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This week we feature the founder of “Foster Hope New York”, a ministry which helps pair up local foster care kids with families. Hannah Bender started by connecting with one fostering family in the Syracuse area just a few years ago. This ministry added a foster club, and now helps to “fill in gaps” as needed in the foster and adoptive community in central New York.

The program includes advocacy and recruitment. There are support groups for foster families, for those in foster care, and for teens and young adults who have aged out of foster care. Donors stock a Foster Closet. Its clothing and toys and supplies are especially needed for the first day — or the first night — of a placement of a child or teen, especially if that happens on an emergency basis.

Hear about how Bender discovered how to enact her personal motivation to help these young people, as well as how you can become involved. Foster Hope acknowledges that not everyone can become a foster family — but says everyone can do something to create positive experiences and outcomes for the kids they call their “little warriors”

 

For more about national trends in how congregations are promoting, supporting, and encouraging the valuable ministry of foster care, you can also listen to or download our parallel June 21 News Feature. We interviewed the director of Lifeway Research about their survey of how — and how often — churches lift up the topic of recruiting and supporting adoptive parents and foster families.

 

 

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:32 — 9.0MB)

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Angela Lukaszonas is founder of The Young Ladies of Grace Performing Arts Academy, a Christian-based studio teaching young women dance and much more.

The program at Williamsville and Pittsford, New York, certainly provides the performance skills and techniques needed for acting, dance, and modeling.

The Young Ladies of Grace have a higher calling to instill in these girls and young women self-confidence, healthy body image, family relationships, poise, and awareness of their inner beauty.

Hear about the faith-based mission which Lukaszonas brings to the next generation, in this week’s “Hometown Heroes” feature.

Mark Webster hosts “Hometown Heroes” each Tuesday at noon on Family Life News. These inspiring conversations are also available 24/7 for listening, downloading and subscribing on the News Podcasts page at FamilyLife.org.

 

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This week’s Family Life “Hometown Hero” is Lydia Sujkowski.

Lydia is a Cortland College senior organizing a September 5K race to raise funds to better train area counselors on treating eating disorders, which she herself began suffering in high school.

Hear her inspiring story, and discover how she is reaching out to encourage others, plus how family and faith helped her on her road to recovery.

 

• For personal assistance:
• Cortland County Mental Health
  
• National Hotline for immediate mental health matters: call or text 988.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:13 — 8.5MB)

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“Operation Good Neighbor” serves the Southtowns area around Buffalo, New York. This provides a food pantry, clothing closet and much more for it’s neighbors in Derby, North Evans, Evans, Brant, Farnham, Lake View and Angola.

Listen as Family Life’s Mark Webster gets the good news about “Operation Good Neighbor” from Claudette Abshire and Bill Bateman, Sr.

More about this program can be found here.

 

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“The Impact Project”  sprang from a simple act of kindness:

A group of church members banding together to assist a woman whose dilapidated home was in dire need of repair. The extensive work a band of volunteers completed in less than 48 hours proved to be a powerful witness to her neighborhood, and the genesis of “The Impact Project” which has since helped hundreds of people in need in Chenango County, New York and beyond.

On this edition of “Hometown Heroes”, founder Jim Willard recounts those early days and the moving stories that have happened since then.

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Watsontown, Pennsylvania’s Craig Wheeland has demonstrated the Gospel of Jesus Christ in small towns and large cities in Pennsylvania — plus many villages in many countries. His work encourages children to learn to read, so they can read the Scriptures and talk about faith with their parents. When he and a U.S. team go on a mission trip, his priority is to deepen connnections, knowing the people even more than doing projects.

Wheeland’s ministry goes by the name Aim4Christ, which stands for “Actions In Mission For Christ“. They are active in food programs in their local community of 2,300 in the West Branch Susquehanna River valley of central Pennsylvania.

In his conversation with Mark Webster, Wheeland also tells how his international evangelistic work put him a momentarily life-threatening situation, even as the Lord’s work multiplied.

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This week’s Family Life Hometown Hero is Jeff Roeters, co-founder of the Rochester nonprofit ‘Guitars for Glory” (www.guitarsforglory.com) . Hear how he brings the healing gift of music throughout the world by providing guitars to those who cannot afford them.

Music is an amazing blessing that we often take for granted. There are many communities around the world who do not have access to the instruments we can so easily get our hands on. Guitars for Glory’s sole desire is to put guitars and instruments in the hands of churches, schools, missionaries, and orphanages. Our hope is to enhance their musical experience and build up worship leaders within the community; through the giving guitars and musical training.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:41 — 7.8MB)

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Craig Wheeland, founder of “Aim 4 Christ” Ministries in Pennsylvania tells his story on this week’s “Hometown Heroes”.

Wheeland’s outreach ranges from the streets of Philadelphia to the poorest regions of Pakistan. His work encourages children to learn to read, so they can read the Scriptures and talk about faith with their parents. Hear how he knows mission work has as much influence on the workers who “get out of the church building” and meet the people they serve (Matthew 25:44). That aspect of deepening connnections, to know the people is much more important than carrying out other tasks. Wheeland also talks about his international evangelistic work put him a momentarily life-threatening sitaution, but the Lord’s work continued to blossom.

Aim4Christ (“Actions In Mission For Christ”) is based in Watsontown, Pennsylvania.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:41 — 7.8MB)

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Rebecca Ellis and Nancy Hurst are founders of “Raise of Hope”, a new community center in Cattaraugus, NY.

On this week’s Hometown Heroes on Family Life, you will hear how the Lord placed a vision before our guests, which then blossomed into a community center for artists, a farm-to-table market, and a transitional residence for teens moving from foster care into the early stages of their adulthood.

The Raise of Hope community center also can host entrepreneurs, county services, church events, and a private professional counseling practice.