It’s been a full year!
By the time you read this article, I will be celebrating my one-year anniversary at Collins Home Family Ministries (CHFM). It has been an amazing first year where we have celebrated growth and change in our ministry and the lives of those we serve. I have also grown and changed. Personally, I have a deeper appreciation for my family, parents, and my amazing husband Tom. During the last nineteen years of full-time vocational ministry, he has led our family with determination and courage. His influence has allowed me to follow God’s call and serve those who need Jesus most.
During this first year, I heard two questions repeatedly. Whenever they are asked, I answer them to the best of my ability, even in those early days when I was trying to figure it out. Collins Home Family Ministries is a dynamic organization with many interdependent moving parts. So, answering these two questions is not as easy as one might think.
The first question people ask is, “How many kids do you now have at Collins Home?” Most people would think this is a simple question and while I could give a simple one-word answer, that would only tell part of the story. As of today, the one-word answer is twelve, however, as Paul Harvey would say, now it is time for the “rest of the story.”
Yes, we have twelve children who have experienced the depths of childhood trauma through our residential program, we also have three house parent children who are not represented in that number, we have four young adults we serve off campus, we have nine parents we support through our family support system, there are hundreds of phone calls we answer from families in need, we have eight house parents who I view as missionaries to our community and then, of course, there is BK, who most of you know.
In the last two weeks, we have fielded enough calls to fill at least one more family-style home on our campus. Unfortunately, we do not have another home, so we interview all the families and place the children on a waitlist based on their needs. Additionally, we reach out to those in our network to help match families to other community resources. We hope you understand why a question that should come with a one-word answer requires “the rest of the story” to grasp the depth of our work here.
The second question is, “What do you need?” We have spent time this year simplifying this answer and pointing people to one place for the answer. So, what do we need? We need you! Specifically, we need volunteers to mentor our kids and love the families experiencing hardship.
The ministry we do at CHFM is messy. We are an emergency room for families in South Carolina. We are always open, we are always ready and while you hope you never need us, you sure are glad we are here when you do. It has been an amazing first year for me at CHFM and I look forward to many more to come.
-Kelly Ross