Fostering change
Oklahoma Baptists’ rally focuses on foster care.
With a small trash bag in their hands, people moved from pew to pew in the large church sanctuary. They were each given about 30 seconds to shuffle from one place to another — told to sit next to someone they had never met — at First Baptist Church of Edmond. All the moving around was part of a somber simulation conducted at “The Gospel, The Church & Foster Care” rally on Tuesday, the last night of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s annual meeting. In a sanctuary silent except for soft music from a video, attendees received a bag to hold their imaginary belongings as they were given an idea of what happens when children are placed into foster care and then moved from one foster care placement to another, then another, finding refuge with strangers. They were asked to imagine themselves as “Sophia,” a young girl who is placed into foster care after she confides to a schoolteacher that she has been abused by her stepfather.
Walking the walk
The simulation was part of the rally event held to educate and better equip Oklahoma Southern Baptist churches and the public about ways to help children and families whose lives are impacted by foster care and adoption. In his opening prayer, Greg McNeece, Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children president, asked the Lord to “call men and women out of the pews to be beacons of light” to aid children in foster care. A panel discussion featured Baptist clergy and ministry leaders who have become involved in foster care through their church. Representatives of the Department of Human Services and other agencies talked with attendees about ways they could become foster parents or help children and families in crisis in some other way. Breanna Brumley said she created the WRAP (Wrestle in prayer, Respite care and Promises of God) ministry at First Baptist Church of Jenks when she and her husband, the Rev. Cody Brumley, were considering adoption. She said they reached out to friends who have adopted children and were told that they often felt isolated in their communities. The WRAP ministry aims to come alongside people fostering or