Replanted Ministry
I was looking for different redemptively minded ministries that work to support foster care, and I found Replanted Ministry. Foster care has always been a subject of interest to me, especially as I’ve been studying social work. There is often not enough support for foster care parents, and not enough Christian families are willing to host. Replanted Ministry partners with local churches, enabling them to actively support foster and adoptive families. Churches host support groups that meet weekly for dinner, offering free childcare during that time. The parents can talk about their struggles and give each other support. This model enables churches to provide practical, ongoing support to families involved in foster care. If a group doesn’t exist in your area, Replanted also provides the resources and training you need to launch a support group through your church or community.
Foster care can be emotionally draining for parents. Short-term placements require adapting to each child, while long-term care can be challenging without community support. Replanted allows these parents to be surrounded by people who “get it”. Having a Christian community you can ask for help and childcare from is so important. This community truly becomes a village for foster families.
Another reason why Replanted is redemptive is that caring for children is a biblical notion. Jesus repeatedly says Christians should care for children. This ministry allows the church to help families in a tangible way by motivating and equipping them to foster, ensuring they have a strong, reliable community. It may even motivate other families to consider fostering, thanks to the community. Knowing there is support can make fostering less daunting.
Overall, Replanted is a simple way to help the foster care world. It creates a community and allows you to build your own if none exists. They focus on empowering families and helping them work interdependently. My hope is that through the work they are doing with current foster parents, they will motivate new families to foster children.
What a great ministry! I love the focus to help families and children in need. As you yourself stated, Jesus is quite concerned with children being treated well (as are Paul and Isaiah, among others). Therefore a program like Replanted should already be a natural piece of church workings. Yet, we unfortunately fail to focus on the very real needs of suffering—including and maybe especially this one—around us. One question I have is how the ministry works. What is the support Replanted gives to churches and foster families specifically? It sounds like they in some way enable the churches, but whether that is purely financial or has nothing to do with finances is not clear. I guess I should check them out! I never would have heard of them without you, so thank you for the post Elizabeth!
This is a cool on-the-ground way of supporting a real need. When people are doing hard things for the kingdom (i.e., fostering), they need support!
I love this idea. There are so many people who don’t believe that they could ever do foster care. This is such a practical and effective way to reduce those obstacles and support parents. Nice post!