A Ministry for Children
Since 2014, when Finding the Family first started, our focus has been on pouring into the parents and helping them in their recovery journey. While that isn’t going to change, we feel like we need to do more for the children that come through the ministry. We’ve had 18 kids come to Finding the Family so far and a lot of times they come with just as much trauma as the adults do. We have fallen in love with each one of these kids and feel the need to pour into them more.
We had a single mom that went through the ministry that was working through different behaviors in her children. We saw how it was for them when she would drop her kids off at daycare. The daycare didn’t know how to handle those delicate situations and behavioral issues due to past trauma. She was working so hard to get her kids on the right path and she needed the support we were giving her and her kids.
We just felt like God was telling us, “You need to start a daycare for these kids that come through here.” That way we wouldn’t have to send the kids out, they’re able to stay on the property, we can pour more into them and give them the extra attention that they need.
The Moment I Realized the Impact We Have On These Children
We had some grandparents spend the night out here with some grandkids that had been through the ministry. This particular couple didn’t actually graduate the ministry, they didn’t make it all the way through. The kids had a pretty tough time, before and after. So the grandparents brought those kids out here four years later. When the little girl left, she was four years old. When she came back, she was eight.
Her grandpa was telling us that as he circled the bottom part of our driveway (our driveway is about a mile long) and across the little creek, she stood up and said, “I’M HOME! I’M HOME!”
At that moment I realized that the little bit of time that we have here is really important.
Finding the Family Learning Center
After much prayer, we decided that we’re going to have a Children’s Ministry! God actually started answering the prayers for that, and made it possible for us to purchase a building at the top of the hill. Here, we are going to be opening up the Learning Center!
It’s approximately 4000 square feet, and we’re gonna make half of it into the kids ministry area! It’ll be daycare during the day, and a place where we can watch the kids that night. We will have people come and volunteer to help watch the kids while we’re doing group with the adults. On the other side of the building, we’re going to have what we’re calling the Adult Learning Center. There will be classrooms in there, and a place where we can sit and disciple to the participants. Another area will be a shop building where Chris will be able to help the men that come through the ministry work on projects with cars and things like that.
Meet the Finding the Family Learning Center Director!
It started with a little prayer. We prayed for God to send, “the one” that was meant to lead this children’s ministry. What we didn’t know was God had already begun preparing her heart – Her name is Ellie Easley. Ellie came up to me and asked how her family can pray for our ministry. I told her the same thing I told everybody. “Well, you can pray for our children’s ministry.” She said, “Your children’s ministry?” I said, “Well, it’s not up and running yet, but in faith, this is what we know God has called us to.” Immediately she started bawling and I thought, “Whoa, this is this is the ONE!” We are so confident that God has put these things in place so perfectly.
“Hi, I’m Ellie Easley, I am the Director of Finding the Family Learning Center. I wanted to introduce myself. I have a beautiful family. We’re a blended family of seven, and we have two foster children, so that makes us a family of nine. I came to know about Finding the Family through some friends who were graduating the program. We went to the graduation, and I met Deb and I asked her what the needs were of the ministry. Whenever Deb expressed to me that they were looking for somebody to lead a children’s ministry, it was like time froze for a minute. I knew that this was a God ordained appointment this was not just somebody’s graduation. I knew that God had prepared me for 30 years to hear those words, and that was what He wanted me to do. It was such a good feeling. I have studied trauma informed care, conscious discipline, love and logic, child development, connected parenting, connected teaching for a few years now. I have lots of experience with children. My goal with Finding the Family Learning Center is to teach these children coping skills, self regulation, structure, consistency, routines and daily affirmations. These things are going to rewire and train the brain. We’re going to be teaching these kids how to handle things whenever it gets rough, because it’s a rough world we live in. Children are not going to know how to handle a situation unless they’ve been taught. A lot of the time, people would think of children as having bad behaviors, and I would disagree. I don’t think in every case this is a bad child or a bad behavior, I think these are missing skills. So what I want to do is teach these children the skills that they need to survive in the 21st century, and help to raise up the next generation to be leaders. I want to teach them the love of God and who they are and Jesus, and I am so excited to do so.”
About the Learning Center
The daycare is not open to the public… YET! That’s a prayer for the future… But right now we have somebody who’s going to come in and minister to the kids. Our first priority is the children that are here and the children whose parents have graduated the ministry that still need daycare. The Learning Center is not up and ready to go, and there’s a lot of work to be done before it is.
Prayer for Future Participants
We believe God has specific families that He wants here and He prepares our hearts before they come. Our goal here is to create an environment that they’re able to have an encounter with Jesus. And so, we believe that there are specific people out there that are supposed to be here. We are always praying for that next family to come, and that God will prepare their hearts for what we have to tell them, what He has to show them. We also ask that God would prepare the kids’ hearts, that they would be ready for that change that they see in their parents lives. It can be uncomfortable for kids, when they’re used to seeing one thing and all of a sudden the parents start doing a different thing and they don’t know how to respond.
When we see an application come through, I immediately forward it to Chris’s email. After reading it and talking about it, we begin to pray. Honestly, a lot of people want the great things that they get to experience here, but it takes a special moment in somebody’s heart to want the change. It’s not just, “Hey I want to get the monkey off my back,” or, “Hey I want to get my kids back.” Instead it is, “Hey I want to change. I want something totally different.” That’s the family we want, the ones that are ready to change. So we pray that God would send the ones that are ready to truly change, and He’s been faithful to that.
There’s a ton of people out there that need help, and we’re not equipped to help everyone… BUT! There are specific people that God has for out here. If you or someone you know is READY to change, we are accepting applications! Click apply at the top of the page!