week 46 - Amos 2 and 111Project Stand Sunday

‌GENEROSITY

THANK YOU…for your generosity!

SCRIPTURE:

Mark 12:41–44 NLT

41 Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. 43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. 44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

UPDATE

Cafe Hope at 10am on Sundays, isn’t about unlocking the doors.

Free cup of coffee

Friendly people and

a place to find HOPE

Hispanic Church Today at 2pm

Small Group Part 3 Helping Without Hurting: Each Wednesday at 6pm!

It’s a shared meal, video, and discussion to find God’s passion in a culture of lies and deception when it comes to finances.

COMING Thursday November 14 at 6pm is “The Sound of Hope”

Angel studios presents right here at Cornerstone—the story of Possum Trot, a town in south east Texas

Church Family Thanksgiving Meal

Veterans Day Sunday

Robert Solomon

MCN street signs honoring Vets

Current Bible Series: Unqualified: Still Loved

a walk through Joel and Amos to rend our hearts and turn or run to God.

JOKE

Over

STAND SUNDAY: 111Project

111Project is best know here at Cornerstone as CarePortal — however CarePortal is a tool that 111Project uses to meet the needs of Children in OKLA.

Let’s Look at their Effectiveness across the State since 2015:

NETWORK DATA:

Total Children Served

39,497

Total number of individual children that professionals, local churches, and community partners have served collectively since CarePortal launched in Oklahoma.

Total Economic Impact

$17,540,468

Dollar amount incorporates the total volunteers hours and tangible resource that were provided through CarePortal to meet the critical needs of kids and families in Oklahoma, as well as the avoided public spending cost for foster care services and interventions.

Total Response Teams

934

This is the total number of teams, each made up of several volunteers from either a local church, company, or community group, that have been activated to respond to needs on CarePortal in Oklahoma.

TOTAL $$$ IMPACT TO OKMULGEE BY

CORNERSTONE

$20,000.00

PICTURES OF WHAT THAT LOOKED LIKE...

Community Partners make a huge difference… Like City Serve

Big Thank you to Robert/Annette and others like Grant/Dia/Marcie

Children in the Foster Care System

Less than 6,000 children today

Oklahoma has reached a milestone in child welfare. In 2015, Oklahoma’s daily count of children in foster care peaked at approximately 11,500 children in the foster care system. As of June 1st, 2024, this number had dropped below 6,000 for the first time in over 20+ years and has remained below 6,000 since. As of October 1, 2024, there are 5,865 children in care. 111Project would like to celebrate this benchmark and are looking forward to seeing that number continue to decline as long as children can be supported safely in their families of origin.  More churches involved can continue to lead to better outcomes for children and families throughout the state.

There are three major factors, and many improvements made that have helped lower the number of children in foster care since 2015.

1. Prevention Services

Family Centered Services (FCS) is an example of this. FCS is the OKDHS Child Welfare Service’s prevention program that allows for a family to be stabilized so that children can remain in the care of their biological family. This program’s entire goal is to work with families to determine what services are necessary, while simultaneously working to ensure the children remain safe in their own homes. FCS exists so that preventative efforts and action steps can be taken to keep a biological family together and prevent the removal of children from their homes. Though it is not successful 100% of the time, it has had a great impact on the number of children in care across Oklahoma.

2. Additional Family Finding Initiatives Within Foster Care

These added initiatives have created new pathways for foster families to join the work. Some of these initiatives include the following:

Partial privatization efforts, which have allowed there to be more advocates for foster homes.  The Oklahoma Fosters campaign in 2015 was a great example of the collective efforts that led to over 1,000 foster families being recruited in one year. There has been an increase in efforts to find kinship placements for children. Specific programs, such as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, focus on advocating for adoptive placements for children based on pre-existing relationships. Preventative, voluntary placement programs like Safe Families have helped provide families more options to responsibly care for their biological children.

3. CarePortal: A Community Based Resource for Families

CarePortal is a connecting technology that helps provide needs for both foster and bio families. It has successfully removed barriers for many families seeking reunification or in efforts to prevent removal. In many cases, the barrier standing in the way of a biological family being reunified or the thing necessary to prevent a child from being removed is a tangible need being met. Due to both relational and physical poverty, these needed changes can feel impossible and removal inevitable. What CarePortal has paved the way for is an expansive, resourced network of care that can respond to requests when led, standing in the gap for families in poverty and without support. The movement of CarePortal across Oklahoma has made an undeniable impact on the numbers of children in care decreasing so drastically over the last several years. Out of the 6,248 requests to “Strengthening a Bio Family” submitted to CarePortal since it launched in Oklahoma in 2016, 4,128 were met.

The landscape of child welfare across the state of Oklahoma has seen remarkable progress and change. However, the work is far from done. There is still a great need for more foster families. Although the number of children in care has decreased, so has the number of foster families. 111Project has the goal of seeing 1,000 new foster families a year and believes this would provide enough homes for children who come into the foster care system throughout the year.

111Project’s initial goal is to mobilize 1,000 churches across Oklahoma that can serve at least one family a month on CarePortal and recruit and support one foster family every year. That effort will move the state closer to having more than enough help for children and families in crisis. Practically speaking, this would mean that there would be foster families waiting on children to enter the foster care system rather than the current reality, where children are sleeping in cars and offices because of a deficit in open foster homes.

CarePortal has opened doors for meaningful support from churches to families in need throughout the state. Any churches or individuals interested in learning more or getting involved can visit 111Project website for details— and here at Cornerstone… Annette is your contact.

Pitch for Sound of Hope

This Thursday at 6pm

I think Amos would have Signed off on CarePortal:

“the Lord took me from following the flock (my daily routine and work) and the Lord said to me, ‘go prophesy to My people Israel” (Amos 7:15).

Amos saw his new assignment that came from God as the highest of callings, not because of what it entailed, but because of who it came from.

It was not a calling Amos could easily ignore

he wisely chose not to.

WHO ARE YOU?

GOD HAS CALLED YOU TOO?

God has called you.

His Spirit rests upon you.

You may not be the mouthpiece to the nation, but who you are and what you do is of God.

GOD IS WHO QUALIFIED YOU?

You are not qualified, but with God all things are possible.

Amos 7:7–9 NLT

7 Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A plumb line.” And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. 9 The pagan shrines of your ancestors will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”

We are ordinary people and because God cares about you He wants to see you be his hands and feet.

So, CarePortal fits our mission statement...

“Bring Hope to Find and Follow Jesus.”

So—like I unctioned you last week...

strap on your sandals,

picked up your staff, hammer, trowel, computer, rolling pin, and

venture into the territory that we live in to be His Hands and Feet!

To carry the Good News of Jesus to all we come in contact with each day.

NEXT WEEK: CHURCH FAMILY THANKSGIVING MEAL!