Hope & Care, June 2018 edition

June 2018

& Family Ministries providing hope & care

hope & care

Quarterly Newsletter

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” - Matthew 25:40

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

highlights through April

26

decisions for Christ

1,065

counseling sessions

Two years ago, we announced that Caring Ministries is now part of Arizona Baptist Children’s Services & Family Ministries.

We are pleased that this partnership continues to flourish and produce fruit. Last year, more than 4.8 million pounds of food was distributed through Caring Ministries, either directly to families in need or through our various church and community partners. Most significantly, there were 46 decisions for Christ through this ministry.

Caring Ministries is a Tucson nonprofit that serves families in Southern Arizona with food and clothing, while also sharing the Gospel. It is a main hub of the ABCS Community Resource Centers ministry. Caring Ministries was started by my father, Ross Hanna, and is now led by my son, Josh Hanna. It has been a blessing to see this family legacy continue.

There has been a lot of work done over the past two years to modernize Caring Ministries and to improve operations to make things more efficient. This includes adding a new custom walk-in freezer, reducing and fixing up the truck fleet and working towards purchasing a new truck. We are blessed to be receiving a $50,000 grant this year from the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona to help with these projects.

27

adoptions

52,483

over food boxes distributed

Steve Hanna Executive Director

volunteers served hours

Elevate Music Festival Arms of Love will be hosting a booth at this year’s festival, June 22-24.To find out more about the festival, visit elevatemusicfestival.com.

Golf Tournament Join us for our annual Golf Tournament benefiting New Life Pregnancy Center at Silver Creek Golf Club in White Mountain Lake, AZ on Saturday, September 22.

Tee time is 8:00 AM and the format is four person scramble. Learn more and register today by visiting newlifepregnancy. com/golf or call Matt Gaston at (928) 536-4760.

Visit the new Caring Ministries website at wearecaring.org to learn more about the Pursue Life New Life Adult Pregnancy ministry. Their mission is critical as they Ministry Centers serve families in Tucson, the 2nd poorest metro area according to the 2016 Census.

You can help support Caring Ministries with prayer, material donations and New Life gifts. I am grateful for your support of all Mission & Family Ministries Transitional Encounter of our ABCS ministries.

Program 360 7 Ministries | 1 Mission

In Him,

21,411

UPCOMING EVENTS

hours

New Life Counseling

Providing hope and care to hurting children and families through Christ-centered ministries.

Foster Care & Parent Aide

Community Resource Centers

MISSION ENCOUNTER 360

abcs.org/me

Wildcat Exterminating Gives Back to ABCS Cody Stephens opened Wildcat Exterminating in 2005 and ran it from his parents’ garage.

The next year he married his wife JoAnne (a foster care licensing worker with ABCS), purchased their current home and moved the business there. That same year his mom and dad joined Cody in the business as partners and his dad came to work alongside him. In 2007, Cody’s sister joined the family business to run the office. In 2010, they finally outgrew Cody and JoAnne’s garage and moved to a real office with a shop and a yard attached.

Wildcat Exterminating now has 15 full time employees!

The family-owned and operated business will celebrate 13 years in business in Tucson this June. Their main goal is to provide families with a safe and comfortable living environment through their pest, termite and weed control services. Cody and his team at Wildcat Exterminating see owning a business, creating jobs, delivering excellent customer service and taking care of their employees as great ways to serve God and the local community.

Another way Cody serves God and the community is by partnering with Arizona Baptist Children’s Services & Family Ministries. JoAnne and Cody first got involved with ABCS in 2007 when they began the foster care process. JoAnne had been licensed a year or two earlier to help a friend with respite care. When they got married in 2006, they took almost a year to themselves before going forward with fostering. They fostered several children while licensed at ABCS before closing their foster care license in 2011 when they adopted their two forever kids. Soon after, JoAnne went to work for ABCS and Wildcat Exterminating began donating their services to ABCS. They take care of the pest control and weed services at all the ABCS ministry locations in Tucson.

Cody shared, “ABCS is one of the best Christ-centered agencies in southern Arizona! It is our hope that by donating our services we can free up funding so that it can directly benefit children and families in the Tucson area.” We are grateful for the people God brings to serve with ABCS, and for corporate donors like Wildcat Exterminating.

NEW LIFE Transitional TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM

newlifetransitional.com

Encouragement For Lasting Life Change There was recently an event in Tucson called “One” that focused on the sanctity of human life, fostering, kinship families (children raised by family members) and adoptive families.

One of the speakers at the event, Elizabeth, is a client in the New Life Transitional Program.

Elizabeth shared her story of brokenness. When she was in prison, the foster mom caring for her baby boy wrote Elizabeth a very encouraging note that was the catalyst for her fighting to get her son back.

The note read, Elizabeth, You have a beautiful baby boy. Remember that you are not defined by where or what you have done. You keep fighting the fight. Your son needs his mom. I will continue to pray for you, your son and the whole family. Expect great things, and you can do it!

Today Elizabeth has full custody of her son. She was given six months to complete a checklist of things she needed to do to get her son back including finding a job and housing. Elizabeth found a job at a grocery store and with the help of the transitional program was able to get the housing that she needed to complete her requirements. She met all the requirements within 90 days! Elizabeth has a growing relationship with the Lord and one day would love to encourage other moms not to lose hope.

ARMS OF LOVE FOSTER CARE NEW LIFE newlife & PARENT AIDE COUNSELING pregnancy center

abcsfostercare.com

Thumbs Up LeBron Many families fear that foster care will have an adverse effect on their children and that the uncertainty of kids coming and going coupled with the potential heartbreak of “getting too attached” might hurt their children. While foster care is challenging and will stretch a family in ways they never dreamed of, fostering can also draw families and children closer to Christ and build character.

One Arms of Love foster family had a beautiful little girl placed with them. It looked like the case plan was moving towards severance of parental rights and adoption. As days and weeks turned into months this family and their son fell deeply in love with her. The family soon found out that the little girl had three siblings who were adopted by another Arms of Love family. This family was more than willing to adopt the baby sister. What a crisis of belief! The decision to keep the siblings together was obvious, but handling the heartache seemed impossible. The two families rallied around each other and now consider each other extended family – aunts, uncles and cousins!

A few months later, the family who fostered the baby girl shared a story about their son, Gavin. They were given floor seats to a Sun’s game where LeBron James was playing for the opposing team. He is one of Gavin’s favorite players. At the time, LeBron was facing media scrutiny and being told that he “was just a basketball player and should stick to dribbling.” Gavin’s heart was hurt that someone he admired was told he was “just” anything, so he made a large sign that read, “You are more than an athlete.” LeBron saw the sign and responded by giving Gavin his armband and a thumbs up. After the game, Gavin told his mom that he has a heart for foster children and wants to do something to get the message out that they are more than their circumstances.

The family has plans for a fundraiser. They will donate the proceeds to organizations like Arms of Love who impact children’s lives daily. Rather than destroying this child’s heart, the struggles of foster care actually increased Gavin’s capacity for compassion and his desire to encourage others.

COMMUNITY NEW LIFE RESOURCE Transitional CENTERS TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM

azresourcecenters.com

Mike’s Moment A client named Mike* came into the Phoenix resource center looking for nice clothes for a job interview. While looking at clothes, Mike shared with the ABCS staff person that it’s hard to get a job because of his rough past and childhood. He said it’s a struggle to get his life back on track when everyone he knows has a needle in their arm or they only see him as the guy he once was. Mike found dress pants, a couple of dress shirts and some ties, and felt like he could nail down a job this time. With clothes in hand, Mike asked the staff person to pray for him and said, “You’ve been a huge blessing to me.”

A few days later, the same staff person left for lunch and saw Mike walking down the street near the ABCS building singing to some music. Mike saw him and loudly said, “Hey! How you doing brother?” He smiled and approached Mike and shook his hand. Then Mike said, “Hey man, I just wanted let you know that the interview went great. So great in fact that I just got done working my shift.” Mike was grinning from ear to ear. “You’re the only person who actually believed in me and believed I could change. Thank you brother.” As Mike was walking away, he turned around and said, “By the way, those clothes are nice! See you next month!”Your financial support and donated items make stories like Mike’s possible. *name changed for client’s privacy

NEW LIFE PREGNANCY CENTER

newlifepregnancy.com |

MN nlpcAZ

Moms Supporting Moms Throughout the month of March Family Life Radio hosted the Ultimate Baby Shower, encouraging listeners to donate baby items to benefit local pregnancy resource centers to help moms and families in need. In Arizona, New Life Pregnancy Center was chosen as a drop off location and was highlighted in Phoenix and Tucson through Family Life Radio’s remote broadcast days.

A Phoenix listener named Esther had been considering how she could clean out all of her children’s baby items that were no longer needed. She had thought about selling the items, but then heard about the Ultimate Baby Shower and felt God calling her to give the items away instead so they could be used to share the love of Christ with families in need.

She went to the website to learn where she could drop off baby items and saw New Life Pregnancy Center. She called the Phoenix ABCS office to learn more about how the items she had would be used and felt God confirm to her that this was where she should donate.

She arranged a time to come in later in the week to bring her first load of items.

Meanwhile, Jessica* was referred to New Life Pregnancy Center by another agency. She is currently expecting and was recently put on bed rest until her scheduled C-section. As a result, she lost her job and didn’t know how she would afford the baby items she still needed. Having recently moved to Arizona from out of state, she was in need of nearly everything for her baby girl. She called the office the day after Esther had called and explained her situation, mentioning needing items like a stroller, car seat, pack-n-play and much more. The staff member listened to her story and explained that currently the center did not have these items to give, but that we would pray and look for these donations to come in. She invited Jessica to come to the center sometime soon to pick up diapers for her other child and receive a layette gift bag in preparation for the baby. She wrote down Jessica’s phone number and let her know the center would call her if these items came in.

At the end of the week, Esther stopped by the New Life Pregnancy Center with her donations as promised. As the staff helped her unload her car, they noticed nearly every item was exactly what Jessica had described needing. A stroller and car seat combination, a pack-n-play, bathtub, bouncer and more – all for a baby girl. Excited, they shared with Esther how all of these donations were an answer to prayer!

The pregnancy center staff called Jessica to let her know that they had received the baby items she needed and invited her to come in the next day to pick everything up. Jessica arrived mid-morning and the staff loaded her car with these items and extra clothes to help her prepare for her baby. After loading her car, the staff again shared with Jessica how everything was donated right after learning about Jessica’s needs. It was obvious God had provided specifically for her through Esther. Jessica was overwhelmed with gratitude and said she was trying to not be emotional. But as the staff gathered with her to pray and thank God for the blessings he had provided, asking Him to care for Jessica through the remainder of her pregnancy and for her family’s future, Jessica let tears come. She left with hope, reminded she is loved by God and not alone.

What a gracious God we serve who orchestrates these details so beautifully so that His name is praised! NLPC is grateful to supporters like Esther and Family Life Radio who make ministry moments like these possible. *name changed for client’s privacy

1779 N. Alvernon Way | Tucson, AZ 85712 | (800) 678-0648 | abcs.org |

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