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Emma's vision for lewis & harris
The opportunity to work with Foundations Matter came as a bit of a surprise – I just hadn’t seen it coming, but it was an instant fit!
Anyone who knows me will tell you I love working with children, particularly those who have not had the life chances many of us have benefitted from. I spent the first years of my working life in North Africa. Volunteering in a ward for abandoned babies in Tunisia and then following the children’s progress to the local children’s home gave me real insight into the pain and hurt of not having a home or family to call your own. I retrained as a Social Worker and joined an NGO there trying to work with single mums and abandoned babies.
On returning to Scotland in 2010, I was a Children and Families Social Worker in the local authority. When Paul and I got married and had our own children we decided it would be beneficial for me to be at home more and so I did sessional work with Hebrides Alpha.
A friend forwarded me an email about the work that Cornerstone UK (called Foundations Matter in Scotland now) do in connecting the most incredible families with children who need a loving home. The charity was looking for a Social Worker based in the Western Isles. The opportunity met me when my children were a bit older and I had been thinking about what I would do next. I love the way Foundations Matter go about their work supporting people who follow Jesus to do what, in our current culture, is a radical thing – opening up their home and heart to those in need.
Recently we saw an unprecedented number of people up and down the UK demonstrate their willingness to provide shelter to Ukrainian refugees; people they had never met from a place many had never been to. It is wonderful that this issue has been brought into the light and people are responding to it with compassion. Conversely, the plight of many of our children in our nation of Scotland is hidden and not well understood. We have over 14,000 looked after children in Scotland. Almost 70% of these are in foster care and there is a need for more foster parents. People often think of people who can take in children who need a home as superhuman, but foster carers would tell you they are ordinary people who are simply willing to give it a go. It is a big step of faith; it cannot be denied. Faith in the One who is the ultimate Good Father and who has promised to guide, instruct, teach and comfort us as we share the love we have received from Him.
The reason I took the step to come to the Isle of Lewis and not to return to my native Glasgow is because I had clear direction from the Lord. I have no family or connections here and I had to double check the location of Stornoway on the map when I heard the Lord mention it! In addition, years before being married or coming to the island I had written in my journal that I felt the Lord say he was preparing an ark, a safe place for me to raise my children. I was single and in North Africa! I had completely forgotten all about that and years later you can imagine our surprise when looking through that old journal, Paul and I and our two children realised how spot on it had been! Our home was referred to as ‘Noah’s house’ in the community so we had named it ‘The Ark’. We had also felt God calling us to create a ‘safe place’ for Christians who have had a hard time of it on the land adjoining our home. An anonymous donation at just the right time allowed us to establish our Bothy (built by Innes Smith from Hebridean Bothy Pods in Achmore) in which Christians can rest, recuperate and reconnect with God. SO as you can see the idea of a safe place has been very much on our hearts.
My dream now would be for there to be a network of safe homes and hearts on this island willing to take in and care for the broken hearted children of our nation. Not only are we looking for foster carers but those who will support the carers practically and with prayer. The challenge is to be open and available to however the Lord leads, knowing that when he calls, he equips. I am so grateful to all those who have supported our family as we have embarked on this, our latest God adventure. Lets just say life is not dull with Him!
Anyone who knows me will tell you I love working with children, particularly those who have not had the life chances many of us have benefitted from. I spent the first years of my working life in North Africa. Volunteering in a ward for abandoned babies in Tunisia and then following the children’s progress to the local children’s home gave me real insight into the pain and hurt of not having a home or family to call your own. I retrained as a Social Worker and joined an NGO there trying to work with single mums and abandoned babies.
On returning to Scotland in 2010, I was a Children and Families Social Worker in the local authority. When Paul and I got married and had our own children we decided it would be beneficial for me to be at home more and so I did sessional work with Hebrides Alpha.
A friend forwarded me an email about the work that Cornerstone UK (called Foundations Matter in Scotland now) do in connecting the most incredible families with children who need a loving home. The charity was looking for a Social Worker based in the Western Isles. The opportunity met me when my children were a bit older and I had been thinking about what I would do next. I love the way Foundations Matter go about their work supporting people who follow Jesus to do what, in our current culture, is a radical thing – opening up their home and heart to those in need.
Recently we saw an unprecedented number of people up and down the UK demonstrate their willingness to provide shelter to Ukrainian refugees; people they had never met from a place many had never been to. It is wonderful that this issue has been brought into the light and people are responding to it with compassion. Conversely, the plight of many of our children in our nation of Scotland is hidden and not well understood. We have over 14,000 looked after children in Scotland. Almost 70% of these are in foster care and there is a need for more foster parents. People often think of people who can take in children who need a home as superhuman, but foster carers would tell you they are ordinary people who are simply willing to give it a go. It is a big step of faith; it cannot be denied. Faith in the One who is the ultimate Good Father and who has promised to guide, instruct, teach and comfort us as we share the love we have received from Him.
The reason I took the step to come to the Isle of Lewis and not to return to my native Glasgow is because I had clear direction from the Lord. I have no family or connections here and I had to double check the location of Stornoway on the map when I heard the Lord mention it! In addition, years before being married or coming to the island I had written in my journal that I felt the Lord say he was preparing an ark, a safe place for me to raise my children. I was single and in North Africa! I had completely forgotten all about that and years later you can imagine our surprise when looking through that old journal, Paul and I and our two children realised how spot on it had been! Our home was referred to as ‘Noah’s house’ in the community so we had named it ‘The Ark’. We had also felt God calling us to create a ‘safe place’ for Christians who have had a hard time of it on the land adjoining our home. An anonymous donation at just the right time allowed us to establish our Bothy (built by Innes Smith from Hebridean Bothy Pods in Achmore) in which Christians can rest, recuperate and reconnect with God. SO as you can see the idea of a safe place has been very much on our hearts.
My dream now would be for there to be a network of safe homes and hearts on this island willing to take in and care for the broken hearted children of our nation. Not only are we looking for foster carers but those who will support the carers practically and with prayer. The challenge is to be open and available to however the Lord leads, knowing that when he calls, he equips. I am so grateful to all those who have supported our family as we have embarked on this, our latest God adventure. Lets just say life is not dull with Him!
SHARON & wILLIE'S JOURNEY TO FOSTERING
As Christians we all know that children are a blessing from the Lord. After 18 years of marriage we certainly have known great blessing with the arrival of four beautiful children. To see them grow and flourish is a massive privilege. It is also a massive responsibility to have their physical, emotional and especially their spiritual health always at the forefront of our minds and hearts. Without the Lord's promised grace and support these things could leave us utterly at sea in the parenting process. But God is faithful who has given us a heart not only for our own children but for other children who need parents and siblings.
For many years we'd had the idea of fostering to adopt in our hearts and at times we'd think and pray about it and at other times we were swept away from the idea through the busyness of life. But God had planted that seed of a call early on in our lives. For one thing Sharon had been abandoned by a parent in her childhood and felt a real pull to help others, who indeed had gone through similar and much much worse situations early in life.The impact this has on children is huge and continues to potentially affect them well into adulthood. With Willie working as a teacher and Sharon working as a Health Care assistant in the hospital, care is a big part of our lives and the experiences we've had are so helpful moving forward in this process.
It has been suggested that for us fostering and adopting, is to enlarge our brood. This isn't entirely true. We do believe any addition to our family is in God's providence a blessing and would be as much a part of us as our own flesh and blood but the reason for our desire lies in this, that many children simply have no home, have no parents, are damaged and hurting and need to come to a place of security and a place of love where they can heal, where they can be themselves and thrive in a Christian family and community. One lady said oh only special people do this! Are we the perfect home, the perfect family?? NO!!! We are most certainly not, it is NOT a requirement to be 'special' but our foundation is perfect and with Christ as foundation all things are possible. He who has begun a good work shall complete it.
One day when our youngest was 5 Sharon was sitting down to read the evangelical times, which she doesn't normally have time for but this day the first page she opened on was on the court case Cornerstone was enduring due to their uncompromising belief that they should be allowed to function as a Christian charity. Her initial reaction was of shock that any Christian agency was still able to function in this country in this day and age. After this we made immediate contact with the CEO Pam Birlte for more information and straight away saw God opening doors. Imagine our amazement when speaking to Pam it was revealed to us that her heart had been going towards Lewis for having Cornerstone active in this place and not only that but we were the second family on the Island at that time to have made contact with an interest in coming alongside them to answer God's call to home the homeless. Please keep in mind that Cornerstone has been an English charity based in Doncaster, so a quick look at the map shows that Lewis wasn't from a human perspective the obvious next step but God's plan is always right even when we can't see it.
We embarked on some preliminary courses by an outside body late autumn and then applied to Cornerstone in December 2020. It has been amazing looking back on so many providences over this period of our lives. Firstly we prayed specifically that if it was God's will as we felt it was that God would himself impress this desire on the hearts of our own four children who are now aged between 17 and 7. When we first broached the subject with them we were astounded at their positive reactions. One older child said "It's the right thing to do". and the other "we should do it simply because we can" Our 10 year old son had a massive list of why it was the right thing to do, he spoke about how children in orphanages might not find it so easy without parents to keep them safe from bullying, he spoke of how children are sad because they can't be cared for by their parents and how we could try to give them a better life, than what they've so far experienced. Our youngest, at this time 5 years old , was delighted at the prospect. She said it would help them not to feel lonely anymore to be with us. Of course there was a great deal of serious conversations and discussions of not only the positives but also the potential difficulties that might come our way. How did they feel about these things and what solutions we'd potentially have. There's nothing like a family meeting with thoughts going openly and freely between parents and children. And really it's often 'out of the mouths of babes'.... is a verse we often find ourselves quoting. It's a question we've heard, what about the children you've got? It seems there's an assumption that God would never call a family who already have children to take cared for children in too. This just isn't the case. There's pros and cons in every situation. For some older children or severely mentally scarred children to stay with a couple, or even a single Christian and have one to one attention most of the time, would be better for them than what we can offer but there's many children who would be better able to thrive in the busyness of a family home, where they can be a part of an established family surrounded by older siblings who also love them. People ask how we know we'd love a foster child the same as our own. It's hard to explain but we think that,in actual fact, in keeping with biblical ideas of love, love is a command and it is a choice! And we know that if God has called us to it he'll give us the grace to love whoever He sends our way, not in our own strength but in His. Our faith on that has remained unshaken, afterall the God we serve is the God of adoption, he adopted us into his eternal family and he asks His people to do the same.
After just under a year we'd completed the application process with Cornerstone and had been approved as carers of younger children, at least two years younger than our youngest. This process was not always easy, we had to do many interviews and we did courses which challenged us and our calling. However, All of which was insightful and helpful!
It was amazing to see God's timing. We could NOT have applied in even 2019 but due to the covid pandemic, everything that would've required a mainland trip went onto zoom and so we were able to do most of our work online from home and for a busy family living on an Island, this was great.
We had visits from the mainland Social worker in charge of our case. We all got on so well with her and it was so refreshing to be working with an organisation where we felt we could be exactly who we are in the Lord.
And now we wait on the Lord for the right child to come at the right time. Cornerstone has been functioning for 25 years and has not had any placement breakdowns. We believe this is because they are functioning as a prayerful Christian organisation. They are careful to not rush things and so spend time matching the correct child with the correct foster family. This is so important and so when people ask us when our children will arrive we say it's God's timing not our own and not even Cornerstones.
Last spring we had an information event in Barvas and our friend Rev Kemp read and prayed at the commencement and it was such a moving time of worship. One of the main prayers at that time was that we would have a Christian Social worker on the Island. We knew we couldn't have a child placed with us without a local Social Worker. Enter Emma Condy!!! What an answer to prayer to have an earnest sister in the Lord, now taking on our case to be our Social worker. She works tirelessly also seeking to spread the word about Cornerstone, especially around our churches and is such a blessing. At the second information evening in Stornoway in September 2021 she gave her testimony. It was wonderful to see God's working also in her life and touching her heart with the plight of these poor children. And we thank God that she's answered this call and look forward to God willing working with her for a long time.
Friends, with all these things the thought comes at times is this a call from the Lord or is this just us? Is this a mistake? And all we can say to that is we know it's a call because it's in keeping with what we as christians read in our bibles every day and we know it's a call because we can't switch it off. It feels a bit like being on a bus travelling through this process and sometimes we lose our confidence and we get up to get off the bus but as we've always asked God to steer our lives we realise when the bus doesn't stop that He doesn't require us to get off and so we sit back down and feel at peace again as we accept His will being played out in our lives as a family. Friends, just let Him drive!! He knows where He's going! We don't but He does!! If God puts this cause on your hearts don't be frightened, just trust HIm. And we pray other people will answer this call in their own lives, not only potential carers but the church as a whole to sit up and take notice of these forgotten children, to pray and to support those of us who are seeking to care for them in the future.
For many years we'd had the idea of fostering to adopt in our hearts and at times we'd think and pray about it and at other times we were swept away from the idea through the busyness of life. But God had planted that seed of a call early on in our lives. For one thing Sharon had been abandoned by a parent in her childhood and felt a real pull to help others, who indeed had gone through similar and much much worse situations early in life.The impact this has on children is huge and continues to potentially affect them well into adulthood. With Willie working as a teacher and Sharon working as a Health Care assistant in the hospital, care is a big part of our lives and the experiences we've had are so helpful moving forward in this process.
It has been suggested that for us fostering and adopting, is to enlarge our brood. This isn't entirely true. We do believe any addition to our family is in God's providence a blessing and would be as much a part of us as our own flesh and blood but the reason for our desire lies in this, that many children simply have no home, have no parents, are damaged and hurting and need to come to a place of security and a place of love where they can heal, where they can be themselves and thrive in a Christian family and community. One lady said oh only special people do this! Are we the perfect home, the perfect family?? NO!!! We are most certainly not, it is NOT a requirement to be 'special' but our foundation is perfect and with Christ as foundation all things are possible. He who has begun a good work shall complete it.
One day when our youngest was 5 Sharon was sitting down to read the evangelical times, which she doesn't normally have time for but this day the first page she opened on was on the court case Cornerstone was enduring due to their uncompromising belief that they should be allowed to function as a Christian charity. Her initial reaction was of shock that any Christian agency was still able to function in this country in this day and age. After this we made immediate contact with the CEO Pam Birlte for more information and straight away saw God opening doors. Imagine our amazement when speaking to Pam it was revealed to us that her heart had been going towards Lewis for having Cornerstone active in this place and not only that but we were the second family on the Island at that time to have made contact with an interest in coming alongside them to answer God's call to home the homeless. Please keep in mind that Cornerstone has been an English charity based in Doncaster, so a quick look at the map shows that Lewis wasn't from a human perspective the obvious next step but God's plan is always right even when we can't see it.
We embarked on some preliminary courses by an outside body late autumn and then applied to Cornerstone in December 2020. It has been amazing looking back on so many providences over this period of our lives. Firstly we prayed specifically that if it was God's will as we felt it was that God would himself impress this desire on the hearts of our own four children who are now aged between 17 and 7. When we first broached the subject with them we were astounded at their positive reactions. One older child said "It's the right thing to do". and the other "we should do it simply because we can" Our 10 year old son had a massive list of why it was the right thing to do, he spoke about how children in orphanages might not find it so easy without parents to keep them safe from bullying, he spoke of how children are sad because they can't be cared for by their parents and how we could try to give them a better life, than what they've so far experienced. Our youngest, at this time 5 years old , was delighted at the prospect. She said it would help them not to feel lonely anymore to be with us. Of course there was a great deal of serious conversations and discussions of not only the positives but also the potential difficulties that might come our way. How did they feel about these things and what solutions we'd potentially have. There's nothing like a family meeting with thoughts going openly and freely between parents and children. And really it's often 'out of the mouths of babes'.... is a verse we often find ourselves quoting. It's a question we've heard, what about the children you've got? It seems there's an assumption that God would never call a family who already have children to take cared for children in too. This just isn't the case. There's pros and cons in every situation. For some older children or severely mentally scarred children to stay with a couple, or even a single Christian and have one to one attention most of the time, would be better for them than what we can offer but there's many children who would be better able to thrive in the busyness of a family home, where they can be a part of an established family surrounded by older siblings who also love them. People ask how we know we'd love a foster child the same as our own. It's hard to explain but we think that,in actual fact, in keeping with biblical ideas of love, love is a command and it is a choice! And we know that if God has called us to it he'll give us the grace to love whoever He sends our way, not in our own strength but in His. Our faith on that has remained unshaken, afterall the God we serve is the God of adoption, he adopted us into his eternal family and he asks His people to do the same.
After just under a year we'd completed the application process with Cornerstone and had been approved as carers of younger children, at least two years younger than our youngest. This process was not always easy, we had to do many interviews and we did courses which challenged us and our calling. However, All of which was insightful and helpful!
It was amazing to see God's timing. We could NOT have applied in even 2019 but due to the covid pandemic, everything that would've required a mainland trip went onto zoom and so we were able to do most of our work online from home and for a busy family living on an Island, this was great.
We had visits from the mainland Social worker in charge of our case. We all got on so well with her and it was so refreshing to be working with an organisation where we felt we could be exactly who we are in the Lord.
And now we wait on the Lord for the right child to come at the right time. Cornerstone has been functioning for 25 years and has not had any placement breakdowns. We believe this is because they are functioning as a prayerful Christian organisation. They are careful to not rush things and so spend time matching the correct child with the correct foster family. This is so important and so when people ask us when our children will arrive we say it's God's timing not our own and not even Cornerstones.
Last spring we had an information event in Barvas and our friend Rev Kemp read and prayed at the commencement and it was such a moving time of worship. One of the main prayers at that time was that we would have a Christian Social worker on the Island. We knew we couldn't have a child placed with us without a local Social Worker. Enter Emma Condy!!! What an answer to prayer to have an earnest sister in the Lord, now taking on our case to be our Social worker. She works tirelessly also seeking to spread the word about Cornerstone, especially around our churches and is such a blessing. At the second information evening in Stornoway in September 2021 she gave her testimony. It was wonderful to see God's working also in her life and touching her heart with the plight of these poor children. And we thank God that she's answered this call and look forward to God willing working with her for a long time.
Friends, with all these things the thought comes at times is this a call from the Lord or is this just us? Is this a mistake? And all we can say to that is we know it's a call because it's in keeping with what we as christians read in our bibles every day and we know it's a call because we can't switch it off. It feels a bit like being on a bus travelling through this process and sometimes we lose our confidence and we get up to get off the bus but as we've always asked God to steer our lives we realise when the bus doesn't stop that He doesn't require us to get off and so we sit back down and feel at peace again as we accept His will being played out in our lives as a family. Friends, just let Him drive!! He knows where He's going! We don't but He does!! If God puts this cause on your hearts don't be frightened, just trust HIm. And we pray other people will answer this call in their own lives, not only potential carers but the church as a whole to sit up and take notice of these forgotten children, to pray and to support those of us who are seeking to care for them in the future.