I saw this meme that showed a picture of a wasps nest and said “If 2020 were a pinata”.
I couldn't agree more!
As we all took a crack at the new year, we were swarmed by a thousand raging wasps. While we are grateful for safety and some extra family time we cannot forget children that languish in the foster system or those families that have a compounded crisis.
There is no doubt that we at The Attic have seen the increased hardship that the Coronavirus and rockbottom oil prices have caused for children and families. We are proud to say that your community and churches have come through. In the 90 days of April to June we served 82 families, 139 children.
The network came through by helping 56 children sleep in their own beds and provided safe car seats or boosters for 26 children. And would you believe that 4 churches provided 1,635 masks for Child Protective Services and their clients to use. Check out the postcard we sent out. If you want to receive our quarterly update by mail fill out this quick form.
July saw a declining trend where we served 20 families and 26 children in crisis. Further, 5 children slept in their own beds that the community and local foundations provided. While these were typical July trends because of kids being out of school, we were astonished that Kelview Heights Baptist Church stepped up to provide 548 masks for caseworkers. In all the network was able to provide 2,183 masks for DFPS caseworkers and their clients.
While these numbers are heartwarming and exciting, we can’t help but think about the West Texas kids who, by no fault of their own, are in the foster system and are not being cared for by their own community. In June of 2020, children from Ector County that went in the foster care system had a 89% chance being placed in a home or institution outside of Ector County and a 59% chance of being placed in home of institution outside of our 30 county region. That means these children were 100, 200, or even 500 miles away from home. Midland county is not much better where kids placed in foster care will have an 81% chance of being places outside of Midland County and also a 63% chance of being placed in a home or institution outside of our region.
Sadly, for many families and children in West Texas, that meme is true. The wasps in that nest are real and those problems are swarming. They need you and they need the church.
Think about what you can do for them.
Could you:
-Pray
-Adopt
-Get your church involved
-Give