From the Summit itself...

So I'm sitting here at The Christian Alliance for the Orphan's - Summit of the Orphan here in Louisville, Kentucky. And I must say that I'm so thrilled and thankful for the ability to attend this conference for the 2nd year in a row. This event is so awesome, so encouraging, so thought provoking and so challenging. Also, I'd like to give a shout out to Meg Weaver and Sammy Matthews who made this journey with me and deciding to attend the summit this year as my friends who are awesome members of this Back2Back extended family.

Here is the first of many blog posts I will make regarding this conference of things I've found incredibly thought provoking:

300,000 American born - American kids are trafficked WITHIN the United States by pimps and then bought and sold for sex by american men. Of those 300,000 children each year who are forced to sell themselves for sex, 70% of these kids were at one time involved in american foster care.

I find this statistic mind blowing and invokes incredible amounts of anger from within every part of my soul.

The Summit this year has really driven home for me the idea that it is the American Church's responsibility and obligation to care for foster children - to pay attention to them and to welcome them into their churches. Did you know that your local church can contact your county's foster care agencies and offer to give rides to any children within the system who want to go to church? Your local church can and SHOULD be engaging these vulnerable children for Christ. They are so desperate for an identity and a family. Your church and your church's youth group and sunday school programs could be the answer to this void in a child's life. Would you pray about checking that out for yourself and making some phone calls?