Three hundred children in our hometown of Palm Beach County have had to be removed from homes that are not safe. Three hundred traumatized kids sit in school each day beside healthy kids with healthy parents and a loving home. Some of them have parents who are addicted to serious drugs. Some of them are not getting basic food and clothing. Some have suffered horrific abuse at the hands of their own mom and dad.
The situation has broken the hearts of some people in Palm Beach County who are determined to give these kids a voice and believe that God will provide a healthy, loving, safe Christian home to each of these kids in foster care in Palm Beach County.
Pastor Shawn Allen, Senior Pastor of Church in the Palms and founder of Take Heart, set out to accomplish the mission of finding a loving home for every hurting child in Palm Beach County. After a life changing experience with foster care and eventually adoption, his heart continued to break over all of the children whom he and his wife could not help. That heartbreak led to the foundation of the Take Heart mission, which is dedicated to placing every child in a loving home.
Partnering with Church United, a fellowship of area churches who have devoted this year’s mission to helping foster children, Pastor Shawn and Jenny Schartner hosted a Take Heart event at Grace Fellowship in West Palm Beach on Sunday, May 22, 2016, showcasing the experience of everyday people who stepped out to provide homes for children in need. Pastor Shawn said, “Churches are coming together on mission. The models is, let’s partner with people who already know what they’re doing, so instead of each church figuring out how we respond to this foster care crisis, let’s partner with people like Children’s Home Society, and Place of Hope and 4Kids. They already know what they’re doing. We just want to come along side them and say, ‘How can we help?’”
The evening opened with Andre Morris, of 4kids, leading prayer, “Lord, we are Your hands, Your feet, to a community that is even more broken, more lost and more destitute than we even realize. I pray that every kid that is in foster care right now will get the chance to not only have a mother and father but that they’ll get to know You the r