Start Right Here

I remember where I was the first time I heard the song, "Start Right Here" by Casting Crowns. I was on Mandarin Road and I had just left Starbucks. Which was super ironic, because the first line of the song says, "We want our coffee in a latte." Touché.

As I continued to listen, the next few lines were pretty shocking:

We want out blessings in our pocket

We keep our missions overseas

But for the hurting in our cities

Would we even cross the street?

I made this exact face:

And I sat in my gigantic van, (which is the envy of all large foster and adopt families) and I thought, "Can they even say that?"

Please hear me when I say, at Hope Multiplies WE LOVE OVERSEAS MISSIONS! We believe we need to be doing the work. We cannot wait to serve there in the near future again. There are people that have a heart for missions all over the world and they inspire us to see the global church and the work that is being done and have amazing testimonies of how God is moving all over the earth.

We equally believe that God put us in our neighborhoods and communities for a specific reason: To do His work here. To run with reckless abandon towards hurting children and families. This is the very heart of God and no one in the church can argue or be divided over this issue.

So, let's flip our way of thinking.

The church and mission trips are not locations. They are a lifestyle.

We are not going to church. We are the church.

We are not traveling to a mission trip. We live on mission.

God is moving to mobilize the church to serve the child welfare system. Your church may do that a number of ways. It may be a diaper drive or it may be a large scale foster ministry. That is the beauty of the body. It takes all parts to make it work. 1 Corinthians 12

Statistically, if 10% of churches have some level of participation,

we would have more than enough …

• Help for biological families trying to stabilize and reunify

• Foster and kinship families for every child to have an ideal placement

• Adoptive families for every child waiting for adoption

We are so ready.

It's got to start right here.

It's got to start right now.