Disruptive generosity in the Back Mountain and Wyoming Valley

My name is Auburn, I’m a junior in high school, and I have been going to Fellowship for about 5 years. Safe Families has had a huge impact on me over the past few months in many ways. Something I love about this program is that it’s a way to keep families together and make them stronger with the help of loving, caring, and compassionate volunteers. My family is a Host Family and I’m so thankful that we got this opportunity because it grew my love for helping people in need even more. I can’t wait to see how God will use Safe Families for His glory! Thanks for reading more about Safe Families!

Safe Families provides dedicated coaches to work with individuals, couples, and families facing challenges in life. Volunteers, staff, and parents can collaborate to care for kids and families caught in crisis. Safe Families has many benefits, including being a free service. Safe Families is a ministry that wants to help any parent who is going through difficult times such as unemployment, homelessness, hospitalization, rehabilitation, and other challenging circumstances. Safe Families is a partnership between churches and the community to support families through hard times or crisis. Safe Families can potentially help families avoid foster care by providing them with the support they need to get back on their feet.

Safe Families is fueled by radical hospitality, disruptive generosity, and intentional compassion. Radical hospitality because it’s a ministry that happens because of volunteers who decide, “This is how we want to love our neighbors. By being safe for someone who needs safety. By providing some stability, a home base, and even a family when someone needs it most.” Disruptive generosity because helping this way means some volunteers will open their homes and may learn to expand the idea of who is part of their family. Giving in this way changes not just the lives of the families in crisis, but also of the volunteers and Host Families! And last but not least, intentional compassion because the volunteers have to love like they mean it. They have to want to see the world through someone else’s eyes and walk a mile in their shoes, knowing that these parents in crisis want for their kids the same things they want for theirs.

In the past few months since we’ve been a Host Family, I’ve learned a lot about this kind of hospitality, generosity, and compassion. I feel like I’ve been blessed as much as the family we’re helping. Something that I love to do is read books to the little boy we host. We also love coming to church together and watching them build a bigger community of support as they grow in their faith. It’s fun seeing him make new friends in the nursery. One of my favorite things we’ve done so far is share our Christmas morning traditions and celebrations with our partner family. Seeing their faces light up with joy when we gave them some presents was a bigger gift to our family than to them, I think! Another big joy has been seeing the progress our partner family is making towards their goals within the Safe Families program. It’s really exciting to be a small part of helping them along the way and celebrating with them as they move into the next chapter of their lives.

I hope my story encourages you to come check out Safe Families, think about volunteering, pray for this ministry, or maybe even pray about how you and your family could get involved as a Host Family!

Together, we can make a difference in the lives of families here in the Back Mountain and Wyoming Valley–and in the process, grow in Christlike love and compassion.