It’s really been an amazing 10 days. Last week our RightNow team put on the RightNow Conference for 3000 pastors. For me the RightNow Conference is a spiritually challenging and inspiring time personally. It’s hard to have all that great teaching and not think to myself, “how and where am I living this out?”

On Sunday morning our church was highlighting the plight of the 143 million orphans around the world. Our pastor pointed out that in the U.S. the orphans are the ones in the foster care system. My wife, Julie, and I have worked hard since July to get back on the active list for fostering. We were inactive for about a year after adopting Ashley and the process to become active again was more involved than we thought it would be. Finally about a month ago we were officially active which meant we could get a call anytime about a child needing foster care.

The RightNow Conference challenged me to pray more boldly and to then have faith that God will answer those prayers. Sunday morning as our church was focused on orphans I prayed very specifically that we would get a call that day about a foster placement.

We didn’t get a call Sunday … but Monday morning we got a call. We said “yes” and then our foster agency told Child Protective Services (CPS) that our family was available for that child. By the time CPS found out about us they had already found another home for that child. I joked with Julie that instead of just praying for a phone call that I would boldly pray that we would get a placement. I kept praying.

Tuesday afternoon we got another call. We said “yes” and then waited to see what CPS would do. In that case they ended up going with a family that was in Dallas county since that’s where the child was from.

Instead of being discouraged or impatient (which I am prone to be) I just kept praying.

Julie called yesterday (Wednesday afternoon) to tell me that CPS was bringing a little 5 month old girl to our house within a few hours.

So a few things really stand out to me …

First, I realize that there’s something a little odd to praying about receiving a foster child. Really I wish that there were no foster kids at all. I hate that kids have to go through awful things in order to even be in the foster system. But as long as we live in a broken world where there is sin there will also be kids in the foster system. And as long as there are kids in need of foster parents I want our home to be filled with foster kids as much as possible.

Second, this week I am amazed (and I shouldn’t be) that God answered those prayers. It’s been a great personal reminder of how good God is and how big God is. We’ve received three calls about foster kids in the three days since Sunday. We’ve been on the active list for over 4 weeks. My faith and patience has been strengthened through these last several days. I am reminded of Francis Chan’s message on Friday afternoon of the RightNow Conference when he told the Jehovah’s Witnesses that he knows the God of the Bible is real because he’s seen that God answer prayers.

I am encouraged and hope you are too. Our RightNow team is serving churches across the country with our conferences, DVD resources and online training system. I believe and hope there are thousands upon thousands of other stories of how God uses the RightNow resources to strengthen people’s faith and send them out on mission … and sometimes those stories are a little closer to home.

Last night was a great night of welcoming this little girl into our home. We don’t know how long she will be in our care, but she instantly bonded with Julie and our three kids loved on her well.