Episode 12

Mosaic Hope: A Community United for Supporting Foster Care

Mosaic Hope, a remarkable ministry making a significant impact on foster care in Rutherford County, North Carolina.

Emily Wood, the executive director of Mosaic Hope, who shares her incredible journey from personal struggles to founding a life-changing organization. Emily's story is a heartfelt testimony of how faith, community support, and innovative approaches are transforming the experience of foster children. Listeners will learn about the critical role of Mosaic Hope's initiatives, such as the care closet and TBRI training, in supporting foster kids, families, and social workers. The episode also highlights the importance of community involvement and the church's role in foster care advocacy.

00:00 Introduction to Small Town Big God

01:20 Emily Wood's Journey to Rutherford County

07:19 Struggles with Infertility and Faith

11:32 The Call to Foster Care

17:24 Adopting John Lucas

28:29 The Birth of Mosaic Hope

40:39 Launching Mosaic Hope

44:09 Trusting God's Plan

46:37 The Care Closet Initiative

52:42 Fundraising Miracles

01:02:29 Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles

01:06:56 Future Vision for Mosaic Hope

01:17:18 Community Involvement and Support

Mosaic Hope Website

Mosaic Hope Facebook

Small Town Big God Facebook

TBRI Video

Interested in becoming a foster parent? CLICK HERE

Transcript
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Welcome to Small Town Big God.

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My name is Mikel Collins, and I am here with another story

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showing you how God is at work in Rutherford County, North Carolina.

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In this episode, you're going to hear about a ministry that's only a couple

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of years old but has already made a huge impact here in the county.

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They're called Mosaic Hope, and they're revolutionizing the experience

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that foster kids have when they first enter the foster care system.

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You're going to hear from Emily Wood, who's the executive

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director at Mosaic Hope.

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And Emily has an amazing story of how God brought her from a place of

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being angry about her own struggles

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into an amazing calling to serve the approximately a hundred and fifty foster

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kids here in Smalltown friendly is one of my favorite episodes that we've done up to

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this point Emily's testimony is incredible It is a longer episode as you can probably

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tell by looking at the the time down below

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I almost split it into two episodes, but I didn't really want people to have to wait

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for the second part to come out if they wanted to hear the whole thing at once.

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So it's all there.

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If you need to pause it, 40 minute mark.

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But uh, thank you for being here.

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Thank you for listening.

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And I hope you love the show.

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my name is Emily Wood and I am the executive director.

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I am founder of Mosaic Hope and we came to Rutherford County 20 years ago, right

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after I got married, my husband was at Gardner Webb for seminary and I had

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graduated as a psychology major in my last semester of college at Carson Newman.

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I decided, I don't think I want to do this.

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I want to teach school.

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But of course I was graduating with a psychology major.

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but the Lord, as I look back over my story, I can see how God has

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really been weaving together.

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The story of today, even then.

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As you listen to Emily's story, you're going to see just how true

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what she just said really is.

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By the end of the episode, I don't believe there's going to be any doubt in your mind

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that God has been working in Emily's life.

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But like is often the case when God is doing something that you didn't

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expect, it initially looked like things were just not going Emily's way.

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But that's because God had a very specific opportunity for Emily.

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Like I said, I was a psychology major and we got married and I thought, I'll try

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to get a lateral entry position, which then they quit doing that at that season.

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The girl I used to stay with when I'd visit Brandon.

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She was the youth pastor at Caroline Baptist Church and

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the principal at Trinity School attended Caroline Baptist Church.

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she was looking for a fourth grade teacher.

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Two weeks before school started and said, do you happen to know anybody?

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And my friend Mary was like, yeah, actually I do and so Pat Keeter called

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me and said, hey, this is the principal at Trinity School we heard you're looking

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for a teaching position and I remember saying to her I don't remember applying

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to your school she said, Yeah, you didn't.

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But someone told us about you.

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And so I drove all the way to Ruth, and went to Trinity school.

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I remember walking in and thinking, I'm supposed to be here.

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That's one of my moments in life where I remember.

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I can still remember the rug that was in the foyer and all the things.

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that's where I started teaching fourth grade.

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And that's how we came to Rutherford County, or I first came to

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Rutherford County to work at Trinity.

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After I had been teaching there two years, Brandon graduated from

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seminary, and he was looking for a full time ministry position.

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And it was through some connections I had made at Trinity, he ended up applying at

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Second Baptist Church in Rutherfordton.

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he got the position there.

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And he has been at second Baptist for 18 years.

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So Rutherford County is home.

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It's the longest I've ever lived anywhere

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So I just call it home now.

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Since you're here listening to this podcast, there's a good chance that

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Rutherford County is your home as well.

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Maybe, like Emily, you moved here 18 years ago, or maybe your family's

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been here for generations, or maybe you're new to Rutherford County,

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also known as small town friendly.

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And if you are new and you haven't heard of Trinity yet, I just want to

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take a second to highlight the school.

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Because I'm a big fan of what they're doing over there.

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They are one of the only traditional private Christian schools in the county.

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And I have several friends who work there or have worked there in the past.

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I've also had some friends who send their kids to Trinity and have been extremely

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pleased by the impact that they've seen the school have on their children.

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And it was at Trinity that God began planting seeds in Emily's mind that would

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grow into what is now called Mosaic Hope.

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Even when I was a child, my mom has said kind of jokingly, Emily is going

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to run a children's home one day.

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I have loved children since I was, I can remember the first time I got to babysit

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and thinking, this is the best job ever.

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so once I started teaching, I realized.

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kids are just my heart, my heartbeat, and the kids that always pulled on my heart

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the most were always the kids who came with the story, who, school was hard.

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Those were the kids I would go home thinking about.

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I went back to Converse College and got my master's degree in teaching

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elementary education, I moved from Trinity and taught at Thomas Jefferson.

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Grammar school.

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I started at Thomas Jefferson when they first started the grammar school I can see

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how God was putting little seeds of things as I look back, when I started my job at

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Thomas Jefferson one of my co workers who was teaching fourth grade with me had aged

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out of foster care and she taught and so to walk Alongside someone who has lived

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through foster care and was able to go to school and get married and she's raising

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a family and become friends with her and hear her story, was very eye opening.

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That was something I had never.

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And then my teacher's assistant, at Thomas Jefferson, she had fostered like

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20 some, lots of children and had adopted two children and I taught both of them.

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So already, we can see how God has introduced foster care and

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adoption into Emily's life.

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Through her friends and her teaching experience, she's developed a heart

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for these kids who've gone through and are going through hard times.

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But like a lot of us tend to do, Emily still had her own plan for her

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life that wasn't exactly the same as what God had in mind for her.

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This is part of my testimony because I feel like so many people can relate

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to this, but I love a good plan.

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I love a planner.

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I mean paper planner.

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I love.

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to color coordinate.

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I love all the things.

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And so I had this plan.

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Brandon and I got married.

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I was 20 years old when we got married.

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And so I was very young.

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And so I had told him I want to be married five years and then we're

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going to have our kids and we're going to have three, maybe four kids.

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By the time I'm 30 and like I had this hole in my head, how

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this was all going to roll out.

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So I turned 25.

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Time to start trying to have our family and very quickly I realized

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some things were really off.

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And so we went to the doctor and come to find out I had some fertility issues

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and For me, like I told you I have loved children Like my dream job has been to be

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a mom, I knew that was never a question.

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So for me to hear you might not be able to have kids, that was heartbreaking.

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And so we started, um, some just kind of the beginning

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parts of some fertility meds.

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And I did get pregnant and I lost the pregnancy.

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that was really hard for me to understand, because I kept thinking, Lord, You

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know how much I want this and now we got pregnant and I lost the pregnancy.

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But then I thought, miscarriages are actually pretty common.

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And since we were doing fertility, maybe, you know, I try to

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rationalize. But then I got pregnant again, and I lost that pregnancy.

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And then I got pregnant again, and I lost that pregnancy.

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And then that's when me and the Lord had a little, uh, I was gonna say I come to

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Jesus, but I don't know that you can, He was probably trying to have one with me,

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When you are praying for something, something that you know is good,

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something that God has given to others around you, and then it doesn't happen,

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it's hard to come to terms with.

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I don't know why Emily lost those pregnancies, but as you're gonna see,

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God used the struggle and the pain that Emily was going through for good.

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Jeremiah 29 11 says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

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Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

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Plans to give you hope and a future.

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But God's plan is not the same as our plan.

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And for God to help Emily follow his plan, the first thing that he had to do

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was to teach her something about himself.

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I grew up in ministry.

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My dad's a pastor.

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my grandpa was a pastor, and my dad was a pastor.

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I've grown up in church my whole life.

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What I hadn't realized is I had created my own theology of if I live for

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the Lord, then he does what I want.

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And I didn't realize that until we lost all those pregnancies,

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that was my struggle with my faith was I've done everything right.

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why are you doing this to me?

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And that journey was really me figuring out.

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What it meant to be a Christ follower, because my husband's a pastor too, I could

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show up and say all the right things, and

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there were times where I would come to church, and we'd sing like, The

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Goodness of God, and I can remember thinking in my head, God's not good,

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or reading Jeremiah 29 11, and be like, huh, these are not plans to prosper, you

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know, and being very upset about that.

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And through that season, people would constantly come to me

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and say, Why don't you foster?

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Why don't you adopt?

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And I usually wanted to punch them.

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I usually was very upset that that was the suggestion, I remember one time one

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of my best friends, she had watched me, she talked with me, and she had heard

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me get on the phone, anyone listening who's gone through infertility knows.

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It's, just such a roller coaster of a journey, I'd go to all these doctor visits

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take all this medicine and then you have what you call the two week wait where they

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would call you to, get your blood work and let you know if you're pregnant or not.

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I would get the phone call, no, you're not pregnant this month.

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when I was pregnant, they would follow along.

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they would call me and say, your numbers are dropping.

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So I would know I was losing the pregnancy,

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So heartbreaking.

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And I remember her saying, Emily, I hate watching you go through all this.

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She's like, why?

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Why don't you just maybe think about adopting?

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And I remember looking at her and saying, if adoption is so great,

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then why isn't everybody adopting?

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And , my heart was just so hardened to the idea and a lot of people when I

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talk to them even now about fostering, most people will say, I just can't

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imagine loving a child and, falling in love with them and caring for

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them and seeing them go back home.

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And that was me.

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And I thought my heart has already been shattered.

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So many times through these miscarriages, why would I put myself in

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a situation knowing that could happen?

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And it still, like, I look back and I just see how the Lord just kept whispering.

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The, I, you know, the idea of foster care just through all

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these different situations.

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I ended up miscarrying a fourth time and after that I really hit bottom.

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I remember I hated going to church and, when you're a pastor's

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wife, that's a bit of a pickle.

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I would go to work and then I would come home and I was just very depressed is

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really the truth of it and I remember one time driving home from church and

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thinking, I, I like considered just driving my car off the road and I

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remember thinking, I don't want to die.

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I just want to get hurt and I want to get hurt so I can be sad.

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Because I felt like I didn't have permission as in some of it was like

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I said this theology I had created for myself of like if I was a good Christian

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Then I should just be able to snap out of this and so then it made me feel like

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why I must not be a good Christian and so Luckily, I know it was the Holy Spirit.

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I remember it hitting me like I can't believe I just thought I told Brandon

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my husband about it and he said I think it's time to think about getting some

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help for me, that was very humbling because I had this idea of I should be

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able to figure this out on my own But I did go to counseling and there was a

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lot of healing for me specifically to my faith But once again, I also believe

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the Lord knew there were some things I needed to get figured out where I could be

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mentally and emotionally healthy to walk alongside children who are struggling.

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I didn't know that then, but I know it now.

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When I was recording this episode with Emily, and I heard her tell

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the story, I was amazed by her willingness to open up and share this.

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And I'm really glad that she did because we are living in a time where mental

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health issues like depression and anxiety are higher than ever before.

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Primarily in kids and teenagers.

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And this problem is something that we could talk about for hours and go through

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all the statistics and everything, but that's not the purpose of this episode.

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The main thing that I just want to highlight here

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is the one lie that Emily had to overcome.

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Let me play it again for you.

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This theology I had created for myself of like if I was a good Christian Then

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I should just be able to snap out of this and so then it made me feel like

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why I must not be a good Christian

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In Christ's Sermon on the Mount, he tells us not to be anxious.

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And people have taken that and other verses in the Bible to mean if I'm

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anxious or struggling with my mental health, it means that I'm sinning.

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But that's not true.

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In fact, all that that mindset does is make us more anxious and more depressed.

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When Christ said, do not be anxious, it wasn't as a command.

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Like when he said not to lust, it was as a comfort to us.

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He was reminding us that we don't need to worry, because

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He's going to take care of us.

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If you're struggling with mental health, Christ is inviting you

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to lay that burden at His feet.

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But the only way to do that is to surrender to what He desires for

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you, which is what Emily had to learn with the help of her counselor.

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And like always, God has brought good out of the pain and used that

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season to help Emily minister to kids who are struggling with depression.

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I'm, I don't want to get ahead of the story, so we're

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going to jump back to Emily.

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after a season of going to counseling, we did.

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Keep trying some fertility medicine and finally it got to the point where

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a doctor sat us down and was like, you know, I think you're going to need to

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either consider doing in vitro or you're going to need to consider adopting.

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which was hard because it was like the very thing I had

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asked the Lord, please don't.

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Make me have to get to this decision and I know I've, you know, I don't know

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where everyone who listening, you know, where everyone stands with in vitro.

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But when you desperately.

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Want to carry a baby, you don't really know until you're in that moment

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trying to make all these decisions, you know, it's just really hard.

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and so Brandon and I had already previously discussed if we gotten to that

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point that we would take six months to just take a break from all the medicine.

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To let my body rest and to just pray that the Lord would direct us.

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that was December 2011.

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January rolls around and I went to Charleston for a wedding

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of a good friend of mine.

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Brandon didn't go so I was with my parents and while I was there, In

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Charleston, my teacher's assistant, the one who I told you, and she had also

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been talking to me about foster care,

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And I kept saying, Donna, you are superwoman, but I, that

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is not me, I cannot do that.

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She called me and said, You're gonna kill me and I said, what did you do?

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She said just listen and she said my Sunday school teacher And I I have never

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met this every time I tell the story I always say I need to try to be intentional

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about setting up a meeting to meet with this man but her Sunday school teacher

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had come to church that day and said that he knew a family that was going to

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have a baby and they were looking for a Christian family to adopt this baby she

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said, I told him about you and Brandon.

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And I thought, Oh my goodness.

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I said, Donna, I don't know about that.

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And she said, Oh, just, why don't you just talk to him?

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I said, Well, let me talk to Brandon and we'll see.

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So I called Brandon and he kind of surprised me because I figured

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he would say, I don't know.

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But he said, Well, what would it hurt for us just to talk to him?

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And I was like, Okay.

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So I get back from Charleston and that night.

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I called the Sunday school teacher, and so he starts telling me about

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this situation that he's aware of.

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And as he's talking, pretty early in the conversation, I kind of get the

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idea he's not talking about a baby.

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So then I asked him, I said, is this a baby or how old is this child?

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Is this child already born?

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And he said, Oh, it's a little boy and he's four.

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So then, of course, I'm like, why is somebody putting

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the little boy is in foster care.

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And the parental rights have been terminated, meaning that he would be

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available to be adopted, which there are a lot of children in our state, in

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our country, that are in that situation.

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I immediately was like, absolutely not, like in my head, I thought, this is the

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very thing, I, you know, I didn't want, I wanted a baby, I didn't want a four

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year old, this kid's been in foster care, and why are his foster parents

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not adopting him, he's probably got a lot of problems, these are just the

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real things going through my head, I did something that Christians are guilty of

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doing, when we want to say no, but you kind of feel guilty about saying no, but

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you definitely do not want to say yes.

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We do this other thing, and we say, Well, I'll be praying about that

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and, the Lord has taught me a huge lesson because I actually took it a

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step further this particular evening.

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And I said, do you happen to know the little boy's name?

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And we will pray for him by name.

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And he said, well, I think his name is John Lucas.

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And I immediately, I know where I was standing in my kitchen, I remember sliding

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down the, my back, down the refrigerator and sitting on the floor and I said, what

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did you say, you think his name is, and he said John Lucas, and I remember kind of

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putting my hand over the phone and looking at Brandon and I said, the little boy's

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name is John Lucas, and Brandon looked at me and he said, if you know Brandon, John.

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He has this expression a lot, but he went, well, and what I haven't told you

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is that during all those pregnancies, of course, when we find out we're

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pregnant, we have that glimmer of hope and what every couple does is you start

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thinking about baby names the name we had discussed for a little boy was John Lucas.

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And so in that minute, everything changed I told the man, just

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don't tell this family about us.

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I said, because I figure I'll have to go through DSS.

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but you're not going to believe this, that's the name we've

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picked out for a little boy.

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The conversation completely changed, you know.

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So we went to DSS.

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I sent them this huge email.

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I actually printed off the email to keep, because it was like, I'm

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gonna want to always remember this.

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But I tell the DSS worker, who does not know me, from Adam,

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this whole big long story.

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And she says, well I can't.

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I don't want to tell you anything, but if you and your husband want

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to come in, we can talk about the process of becoming a foster parent.

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And I was like, No, we do not want to be foster parents.

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I just want to adopt this one kid.

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But ends up, Brandon does upward basketball at Second Baptist.

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So many little timing things, but the classes, 13 weeks of classes that you

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have to take one night a week, they started the week after Upward ended.

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had they started earlier, we couldn't have done it.

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And so we took those classes.

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The first night we went to the class, we walked in and the

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caseworker leading the class ended up being John Lucas's caseworker.

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There's a bazillion more little things.

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we finished those classes in May, met John Lucas in July, he moved in with us

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in October, and we adopted him in May.

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Which DSS has always told me, please don't tell people that because

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this is not how it normally works.

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It does not usually, but God's hand was just in it the whole time and that,

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John Lucas, I always tell him, I'm like mosaic hope is really your fault.

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That was when foster care became real

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I love hearing about all the things that God worked out to make this happen.

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The conversation with the Sunday school teacher, John Lucas's name,

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basketball ending just in time, the caseworker being in the class with them.

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I mean, when God is at work in your life, you almost never notice it in the moment.

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It's usually looking back that you really start to see how he was

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pulling all the pieces together.

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So as you listen to the rest of this story, see if you can spot

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the little things that God is continuing to piece together.

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Even after we adopted John Lucas, we told DSS, we're not fostering.

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We're just adopting him and we're out.

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But see, they did this little tricky thing and our name was on the list still.

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And so they, not really tricky, but I just kind of tease them about that.

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we kept getting phone calls.

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hey, we just took custody of a baby.

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would y'all be willing to take him?

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Or, hey, we just took custody of a two and four year old, would you?

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And I was like, no, no, and finally I asked them, I was like, what do you do?

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I've been telling you no, and this was like the 12th phone call at

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this point, like, what have you done with, where do these kids go?

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And she said, well, if we can find a placement, we take them there, if not,

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they stay here at DSS, at the office.

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I just couldn't even sleep after that, have you ever been to DSS?

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It is not a very kid friendly place, and it, and, and that's not critical of them,

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it's never meant, that's what I always tell people, the DSS building was just

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meant to be an office building, and that's exactly what it is, just a government

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office building, even the social workers, some of their offices don't even have

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windows in them, they do have a playroom.

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They do have one playroom, but that playroom is used for visits and kids.

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so the kids are just like hanging out at this office building after

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being removed from their families.

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yes, kids experience trauma to have to enter foster care, but being

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brought into foster care, that is a traumatic moment in and of itself.

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And then to.

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Be removed from your parents and then to go to just like a office building.

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And meanwhile, the social workers are all having to try to find, you know,

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they're working at the office building.

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So.

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We ended up fostering, because I could not handle that anymore after knowing that,

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and that continued to open our eyes of just what it looks like to get a phone

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call at 10 o'clock at night and the social worker show up with a two year old with

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one pull up diaper, and that's all he has.

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And thinking, okay, now you have this child who's had a really hard day.

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You're trying to Bring this child into your home and you also, you know, we

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had our son trying to also like help him understand what's all happening.

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Meanwhile, we're having to figure out, okay, we've got to get him

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clothes, and once you foster more, you start having these things.

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But new foster families don't.

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a lot of times, kids go to a kinship placement.

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like a relative and that relative was not planning on doing this.

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So you're just like gosh, there's so many needs and then as we raise John

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Lucas And had other children in our home, their needs are so great because

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of the trauma they've experienced.

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Now we are getting to the heart of what Mosaic Hope is all about.

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If you've never learned much about trauma and how it can impact kids, I

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highly recommend you do some research.

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Later on in this episode, you'll hear Emily talk about a specific

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trauma informed training program called TBRI that I can tell you,

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it was revolutionary for me in the way that I approach kids ministry.

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If you haven't listened to the other episodes of this podcast, you might

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not know, but I am a children's pastor.

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And learning about trauma and how it affects kids might have been

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the single most beneficial thing I ever did for my ministry work.

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Okay, I'm noI'm going on a little tangent, but I just want to encourage

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you, even if you don't work with kids that have a lot of traumatic pasts,

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learning about trauma and how it affects kids will make you better at interacting

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with all They could be your own kids, they could be kids at your church, or

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maybe just your cousins, or anyone.

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But let me summarize it like this.

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Kids do all sorts of things that make no sense to adults, right?

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If you have kids, or if you're around kids a lot, there have probably been

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moments where a kid disobeyed or got really upset, and you're looking at them

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like, What in the world were you thinking?

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Or, why are you freaking out?

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This is not that big of a deal, right?

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Well, getting trained in working with kids that have trauma will teach you how to

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uncover and understand the reasons behind why kids do what they do, and what's

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going on in their heads in these moments.

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But, as you're about to hear from Emily, Even when we understand

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it, helping kids work through past trauma is way more than a one time,

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done in an afternoon type of job.

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I finally left teaching.

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I just resigned from teaching because I had to spend time

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finding the resources for him.

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occupational therapy, physical therapy, behavioral therapy,

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for the kids that come into your care, they need all these things.

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And in Rutherford County, it just felt like I had to Search for it.

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It was like a scavenger hunt.

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I spent a lot of time on the phone, and a lot of people say,

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Well, isn't that DSS's job?

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And I'm like, do you know all the jobs that they have to do?

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They don't have time, and especially with John Lucas, we had adopted him.

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I remember saying to Brandon, I just wish there was a place that we could go and

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that they could help us navigate all of this and point us to the resources and

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say, here, here's what you need or, you know, but of course, As the Lord would

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have it, we fostered another little boy for almost a year and then the very thing

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that I said it went and we had been told we would probably get to adopt him, which

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probably shouldn't have been told to us, but we found out he was going back home.

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And the Lord was gracious because I did live through it.

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The thing I said, I just could not foster for this reason.

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The Lord had really worked on my heart of showing me, first of all,

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there were things I was giving to this child that he'll carry with him for

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a lifetime, showing him what a secure attachment looks like and so many

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emotional, that also I was able to develop a relationship with his parents.

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And God really taught me how to love because I didn't realize

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the pride that I had as a Christian of, I'm a better parent.

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I don't know why this little boy is going to them because I'm, I'm

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obviously a better choice here.

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and I remember sitting in the courtroom one time with the dad and the dad was

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like asking me questions about his son.

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And in my head, I remember thinking, see.

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This is why you shouldn't get to have him because I know way

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more about him than you do.

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You're asking me questions and I've never, you know, if we hear God audibly.

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I don't know, but this is one time in my life where I really believe

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I heard like an audible voice because it was that clear to me.

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I remember the Lord saying to me, Emily, I love him just as much as I love you.

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And that day changed me, is that's really what foster care is about, is

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that it's really about these parents, and having this relationship with them,

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and getting to show the love of Christ to them, show them what grace looks like.

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to step into brokenness with someone, because that's

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really what Jesus did for us.

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You know, he stepped into our brokenness, he didn't have to.

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He's not like up in heaven watching all these things.

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He like, he came to us in our mess and he comes to us in our

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mess and walks alongside us.

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So often, we can look down on someone because we think we

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would never do what they did.

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We would never be as bad as them, and that somehow justifies

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our self righteous attitude.

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Jesus was the one person who ever deserved to be self righteous and he

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never acted that way towards anyone.

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He humbled himself, took on flesh, and walked with us in our mess.

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This might be my favorite part of the whole episode, so let me play

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that one line from Emily again.

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I remember the Lord saying to me, Emily, I love him just as much as I love you.

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. There are times when we need to be reminded that God loves the person

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next to us as much as He loves us.

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There are other times when we need to be reminded that God loves

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us as much as He loves Jesus.

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In John 17, Jesus is praying, and in His prayer, He says, The glory that

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you have given Me, I have given them,

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that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they

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may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me

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and loved them even as you loved me.

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The love that God has for us ought to be the reason that we love others.

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And there are a lot of foster kids in Rutherford County that need our love.

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And that is when I thought, man, the church is We're,

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we're kind of missing that.

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Like we're like the church and like, we're sending the money.

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we're coming on this little mission trip and doing our

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thing and posting the pictures.

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And there's people right outside our doors that need us to walk with them

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daily in their mess and because we need people to walk with us daily in our mess.

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Once again, it's just all these little things the Lord just, Brandon, even

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when they said, Emily, there's like over 140 Christian churches, and

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that number may actually be bigger, I don't know, but I know it's at least

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140 because I made a spreadsheet.

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Why are there all these needs?

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why do we not have enough foster parents?

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If just one family from each of these churches was a foster parent,

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we'd have 140 foster parents.

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That would be more than enough.

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when that little boy went home, the Lord in his graciousness allowed me to

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get pregnant with no medicine, nothing.

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and so I had, my second son, Henry.

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And then on his first birthday I found I was pregnant again and I had Mitchell.

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So then we had a full house and so we couldn't foster anymore.

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And I just,

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I couldn't know what I know, like I couldn't know these things and just

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not do anything about it anymore.

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I kept thinking maybe we should start a non profit and then I thought I

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don't want to start a non profit.

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That's a lot of work and I don't have time.

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I have all these kids now and we still had a lot.

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In our journey of, like I said, trauma does not, trauma doesn't end when you

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adopt, I started researching and then I was like, no, Lord, this seems like

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too big of an ask, so we did some other things, we helped, Update the playroom

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at DSS because I thought, that'll at least give them a better space, you

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know, and then when I was pregnant with Mitchell, we hosted an event called

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fostering together I have a picture of all the letters I sent to all the churches

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to come and we just shared the needs.

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of foster care and I kind of thought this is this is I'm doing like I'm

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doing something that was kind of my heart and so we had Mitchell.

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And the Lord just would not leave it alone.

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I kept trying to do other things other than start a nonprofit.

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I started working with an organization called Least of These Carolinas out of

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Gaston County and I became their point person for Rutherford County we started

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hosting a back to school event for foster families called Shoes of Hope.

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Then we started doing a Christmas event for foster families

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called Hometown Christmas.

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And, Still, the Lord kept putting it in my heart and one of the thoughts I felt

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like the Lord had for me was, a house.

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I called it the House of Hope because I didn't have a name for it.

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I started telling people, I have this crazy dream that one day maybe we could

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start a non profit in the county and I just viewed the hub of it being this

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house and I don't really know exactly what the Lord, I just know it would be

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for foster families, it'd be for foster kids and we would just be basically

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the resource I wished we had had.

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But still.

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I was like, maybe somebody else will do this and, finally, Mitchell was

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going to kindergarten in the fall.

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this was 2021.

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I was thinking, Mitchell's going, maybe, maybe I should think

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about, you know, all the kids will be at school, maybe we could.

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Look at starting this nonprofit I still was looking for another way to do it

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I feel like this is a constant part of my story the Lord putting something on

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my heart and I keep saying let's Maybe someone else or let's figure a different

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way that this seems like it's too much.

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It seems too big we were looking at Maybe going under the umbrella

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of a different organization, just a lot of different things.

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But we created a core group of people to start dreaming with us about this.

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And we had set our first core group meeting for February 2021

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Okay, here's that pause break that I was telling you about at the beginning.

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I know we're 40 minutes into this episode and are just now reaching the beginning

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of Mosaic Hope as an organization, but emily's story was just too impactful

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for me to cut it down anymore.

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However, if you're looking for a stopping point in the story where you can

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pause and come back later, this is it.

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This is your opportunity.

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Because things are about to get crazy again.

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So if you want to pause, do it now.

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Alright, here we go.

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lo and behold, at the age of 38, the Lord just, you know, he just loves

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to have a sense of humor with me.

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And I found out I was pregnant.

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My little girl.

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And so then I thought, but now we were starting this

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nonprofit and now I'm pregnant.

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how's this going to work out?

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but the Lord's just been so good.

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And so we, we met the first core team meeting.

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I was I told them, we brought you here to talk about starting a non profit.

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I should also tell you I'm pregnant.

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I don't know how this is going to work out.

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we met and prayed a lot and we met with DSS.

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We did some surveys One of the core team members said, it feels like we all

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know what we should do, but it's going to be a big step of faith to do it.

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none of us want to, we're all a little scared about it.

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I said, yeah, I think you're right.

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He said, I think we need to start a nonprofit, a grassroots

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nonprofit for Rutherford County.

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And so , for 40 days, we prayed very, just like very specifically about, do we

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start this non profit and we all felt very at peace about submitting paperwork.

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if you've ever did non profit paperwork, you have to fill out a name.

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It's pretty important.

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I was like, I just want this name to have some meaning and

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I don't know what to call it.

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on the last day of the prayer challenge, I was at church and this

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lady, her name's Kathy Banfield.

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She came up to me, she said, what else can we be praying for?

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And I said, We still don't have a name, but we are going to apply it,

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so if you could just be praying for a name, and I had already met with

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her several times, and she said, well, you know, you want this to be

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a hub of support for foster families kinship caregivers and social workers.

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You really want to bring the pieces together, and we were standing for

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She said, well, it's kind of like that window, you know, it's kind of like

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a mosaic, you know, like mosaic hope.

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And I looked at her and I said, you just named the nonprofit.

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so we sent the paperwork off.

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I wish the Lord would have said, buckle up and get ready because

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this is going to be a wild ride.

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and that's what it's been.

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it.

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So

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we officially launched Mosaic Hope, January 2022, which was also a funny

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accident because we had planned to do like a launch event probably in May.

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But Daily Courier had asked if they could do an interview with me.

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And I thought they were interviewing me about the Christmas event that we

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were, had just done, Hometown Christmas.

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So then he called me, and he starts out, He never mentions the Christmas event.

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I had actually sent him pictures of the Christmas event, and he said, was

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asking me about Mosaic Hope, which, you know, is Rutherford County, so

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word gets around pretty quickly when you're doing things, so, I was telling

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him about Mosaic Hope, and Then it was on the front page of the newspaper.

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And then people just started contacting like, we want to help, we want to help.

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And I sent the board members a text message.

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I said, so you know how we were going to launch in May?

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I think we've

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launched.

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And so that was kind of how that happened.

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It's funny to me how no matter how many times God has done something amazing

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and unexpected in my own life, I still think that I'm gonna somehow be able

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to predict what his next move is.

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I have to be careful about thinking, Oh, okay, I see where

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you're going with this, God.

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And then trying to run ahead of him and make it happen in my own timing.

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Or, on the flip side of that, I'll start making excuses about

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why it shouldn't go that way.

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As if the things that I see as problems are somehow gonna be

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too big for God to overcome.

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I hope that I'm not on my own here, and you can relate to those feelings a

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little bit, but I know that Emily can.

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I'm reading the Old Testament right now, and you read about Moses, and

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God's asking him to do something, and God's asking to do something.

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Like, that was very nonchalant.

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He's only asking him to, like, rescue his people from Egypt, but Moses

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has all these, but Lord, I'm, you know, I'm not a good speaker, but

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Lord, and that's really how I felt.

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Lord, I tried to do direct sales one time, and I've always felt like I'm

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just not a very good business person, But the Lord's just been so gracious

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and he's put so many people together.

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to me, when God asks you to do something, you'll just be obedient.

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he gets to get all the glory.

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I hope when people listen to this, they do not hear me at

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all because Mosaic Hope, truly.

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It's from the Lord.

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it's His, I try to be very intentional about saying it's not my non profit.

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I don't even really like saying I'm the founder of it because I

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just feel like the Lord said here and I'm trying to steward it well.

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When it comes to the things that God has given me, which, just to

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be clear, is absolutely everything that I have, I try to have the

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same attitude as Emily has here.

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I like to think about it as holding something precious with an open hand.

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My job, my house, my finances are in my hands in the sense of I'm responsible

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for stewarding those things well, and I'm going to take care of them and do

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my best, but my hands are open, so that no matter what it is, if God wants to

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take it or do something different with it, I'm not going to fight Him on that.

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And the analogy of holding with an open hand also applies perfectly to

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one of the first things that Mosaic Hope has put together as a ministry.

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So what happened was the newspaper article went out, we

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were like, well, we've launched.

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One of the very first things we wanted to do was to have a centralized

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location with clothes, hygiene items for that 10 o'clock call.

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this goes back to when we were fostering and would have a child arrive with nothing

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Around here, Walmart's the only place, and it's not even a 24 hour Walmart.

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So, that was going to be our first goal, was just to get the closet going.

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Second Baptist, obviously, we have some connections there, but they had this

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building in their lower parking lot that was just being used for storage, It was

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sitting there and we said, Hey, would you care if we use this as a centralized

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location for a closet until we can.

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Move somewhere else.

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And they're like, absolutely.

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So, we did this thing called Totes of Hope I like a good color coordinated thing,

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so I got blue totes for boys, pink totes for girls, and we asked, we put it out.

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Facebook said, would you or your church or your group be willing to collect We

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only do brand new things, because we want kids to just, it's already a tough day.

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We want them to, brand new things, you know.

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Anyway, in the month of March, the community fully stocked the closet.

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Like, fully stocked.

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from preemie to adult large.

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Toothpaste, toothbrushes, hygiene bags, blankets, backpacks.

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You name it.

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we have it.

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And so, once again, I was like, well, this was going to be our goal for the year.

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in literally a month, this community has put together a closet.

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that's our location right now, we call it the care closet.

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It stays fully stocked.

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And so like today, one of our amazing volunteers, Suzanne Hunsinger.

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She's at the closet today.

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We go on Thursdays, but she had, we had four requests.

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And so she's packing bags for the, those kids and they'll, and the

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social workers, we've ended up working a lot with the social workers.

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And we really like for the social workers to be the heroes because it helps

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establish that relationship with families.

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the plan was, we were going to have this closet for when kids first enter care.

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What it has grown into is that We definitely do that, but we also

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work with in home care when kids are not being removed, but DSS is

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involved in working in the home.

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We have worked with the social workers to help give a hand up, not

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a handout, to those families to help them as they try to keep their kids.

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and then we've worked with a lot of kinship caregivers I would say we

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work more with kinship caregivers than we probably do foster families, but

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that's mainly because we don't have a lot of foster families right now.

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and then we also have been helping when some of these kids do go back home.

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We're supporting those bio families in that reunification process.

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So the closet has really More goals than we probably had originally imagined

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There seems to be a recurring theme in this episode that when we follow

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God's plan for our life, He always does more than we ever imagined.

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And all it takes is a mustard seed of faith.

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If you say one time, Okay God, I'm going to trust that your

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way is better than mine on this.

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He will show up, and that mustard seed will start to grow.

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And you'll start to trust him more and more.

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And he will continue to do more and more.

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Faith has a compounding impact, not just on your own life, but also

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the lives of the people around you.

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Because the things that God has for you to do are not only going

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to benefit you, they're also going to be a benefit to your community.

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what the Lord has given me is, especially when he did allow me to

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get pregnant, which I know that that was just like such a gracious gift,

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but really back before then, when I saw that the God of the universe, even

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though I had, I mean, When I tell you during infertility me and the Lord

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had it out, we had a lot of words.

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But then He still loved me enough that He gave me a child that I did not birth.

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With the name that I picked out.

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That's a personal God.

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Like, that is a God who sees me and he's like, I love you.

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I love you this much.

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I never knew, I didn't even know to pray for that.

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God works in a way that you don't even know to pray for it.

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He works in ways that are like, kind of like scripture says, things

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you can't imagine that are far beyond what you could believe.

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I just know God can do big things.

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I've seen him do it in my life, and so, it's given me, it's

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Increase my faith in that.

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I just, I'm like, well, the Lord's in it.

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He can do something even bigger than what I'm probably praying for, you know?

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I had this house that I had seen before Mosaic, before we had

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ever even started Mosaic Hope.

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I had been looking at it and what intrigued me about it

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is that it's not even a mile, it's less than a mile from DSS.

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And my heart is, I tell DSS all the time.

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I'm the DSS cheerleader.

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I know they get a bad rap, but I will be their cheerleader because they do a lot

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of work that people don't even realize, so I wanted it to be convenient to them.

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Also, Rutherford County is very big, so I felt like our

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hub, needs to be centralized.

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like Walmart is where we have to get a lot of things or food, So I was like, I need

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it to be close to, where everything is.

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But this property is less than a mile from DSS.

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It's outside of four city limits, and outside of Spindell city limits.

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It's called no man's land.

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Literally on the map it says no man's land.

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It's county property.

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So it means it's not in city limits.

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we can do just like if we lived way out in the middle of nowhere.

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And it was on almost five acres of land, And so I looked at the property for a

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while, but of course I didn't have enough.

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I had a friend Natalie Stamey I said, could you take me to see this property?

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I don't have money And I don't have a nonprofit, but I just want to look at it.

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she took me and we looked at it I was like, man, that would be so cool.

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but I don't have any idea how this could work.

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then it went off the market.

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We got nonprofit status.

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It came back on the market.

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I took the board out there and I was like, what do y'all think?

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And, they were like, well, yeah, this seems really cool,

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but We don't have any money.

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I think we had like 3, 000 in our little teeny weeny account.

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And I was like, well.

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We'll just keep praying.

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Big part of Mosaic Cup is prayer.

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Mark Patterson in Circle Maker says, work like it depends on

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you, pray like it depends on God.

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And that's kind of my motto.

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I had some ladies that had been praying, One day, I just

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believe the Lord has a house.

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I don't know what the house is exactly gonna do, but I just

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believe there's gonna be a house.

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it's not a children's home.

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because when I say house, people are like, Oh, she's trying

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to start a children's home.

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There's a lot of red tape there.

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We're not trying to start a children's home.

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I just believe that I don't want kids or anyone, to go in another office building.

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I want them to feel like they're coming over to my house.

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Like, I want that hospitality.

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So, I have these ladies, they've been praying for a long time.

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I come to find out some of them would go sit in the parking lot

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and pray for just whatever the Lord was going to do, but they'd sit in

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the parking lot of this property.

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And so we've been praying over this property for a very long time.

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And so, like I told you, January 21.

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To the unofficial launch.

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Then we started the closet in March 22.

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Well, this was June 22.

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I'm in the closet working with Suzanne and I get a phone call as

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the real estate agent representing the owner of that house.

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She said, I'm calling representing the seller of the property.

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And she's heard that you're interested in the property.

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And so we wanted to give you.

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The option to create a contract, decide on a price, and we would agree on a timeline

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for you to raise the money for the house.

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Once again, I didn't know that was ever an option for anyone.

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And once again, just something I didn't even know to pray.

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I didn't even know that could be a thing.

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So we talked about it , we agree on, the amount and we have from July

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till December to raise all the money.

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Now, need I remind you that we are a brand new non profit and you know, fundraising

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is a huge part of non profits and it's not necessarily an easy task to raise.

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Lots of money and were gonna have to raise over 200, 000 in six months.

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And this is mid of the year so there's not a lot of grants.

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grants have already run and also we're a six month old non profit,

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the heartbeat of Mosaic Hope is, we believe everybody has a piece to play in

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bringing hope to children and families.

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And that when we all bring the pieces together, we create something beautiful.

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So every time we kind of, and this is, Become kind of foundational to us.

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Every time I plan something I think, how can we get as many people involved?

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Suzanne, who helps with the closet, said, why don't we do a cash calendar?

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I was like, at this point, okay, whatever we can do to raise money.

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I'm trying to think how many bake sales are we going to need to do?

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what are we going to do here?

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And that cash calendar, I've had other nonprofits approach me and ask

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me how we did this cash calendar.

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And I always tell them, I'm like, I don't even know that I could ever replicate it.

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The Lord just did his thing.

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It went crazy.

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In the best way possible.

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In one month, we raised half the money.

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115, 000. And I was telling somebody yesterday, we never paid for

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one Facebook ad. It's just wild.

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So we decided we would do a cash calendar and I did math of like, okay, how many

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people, if, if some, if, if 30 people raise this amount of money, it would give

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us, you know, so I thought, if I could get 30 people to help us raise 5, 000,

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well, that would be a good bit of money.

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is.

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It's calendar,

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What we did is instead of the way calendars usually work You number

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the days one through, you know, 30 if you pick the first day of the

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calendar you pay a dollar if you pick

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Second day of the calendar

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what we did we changed the numbers so we did like 2, 4, 6, 8, and it wasn't

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exactly but it was still like 30 days of Numbers and you picked a number and

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donated that month But then at the end of the week, you could choose to be a week

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sponsor and the week sponsor Basically

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doubled the week's money.

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So we made these cash counters.

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Then we asked if people would help us fundraise.

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If they would do a cash calendar, and so we ended up having I think 40 Fundraisers

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is what we called them and they got a cash calendar and they went to their people.

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So it was like this Multiply event, you know, so like we made the cash calendars

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We gave it to these 40 people these 40 people went to their circles and went on

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their social media But what happened was everybody sharing these 40 people go into

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their churches and circles and everybody's like, what's this mosaic, you know?

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just a prime example, there was this one lady, she went to her church,

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so then her church got behind it.

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One of the guys at the church then went to his job at Clearwater and he

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told them about it, and then they gave.

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A big chunk of money to help with the purchase of the house.

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I can't even explain it.

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Just the Lord provided half the money.

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So at the end of July, we felt very confident in being like,

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okay, the Lord is in this.

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we can do it.

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this is just what it looks like when people work together.

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This is what Mosaic Hope is all about.

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I can count at least six fundraisers, that were planned to give money to Mosaic Hope,

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but that we didn't even end up having to plan, like that other people planned.

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by October 6th, and the only reason I know that is because it was the Hilltop

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Festival in downtown Rutherfordton, and we had a family event in Virginia.

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I go to Virginia and my husband's family had been talking about it

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and praying about it and they, for Christmas, usually all give to an

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organization and they surprised us and gave us some money toward the house.

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meanwhile, the Hilltop Festival wasn't even a fundraising event.

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We were just trying to let people know who we were.

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People were donating money at the Hilltop Festival and texting me and then I was

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telling them what We raised 230, 000 in

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three months

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and six days.

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And like I said, you're in the nonprofit world and you know, this is just wild.

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So then I was like, okay, we're buying a property.

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This story highlights so much about what I love about Rutherford County.

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If you come forward with a vision and a genuine heart to serve,

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others, people will stand behind you.

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Being in ministry my whole life, I've seen it happen over and over

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again, and that's a big part of the reason I started this podcast.

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I'll share more about this at the end, but I just wanna say my goal with a lot

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of these episodes is to put a spotlight on organizations like Mosaic Hope that

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I believe are deserving of your support.

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I'm not gonna go any further down that rabbit trail right now.

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Because Mosaic Hope still has some problems to overcome before we reach

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the end of this part of their story.

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we were supposed to close in November and then some things came up with the property

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even in all of that there were a few times where we were like, oh, no, this Isn't

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gonna work out then just crazy things it was just wild, like just the way things

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would end up, it would end up working out.

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So we closed on that property in February, our main goal for 2025 is

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to really focus on getting property.

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Up and going and leadership, Rutherford has come alongside us and they're going

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to help us get a building to put on the property that will become the closet.

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So that'll be there.

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the house was like a ten year, in my head, you know, maybe in ten years

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we'll have this thing and I really still don't know all that the Lord's up to.

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I told Heather and Corey, I said, in 20 years we're gonna look back

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and we're gonna be like, wow, this is exactly what We were thinking,

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but nothing at all like what

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we

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were thinking all at the same time.

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Sometimes we think, Oh, well, when we're doing what the Lord wants us to do, it's

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just like

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smooth

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sailing.

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but there still have been challenges of just, we ran into trying to get insurance

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and being a brand new nonprofit who wants to work with foster children.

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that's a

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a

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huge liability.

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that was the huge pause button we had other people helping me and we

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could not find insurance, but right at the end of the year we found

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a company that would take us on.

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So we have insurance and we've had the contractors and the engineer out

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there and we hope to be breaking some

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kind of ground

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sooner than later.

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Uh, I've, was ready a year ago.

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but.

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when this is up and running, what does that look Like, this is going to

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be the

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place

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the first night?

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Yeah, well, once again, because I knew kids were sleeping at

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the office, and I hated that.

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people need to understand, DSS hates that too.

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they don't like that.

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But when you don't have enough foster families, What do you do?

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and also, people don't know this about North Carolina.

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in child welfare, in the majority of the country, the Department

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of Social Services is state run, it's part of state government.

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In North Carolina and seven other states, it is county run.

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the state oversees it, but if you work for DSS here, you're a county employee.

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If you live in Georgia and you work for DSS, you're a state employee.

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There's a lot of implications there.

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it just makes things really challenging, because things vary county to county, In

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our county being a more rural area, our social workers have made some changes.

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that's awesome.

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I don't say any of this critically because there's just so there's so complex.

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So this is not any one person's fault or anything like that.

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You know, a lot of times our social workers could just go

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over to Cleveland County and make more money and do the same job.

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So trying to keep.

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social workers here in Rutherford County is really hard.

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with the kids sleeping at the office, that was what I was going

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to say, they, they could pay for hotel rooms, but that costs money.

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There's not a lot of money in the budget, When we first started Mosaic Hope, The

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kids were spending the night at the office in this whole journey of us getting the

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property There is another ministry here in the county Faithway Ministries that

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ended up having a house That used to be a missionary home and, or, and I think they

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may still use it for a missionary home.

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I don't know exactly, but there weren't as many missionaries, using the house.

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And so it's empty most of the time.

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So they reached out to DSS.

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And so DSS has been able to utilize that house for kids.

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And then, DSS wrote a grant and, they're getting a house.

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built on the SS property, it's going to be utilized for a number of things.

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So once again, like that's where I was, at first it was like.

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Lord, uh, okay.

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Um, what, what is it that you would have us do?

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I tell people all the time, I have enough ideas that there's not a lack

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of ways that a house could be used,

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But the Lord, once again, I feel like has provided because see, that's one

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of the big issues with the insurance The kids can come to the house, but we

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can't cover them to spend the night.

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which was my really, like, heartbreak, but then it was like, the Lord's

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like, I'm already taking care of that.

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what we've talked with DSS about, what I envision is, for instance, this just

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happened, Yesterday, a kid comes into care and they don't necessarily have a place.

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I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding of foster care.

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I think people think they go pick up the kid and take them

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straight to a foster family.

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sometimes that happens.

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But a lot of times they're getting the kid out of the situation, but they don't

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have a foster family ready there's a lot of paperwork that has to happen

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and they have to show that they've looked for relatives it's very complex.

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That's the best way of explaining it.

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a lot of times they pick up the kid and then the kid goes to the office The house

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that they're going to put on DSS property, if it's empty, they could go there, but

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the way I understand their house is going to function, it's just, it's going to

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be an empty house, and social workers can reserve the house to go in there.

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Part of what Mosaic Hope is, we want, be an experience, not just

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a building that they can use.

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What we would love to see is the kid they pick up a child from their home that never

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has to see the DSS building That they could just bring them over to, and we're,

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we've been calling it the Mosaic House.

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That they come over to the Mosaic House, and when they get there, we

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have our staff, and trained volunteers who would be trained in trust based

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relational intervention, which is a trauma informed intervention.

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We would be there to be a hundred percent for that kid and we're not

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trying to find them placement We're not the people that just remove them.

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We're just like hey, you're having a rough day.

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What do you need right now?

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And that There would be this playroom that they could go play if they are,

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you know, if they're there through lunch we say, what do you want for lunch?

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You want a happy meal?

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something from Chick fil a?

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pizza?

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we would get that not just for them, also for our social workers.

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We've got to keep our social workers here in Rutherford County.

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The turnover rate is like 50%.

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the more a child changes caseworkers, the longer their case will be.

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So we're costing our county money but we would love to see a space in the

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house for the social workers so they can come and still do their work.

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The kids won't be left alone with us we would be just supporting them.

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if the kids didn't need to spend the night.

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They would be able to go to the lighthouse, or Faithway

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Ministries to spend the night.

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when we were fostering.

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You'd have good days and then you'd have this day where it was really hard

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even when you have a great community of support, there are a lot of people who do

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not, to be this place where people know they can reach out to Mosaic Hope that if

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we don't have the answer that we're going to point you to the place that might have

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the answer and that it would be a place We're able to feel like you came over

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to our house, and that you're sitting in our den the church is so important

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but there's some people who are never going to step foot into a church, but

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they'll come over to the Mosaic House.

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my heart is to be that bridge between child welfare and the church of being this

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like middle place brings people together.

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Because even within the church, if people are volunteering at the mosaic

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house and they get to meet some of the social workers or they get to

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have faces, Then foster care becomes not just this thing you hear about,

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it becomes people, real people.

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and as Christ followers, the Lord tells us, love Him and love people.

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Loving people can sometimes be difficult, and not only because we

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are very flawed and tend to want to put ourselves first instead of loving

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others, but also because there are times when it isn't perfectly clear how

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to best love someone, especially kids.

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There have been plenty of times when I was working with a very upset child who's

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refusing to listen, and I don't know how to best help them calm down and behave.

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Do they need to be comforted?

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Disciplined?

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Maybe they're just hungry and they don't realize it?

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There are a million things that it could be, and that's where

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the trauma informed training that I mentioned earlier comes in.

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TBRI, Trust Based Relational Intervention, is a huge part of Mosaic Hope.

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the Lord is obviously the foundation.

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And then, past that, like, past pointing people to Christ and showing the love

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of Christ in the hands and feet of Jesus, because trust based relational

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Intervention is the next piece of, the heartbeat of Mosaic Hope you know, the

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heartbeat of TBRI is that when kids, have been hurt through relationship,

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the only way you can get Healing is through relationship as a Christian,

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I take that step further and say the relationship with Jesus Christ, right?

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We really want the house to be about relationship.

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what we would love to see is that, let's just say Billy, comes into care.

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We meet Billy the day he enters care.

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then we find out who his foster family is.

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able to follow up with that foster family and say, Hey, how's things going?

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we have two TBRI practitioners helping with mosaic cope right

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now, and we're going to be expanding that later this year.

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There'll be nine of us total.

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And so the idea is that a TBR practitioner could meet with them and see what's

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going on or help them through that.

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Part of the mission of Mosaic Hope is to equip and mobilize the

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community to wrap around children, families, and professionals impacted

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by foster care with immediate assistance and continued support.

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the continued support really is TBRI amongst some other things, but

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how I want to equip and mobilize the community is with TBRI.

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because it, really helped our family.

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And one of the cool things is that, um, the schools are really taking,

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like, a huge interest with TBRI.

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And as a parent who, that was, as a foster parent and as a parent of a child who's

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had, trauma in their life, school has been the place I've had to advocate the most.

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we got to do a professional development with the middle school teachers

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and in March we're doing it with the elementary school teachers.

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one of our practitioners is a teacher at Forest City Dunbar.

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And one of the girls going in April is the principal at Pinnacle Elementary.

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when teachers came to some of our little intro overview trainings, and they like

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went to their school and were like, we have to, we have to do this, and so

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it's just kind of, It kind of spiraled.

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And so we are talking.

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We're in the beginning of some talk of what does it look like to

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really get TBRI in our schools?

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the idea of having a TBRI collaborative in Rutherford County where When you go to

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the law enforcement, they know what TBRI is, or when you're in a school, they know

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what it is that it's a common language amongst everyone in our community.

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So that's like a whole nother, that's like a whole nother thing happening over here.

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You know, that's been really cool.

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so when I say, Dr. Sutton, the superintendent is very interested

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in So

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when we were fostering.

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You'd have good days and then you'd have this day where it was really hard

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even when you have a great community of support, there are a lot of people who

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do not, to be this place where people know they can reach out to Mosaic Hope

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that if we don't have the answer that we're going to point you to the place

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that might have the answer and that we could be a place where we have support

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groups and, and once again, it wouldn't, it would be a place We're able to feel

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like you came over to our house, and that you're sitting in our den the church is

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so important and I always tell people, I'm like, don't get, you know, the church.

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Mosaic Hope's great, but the church is where it's at.

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we want to come alongside churches, too.

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we believe in, the local church, for sure.

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but there's some people who are never going to step foot into a church, but

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they'll come over to the Mosaic House.

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my heart is to be that bridge between child welfare and the church of being this

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like middle place brings people together.

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Because even within the church, if people are volunteering at the mosaic

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house and they get to meet some of the social workers or they get to

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have faces, Then foster care becomes not just this thing you hear about,

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it becomes people, real people.

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and as Christ followers, the Lord tells us, love Him and love people.

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I've learned I can have my plan, but if I cling to my plan, that's when the Lord

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usually likes to help me loosen the grip

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And so I have something I try and I don't do it perfectly.

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But it's just to say, okay, this is kind of the plan and I'm holding it here and

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I'm gonna work like it depends on me But it's not really mine you can take it

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and say nope, we're doing this thing and we will be obedient and following that

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I know that this has been a longer episode than usual, and we are

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getting close to the end, but there are still a couple things that

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it's important for you to hear.

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You have now heard the story of how Mosaic cope came to be, how they

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operate, and what Emily's vision is for the future of the organization.

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But I didn't ask Emily to come on the show just because she has a great story.

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I did it 'cause I believe in the vision of Mosaic cope.

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I believe that they are a huge benefit to Small Town Friendly and I desire

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for this podcast to connect community minded people, hopefully like you, with

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trustworthy organizations who are serving Small Town Friendly in a godly way.

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My hope is that the week this episode goes out, Mosaic Hope sees a bump in

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the number of supporters that they have.

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That doesn't have to mean financially, even though that would

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be a great way to support them.

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You could also just follow them on social media, or subscribe to their

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email list through their website.

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But I hope that in some way you're going to consider showing Mosaic

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Hope that you are behind them.

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And also, share this episode with somebody.

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Post it on Facebook, text it to a friend, anything you want.

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But the more people that listen to this show, the bigger that bump in support

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will be whenever I share a story or an organization like Mosaic Hope with you.

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And if you want to go all in to really get behind Mosaic Hope, Emily's about

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to tell you the best ways to do that.

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Our hope, right now with where our closet is, it's so small, it's very

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limited to how many volunteers we can have at a moment, and the way it

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functions, we don't really need daily volunteers, I'm excited to get to this

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property, because there will be way more opportunities for people to get involved,

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This spring we'll be restocking our closet for spring and summer clothes.

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We will put out a sign up, uh, people can follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

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They can sign up to help us restock a certain size for a certain

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gender, which is a very fun way.

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Girl Scout troops, women's circles Sunday school groups, small groups, families.

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It's been fun to see how people jump in to help with that.

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Another way we are serving right now is we have been doing

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encouragement to our social workers.

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And taking sometimes we take breakfast.

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Sometimes just a treat to say thank you.

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we have a sign up that will be coming out soon for that as well, because

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we've we just finished last year's.

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Encouragements so groups or individuals can get involved with that.

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Obviously still being so foundational our main focus is the mosaic house property to

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get it open and to get things going there.

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So this year, donating finances.

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helps us get that going.

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once the house is ready we'll be able to see what programming

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exactly, we're going to be able to do I know leadership Rutherford.

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is working on getting our building for the closet.

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So that then the closet can be over there as well.

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So we just have everything in on property.

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And so financial donations, people can give online.

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They can go to our website, which is www.

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mosaicope.

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org.

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you click donate, you can give online.

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you can also mail.

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In this area, a lot of people still like to mail a check, and that's fine,

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so it will help just the same, however it gets to us, but our address is P.

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O. Box 1211 Rutherfordton, people can mail a check and write the check to Mosaic

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Hope, and if they want it to go straight to the house, they can designate it to

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the house we have like an account just for the house and once the house is open,

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we will be looking for volunteers to help who can be on call to come over and, be

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a house hostess to show good hospitality, to anyone who comes to the house.

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And one of the requirements for that is going to be, to have gone through the.

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TBRI training we offer TBRI trainings.

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Last year we had 10 different trainings and we are planning

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out some more for this year.

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So if you think you wanna be a volunteer at the house, then make sure you sign

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up for one of those trainings when teachers came to some of our little

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intro overview trainings, and they like went to their school and were like,

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we have to, we have to do this, and so it's just kind of, It kind of spiraled.

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Yeah, you

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Okay, if there's one thing you could say to everybody in Rutherford.

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County, what would that be?

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We need to keep our kids here in Rutherford County Almost 60 percent of

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kids in Rutherford County DSS custody are having to go to another county.

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There is no reason for that.

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And I think I'd really like to specifically talk to the churches

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in Rutherford County in that we have got to be talking about

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foster care in our churches.

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We have got to be talking about what it looks like to step into foster care

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and adoption, and not because I say so, but because God's word says so.

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we desperately need more foster families here in Rutherford County, if someone's

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like me and you think, I can't do that.

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That seems too big.

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We have to be here for these children.

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They don't ask for the situation and they need people to be

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willing to stand in the gap.

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And as Christians, we know someone who's done that for us.

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So I think we're called to do that for other people.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of Small Town Big God.

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If you enjoy the show and you think that it's a benefit to the community, will you

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share it with somebody and help me give Mosaic Hope a bigger bump in support?

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I've got links to Mosaic Hope's website and Facebook page in the show notes, as

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well as a link to the Small Town Big God Facebook page and a video explaining more

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about TBRI if you're interested in that.

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So check all of that out.

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Thank you for listening, and thanks for being a part of Small Town Friendly.

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About the Podcast

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Small Town Big God
Stories of God at work in Rutherford County

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Mikel Collins