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Welcome to The Foster Friendly Podcast. We’re bringing foster care closer to home by sharing stories from the front lines. We're talking with former foster youth, foster parents and others who are finding unique and powerful ways to dramatically improve the experiences and outcomes for kids in foster care.
The Foster Friendly podcast is brought to you by America’s Kids Belong, a nonprofit that helps kids in foster care find belonging in both family and community.
Brian Mavis (00:01.848)
Hello, Foster -friendly audience. I'm Brian Mavis, your humble and incredible host, along with two other prideful and mediocre hosts. No, they're incredible. I I am honored to be hosting with them. We've got Travis and Courtney with us.
Courtney (00:10.441)
you
Travis (00:10.769)
Yeah.
Courtney (00:13.919)
Yes.
Travis (00:15.556)
Wing mates, we're wing men, wing women, men.
Courtney (00:27.891)
with us today.
Brian Mavis (00:28.686)
today and the three of us are doing something a little bit different today. We're not interviewing a guest expert. Instead, we're having a little conversation about a movie that came out a month ago. So if you're listening to it, we're doing this recording in August of 2024. And the movie is called Sound of Hope, the story of Possumtrop. And this
Courtney (00:49.628)
And the movie is called Stand Up Hope, before the clock in the sky. And this is a movie that is specifically about the church, the resource, about the church.
Brian Mavis (00:56.046)
is a movie that is specifically about a church. It's a true story about a church in near Possum Trot, Texas, that a small church, a church that is not wealthy and 22 families in that church adopted 77 kids that were up for legally free up for adoption in their county. And it's a an amazing
Courtney (01:06.249)
that small shirt, a shirt that is not rubs.
in that first, adopted seven, seven kids that were out for it.
Courtney (01:24.013)
what an amazing story and people writing about it and thinking about it and also bringing up some concerns. So we want to just stop.
Brian Mavis (01:25.574)
story and it's got people crying about it and thinking about it and some also bringing up some concerns. And so we wanted to discuss this. And the reason that Travis and Courtney are such exceptional people to have as part of this conversation, they are both foster adoptive parents. I was a foster parent. We never adopted but have grandchildren.
that have been adopted. we've lived through that as well. so let's, and again, Travis and Courtney and I, we've, honestly have maybe talked about this movie together for a total of one minute. So I'm looking forward to hearing what they think about it. So Courtney, let's start with you. Tell us, you saw the movie and when you saw the movie, what were you thinking and feeling?
Courtney (01:55.215)
Yeah.
Courtney (02:23.409)
Yeah, so I'll just share, I am part of a support group here where I foster. And we had invited a whole bunch of parents to go with us. Sadly, because of the release date, a lot of people were traveling and our silly little theater wasn't showing if it was going to be here for an extended period of time or they only had like a few dates on the calendar. So like, we got to go now. So we invited a bunch of people, but it was just my husband and another foster adoptive family, that husband and wife that went with us. We went to dinner ahead of time, kind of chatted.
Brian Mavis (02:34.904)
Hmm.
Courtney (02:50.471)
And then we went to the movie and it was our first time meeting this other foster dad. we left the movie, all of us complete silence. We didn't even know what to say. It was kind of awkward. Cause like I said, we had just met this guy and you know, both of us, wives and my husband had tears just rolling down our faces. We walked out of the theater and kind of said our awkward goodbyes because we were all just not even sure what the process at the moment. and we got into the car, my husband and I, and
Travis (03:01.778)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (03:16.066)
Mm -hmm.
Courtney (03:19.355)
We did not speak for many minutes. It was just quiet. And finally, he just looked at me still crying and said, wow, that just hit home to so many of the kids we've had in our house. And it brought back so many memories of kids that we we saw dramatic healing and then kids that we didn't get to see that. We don't know to this day where, where they're at, what they're up to, if they've been healed, if they've not been healed. So was just really raw and emotional for us that have walked.
Brian Mavis (03:31.96)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (03:40.619)
Mm -hmm.
Courtney (03:47.003)
know, lot of that journey that we saw depicted in the film.
Brian Mavis (03:50.402)
Yeah. Travis, what about you? mean, what was your reaction coming out of that movie?
Travis (03:58.876)
Yeah, I mean, similar to Courtney's. mean, I just saw what we went to went to it with several from our small church. And so that was cool again to go with sort of a community that you're with and part of. And we came out in the lobby afterwards and just we just kind of like circled up actually kind of in the middle. We were actually in the way. People are going around us to get popcorn. We're just kind of having an impromptu follow up here. And but it was just like we're just processing it together. And I think I
I can really, feel the same of just, was like, I feel like I almost needed to just sit for a while and not even react because I think going into it, I mean, I knew I was aware of the story. think I'd read a book on it, but, and I knew the inspiration and sort of the raw raw side to wow. mean, just what it looks like when a community engages in need and what can happen. But I don't think I realized.
that the film was gonna really, really portray the gritty and real in such a way that, you know, it's almost wincing at times, which is really good and fair, because it's real, real to the story. I think that part was like, wow. Yeah, sobering.
Brian Mavis (05:02.049)
Mm -hmm.
Courtney (05:04.477)
Hmm.
Courtney (05:11.721)
Definitely.
Brian Mavis (05:14.232)
What did you guys like about the movie? It's been several weeks now since you've seen it. What's lived with you as far as kind of was highlighted in a few scenes or a theme or what was especially poignant?
Courtney (05:33.151)
We made our older kids go to the movie after we saw it. Even some that have been adopted, the ones that are older now. Our one son who's 20 years old, he went to the movie with a group of friends and one of our older boys as well and came back kind of the same as us. And he just sat there and said, I get it. I get it. And I want to be a foster dad now someday. He's like, I understand why you guys do what you do. And I think that's maybe selfish of me, but I want other people to watch it to see.
Brian Mavis (05:37.315)
Mm.
Courtney (06:01.511)
not like see what the Williams go through, but understand these kids that come into our home where they're coming from, because so many people just don't get it. And they need to understand the trauma and the things they go through. And I thought the movie did a great job of depicting again, what these kids have gone through and why the exhibit behaviors that they have. There's a reason behind those behaviors. It's not just, you know, kids misbehaving. And I thought it did an excellent job of that.
Brian Mavis (06:21.752)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Brian Mavis (06:27.192)
Yeah, it was very good at that. Travis, what was a highlight or two for you?
Travis (06:32.38)
think like some scenes kind of stick with me. was a line, kind of a line by, I guess it was the older teenagers girls, where she said she's looking through the car window and she's kind of in a frantic moment of what to do and all of a sudden she screams into the window with her potentially adoptive mom then sitting in the car and she yells, I don't want to be here. And she's like banging the front windshield.
And it was like that that scene for me almost was like her also saying like, don't want to be in this life. Like when you're in foster care, you're in the story that you didn't choose and the suffering is not even just I don't want to be in this home. I mean, there was that those feelings for her, but almost was like, I don't want to be in this life. This is what my life is right now. And then on the flip side, I think like I'm I love quotes, if you guys know me. So there's a historian, Thomas Fuller, who said some have been thought
Brian Mavis (07:07.149)
Ahem.
Brian Mavis (07:25.23)
Mm -hmm.
Travis (07:28.798)
they were brave because they were afraid to run away. And if you put those two things together, this was a community that it was their bravery. We're afraid to actually run away. We're going to be here and we're going to be the people for you, even if you don't want to be here. I don't know. It's like those lines together.
Brian Mavis (07:40.174)
Mm
Brian Mavis (07:49.41)
Yeah, yeah, I think the three of us really appreciate what was portrayed as being the hard part of foster care. You there was another movie that came out a few years ago that again, I liked it as well. It's called Instant Family with Mark Wahlberg as the principal star. And there were some kind of hard parts, but not really. mean, there was quick, they would relieve you of that tension real quick.
Courtney (08:08.455)
yeah.
Travis (08:17.262)
Right.
Brian Mavis (08:18.062)
with some laugh or something like that, but this didn't. So one, artistically I liked it. It could be categorized as a Christian film, which sometimes those have been thought of as being cheesy, or that the message is manipulating the story. And I felt like the Weigels who...
Courtney (08:22.687)
One, physically I like it. It could be categorized as a 50 film and sometimes they're thought of as being TV or that the message is manipulation. I felt like the library wrote for a distribution community software in Rebecca.
Brian Mavis (08:46.892)
wrote, directed, produced this movie, Joshua and Rebecca, who, by the way, who are acquaintances or maybe even could be considered friends. They really honored the story and they let the story lead. And there was still a message, but that message is a little bit unclear as far as because people come out with some different interpretations of it. And so I really love that, that they honored
Courtney (08:51.327)
I would like to hear it.
Brian Mavis (09:16.738)
the true story of what happened there, which I think also then has become the weakness. If you want to put it that way, I didn't see it as a weakness, but it's become the place where people who've seen the movie, they've used that against it. They've said, okay, that's not what it's like for me. Or they didn't cover, you know what?
Travis (09:35.486)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Mavis (09:43.918)
foster care was like, or I don't like how they discipline the child. And I want to say to our listeners right now, you got to remember this was a movie. It's 90 minutes, you know, approximately, they're not trying to tell the whole story of everybody and everything. They're telling this story. They're honoring that story. And it was set in a particular place in a particular time in a particular culture. And so it's not today. It's not where you live and it may not be your culture.
Travis (09:57.628)
Mm
Courtney (10:00.955)
and just set in a particular place, in particular time, in a particular culture. And so, not today, it's not where you live, and it may not be your culture. And so, because of that, it has been criticized a little bit because of the pandemic. But, with that said, with some of those simple art films and stuff, some of the things that are left out, let's just go to...
Travis (10:12.222)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (10:12.31)
And so because of that, it's been criticized a little bit because of those things. But with that said, with some of those things that are shown and said, and some of the things that are left out, let's use those as a launch pad to have some conversations about some of the things that were said. And like, how's it different today? And some of the things that were left out, like,
Courtney (10:35.387)
So, let me just focus on what he said was specific in the movie that we would like to say as well in today's time.
Brian Mavis (10:41.742)
What about those things that are left out? let me, Courtney, to you, like, what would you say was depicted in the movie that you would like to say, well, in today's times, because that was about 30 years ago, it's more like this.
Courtney (11:06.355)
pretty good with that. It's more like this.
Brian Mavis (11:11.052)
do a little comparison and contrast.
Courtney (11:13.562)
Yeah, there's two things that jump out to me immediately. One of them is you touched on it and you see a child foster child or foster adopt child being spanked in the video. And we all know that you can't do that today. Right. And so I've seen a lot of criticism around that. And again, I'm not understanding the time and the place and realizing they didn't have the knowledge that we have today about the brain and trauma and the effects. mean, it's amazing. We got foster license 17 years ago.
Travis (11:34.504)
Mm
Courtney (11:39.935)
And the difference between what we got licensed in and trained in 17 years ago to what people are being trained in today, it's a huge difference. And that's 17 years ago. Now think about 30 years ago, 40 years ago. I mean, it's just different. We were not trained when we first started in what we call TBRI, Trust -Based Relational Intervention, which now pretty much any foster adoptive family knows what that is when you use that acronym. So we just need to understand that the training was different and our understanding has come a long way. So we should...
Travis (11:46.992)
Mm -hmm. Right.
Brian Mavis (11:47.03)
Mm -hmm. Right.
Travis (12:01.704)
Mm
Brian Mavis (12:01.87)
Mm -hmm.
Courtney (12:07.807)
give thanks for that and recognize that it's a positive that we are where we are today, rather than taking that little part of the movie and trying to pick it apart. Cause I didn't have that back then. And these foster friends, they, again, they were depicting what they knew and what they were trained in. Yes, we've gotten better. The other thing that sticks out to me is, you know, we don't, a lot of the backstories, they can't share everything. It would have been a 10 hour film. A lot of these kids, what people don't understand was they were,
Travis (12:29.896)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Mavis (12:31.8)
Right.
Courtney (12:36.049)
already waiting children. They were kids waiting to be adopted. So when they come home, on the video, you see them coming to our house and they've got, welcome home. You know, I think one was Joshua and you know, I'm your daddy and they're calling each other mom and dad right away. And I've seen a lot of negative conversation about that because well, that's not the way you treat kids that are in foster care. It's like, yes, but again, the time and place, a lot of these kids were waiting kids. It wasn't like a foster care placement. And the movie didn't go into that detail.
Travis (12:49.393)
Mm
Travis (12:57.476)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Right.
Courtney (13:03.539)
but they didn't need to go into that detail either. But I think people just get confused by that messaging of I'm your dad, I'm your mom, and in foster care, that's not typically how you handle situations like that.
Brian Mavis (13:16.45)
Yeah. So that's interesting. Those, the people who are critics are the ones who are more knowledgeable. They've had some experience there. And so for, so what about our listeners who aren't knowledgeable? mean, they were inspired by the movie, but then their experience might be very different from the movie as far as dealing with child welfare. Travis to the, to the, newbie who is interested in this, who saw the movie or might be seeing a movie now because we're talking about it.
Courtney (13:21.375)
Yeah
Travis (13:21.897)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Mavis (13:46.412)
what and they say, I'm signing up, I'm gonna do this. What would they experience that would feel different than what they saw?
Travis (13:57.236)
Well, I thought there was gonna be all softballs in this episode. Apparently not. So, okay, thank you for putting me on that one. But, exactly. That's probably my intellectual level right there. But I mean, yeah, like Courtney says, like I was doing a little bit of background research of like, it sounds like it wasn't until 2001 that trauma informed training.
Brian Mavis (13:59.79)
What Travis, what candy did you get at the movie theater?
Courtney (14:00.553)
Yeah
Travis (14:26.58)
and the paradigm in therapy of trauma wasn't even until 2001, that actually sort of even became in the public eye. So when we talk about this film being in 97, I mean, that well predates even that. And then to Courtney's point, stuff even 17 years ago for her has dramatically changed. So I think that what we didn't see in the film is again, to the context and place of the story, you're the small church in a rural community.
with I think around six to 700 people. Not a lot of resources probably even to their contemporary cities next door or whatever, potentially. So fast forward to today where you're gonna see so much more along the lines of trauma training and understanding what's behind behaviors, having a lot more support resources and whether it's weekly therapy and people in the home or going to appointments.
We just what it would appear to be in the film, I think for the viewer was and it was fair to their time was that, man, it's us as this little church. And that's it. I mean, we do have the caseworkers that we're kind of talking to, but it's all it's awesome. And it's sort of our fervor and passion to hold this thing together. And it's a sinking ship in some cases.
You know, and whereas I think, I don't know if you guys want to add to that as far as Courtney, you'd have some good answers to add to what now people would.
Courtney (15:50.695)
Yeah, yeah.
Courtney (15:59.44)
Yeah, and again, they, I don't know. I don't know if there were CASAs back in the day, if there were GALs at that time period, but also just recognizing today, when you start fostering, you have a placement coming to your house, you've got a team of people wrapping around you and supporting you. It's not like you're just left to the wolves, right? And they weren't because they had each other, which really is another huge highlight of this film. They did such a great job of showing the lows and then...
Brian Mavis (16:09.004)
you
Courtney (16:24.977)
It only got better once that community really wrapped around each other. But you don't foster a lot. We have other people that are part of the team and caseworkers that are there more frequently than it viewed or showed in the movie as we saw it. So yeah, just understanding that there is a team around you. There's a team around the kids. There are a lot of professionals on the team. You're not left alone. And the whole foster to adopt, there are kids in America right now waiting to be adopted that would be placed as a
potential foster to adopt. But even then, now most states have the law where they have to be in a foster home for six months before they can be adopted because we see adoptions fail, we see the placements fail. And so again, kids usually come in with a mindset of this is a temporary placement, even if the hope is to adopt them, the mindset is temporary to begin with at least, and then things can transition from there.
Brian Mavis (17:20.108)
Yeah, so, yeah, so our listeners, they're in the ecosystem of child welfare and foster care. About three quarters of the kids, they have a goal towards reunification and about a quarter of their goal is to be adopted. And so if you're stepping into this space, you might. again, it depends on city to city, state to state. You might hear like, yes, we have a need for adoptive families in other place. You might say
not so much, or it's just the older kids and there's not babies and who knows? It's different from place to place. you need to kind of go in being a flexible family, like open to seeing what is gonna happen. There's another part of this film that we haven't touched upon really. mean, it's been mentioned or alluded to is
Travis (18:09.001)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (18:19.382)
this story about a church and how the senior pastor's wife, Bishop Martin's wife named Donna, she really feels convicted by God to care for these kids and convinces her husband who then convinces the church. And there's a couple of scenes, church scenes. There's a preaching moment.
Travis (18:21.734)
huh.
Brian Mavis (18:48.718)
which again, I think even though it was preaching, it wasn't preachy. Gosh, I thought it was so powerful about the call of the church to step into these hard places. so, I mean, tell me just, again, this is something you guys, we have not discussed. What was your...
Travis (18:57.075)
Mm
Courtney (18:57.4)
about the call for.
Travis (19:04.34)
Mm
Courtney (19:05.091)
And so, I mean, some of the things that you said, think, that was really, I'm gonna throw that. What was the thing that you
Brian Mavis (19:15.096)
Coming out of that, what was stirring your heart about the story of a church stepping up and what you would hope for the church or what your experience has been with the church?
Courtney (19:31.741)
I saw some, again, read some negative things about, well, it's just not realistic. And it's like, well, this is a real story. This really did happen. know? It's not, like a church community can't really do that. And it's like, well, they can. And that's the, you know, we can't all, and maybe we're not going to be possum trots, right? On all of our cities can be a possum trot story and ending. But the number is something like if one in every church,
Brian Mavis (19:38.254)
Right, it's not realistic. okay.
Travis (19:39.644)
Okay.
Travis (19:48.488)
They did.
Brian Mavis (19:49.942)
You'd dead, you know.
Courtney (19:59.943)
adopted one kid or took in one kid out of foster care, there won't be kids waiting in the foster care system today. And again, I just think the church needs to wake up. I don't think they recognize and realize this mission field. And not even the mission field, but the numbers that this is right here in our backyard. talk, I tell people all the time, we started this journey of adoption. We started a little bit in foster care, but it kind of quickly led to adoption. Everything we researched, we started
typing in adoption in Google or whatever, talking to people. It was all about international adoption. It was like this foster care thing wasn't really talked about. We brought it to our church and said, hey, we need to have a ministry around this. And at first our pastor's like, well, why? And we educated them and they said yes. But again, I just think the education behind it to the churches, it's just something that needs to be brought forth. Churches need to wake up, open their eyes to this need in our communities.
Brian Mavis (20:32.792)
Mm -hmm.
Travis (20:57.012)
Yeah, that's really good. I, it is interesting because I want to hear Brian, your perspective. I've heard you have a bit of a nuanced take. so I'm setting you up for potentially not a softball here. That's payback. But, yes. So I feel like what's intention here is exactly what Courtney said, where I've also read where people kind of take, it's an easy projection to watch this film and go, okay, there's, there's potentially, think something around 400 ,000. said
Courtney (21:07.773)
Yeah
Travis (21:26.004)
Churches in the US, 400 ,000 kids fluctuating in care at any time throughout the year. That's a one to one ratio. If every church just brought in one, and that seems, and I think that is definitely a takeaway and an inspirational takeaway. However, I think Brian, I've heard you talk about in a nuanced way, there's a little bit of a pushback to that as well. mean, you know what I'm, so do you wanna, what would your comment be around that?
Brian Mavis (21:50.254)
Yeah, it's not nuanced. It's confrontational. it's contrarian for sure. there is, again, so the math works. I'm a critic of it because I said, hey, it works on paper. It's never going to work in real life. And the other point is, even more importantly, you don't want it to work that way.
Travis (21:55.238)
Okay, there we go. Even better.
Travis (22:02.664)
Contrarian.
Brian Mavis (22:20.27)
And I would much rather see what happened at Possum Trot, at that church, than to have one church pick one kid. And I'd rather see fewer churches, like 5%, let's use that as a guess number. Five out of every 100 say, we're gonna get really good at this and we're gonna have many or several.
kids and families and it's going to be part of our culture and they're not going to feel alone and they're Not going to look like outsiders and so how this really happened for me Because I used to be the hey if every one church did one kid would be done is I was speaking publicly at a Gathering about this in Florida and afterwards I had
Travis, you were there at this one. I had a young family come up in their mid -30s. They had been foster adoptive parents for a decade. And they came up and simply said, can we get some advice from you? And I said, okay, what do you need? And they explained that their situation and that they had been in a church, they had grown up at this church.
was a church that about 800 people attended on a weekend. And they said, we've been fostered off of parents for the past 10 years. We've asked for support to feel seen, helped, have others do some sort of ministry. And they said, we have gotten nowhere. And then they, here's what really got me, this line. They said, we feel so alone.
And our kids feel like they don't belong. because of, you know, there's being the only family, only kids, and the kids may have been a multi -ethnic family. And then they asked, this was what advice they asked. They said, what should we do? And I was surprised by what came out of my mouth, because I'm a very loyal guy. And I said, quit rewarding bad behavior and find a church.
Brian Mavis (24:40.696)
where you don't feel alone and your kids feel like they belong. And that convicted me, just my own words was like, this is the better way where you aren't the family that everybody's looking at and wondering about and how come the kids are behaving this way, but you're understood, you're not alone. The kids feel like they're a part of a community, they belong. And so,
Travis (24:46.9)
Hmm.
Courtney (25:01.439)
because they're understirred and not aligned. They feel like they're trying to be leaders in that. So I'm a great believer in that. I think what's a better way to do it, not the only way, but I'd love to see people do it themselves. So we're gonna do this and we're gonna do And the arts are gonna get better.
Brian Mavis (25:09.408)
I'm a big believer in what happened at Possum Trot. I think that's the better way to do it. It's not the only way, but I'd love to see churches who say, hey, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it well. When it gets hard, we're gonna get better. And I think it's the kind of thing where the church will probably gonna go in with this, we're gonna save the kids mentality and a decade later,
The wise ones in the church are gonna say, these kids helped save the church. They helped us become the kind of church God wants the church to be.
Courtney (25:47.095)
I love that you say that because I can tell you truthfully right now I can think of easily 20 plus people that have told me they left the church.
once they started fostering or adopted because the church did not support them and they've not gone back. And I hear it all the time. I even, again, reading through, I have a friend that kind of posted some, she watched the film, loved the film, but just had some hard emotions afterwards and kind of commented on Facebook. And I was reading through all these comments. And so many of people that commented were foster adoptive parents saying, me too, me too, about the community aspect of when things get tough, the community disappears. You know, they're all about it until things get tough.
Brian Mavis (25:58.84)
Mmm.
Brian Mavis (26:02.627)
Mm.
Brian Mavis (26:22.818)
Mm -hmm.
Travis (26:23.774)
Hmm.
Courtney (26:24.925)
or until behaviors get tough, or until you say, we're drowning. Saying you're drowning and they walk away or don't know how to help you. So definitely, feel like that is just something we really need to pour into as churches that are doing this well and equip them and encourage them, train them. Yeah, I think that's definitely something that we need to focus on.
Brian Mavis (26:28.227)
Mm -hmm.
Travis (26:31.71)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (26:46.134)
Amen. that's a gosh, Courtney, the negative side of what I shared that people have left. That's that's really convicting. And yeah, it's that kind of thing. I mean, I have some family stuff going on that that's there's a similar experience is happening. So it's it's real. And I do think.
Travis (26:53.769)
Hmm.
Travis (27:11.262)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (27:15.554)
I am a true believer that the church will be transformed in a more Christ -like cruciform, if we're going to kind of start using these theological words, And I think that is the Jesus way.
Travis (27:31.4)
Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to respond to that too, to just say I'd read a really critical book on taking it largely mainline evangelical churches, the task on the way they've engaged foster care. And you know, some things were unfair in this book. can't remember the title, but one of the, yeah, remember that? So one of the things that he highlighted though, and it was kind of a big longitudinal wide study, interviewed a lot of ministries and everything, but it was like kind of the notion was
Brian Mavis (27:47.982)
Yeah. Yes.
Travis (28:01.08)
Everything looks good as a mission and on a slideshow and going overseas and all these things where it involves us leaving, like maybe going to serve in a safe way to come back. Like, like you drop into an easy thing and you come back and we get all the pictures and it looks really cool. And then everyone gives, you know, that kind of thing. What happens when you actually engage foster care in a way that's, that's really like deep work is it, it means that.
you're bringing that inside your walls. And that could mean then in your childcare, you now have large donating members that are going, wait, but there's going to be kids that from hard places that are with my kid and care in our, you know, in Sunday school or whatever. And it's like, I don't know what that it's going to happen to them or are we safe now? And so that fear is what really it's like, once this comes within our walls, okay, that's too much now.
Brian Mavis (28:42.37)
Mm
Courtney (28:55.611)
Okay, that's too much. That's too much to do. I just want to make a few that, you know, and I think that's really helpful. Yeah. the doors open wide. Yeah, and so, again, I love it. I can do a study for this because I love it.
Travis (28:56.749)
Can we just keep this a ministry that's, you know, and I think that's the story of Possumtron. The doors open wide.
Brian Mavis (29:02.786)
Yeah, it's.
Yeah, and so again, I love the church and I can be a critic of it because I love it. It's many of the churches are when they have that kind of ministry, it's transactional. They can they can cross the tracks and then they can come back home. And we're saying it's time to have the tracks run right through the church, right through the home. And so let.
Courtney (29:30.623)
So, let's.
Brian Mavis (29:35.278)
So I do want to say.
Well done, Possum Trot Church. Great job. And Wigo, thank you for capturing that story. And I hope more churches will be inspired to step up, that they won't say that's not realistic, especially since you pointed out it's a true story. But they can think, okay, we may not be the next Possum Trot, and we don't have to be, but we can be faithful to what we can be next.
and there's churches who can really help. I'll say, think a lesson though that I would want to emphasize to churches if you are stepping up is first, before you start like, hey, let's step into, jump into the deep end and start recruiting families and getting kids in. First stop, investigate before you activate, ask some questions. The first set of questions you probably need to ask are inside your church. Who in our church
is already involved and how are they doing? And come wrap around them, see and support them before you start recruiting more families into this. So families will say yes when they see that they're being supported.
Courtney (30:42.559)
around the support front before the start of the station work.
Courtney (30:59.741)
Yeah, and even to add to that, our church is a brand new church. launched on Easter Sunday. So we're a new church. And currently we are the only foster family within the church. But our children's ministry director said, we are going to be trauma informed and get trauma sensitivity training from day one. So our very first child training, child ministry training included trauma sensitivity training. the heartbeat behind that is, yes, the Williams might be the only ones right now.
Brian Mavis (31:04.941)
Mm
Courtney (31:26.729)
but we don't want to wait until we have five fostering families in our church and then backtrack and have to get it done. We want to be prepared and ready. And that's another great way that churches can do that right now. Get your child ministry workers, your youth ministry workers trained in understanding these things and how they can best support them before they come into your church, not as a reactive type thing.
Brian Mavis (31:39.608)
Mm
Brian Mavis (31:46.786)
And these kinds of things that you'll learn there, they apply way beyond kids who were in foster care. There's other kinds of trauma that happened to children, youth and adults that has nothing to do with foster care. even those, it's basically, you're gonna learn stuff on how to be really good at relationships when relationships get hard. so it...
Travis (31:52.712)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Mavis (32:11.276)
I would encourage that. So Courtney, let's end there and now Travis, you wanna also, I'll give you a chance if you wanna have a final word. But Courtney, I do wanna say, if a church was interested, a youth group, a children's ministry, a church in general, and they said, okay, we wanna learn more about trauma, where would you point them to to get started?
Courtney (32:33.147)
I'd say America's Kids Belong, because we have resources, a trauma training that's available online for churches that want to have that. Our affiliate states also, many of them offer things like that. And there are a lot of other resources. We have them linked on our website at our resources tab. Other TBRI or trauma trainings for churches, there's tons of free resources out there, but there are ones that are specifically geared for churches, for ministries like that. And we have our very own, so yeah.
Brian Mavis (32:35.779)
It's just...
Travis (32:35.943)
and
Brian Mavis (32:59.874)
Yes. Great. Awesome. Travis, any advice?
Travis (33:01.852)
Hmm. Yeah. No, only thing I'm going to add is it did make me think what was my favorite snack tonight of the movie you asked. I think it was the Mike. It was the Mike and Ike's. I just hit me. So that's it. Yeah. I mean, that's so.
Courtney (33:09.983)
Yeah
What? Mike and eggs.
Brian Mavis (33:15.022)
yeah. Yeah, that's like, yeah, it's like, I think Seinfeld is that that might be one of their favorite. Yeah, there's whole episode about the movie candy. So I'm glad you took it there, Travis. It's important that we get, yeah, we get good snacks at our at the movies. And so grateful for you, too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts today about this important film and using this film.
Courtney (33:19.923)
Hahaha
Travis (33:31.272)
Being real.
Brian Mavis (33:44.035)
as a real launch pad to have some very important and meaningful conversations.
Travis (33:50.206)
Yeah, there's a great closing line, I would say from the film. It's one of the actors, was Donna. We're people now and love never gives up. That's the film.
Courtney (33:50.441)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (34:00.3)
Awesome. Good way to end. Thanks. All right. Bye everybody. See you in the next podcast.
Courtney (34:01.129)
Yeah.
Travis (34:06.718)
See ya.
Courtney (34:09.033)
See ya.