"These children need to be in families, because that's where they're going to thrive. "

Stephanie Scott, who joined the Ministry Spotlight, is the Recruitment Administrator for Camelot Care Centers in Tennessee. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of her interview.

Tell me about Camelot Care Centers.

There are 42 Camelot Care Centers across the country. Our services vary according to what part of the country you're in. I work in the area of child welfare.

For those children who have been removed from the home, our job is to find foster homes for them to live in until they can go back home or until they're adopted.

My hope is to reach out to the faith community to see if we can't do some collaboration to find homes for these children.

Where do you find foster families?

A lot of foster care agencies have been around for a while, and of course the best source for marketing is the foster families themselves.

They have families and friends, and whatever fears those people may have, they're more willing to do it because they see that it's successful.

What makes a good foster parent?

A lot of different characteristics. Some of them are more common-sense. Being flexible, being open-minded. Having a willingness to work with an agency.

Having your friends describe you as confident and self-assured. Being spiritual or religious. All those things are important.

It's also important that you are able to delay gratification, because a lot of these children come in and they're not grateful for the service that you're providing. You have to be able to understand that this is not about you.

What is the biggest challenge foster parents face?

I just got back from attending a conference in Franklin, TN for adoptive parents. I was stunned how many of them said their biggest challenge was a lack of support from their own family. A lot of times they had to rely on each other or their case worker.

And of course, there are some frustrations with the legal system. Some children are returned to the birth family, or have extended visits with the birth family, and that can be a demand.

What motivates foster parents.

I think most importantly is for them to realize that these are children in their communities, right around the corner or several miles down the road, whose needs aren't being met.

Every child deserves a home. And there is someone in that community who can provide that home. It's one of the best things for your own children to see you reaching out like that.

Do you see this working?

We do. That's why I do this work. I was in this for 15 years, and then I took a break before coming back. Most of what's important, the healing that occurs in families, is still the same.

These children don't need to be in group homes. They need to be in families, because that's where they're going to thrive.

Confession: the biggest barrier to my ministering

I had just finished up preaching out at the prison and something dawned on me. I had noticed it plenty of times before but this was the first time I had ever actually admitted it to someone.

I told a fellow prison preacher (who was also a seminary student of mine) that "when I preach, I feel His pleasure." We both thought back to the movie 'Chariots of Fire' when I said that. It was a line in the movie Eric Liddell had uttered to his sister.

But then I said to the friend, "before I preach, getting ready to leave the house and come out to this place, I don't feel his pleasure."

We both laughed. He admitted the same feelings just the hour before coming out with us to the facility.

Getting ready to go and minister in difficult places is not very fun. The actual act of ministry is great. Now...why is that? Is it our selfish self that has yet to bend to the beauty of reaching out to the disenfranchised and won't feel good about it until the time for grumbling has dissolved away at last?

Or is it - can we say it? - the devil.

I am not apt to blame the Evil One for much, to be honest, although I do think he exists and thwarts much good. I didn't grow up in a theological tradition that pondered much about Satan.

But in the case of my ministering to the 'least of these' I have to wonder.

Ministry is enjoyable. I actually love it, particularly the preaching and teaching aspects of it. The preliminaries are not so pleasureable, for whatever reason. The painful thought for me is wondering how much life-changing ministry I missed out on because of the supposed discomfort of those preliminaries...getting out of the easy chair, tying the shoes on, traveling to the location, flashing the badge to get by the guards, the slight anxiety of what might go wrong, etc.

But the actual communicating for changed lives? Priceless.

What I shared out at the prison last night...

I love sharing out of Acts 8 at the prison. Much of the insight below comes from an Israel tour guide and scholar named Jim Fleming.

Philip went up to the chariot of the eunuch reading (then, Scripture was always read outloud…learning comes by hearing) a scroll (worth about $20,000). The Ethiopian was a wealthy character…the chief treasurer, a trusted official. He was reading the Isaiah scroll.

• In those days, a eunuch had both testicles and penis removed…which means he could not have been circumcised (which might explain Deuteronomy 23:1). So at the temple, he could only proceed as far as the Court of the Gentiles (which had a railing that said “No Gentiles may go beyond this line, if you do you will be responsible for your death which will ensue”).

• The eunuch wants some help from Philip concerning Is. 53. They began there.

• Perhaps they made it as far as 56: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant – to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.”

• No wonder the eunuch got enthused!
  

I asked the guys in that prison pod whether they ever felt "cut off" - from hope, or their family, or a fair trial, or even a visit from a lawyer who cares. They admitted that yes, they felt very cut off. I asked them to kneel so I could pray with them...that God would give them, by His grace, an everlasting name in heaven that would never be...cut off.

By the way, this is what Dr. Ben Witherington says about what might have happened with that Ethiopian's influence in days ahead...

“It can be pointed out that while there is no first-century evidence of the church in Ethiopia, nevertheless several early church fathers attribute to the eunuch the evangelizing of the region (cf. e.g., Irenaeus, Against heresies 3.12.8-10). We can only say, it may be so, and in any case the eunuch can be seen as a fulfillment of the psalmist’s words: “let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hand to God” (Ps. 68:31). (Ben Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles, 301)