Between the Lines: My Life in foster Care

The host of Between the Lines, Bishop Joshua Fonseca alongside him was Pastor Rafael.

On this program, they spoke about what is Between the Lines in the foster care system. With him were two special guests, Christina and Ebony, as they both grew up in foster care. They spoke about their experiences and how that affected them. Different women with the same background.

Pastor Rafael started by explaining, “A lot of people nowadays want to live a facade, they want to pretend. They want to cover up because they are afraid to show what is inside of them.” Bishop Joshua continued by saying, “we are not here to say that every foster parent is the same. But they (Christina and Ebony) are here to share their experience.”

In the United States, more than 428,000 children have been placed in foster care. The ages range from infants to 21-year-olds(Kvc.org). Most children get thrown into foster care because their birth parents are not able to take care of them. Christina mentioned that she was placed in more than 10 foster homes and Ebony in over 50 different foster homes.

When Ebony was asked what she thought about foster homes, she mentioned that she thought it would be a loving home with parents that truly cared for her. But that was not the case for her. “When I got there, I couldn’t call the foster parent mom or dad.” said Ebony. Christina also added that if she didn’t like the food or if she misbehaved, she would be punished and mistreated.

Even though both women faced many problems in the foster home, Christina said that she later was able to find a good foster home. “One of my foster mothers adopted us. I’m not going to lie, me and my brother ran away a few times because we were scared.” Christina was not the only one that felt this way. When young kids feel unwanted by the foster parent(s) they end up running away.

A third of children in the Foster care system end up running away from their homes at one point (Youth.gov). That was the case for Ebony. She mentioned that if she didn’t like the foster home, she would just run away.

What helped save these two women was not the good home they were in. What truly helped them was the power of God. “When I first came to the church, I came dressed inappropriately and I came high,” said Ebony. Then she continues by saying, “I started coming mainly on Fridays, to receive deliverance to be set free from the situations that I was going through.” By coming to the church, she learned the power of forgiveness. Ebony was able to ask the person that abused her for forgiveness, “I felt a weight lifted off me”. She then learned that she needed to seek the Holy Spirit in order to keep her salvation. Now she has a blessed life. Ebony has now been married for 2 years and has a complete, blessed family.

Christina was brought to church by her adopted mother. “At some point, I decided to leave the church, and hit rock bottom, drugs, and bad relationships. I tried different churches, but nothing changed so I decided to come back to The Universal Church.” and continued by saying, “as I was coming to the church, the assistants helped me understand that for me to receive God’s forgiveness and start all over, I needed to forgive. It was a process but I know that I forgave once that weight was lifted off.” Now Cristina is completely transformed, she was able to meet her biological mother, and she is now happily married but most importantly she is baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Don’t miss Between the Lines airing every Sunday at 7pm ET/ 6pm CT only on the Universal Living Faith Network.