Kayla Craig is the author of “Every Season Sacred” and “To Light Their Way.” With a background in journalism, she hopes to bring curiosity and compassion to how she shows up not only as a writer and podcaster but also as a neighbor, friend, and parent. She considers herself a contemplative extrovert and is the creator of the popular Liturgies for Parents Instagram and Podcast. Her wonder-shaped writing has been featured in a vast array of books, devotionals, and Bible studies. She lives in a former convent with her pastor husband, four kids, and two dogs in her Iowa hometown.

It is critical to center the voices of lived experience experts in any human rights conversation. This episode is sure to give you pause at different moments, as David Sanon shares his experience growing up in a boarding school in Haiti, where American donors sponsored his education. After meeting Steph DeLuca Robinson and other trusted partners, he found an opportunity to lead and develop his fellow Haitians into independent, sustainable solutions that promoted their freedom from foreign money.

If you are currently sponsoring an ‘orphan’ or an ‘orphanage’ somewhere in the world, don’t listen to this episode unless you are open to having your perspective rattled by the childhood experience of institutionalized care.

Eric Gott began working with kids who hold difficult narratives as a play therapist in Nashville, Tennessee. He then became a foster dad, and after 3.5 years of courtroom appointments, he and his wife, Leah, became the legal parents of four young children. Eric now serves as a Children’s Minister in Birmingham, Alabama, where he has brought trauma-infused thought to the way the church creates inclusive spaces for kids who may need help regulating emotions and behaviors. And, you’ll hear him admit that their new sensory room is a huge hit for adults who may need a change of scenery, too.

As the mother of four children who joined her family through adoption, Shannan Martin shares how loving and walking alongside the marginalized of her community not only revolutionized her faith, but also made her an unapologetic ally with those who are negatively impacted by the U.S. prison system.

Since her release in 2019, Cyntoia Brown Long has been able to travel the U.S. speaking about her experience within the criminal justice system where she was tried as an adult and placed in a womens’ prison at the age of 16. Her story started long before her arrest, however, and long before she found herself fearing for her life in the home of a man who offered to pay her for sex.

Milton Washington leads a number of ventures as he shares a powerful narrative of an identity formed through transnational and transracial experiences. In this episode, he sheds light on the unique origin to his story, and how he learned to grow into his own identity with pride. Listeners will be challenged in this episode as Milton bravely gives testimony to the parts of his adoption narrative that allowed him to find his place in his family. This episode provides excellent context to the complexities of the human experience, and offers an invitation for parents to understand their children as they best receive security and love.

Kimberly and Lauren discuss the particular landscape of orphanages in Thailand, where $40M is donated to homes in 2 of the 76 provinces alone. Kim, a veteran advocate for reformed care led by Thai churches and families, shares how she’s seen practices shift over the years, and where donor churches still need to evolve in their understanding of child development and attachment. Kimberly leads StepAhead Thailand, an organization that offers training on scriptural frameworks for care as well as extensive guidelines for family strengthening.

As the President of CAFO (Christian Alliance for Orphans), Jedd Medefind invites people with any skill set or particular burden to care for the needs of vulnerable children and families. Whether that is through offering prepared meals, financial support, intercessory prayer, physical space, or emotional respite, there are things anyone in the Church can offer in the ecosystem of family-based care. Lauren and Jedd set the stage for the rest of this season, and offer a guide to posturing our hearts to place the lived experience of adult children from orphanages or foster care to guide our actions and thoughts around the issue.

When Lauren was in graduate school, she committed herself to bringing research and data to inform the ways Christians engage with humanitarian issues. Dr. Kristen Cheney is an incredible resource for Churches to understand the psychology of attachment, best practices around child protection, and the need for excellent qualifications in the field of child development in order to appropriately work in the field of care. As you listen to this episode, consider the years of research that has been done to help us better meet the needs of children in vulnerable places.

Like many guests on this season, Megan Boudreaux found herself swept up into the church industry or orphanages. The longer she stayed in Haiti, the more she noticed that something was awry with the North American approach to placing children in institutionalized care. Megan and Lauren discuss the crisis of children aging out of orphanages with no connection to their city, their family, or their culture. This episode is an invitation for Christians to consider the large how the conversation around orphan care in the Global South needs to shift.

If there is a good place to start this conversation for our season on Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Brandon Stiver is the right person to set the tone. With years of experience in this space, Brandon helped Lauren curate this episode through his knowledge and his connections to voices in this space. He is a co-host of the Think Orphan podcast, and has dedicated his work and his research to family preservation and family-based care for vulnerable children. Listen to Brandon and Lauren discuss the difference between family preservation and child protection, and why it is critical for the Church to revisit our approach to orphan care.

For this episode, Lauren spills her heart (and a bit of her life history) to explain the purpose behind this season’s episodes. She discusses how her biblical worldview has changed over time, shares stories from experiences with churches spotted across the world, and offers a hope for a future faith community that stewards responsible Gospel messaging.

For this episode, Lauren spills her heart (and a bit of her life history) to explain the purpose behind this season’s episodes. She discusses how her biblical worldview has changed over time, shares stories from experiences with churches spotted across the world, and offers a hope for a future faith community that stewards responsible Gospel messaging.