This article was featured in the January 2023 edition of The Baptist Courier. 

Christians have long advocated for the value of life because of the belief that all people were made in God’s image. For nearly 40 years, Christians in the United States have circled January 22 as a day of remembrance and as a celebration of life in observing the National Sanctity of Human Life Day. This day takes on new meaning this year with the reversal of Roe V Wade. While a significant focus has been on changing abortion laws, an equal focus is also needed on caring for reluctant and underprepared moms and the children who are to be born to them.

One of our values at the South Carolina Baptist Convention is the potential of every life. This every life conversation must also include the 119 children and youth in the South Carolina DSS foster system who are legally available for adoption. Without a family to adopt them, they will remain in foster care until they eventually age out of the system at 18 or 21.

Who better to respond with the love of Jesus than South Carolina Baptists? Because we exist to help each church advance the Great Commission together, we want to help our churches care for these vulnerable children and youth.

As such, we’ve made $100,000 available to our churches to help families adopt vulnerable children and youth out of the foster system. For information about the grants, contact the SERVE Team at the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

To start a conversation about developing a foster care strategy in your church, contact Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries. Together, we can see the gospel proclaimed, communities transformed, and every life receive hope.

-Jon Jamison, Serve Team Leader