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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 (00:01.464)
Hello, welcome to the Foster Friendly Podcast. I'm your host Brian. I've got my rad co-host with me, Travis. Travis, why are you rad?
Travis (00:07.763)
Why am I rad? Boy, I'm middle-aged, trying to be cool. I actually have a nose ring in. I'm trying to look like you, Brian. I've got the shaved look. I mean...
Brian Mavis (00:20.462)
And you have a podcast called
Travis (00:24.761)
That's so rad. that, mean, I have a convergence of a lot of rad things that I'm at least trying to sell. Yep.
Brian Mavis (00:26.317)
Hahaha
Yeah, yeah. All right, well, Travis, we've got some really, it's a really interesting story from what I've heard so far with a couple who lead a church down in Gainesville, Georgia. And so we have today, Kelly and Tracy Ward, welcome.
Travis (00:54.265)
Good have you.
Brian Mavis (00:54.296)
So Travis and I were saying it's been a while since we've had some church leaders as our guest. And that's my background is as a pastor. so I'm glad to have some people here who are the best kind of people. Really, yeah. At least we tend to think that of ourselves.
Travis (01:12.889)
Ha
Kelly And Tracie Ward (01:16.031)
We're so great to be part of. Yes, we're not inflated at all.
Travis (01:20.769)
Ahaha Ahaha
Brian Mavis (01:23.948)
Well, we have a little bio here and sometimes I read those bios, but I think today I'm going to just pass it off to you guys and give us just a little just a little synopsis of who Kelly and Tracy Ward are.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (01:38.047)
Go ahead. Okay, so we have been married for 29 years, which is weird because I'm only 29. So I don't So fast. Really happened so fast. We have eight kiddos. Eight is well, maybe we'll see. No, we have five biological and then we have two that we adopted from Haiti. And then we have a little nine year old that we've had since she was four and through.
Brian Mavis (01:44.202)
that is weird, wow.
8 is enough. We'll see.
Travis (01:54.688)
Well, we'll see.
Brian Mavis (02:05.485)
Hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (02:05.759)
permanent guardianship. And right now we are foster parents to three little ones. In the past two years, we've had 29 kiddos come through our home. And I think this summer we definitely could totally be better. We could definitely be better. this summer we got the greatest upgrade and we became grandparents for the first time. my God, that's so great. He's the cutest little baby on earth and we're not biased at all. but yeah.
Brian Mavis (02:16.344)
So you're slackers. That's what I'm... Yeah, definitely.
Travis (02:18.145)
No, no, no.
Brian Mavis (02:25.422)
nice
Travis (02:25.888)
nice!
Brian Mavis (02:32.534)
Yeah, right.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (02:33.82)
Yeah, we've lived in Gainesville for about three years. We came down here and we are pioneering a church and it's been one of the greatest joys of our lives.
Brian Mavis (02:39.47)
Mm.
Brian Mavis (02:43.758)
So before we get into more specifically foster care stuff, just real briefly tell us a little bit about that journey this past three years of what you said is pioneering this church.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (02:55.167)
Yeah. So we came to a place where there was an existing facility, but it needed more than revitalization. It actually needed to be replanted. So, um, all but two left shortly after we arrived. So we were just having a lot of fun with people, I guess, but it was a good thing. It's a good thing. It's just part of life. Uh, and, and then we've continued to grow and build in this community and we discovered, cause we didn't come here with an agenda except for just.
teaching and loving on Jesus, we came here to figure out what's the niche, what's the connection, and it ended up being foster care and adoption care. And so, it actually built a community through foster care and adoption care.
Brian Mavis (03:40.482)
Wow. Okay. Well, I know we're to dig into that more, but before we do just a little icebreaker question, pretend we're in youth group. If in your typical week and you had a remote control in your hand that did not control your TV, but controlled your life, would there be a part of your week that you would either want to rewind and get to do again, pause and just slow it down and soak it in?
Travis (03:48.906)
Ha
Brian Mavis (04:08.726)
or a part of your week that you would want to fast forward through.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (04:12.393)
I would definitely pause more sleep, no. Okay, so I would pause because it's my favorite time. I love Friday night football because I get to watch my kids play and my girls cheer and that's my favorite time. We live in a smaller town and so the kids can just run around and get all the snacks at the concession stand. That's where I would pause for sure.
Brian Mavis (04:15.31)
Yeah, right? Yeah.
Travis (04:15.545)
yeah, that's a good answer.
Brian Mavis (04:25.4)
Mmm.
Brian Mavis (04:36.43)
Friday night lights. Yeah. All right.
Travis (04:36.671)
Nah, Friday Night Lights.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (04:41.855)
What do you think? I think pausing for me, and this may surprise Tracy, that when I'm helping put the little ones to bed, the foster kids to bed at night, it's actually helps me stay grounded with the concept of foster care. Because when they're screaming or yelling or needing things, I'm like, in my mind.
Brian Mavis (04:42.581)
Awesome.
Brian Mavis (04:55.042)
Mmm.
Travis (05:09.205)
Losing your...
Kelly And Tracie Ward (05:10.655)
I'm thinking why are we doing this and why did she talk me into this? But when I go make a bottle and I'm rocking the little baby to sleep at night, sometimes I usually send a text to Tracy and say, Hey, I've got so and so asleep. Can I walk across now?
Travis (05:13.539)
Huh.
Brian Mavis (05:18.522)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (05:22.19)
Mmm... Mmm...
Kelly And Tracie Ward (05:33.275)
Is the TV muted or the lights off? Sometimes I will wait 10 minutes because I enjoy the time of just spending with that quiet child that needs a dad.
Travis (05:36.775)
Ha
Brian Mavis (05:40.504)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (05:45.038)
I love that. That's sweet. I love those answers.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (05:46.291)
That surprised me, actually.
Travis (05:49.369)
That surprised me.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (05:50.813)
Not at all where I that was going.
Brian Mavis (05:52.494)
That's good. Yeah, Yeah, good job.
Travis (05:53.113)
love it. There's some curve balls that come out on these. Well, we're off to a rad start. great, great intro guys. And yeah, but before we get more into element and kind of the ministry and kind of the vision behind all that's happened there, which I can't wait to hear more about, just bring us back more into some of, more again about your family and your own sort of journey into anything with foster care and adoption.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (05:59.839)
Yeah.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (06:18.013)
Yeah, for sure. So I remember when our oldest son, who's now 23 and a dad for the first time, he was just a couple of weeks old and I was staying home with him. And I remember I was like surfing through TV and there was this show that came on and it was about this family that was adopting this little baby from Guatemala. And it was, will never forget this moment because I truly feel like that's when the spirit of adoption was planted in my heart. And I just became
obsessed with the idea of adopting. And then of course I was shocked when Kelly was like, why would we do that? you know, fast forward and I guess I finally talked him into it. Because here we are. It took a long time because our son, you know, was born in 2002 and we didn't adopt until 2016. And we started the process in 2012. we, we
Brian Mavis (06:50.612)
Mm-hmm
Brian Mavis (06:57.538)
There you are.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (07:07.741)
decided to do international. And so we went through a couple of different avenues we thought we would adopt from one place and then had a little curveball in our life where we lost a set of twins. And so it kind of put some things on hold that we decided to try domestic adoption. And we were matched with a birth mom out of Florida. She and I were actually pregnant at the same time. And I kind of got to know her through the process. And then six weeks before the baby was born, she disappeared. And
no idea where she went or what happened. And so it was really a confusing time because I knew in our heart and we knew in our hearts we were called to do this and it just nothing seemed to be working out. But I had a pastor's wife friend call me and ask me if I'd ever considered Haiti. And I mean, honestly, I hadn't, we'd obviously gone through the earthquake and all of that. But she connected me with someone in their church that had gone down to start a school and was connected with a with an orphanage there. And
That I think conversation was like in September and October by April of the next year, we were on a plane to Haiti. And we had, he, had looked at all the pictures of the kids that they had posted, just wanting to see them all. He had not looked at one picture. He wanted the Lord just to speak to him about who our child was. And so we, went to Haiti and went to this, they called it a crèche. We went there and met a bunch of the kids. And I remember watching him in that moment.
And this had kind of been my thing the whole time. But when he set foot in that crush and those kids started talking to him, I just saw this man, this, spirit of adoption was born in his heart at that moment. And I'll never forget it. And we were walking through the kids and there was a little girl, she was three years old and she was sitting in this little chair. She had just been there for a couple of weeks and she walked right up to him, put her arms up to him and called him Papa. And that was it. And that became our daughter.
Travis (09:00.633)
Huh.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (09:02.203)
She also had a plus one. So she had a little brother as well. it was the where she was sitting was the porch to this house. And I had walked in and inside was where the babies were. And there was this little boy crying in a crib. And I just went and picked him up. He put his head on my shoulder. I had no idea that was actually her brother. And so I just, you the Lord just put our family together and
Travis (09:05.261)
Mmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (09:25.651)
We went through a whole lot with that. It took us four years and seven months to bring them home because of a lot of corruption in Haiti and we were victims of an adoption fraud. But the Lord just worked it all out. There was 150 kids in this crash and 10 children ended up coming home through all of the...
all of the corruption in R2 happened to be them. So it was just an amazing thing. We were able to, back in 2019, find their birth parents in Haiti and reconnect with them. And it's just been an amazing experience with that. And they're just, 17 and 14 now and just Americanized in every way you can imagine. So it was just, you know, it was just amazing.
Travis (10:03.936)
No.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (10:07.135)
We never really considered foster care before. Like it wasn't something that we had really talked about or thought about, but back in, I guess it was 2016, I'm trying to remember 2016, they all ran together. We were contacted, he was contacted by someone in our community about her granddaughter coming out of a situation where...
addiction was present and she had gone to get her little granddaughter, but it wasn't a situation where she could keep her. And so we just started keeping her on weekends and, you know, let her stay with us while her grandma worked and things like that. Well, that manifested into we now have a four year old. She moved in and she never left. So with her situation, we didn't adopt her. We just got permanent guardianship because she does have a relationship with her mom, a great relationship with her mom now.
Travis (10:49.271)
Hahaha.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (10:59.511)
and we just have this, it's honestly like the Lord just extended our table and we just, her mom is part of us now and her family is part of our family and it's been a really great experience with that. And then when we moved here, one of the first things I did was reach out to our local DFACS office and just say, we're doing this church here. If there's anything that we can do to be of service to you guys, please let us know.
And from that, we started opening our building for them to do trainings and events. And we signed up to be a respite home, which I don't really think lasted, but maybe one time. And then we got a sibling placement of four after that. And then that started our foster care journey. So it's kind of been all over the place for us as far as adoption and foster care.
Brian Mavis (11:42.382)
Mm.
Travis (11:44.12)
Uh-huh.
Brian Mavis (11:51.147)
Yeah, and that's a good way to describe foster care and adoption journeys can be all over the place. So God puts this on your heart, starting with you, Tracy, and then similar to my story of God using who I married to pay attention to this. And so when you guys moved to Georgia,
Kelly And Tracie Ward (11:55.263)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Travis (11:58.083)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (12:11.263)
Yes.
Brian Mavis (12:20.45)
to essentially replant a church. And then what we're learning is this church ends up getting kind of this DNA of caring for kids from hard places. And then you're leaning into foster care and adoptive families and supporting those families. Share that journey with us, because so few churches are leaning into this in a way that is part of their DNA.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (12:33.118)
Yes.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (12:49.885)
Right. So if I could just interject, I think we've kind of brought the DNA with us, not even realizing it because of our family dynamic of adopting two kids from Haiti, bringing in a child that wasn't ours that had just been rescued from a drug scene and just a messy, messy environment. so we come from Oklahoma here to North Georgia area, North of Atlanta, and
Brian Mavis (12:58.914)
Mm-hmm.
Travis (12:59.225)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (13:19.571)
we're trying to figure out, how post COVID do we plant a church? Do we revitalize the church because it's a different era? What is it that God's going to do? And we just kept working and plowing and working and loving on community. And then we realized one day, hey, it's right, it's in our face. It's not only in our face, it's in our home, it's in our DNA, it's who we are. So basically you attract what you are. And so we started attracting people that
Travis (13:40.601)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (13:48.627)
didn't realize that they were going to work or be in foster ministry or foster care, foster life, they started coming to the church and they would see us and they were like, how did you do this? Well, our question, our answer was like, I don't know. It just kind of happened and we were willing. And if I can step back to when we were in the crash and my wife Tracy said,
Travis (14:02.809)
Hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (14:14.729)
I got that, she calls it the spirit of adoption, that connection to the call of adoption, that placement. I'm standing there and these kids all run to me and start calling me papa, papa, papa. The only thing I can connect that to, and it's from a church or thought process, is Jesus walking into a community and he says, suffer the little children, love on the kids.
invest in the children. And so I'm standing there thinking, I am not Jesus by any thought process, but I am following his teaching and following what he has called us to do to the best of any ability. And I'm standing there and these kids are running up to me and I could only equate it to that they are looking for a savior, they're looking for somebody
to help them, to pull them out of the mess. And they don't even realize they're in a mess. They just know they're lonely. They just know they're not like some of the other kids. They know that things are different. And when they come to you and they all start calling you Papa, they're actually seeking a parent. They're seeking stability. They're seeking love. They're seeking care. And so when we began to do this on this journey in the church, people were like,
That's a pastor and his wife that's genuine, that's transparent, that cares about community. And I say that very humbly, but we're willing to open our doors to kids and to people we've never seen. And they're like, that's the kind of church or ministry I want to be a part of that's not closed, but it's very big table, big table. And so that's kind of where we are.
Travis (16:13.401)
Hmm.
Wow. So much good stuff there. I like even like, love how you said, like even visually sort of your, there's this representation of, know, just even the diversity in a community, all the ways in which your path led you to that place is very authentic as well. And so you can't help. It kind of reminded me, it really is inspiring that entry point. It reminded me too of Brian, if you wanted to share, like you're kind of, there's some of your,
parallels of your story as well with kind of Honduras. But anyway, like when you talked about with Julie, your wife, how you want to just kind of say that part of like how, you know, you were just following Jesus, but where he led you, I mean, something about what Kelly said there.
Brian Mavis (17:01.098)
I'm trying to figure there's so many parts where it's like
Travis (17:03.485)
There's so many. Well, you were talking about like, you have a great line of where, you know, you were just, you know, that was kind of her thing was getting kids and family. And then, but then when you follow Jesus, where he brought you, just as a pastor.
Brian Mavis (17:12.024)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (17:17.514)
well, yeah, again, yeah, I mean, my wife felt called to this and her first calling was when she was a teenager going with alternative motives to Mexico on a mission trip, you know, street tacos and making out with some boy on a van on the way down, you know, so.
Travis (17:31.235)
Duh.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (17:35.039)
You
Brian Mavis (17:43.351)
And so, but God used that. And while she was there at an orphanage, really believe that God had impressed upon her that that was her life calling to care for orphans. And then she met me. stayed in, we did go to Honduras and work there, but eventually became crystal clear that I was the world's worst missionary. So we moved back to the States and it ruined her life plan.
And so that's when we discovered like, what are there kids that need families in the United States? And so it was more, you know, for her, was a passion and me was honestly, it was like out of obedience. And so when people ask, why I pursued foster care and orphan care and said I didn't, you know, I pursued Jesus.
he led me to these kids. And so it's, I mean, there's definitely a lot of people who will adopt and stuff and there's really no spiritual motive to it. But, you know, supposedly that Christians do foster and adopt at like three times the rate of the general public. And they have that as a motivation of
Kelly And Tracie Ward (18:53.641)
Sure.
Brian Mavis (19:09.746)
again, kind of that spirit of, hey, God provided a family for me, he adopted me, and so it's kind of an extension of what we've experienced spiritually. So yeah, there's definitely a unique motivation when it's motivated by faith.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (19:32.381)
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Travis (19:35.609)
And there's a, the last thing I'd say too about that is there's a humility too of like where, know, with, know, Jesus sort of putting the lens and focus on the little kids and kind of having that be part of the mission. I mean, that's how humbling is that? That's like, these are the most marginalized. So kind of with that as a lead into the next question, I'm really, this is where me and Brian are both really fascinated to learn more about kind of what then happens at your church element as this DNA that comes in sort of.
Brian Mavis (19:44.673)
Mm-hmm.
Travis (20:04.099)
does get more infused in the culture and the people of the church. So tell us more about the foster care programming, some of the stories of the impact, just bring us into this whole thing.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (20:13.215)
Sure. Well, I'll start with our first foster placement. It was in January of 2023 and Kelly was out of town. He'd gone back to Arkansas. It always starts with Kelly being out of town.
Brian Mavis (20:13.826)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (20:24.206)
Nnha ha ha, watch out, mm-hmm.
Travis (20:25.347)
Ha
Kelly And Tracie Ward (20:26.559)
But mom's in charge. What's going to happen? Yeah. So we, he was at a town, a visiting family in Arkansas. And I told our teenagers, know, for teenagers, I was like, dad's gone for the weekend. You guys have like two or three friends a piece over. We'll get pizza. It'll be, you know, fun and crazy. And you don't have to be quiet because dad won't be in bed at eight o'clock. It's going to be great. So we're at the house, all these kids. think we had like 16 kids at the house and.
I get a call from DeFax and they're like, we have an emergency placement of four little ones, a three-year-old twin, two-year-olds and a one-year-old coming out of a neglect situation. And in my mind, I was like, you can't do four. Like there's no way you can do four. They won't fit in your car. That's crazy. I was like, yeah, bring them over. That sounds great. And so here come these little kids and not to even make this sound more than is they literally changed my life.
They changed the trajectory of my life, my family's life, and our church's life. And so these kiddos came and it was hard. Like they were coming out of some neglect and had some issues, but we have them and we had them for a few months and the twin boys ended up going with another placement that I got really close to just because they had some needs and needed some more one-on-one, but we became very close. And through this process,
I became very close to their dad. Their dad is a rock star and he worked so hard to get his kids back and he did. He got all of them back and we just developed this beautiful friendship. I mean, we're family. We text and talk almost every day. And through this, he started coming to our church and his mom started coming to our church and his aunt visited a while and...
Then the next thing you know, the daycare where I was taking the kids to and the daycare was like 25 minutes from my house. It was very inconvenient. And all the time I was like, I'm gonna change these kids' daycare. I can't keep doing this, but the Lord would not let me do it. But through this process, we got to know the workers and we, the owners of the daycare attend our church and are now fostering. One of the other teachers of the church attends our church and is going to college to work in child welfare.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (22:40.151)
And through this whole process, we ended up adding like 20 people to our church just through that one yes. And these kids, I mean, they changed my life. Like they helped me see kids experiencing foster care in a different way. But not only that, they helped me see their families in a different way. And it wasn't like, my gosh, I have to protect and keep these children that I do. But it became more of their parents need parenting as well. And...
That's really what happened through this whole process, especially with our dad is that we just became family and he would come to our house and he still like, still two weeks ago had the little girl for the weekend and she loves to come over and we'd really just extended our table and they extended theirs to ours and it literally changed my life. But through this process, people in the church were like.
Okay, we could do this too. And so we had other families sign up to foster. The daycare owners ended up taking in a sibling set of four also. And you know, their life is just as crazy as ours now. But we just saw this happening like this tiny little ripple effect happen because they not just, they didn't just see the kids because it's great to say, my goodness, that's so great. You foster, but it's not always pretty. Like it's, it's muddy. It's muddy waters when you have to wade in and meet these kids where they're at. And it doesn't matter how old they
Even the little ones are experiencing this trauma because no matter what they're coming from, that's still their home and what they were used to. And so, but we've just seen this really cool thing. And so through that, we added our church to the Foster Friendly app that we have through Georgia Kids Belong. And families started coming because they found our church on the Foster Friendly app. And it's just been this amazing thing to see happen.
Brian Mavis (24:28.378)
So, man, there's so much there I want to pause on, but, and I might circle back. so if you could like recommend to another church, like if they said, hey, if you could just start and do this one thing, this would be a really good starting point. Like what would you advise a church to do?
Travis (24:30.593)
Yeah.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (24:34.537)
Yes.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (24:51.293)
I would always advise them to open up their homes, always, because we've got to have foster homes for these kids. We've got to have good families for these kids. But we're always going to need foster homes if we don't stop the flow of kids coming into care. And with that, I think we have to reach these parents where they are. Because I think, Travis, I may have told you this, but one of the highlights, I think, of my life was probably a month ago.
when I was looking across our sanctuary and 75 % of our foster families not only had their foster kiddos there with them, but had their kiddos' parents with them worshiping as well. And so we see like rows of families together, you know, and it's just, it's amazing. And to me, I'm like, this is true ministry. This is where it's at. This is what we're supposed to be doing. But I think I would encourage every church, we can all do something. There's a million things we can do to support kids in care.
Travis (25:30.617)
Wow.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (25:48.709)
if we want to put an end to this crisis, because that's what it is, we have to stop the flow of kids coming into care. And that is meeting these parents where they are, loving them despite their failures, because every single one of us is just one decision away from something like this happening to us. And, you know, anything can happen. You can lose your job and that end up losing your house. And next thing you know, you're having to fight to get your kids back. And so I think
Travis (25:54.275)
Mm-hmm.
Travis (26:14.765)
Right.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (26:16.895)
Reaching the bio parents is a huge thing that we have to do to end this crisis. So if I could interject right quick with that, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt the idea of fostering. So many times we're thinking of babies, children, teenagers, you know, our, our, what, what we have discovered, cause we didn't know. And we're, we're alert. We've got a lot to learn. Um, is that the moms and dads need to be fostered as well. And so.
Brian Mavis (26:22.456)
So yeah, yeah, jump in.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (26:45.821)
when you can, when you have the ability and the opportunity. There's not always the opportunity. Sometimes you don't know the parents. Sometimes you there's, there's situations, sometimes they're in prison, they're locked up, they're in jail. But so many of ours have, we've had access to. And we've had them over to our house for dinner. Holidays. Holidays. So if we have kids at Christmas, we typically invite the parents to our house on Christmas day. And I'm going to say it's
It's not ideal. And sometimes you're like, why did we do that? And it can be awkward, you know, and it's like our own kids suffering through this. got to juggle a lot in your head. But when you start fostering the parents, I think there is a greater chance that they will not be in that situation again, because almost all of the kids that we fostered, the moms and dads,
Brian Mavis (27:21.23)
Mm-hmm.
Travis (27:21.325)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (27:44.543)
Many of them, many of them, majority of them were in foster care as well. It's a cycle and it's stuff that you guys know. So what if we could foster mom and dad? So part of our thing here at Element is we are a fostering church and I've taught the people and kind of slowly taken them on a journey that that does not mean the babies and the two year olds or the 12 year olds or the 18 year olds or the 17 year olds. It's the 40 year olds, it's the 30 year olds, it's the 25 year olds, it's the parents.
Travis (27:48.483)
Right.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (28:14.481)
And if you're going to be a fostering church, you need to look beyond the child that is placed in your home. If you have opportunity, let's foster mom and dad and let's see and meet them where they are and invite them to our table and invite them to the church and say, Hey, would you come and join us so that we can do life together? We have families that come into the auditorium for service. We also have families that sit in our cafe and watch it online because they're more comfortable with that. That's great.
Brian Mavis (28:20.525)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (28:43.298)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (28:44.393)
They're in the house, we get to build a relationship with them and we get to help foster them.
Brian Mavis (28:51.32)
So for the families that do step up to this huge challenge, what does the church do, anything to like support them, encourage them, equip them so that they don't quit when they're like, man, this is getting way harder than I thought it was gonna be.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (29:07.581)
Wrap around care is huge and it's such a huge support and what we're figuring out because you know, we're so new into this. We're just three years into this journey and we're kind of letting it happen organically like seeing where the needs are and where we're just kind of organically going. But wrap around care is so huge and so for us, it's you know, mostly I've
try to give out resources because there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. And there's already a lot of great services involved in our community for foster parents and things like that. But we do have a great community within, like within our foster parents. Like if someone needs respite for a weekend, we can share respite back and forth or any of those things. But I think just knowing the resources and what's available has been huge in providing that for people.
Brian Mavis (29:57.057)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's a few things I want to highlight. One is going back to what you said about that this has changed not just the trajectory of your life, but of the church. that just reminds me of a couple of things. One, I heard a pastor once who, they went big into missions in Africa and they're
Travis (29:58.617)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (30:25.986)
their line was, you know, let's save Africa. And finally, you know, through all the work that they did there, God grew in their lives and they came back and said, we went in to save Africa and it turned out that Africa saved our church. And just that whole like, wait a second, you know, we aren't,
Kelly And Tracie Ward (30:50.173)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (30:55.042)
the saviors, we have one and actually it's understanding that serving people who are just in a harder part of lives, they can end up saving those that are a position that we consider advantageous. And similarly, I have a mentor, a former mentor, it's because he passed away that he's former.
But his favorite movie was Les Mis. And then so I once asked him why it was his favorite movie. He goes, that's because people think it's a movie about this big strong man who saves this little orphan girl. And when you're done with the story, you realize it's really a story about a little orphan girl that saves a big strong man. And I thought, man, that is so true and can be applied to the church.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (31:47.155)
Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Brian Mavis (31:51.864)
that these big strong churches think we're gonna save these little kids. And you realize these little kids saved us.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (31:58.13)
yeah. 100%.
Travis (32:01.251)
Hmm. You know, and I was going to ask you to, I don't know if you got into this detail too much yet, but like the I belong projects. So the videos that America's kids belong and Georgia kids belong puts out of kids who are eligible for adoption. you know, we've talked about this podcast a lot. The primary goal of foster care is, is reunification. We cheer that onto biological families. And so I love how you're upstream on that, but there are one in four kids are, you know, for
various reasons going to be adopted or eligible for adoption. So you guys regularly play the I Belong Project music video or the videos on Sunday. And what is, what are you seeing from that? Cause it's not just generating leads to adoptive parents. Is it just sparking inspiration and curiosity around foster care as well?
Kelly And Tracie Ward (32:49.475)
for sure, for sure. Yeah, so we play the videos at the church. We've used those. I've gotten to know Rebecca at Georgia Kids Belong Really Well. She's amazing. And they do such incredible work. just, mean, not just showing the videos on Sunday and people seeing, OK, we hear about the number. There's over 400 kids in Georgia that need permanent homes and need to be adopted. But when you can put a face with
just a statistic or a name that makes that child more real. And when they can hear that child's voice and that child is basically on this video saying, this is what I'm looking for in a family that has to move you. you're any, you know, that has to do something to your heart. So, and just having them share those like social media is a huge, huge play because there's all these different circles of influence that you have on social media. Their parents are out there. We just have to get that, get their word out so that they can find them.
Brian Mavis (33:17.454)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (33:44.191)
I also lead our district in foster and adoption care ministries with the Georgia Assemblies of God. And so I want to equip our churches with these videos as well so that they can show them in their churches and they can print the flyers out and have them so that people can take them. We've had the flyers printed out for kids to, for people in our church to take pictures of the kids so they can just pray for them, for God to lead them to their family because...
I mean, scripture says he sets the lonely in families and that's the ultimate goal is to have. want to see in Georgia and across the country, but specifically where I'm at in Georgia, I want to see families waiting on kids and my kids waiting on families. That is a life goal of mine. And we are in an age now where information can be out so readily that there's no reason we can't find all 400 of these kids homes in Georgia.
Brian Mavis (34:24.482)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (34:37.678)
So what, and I guess this apply, this question apply to both of you and you can each maybe answer it in your own unique way. I imagine, you know, there's a lot of people out here, they're listening to this, they attend a church and their church staff, their pastors aren't adoptive parents, aren't foster parents. What would you say to those churches? Why even consider?
leaning into this if they haven't had the kind of personal experience that you've had.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (35:13.599)
Sure, I think that this is the greatest mission field right now is you not only are working with vulnerable children, which were mandated by scripture to do to care for these kiddos, but you're also like break your you can help break generational curses in these people's lives, know, change their lives for the good. Like they don't have to be like their parents were or grandparents where they can change their lives with their kids. And the church has such
an awesome opportunity to reach these families. And how we started, we had a foster parents night out. We just had an event and it's become a yearly thing now, but you can do these things and you're reaching the community, but you're not just reaching families and kiddos, but there's social workers, there's costa workers, there's all these different facets of people that are involved in these kids' life. And we as the church have the opportunity to minister to them. And that is...
the greatest mission field that we have in our fingertips right now.
Brian Mavis (36:12.91)
Okay.
Travis (36:15.417)
If you want to add anything to that.
Brian Mavis (36:15.832)
Kelly, you want to add to that?
Kelly And Tracie Ward (36:17.883)
I would just say, you know, our goal is to break patterns. We can just break the pattern. So that next generation. So being a pastor, maybe everybody watching or listening to this may not get it and that's okay. But being a pastor when I am sitting with a child, putting them to bed and praying over them, rocking them to sleep and praying over them.
Brian Mavis (36:24.812)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (36:42.893)
Hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (36:47.025)
I realize because of my background and who I am and what I believe. Okay, everybody watching may not believe what I believe, but what I believe. I'm singing little songs to them and I remind them at their young age that there's somebody that loves them and his name is Jesus. And I pray over them as I'm feeding them their bottle. And I am planting every seed that I can so that there will be a break in a pattern.
Brian Mavis (36:58.499)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (37:04.782)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (37:09.368)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (37:15.32)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (37:16.829)
of the patterns of life. We would call it in church sin, but a pattern of neglect, which is sin. And I'm praying over them that Lord, would you allow their life, would you bring something into their life more than just me so that they could see that they can be more in their life and they can grab Jesus and the word of God and be led by
Brian Mavis (37:21.335)
Yeah.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (37:46.025)
His Holy Spirit to be empowered to do something greater than maybe the generations past in their life. And so I pray that over them. And I'm believing that God is doing a work even when they're four months old.
Brian Mavis (38:04.066)
That's great. Yeah, I'm glad you weighed in.
Travis (38:07.085)
That's a good compliment to what you said, Tracy. Yeah, and kind of a theme that we've all talked about, and you guys have really hit on this well, is I think there's actually research that does say that the biggest predictor of a child going into foster care was the parent in foster care. And so that just becomes a systemic thing. So related to kind of the last question, but a different focus point, love to hear you both.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (38:08.647)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (38:28.866)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (38:29.854)
Yes.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (38:36.595)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (38:37.122)
Mm.
Travis (38:37.187)
can reverse the order or however you want to do it, but both of you guys weigh in on how would you finish the sentence? What kids in foster care really need is.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (38:45.47)
a dad.
quite often the kids that we've come, I've been a single mom. And it's quite, I'm gonna use the word again, quite often the kids that kind of drive me nuts, because they do. I'm just being honest, especially those that are a little older and they're hyper and I love them, but I'm just being real. I'm just transparent. And I walk in from the office, I walk in the house and they are the first ones.
Brian Mavis (39:08.6)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (39:17.651)
to say, because they call me dad. I don't tell them to call me dad. I'm just a guy and they call me dad. And they run to the door and say, daddy's home.
Brian Mavis (39:20.302)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (39:27.438)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (39:27.741)
They're seeking a dad. They're seeking a parent. so, dad, that's what they need, which is love and care and protection. And while they're in our home, I want them to feel love, care, and protection.
Brian Mavis (39:30.626)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (39:40.024)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (39:49.289)
Trace. Gosh, there's so many ways. What kids in foster care, think what they need is for us to meet them where they're at and not to have any expectations of where we think they should be or what other kids are, but just to meet them where they are and love them through that, offer the stability and give them hope that things are gonna work out, things are gonna be okay. And even if you hit tough times,
you're always gonna have people that are gonna love you and support you.
Travis (40:23.865)
gonna be sad. Yeah, it's really good.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (40:24.625)
You
You
Travis (40:31.865)
Well, Brian, did you want to close us out on foster-friendly faith communities or anything else?
Kelly And Tracie Ward (40:33.713)
Nice.
Travis (40:43.085)
Or we lost Brian.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (40:43.589)
Brian. Yes. Brian had enough.
Travis (40:46.273)
Okay. Well, he, we lost. He had enough. Yeah. The look in his face was like, I mean, I thought that was a pretty good answer, but, well, I can close it out, but for the sake of the recording, we'll try to get him back in for continuity. But, as we wait on him, but thank you, God. I mean, so far, I mean, this has been a, an incredibly, yeah, it's good. Great interview. And I loved, I've appreciated it too. how you've, it's a very, this is a faith conversation and yet like you just did Kelly.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (40:59.337)
sure.
Travis (41:16.121)
You know, just also like I love I, you know, we say sin, but, know, so because yeah, we have, very, very good pivot there. But yeah. Was there anything else you guys wanted to say before we close this down or another thought that kind of came to mind as far as. Oh, perfect.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (41:20.425)
Sure, sure.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (41:24.649)
Take it.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (41:35.103)
I will just interject. love what you do. I love what you guys do. This ministry, this operation, whatever term you want to use. I love what you guys do. I love your heart. And I just want to say thank you for doing what you do every day. Connecting the dots. I've listened to some of your podcasts. I love it when I hear a mom that has
A few weeks ago there was a lady and she's in Georgia and the whole story of coming back to her son and just connecting people. didn't want to use names because I didn't know if I was supposed to, but just appreciate what you do and the stories that you tell because it inspires people to jump in.
Travis (42:22.937)
Thanks for saying that.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (42:23.519)
Yeah. We thought we did you in. about that. I think I will say just because what I hear all the time is people will say, I couldn't foster because I can't give them back or whatever. And I mean, I know I've said those things before, you know, too. But then I realized after witnessing this, the greatest thing about fostering is giving them back and seeing how hard these moms and these dads have worked.
Brian Mavis (42:24.132)
Yeah, thank you. Sorry about I lost my connection there.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (42:52.475)
and how much they truly do love their kids. And to see that family restored and reunified, that's really the best part of this. And if I can jump in along with that and just say, for the people that are thinking of fostering, or maybe you are fostering, but you just haven't totally connected to the kids.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (43:13.935)
The idea is that we do need to connect with them and that you may miss them when they're gone. yeah. Heartbreaking. But if you're not missing them, I would say for us, if we were not missing them, because I don't want to judge others, if we're not missing them, then we didn't do it right. Right. Yeah. And I do want to bond there because that's what they need that. So this is...
Brian Mavis (43:21.336)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (43:32.707)
Mm-hmm.
Travis (43:32.759)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (43:36.675)
Mm-hmm
Yeah. Yeah.
Travis (43:39.671)
They deserve nothing less.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (43:40.967)
Yeah, this isn't just something you're doing, you're feeding them and putting them in bed. You are treating them as your child, loving on them. And it's very personal and they need the bond. They need the bond. You will have to deal with the separation, but they need the bond.
Brian Mavis (43:48.089)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (43:53.986)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (43:58.808)
Yeah, so yeah, and they can transfer that after they've learned how to bond. And then they have that skill of like, I know what bonding is like.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (44:01.321)
Yes.
Yes.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (44:08.317)
Well, I've told some of the dads, because that's usually who I talk to. I've told some of the dads, I am rocking your baby to sleep. I'm sitting with your child asleep. I'm praying over your child at night. They may not remember me because they're 18 months old or they're two months, two years old or four years old. They may not remember me, but you know what they will think? Cause they'll forget. Some of these kids will forget they're even, they were even in foster care. Let's tell the story. They just transfer it to you.
Brian Mavis (44:32.996)
Mm-hmm.
Travis (44:33.635)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (44:36.465)
And they have great memories and they will think it was their dad. And it was just the guy that filled in for a while.
Brian Mavis (44:36.953)
Yeah.
Brian Mavis (44:42.894)
What a gift. Yeah, that's so good. Well, I want to encourage other churches that are listening and people who are either on staff or aren't on staff, they care about this issue and they attend and belong to a church. Consider your church to do this. And I'm a contrarian to the idea that if every church would just help one family, that we would solve this issue. I don't think that's the way to do it.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (45:08.457)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Mavis (45:12.484)
I think the churches that are going to do this need to make a real commitment to it. So when it gets hard, they get better. And it's part of their culture and that the families that do step up know that they're not alone, that there's other families who get it. so again, if you feel like maybe God is leading your church that way, there's a lot of great causes.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (45:21.193)
That's right.
Brian Mavis (45:40.708)
But do think this one has is, how do I say it? It's particularly hard. It's the Marines of ministry. And so your church may not be tough enough. so, you know, that's just ask God if this is something that your church is going to be tough enough to do.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (45:48.543)
Yes.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (45:55.167)
Here you go.
Travis (45:56.857)
Hmm.
Brian Mavis (46:09.94)
And if you do, yep, you're going to help a lot of kids, but the kids are going to help your church too.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (46:15.497)
Absolutely. That's right.
Brian Mavis (46:18.286)
Well, Ward's, thank you so much for joining us and shining a light on this, shining a light on how a church can do this and do it really well. And I pray that your example will have ripple effect to other churches who step up and say yes to this.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (46:38.739)
Thank you. Thank you guys so much for having us.
Brian Mavis (46:42.606)
Thanks.
Travis (46:42.689)
Yeah, thanks for being on.
Kelly And Tracie Ward (46:46.943)
Thank