Project Access: The Podcast

#29 Happy New Year! I pray that the Good work God has started in 2019 continues in 2020! In today’s episode I give a quick recap of 2019 and a call to not only stay the course in 2020, but to pick up the pace! God bless you!

#28 Merry Christmas…Project Access style! How does the Christmas story tie in to the world of foster Care and adoption? Take a listen to find out. More importantly, the examples set during the retelling of the Christmas story, gives great insight into how we can support foster and adoptive families today!

#27 David Giles presents a message revealing the frequency at which God addresses the need to care for ‘fatherless’ children. The message translates to the response His people should have for the vulnerable in our communities right now! It was brief and to the point with the sole purpose of highlighting a handful of the directives that God has laid out in His word. The message started off with a story about the philosophy of Ubuntu, that I think you’ll enjoy as well. This story was the inspiration for the name of the adoption and foster care ministry at Gayton, which eventually has become Ubuntu Family Minsistries.

#26 Jason Brown is a former youth pastor who continued God’s call to work with youth in the realm of foster care and adoption. Jason and his wife Rebekah co-founded fostering Acadia, an independent living arrangement that was created to provide individuals, communities, and localities quality services focused on connecting youth to supportive and transitional living services. Through their efforts they developed the permanency project which is an effort to ensure all of their teens have at least one adult/family unit in their corner so they don’t have to navigate life alone! Jason is a rock-solid dude, who has a passion for teens and he’s dedicated his life to ensure that his teens receive a fair start in life! With no further ado, Here’s my conversation with Jason Brown.

#25 Jill Gaynor, the annual givings officer at UMFS joins us this week to discuss the joys of being a mentor. Jill volunteered with Project Life prior to joining UMFS full time and during that time is when she uncovered God’s calling to mentor teens who’d aged out of foster care!

#24 Jeanne Hollingshead joins Project Access to discuss the importance of disrupting disruptions through her collaborative “One Home Initiative” efforts. A high rate of kids in care experience multiple placements, which tends to lead to unfavorable outcomes. But when children find forever families, their futures are brighter.

#23 Missy Murchie shares her experience as a Foster and Adoptive mom. Missy talks about how Forgotten No More, Third Church’s foster and adoptive ministry began and their keys to growth over the past two years.

#22 Clint and Sarah Beasley share their experience as adoptive parents. They share the story of how they became adoptive parents. They also share their struggles and victories along the way of this journey.

#21: Janet Kelly joins me on Project Access this week. She talks about the importance of the Church’s role in the foster care crisis, her journey into foster care, and the power of discipleship through relationship.

#20 A Closer Look: at a statement Heather Beam made about family. We explore the idea of how family can’t really be ‘replaced’. All that we do in the lives of foster and adoptive children is not to replace biological families, but to fill in, as best we can, the empty spaces–with LOVE!

We explore the idea of how family can't really be 'replaced'. All that we do in the lives of foster and adoptive children is not to replace biological families, but to fill in, as best we can, the empty spaces--with LOVE!

#19 David Giles “A Closer Look”: In this episode we dissect a comment on ‘Church Together-ness’ made by Angie Grant the, “Matriarch of Foster Care Ministries” in the RVA. What keeps churches siloed and what are the benefits from working together?

In this episode we dissect a comment on 'Church Together-ness' made by Angie Grant the, "Matriarch of Foster Care Ministries" in the RVA. What keeps churches siloed and what are the benefits from working together? Angie was definitely on to something with her insight!

#18 David Giles-“A Closer Look”. In this week’s episode, we take a closer look at a statement Rush Middleton made about the importance of a family’s understanding of trauma. Often couples can enter fostering and adoption with rose-tinted glasses, not fully realizing the necessity to equip themselves to tackle the pains of trauma.

#17: David Giles “A closer Look”: John Moore made a comment that God’s word called us to seek justice for the fatherless, widow and the foreigner! Let’s take a closer look at what that means.

#16: Abigail Schreiner-Abby discusses what it takes to become a foster parent. Not just what it takes on paper, but what it takes inside.

Abby discusses what it takes to become a foster parent. Not just what it takes on paper, but what it takes inside. She talks about how social service and social justice is so closely linked. She shares how her experience as youth pastor helped her to see real needs in her community!

#15: David Giles: Ubuntu Family Ministries: Modeling an adoption and Foster care ministry to engage any congregation

Episode 14: Peter and Leila Gunning

This week’s guest is Peter and Leila Gunning. Peter and Leila are world travelers who met in Australia and began a life together in Virginia! There life’s plan of starting a family was shaken when they were faced with infertility. This led them to foster, which led to adoption, which ultimately led to them becoming one of the strongest advocates in our area for birth parents through their non-profit Patty’s Hope. Hear from Pete and Leila about what drives them and why they accepted the call t...

Episode 13: Autumn Zaborowski

This week’s guest is Autumn Zaborowski. She is the wife and mother of 2 handsome young boys, both of which who’ve come to her family by way of adoption. Autumn is a brilliant, driven woman who’s been able to use her professional background in I.T. and leadership development to help advocate for kids in foster care in a variety of ways. Her knowledge of the system is unparalleled, but more than that, she is just a genuinely solid, solid person. So, with no further ado, here’s my conversation w...

Episode 12: Carrie Bishop

This week’s guest is Carrie Bishop. She’s a wife and mom of 3, 2 biological boys and one daughter who joined their family by way of adoption from Bulgaria. Through her adoption journey, Carrie was forced to find solutions to manage her child’s special needs. Her journey led her to weighted blankets—These therapeutic blankets have been known to alleviate stress in elders with dimensia, PTSD in soldiers, and trauma in general. This is a small portion of why I wanted her on the show, because pr...

Episode 11: David Giles

This week the format of the show is a little different. Normally, I interview a local leader in our area and we talk about the good work they do in their ministries. However, I had the honor to share with the foster and adoptive families of the Bair Foundation recently, and decided to collect those thoughts and share them here. Fostering and adoption can get a little crazy. But the call is worth it. Because maybe you were placed in that child’s life for a specific purpose by God. My hope is ...