As explored many times on this blog, I believe the single most significant need in the growing Christian foster care and adoption movement is growing support for families that are struggling with the challenges of caring for kids coming from difficult places.

Tremendous resources and training has come from Dr. Karyn Purvis, Empowered to Connect, Jayne Schooler and others.  But there remains acute need, both in individual families and in churches that desire to better support these families.  So I’m very thankful that our friends at Hope for Orphans have developed a new event to directly address this need:  the Hope for Orphans Institute.  As described by our friends at H4O:

This two-day conference on September 16 & 17 at the Hope Center in Plano, Texas will offer orphan ministry leaders tools, resources, and skills that will help them implement a plan for their church. Professionals will learn skill sets they can use, but more importantly how they can partner with the local church. Licensed Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists and Professional Counselors can earn credit for Continuing Education Units (CEU).  For more information, go to hfoinstitute.org.  And if you’re willing to help spread the work, the H4O team has created some great resources to help.