As the mother of adopted children and later as a kinship parent to her grandchildren, Susan Seavers has sometimes felt misunderstood by other Christian parents. “I think it comes from wanting to meet the need of such children that I had always felt—that was my calling,” Susan explains as we sit behind the customer help desk in the attractively and tidily organized store filled with rows of shelves and hanging used clothing, as well as products geared specifically for infants and children. 

We are at the Thomas Road Foster and Adoption Resource Center, a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, where Susan and Barbara Horstemeyer serve as Co-ordinators. There is no charge to shoppers for any of the products housed in this sprawling facility. Only foster and adoptive families shop here. The items they choose are simply checked out, and they may or may not be returned when clients are finished using them. 

The center’s front space is set up with toys and small tables for young children to build blocks, read books, put together puzzles, or color. The volunteers who are on-hand to help customers will also keep an eye on the kids as they play in this area while their parents shop. Off in the corner of the store are couches, making conversation easy if a parent just wants to talk or ask questions. It is also here, each day, that the volunteer staff gathers before and after business hours for a time of sharing prayer requests and then lifting the requests up in prayer. Customers often bring in requests regarding the children they are parenting and appreciate the resources and spiritual support this ministry is able to offer them. 

Foster parenting is not easy and can present unique and stressful problems. The feeling of being misunderstood that Susan described is a common feeling among this group of parents. They are trying to provide a safe home for children who have not experienced safety. They struggle to create a healthy normalcy for these children, while simultaneously helping them work through trauma that has been a constant part of their lives and familial relationships. Many Christian church families have little understanding of these difficult circumstances. 

There are 195,404 licensed foster families in the United States, a number which has slightly decreased over the past years, according to The AFCARS Report (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System) released in 2023 based on 2022 estimates. In Virginia there are 4,735 foster families serving 5,156 foster children in current foster care. 

Thomas Road Foster and Adoption Resource Center supports the foster families that reside in the greater Lynchburg area. They see about 16 clients each week that visit during the two evenings and Saturday morning hours they are open. Twenty vetted volunteers (not necessarily members of Thomas Road Baptist Church, but all professing believers) work in shifts to prepare items and keep the shelves stocked, greeting the family members with encouraging conversation as they shop. 

The ministry morphed into its present location from tiny seeds planted back in 2014. Beginning as a group of foster/adoptive/kinship parents at Thomas Road, the group met together once a month to encourage one another. Someone came up with the idea of providing back packs for foster children at the beginning of each school year as well as all the school supplies to put in them. There would be some left over every year, so someone began storing the left overs. Pretty soon people were donating other items for babies, and the amount of stuff being stored started to grow.

On Wednesday nights, Thomas Road Baptist Church had traditionally served a hot meal, but now an invitation to these families to attend was extended. Then someone had the idea of providing hot and frozen meals for these same families. Before long someone was storing frozen meals in their freezer and there began to be a lack of freezer space as well as for the donated items.

Soon these Thomas Road ladies began to reach out to the families who received a new foster placement to make sure they had all the furniture/equipment/clothing they might need. As the collected items continued to grow, a church in downtown Lynchburg that moved out of their building, offered space to house all of it in one place at no charge. 

Around 2018-2019, that church sold their property and this group helping foster and adoptive families wondered what would happen next. But God didn’t. He moved Liberty University who owned the space they now use, to offer it to the Thomas Road ministry. Some initial building maintenance was required but the storefront space has been abundantly adequate to meet the need.

Susan is animated as she describes her involvement with this project. As she interacts with the families that come into the Center, she is able to share all she has learned herself through her years of bringing up adopted and foster children. She knows when the outreach of the Resource Center is needed most and how much encouragement a foster parent also needs. 

She has learned that God has not called everyone to foster or adopt. She believes that those times she felt misunderstood were because church families don’t realize what a difficult calling fostering is, and that they need to be taught to reach out in support of those who do. “God simply has not equipped [everyone] to handle the things that foster families handle. But I often see [those people] quickly responding to a financial need for this ministry or some other need that my husband and I could not afford or would not have the wherewithal to give.”

The backpack program continues every year when school starts, as do the hot and frozen meals which are available year around. However, The Resource Center now stands alone as its own ministry program and I can see that God is using Susan and this Center to advance His Kingdom. To watch Susan is to believe that she is all about sharing and she emphasizes that “first and foremost, she wants to share the Gospel.”

In doing this, The Resource Center is also able to share information about other area ministries dedicated to serving foster and adoptive families. One such group is Five18FamilyCare. Their Family Advocates “journey with families to help them grow connections and strengthen social support,” according to their brochure at The Resource Center. Always putting the Gospel first, they get “to know caregivers and their specific needs so [they] can connect them to the services, training, and/or relational support that will help them…to thrive.”

Thomas Road Baptist Church isn’t the only local Lynchburg church offering services and support in Jesus’ name to foster families. Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church is another who supports the needs of parents who foster or adopt through their program “Fostering Hope.” While they don’t have a storefront, they can help supply the practical needs for these families. They also deliver prepared weekly meals to foster families, help with transportation to appointments, even mentor children. This requires a great deal of training and vetting for their volunteers. 

Once a month Fostering Hope has a Connect night for fostering parents. There’s no agenda—just an opportunity for the parents to get together to share and encourage one another. Childcare is provided. Fostering Hope is generous with pampering the parents, providing gift cards, groceries, and even treating parents to a date night out when they need it by watching the kids and giving the parents a gift card to spend on their special night.

Mosaic, a ministry of Waymaker Church in Lynchburg, also supports the children and families of those who foster or adopt. They’re always ready to provide a meal, gift cards as needed, school supplies and Christmas presents. Once a month they host a meal for families. The kids have child care, and besides the dinner, parents receive encouragement and gift cards donated by local businesses. 

Village 434 is an outreach to foster, adoptive, and at-risk families in the Lynchburg area sponsored by Gospel Community Church in Lynchburg. Their mission is to “engage the church at-large to live out our Heavenly Father’s heart of compassion to the vulnerable.” Their name came from the idea that “it takes a village.” Their website notes that “about half of new foster parents quit within the first year because the work is that difficult.”

The volunteer staff of Village 434 is always standing by to provide immediate needs for the families they serve, to help families get the resources they need, and is available to pray for and with the families at any time.

The men and women who give of their time and service to all these ministries are doing the work with hearts that reflect Christlike compassion as they boldly touch the lives of hurting children and the special parents that minister to them in Jesus’ name.

As Susan so aptly said earlier in this article, not everyone has been called to be a foster or adoptive parent. Nevertheless, the Church at-large should be standing on the frontlines with these parents. There are so many different ways for volunteers to serve; there is plenty of opportunity for everyone. And there is plenty of room for more churches to begin their own ministries to these often forgotten families. 

Village 434 notes on their website, “the needs vary from tangible to relational to everything in between. There is a place for whatever capacity or gifting you have.”

All that’s required is a heart of service for Christ.