half a million others in foster care. Some stay for the week-end. Some stay for 15 years. Ideally each foster home placement would match the child's needs, but with the dearth of caring people willing open their hearts and homes to these hurting kids, usually it's 'any port in time of storm' and they are placed wherever there is an empty bed. What an opportunity we Christians are missing! Jesus admonishes us to care for His lambs, and who, better than Christians, know the power of unmerited love? Our lack of involvement isn't because we don't care; it's because we view them as statistics, not as distressed children. DARE TO CARE introduces some of the more than 70 children the author and her husband cared for during their 28 years as foster parents, and they will become real, hurting , needy children. Some stories have a happy ending; many do not because Foster Care doesn't have a lot successes. But in every case, Christians have an opportunity to show God's love when it is so desperately needed. Some families (even singles) can take children into their homes but the book also lists opportunities for those who cannot, to be involved. We can all put a band-aide on a hurting child. It is a challenge and an opportunity for the Church to DARE TO CARE.

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About the Author:

Joy Sterling and her husband John were foster parents to more than seventy children from toddlers to teen-agers, over a 28 year span. Some stayed for the week-end; some stayed from pre-school through high school. A few were normal, well-adjusted kids with temporary problems, but most brought a bunch of baggage with them. Some were open and easy to love but many had built a barbed-wire fence around their hearts. But they all had one thing in common; they all needed somebody to love them. Joy was a PK (Pastor’s Kid) and grew up saying “I’ll never marry a pastor’ so she didn’t. She married her high-school sweetheart, a sailor. But during an overseas assignment, God called him into the ministry. Together they pastored churches in Oklahoma, Kansas and Alabama, where they retired after 55 years of ministry. They raised three sons and one daughter, and now enjoy their ten grandchildren who range in age from 7 to 40. She has been putting down words as long as she can remember and describes her writing as “an itch that has to be scratched.” Her first published work was a story in the local weekly newspaper when she was in the 3rd grade. Since then she has had dozens of articles, stories and essays published in various denominational and secular publications. Besides writing, hobbies include grandchildren, reading, grandchildren, cooking, grandchildren, home decorating and, oh, yes, grandchildren. Although not a fan of computers, she says “I’ll probably keep on writing as long as I can punch a keyboard.”

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