A Methodist Church Grassroots Initiative - “A Strong Family for Every Child"

In this episode, guest host Rev. Tom Berlin, Senior Pastor of Floris UMC in Herndon, Virginia, and co-founder of the mission of Helping Children Worldwide, interviews a panel of representatives from the UMC Strong Family for Every Child initiative. The panelists include Emmanuel Nabieu Director of Mission Advance and Partnership from Helping Children Worldwide, Rev. Wayne Lavender of Foundation for Orphans, and Sheree Reece, Director of Global Missions from Church of the Resurrection. Foundation for Orphans supports several orphan missions in Mozambique COR is the largest UMC congregation in the world, located in the Kansas City, Kansas region, with a large outward-focused mission directive, and site for the annual Leadership Institute in September. Sheree hosts the popular new podcast Bridging Cultures.  Along with the panelists, the episode features special appearances by Rev. Gaston Warner and Reegan Kabieri of Zoe Empowers in a pre-recorded segment.

The panel examines the global orphan crisis through the lens of family separation, agreeing with our friends at Faith to Action that the solution for orphanhood isn’t an institution or a building, it’s a family. The panelists describe the diverse range of family-based options that are available, and agree no matter which option they find most appealing, that their individual and collective faith calls for them to provide family for every orphaned child, rather than build orphanages to house a few.

For more about the work of individual panelists, or the Breaking Bread From House to House Table Fellowship at the COR Leadership Institute, please check out these links.

Reverend Tom Berlin 

Floris United Methodist Church  

Reverend Wayne Lavender

Foundation for Orphans

Sheree Reece

Church of the Resurrection

Think Global, Do Justice Website

Passionate about your faith and making a difference in the world? Check out this podcast!

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Travel on International Mission, meet local leadership and work alongside them. Exchange knowledge, learn from one another and be open to personal transformation. Step into a 25 year long story of change for children in some of the poorest regions on Earth.

https://www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org/mission-trips.html

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Organize a Rooted in Reality mission experience for your service club, church group, worship team, young adult or adult study. No travel required. Step into the shoes of people in extreme poverty in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Helping Children Worldwide takes you into a world where families are facing impossible choices every day.

Contact support@helpingchildrenworldwide.org to discuss how.

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Family Empowerment Advocates support the work of family empowerment experts at the Child Reintegration Centre, Sierra Leone.  Your small monthly donation,  prayers, attention & caring is essential. You  advocate for their work to help families bring themselves out of poverty, changing the course of children's lives and lifting up communities. join