Your Home: The Mission Field

During college, I planned on becoming a missionary and working with orphaned children in Africa. A little cliché, right? However, throughout my journey of studying missions, the Lord changed my heart to be more focused on the children right here in our own country. I did not realize how great the need was right in my own city. I got my social work license and my husband and I decided to pursue foster care. We dreamed of loving children from tough situations and working to build relationships with their birth families. Throughout the following months we prepared our home and hearts to welcome in children. We were filled with excitement and dreamed of what it would be like to parent children born to another. We didn’t understand the depths of what we would experience in our very own home.  

As we welcomed our first children from foster care, we began to see firsthand the impact of trauma on little ones. From nightmares, to distrust, worrying if food would be available, to the constant state of “flight, fright, or freeze,” our hearts were broken to witness so much brokenness. As we heard stories about their birth parents and the paths that led them to needing support from the child welfare system, we realized that these birth parents also came from brokenness and needed so much hope. These parents loved their children fiercely and were dealt with a very hard life. The generational trauma they and their children faced is the result of us living in a broken world. I didn’t need to go to Africa to find brokenness. It was here. It IS here. And that’s when it clicked. Our very own home was a mission field. We were able to witness what the power of Christ’s hope and love and redeeming grace could do in the life of a child and their parents. Our God is a God of hope, redemption, and healing and He has invited every one of us to partner with Him in this beautiful work. 

If you feel called to foster care, your home will become a mission field. You will have the opportunity to be used by God as His hands and feet. You will be able to partner with Him in the work of helping children and parents heal from trauma. You’ll be in the very unique position to build relationships with birth parents who have little to no support and love in their lives. You’ll be helping to fight against generational cycles of abuse, drug use, and neglect and sharing the love of Christ in exchange. That sure sounds like mission work to me! What an honor it is to be in such close proximity to brokenness and to be able to offer the hope and love that Christ gives. Welcome to the mission field!  

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Jodi Figueroa

About the Author

Jodi Figueroa, LSW

Foster Care Assessor

Foster care and adoption are my greatest passions. Being a foster mom myself, I have seen the beauty and restoration that can happen within foster care and adoption. It is such a privilege to walk alongside foster families as they play a huge role in helping children heal and grow into who God created them to be. It is a unique privilege to be able to care for someone else’s child and it is my hope that I can provide support, education, and resources to foster families who are doing this hard and rewarding work.