EP #60 - The Good, the Bad, & the Beauty of Foster Care | Brian Troyer | Plain Values
In this episode of the Plain Values Podcast, Marlin sits down with Brian Troyer of Hope Bridge for a conversation about fostering communities and how Brian’s life led him into foster care ministry. They begin the conversation talking about Brian’s upbringing in a Hartville Mennonite family. At the age of 21, Brian lost a friend in a tragic softball accident. This experience woke him up to the life he was living, and he soon found himself breaking up with his girlfriend and requesting time off from his place of work to join Reach, a mid-term missions program. Brian’s time with Reach was formative to say the least. It was there that he met his wife, Brittany, and later where they together saw the huge need for foster care in the world. When they moved back to Hartville after five years with Reach, they immediately began their journey with fostering. They fostered for seven years and are now working with Hope Bridge who builds up fostering communities in Ohio. One common rejection of foster care is how it may negatively affect a family’s other children. For Brian, he has seen the opposite effect in their son, Malachi. He loves to tell people he has 14 siblings and that his favorite day ever is the day they adopted his younger brother. Not everyone should foster, but everyone should do something. Everyone can be involved in some way. Fifty percent of foster families drop out after the first year, and 80 percent after the second year, with the number one reason being lack of support. When a foster family has a supportive community around them, the chances of the family lasting over two years rises to over 95 percent. This is why Hope Bridge exists. This is the call to the church. What can you do to support a foster family in your community today? Learn more about Plain Values at https://plainvalues.com 🔵 Guest Bio and Links … https://hopebridgeohio.org 🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷 A great way to show support is to hit LIKE / SUBSCRIBE on this video, and most importantly, join the conversation in the COMMENTS below. We’d love to hear from you. 👉We have a beautiful magazine called Plain Values, sent quarterly ($49/year): https://plainvalues.com/pv-magazine-yt 👉To receive our FREE Plain Values emails: https://plainvalues.com/ 👉To find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainvalues/ 👉To find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plainvalues/ 🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷🔹🔷 🎵 Hold My Hand - Sam Burchfield Recorded Live - Plain Values - Winesburg, OH Learn more about Sam: https://www.samburchfield.com/ 🎵 Other music - Soundstripe #plainvalues #hopebridge #fostercare #fostercommunity #reach