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Safe haven for ‘the hardest day’ of foster children’s lives
Memphis church collaborates with faith-based nonprofit Isaiah 117.
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Under the shade of a few trees, a house is under construction beside the White Station Church of Christ in Memphis, Tenn.
It’s no ordinary residence.
The building will provide a safe haven for foster children awaiting placement, minister Bob Turner said.
Bob Turner, pictured at Harding School of Theology in Memphis, Tenn., preaches for the White Station Church of Christ.
One year ago, the White Station church sold the half acre to Isaiah 117 — a faith-based nonprofit that has grown to nearly 60 locations in 13 states.
“This is how God does it,” Ronda Paulson, the organization’s founder and executive director, said of the expansion. “He moves his people, and he unites them. If people just give a little bit of what they have, you have a home that can lavishly love on children.”
Based out of Elizabethton, Tenn., roughly 500 miles east of Memphis, the organization seeks to reduce trauma for children, lighten the load for child welfare services and ease the transition for foster families, according to its website.
Ava Conley serves as Isaiah 117’s location director for Shelby County, where Memphis is located. She said the new house will allow children to spend “one of the hardest days of their lives” with loving people.
“We know that there are gaps here, and we just want to be a part of changing the trajectory of our communities,” Conley said. “It’s so fulfilling to be around people who are missioned together.”
Thread of Hope leads to Isaiah 117
The White Station church’s work with foster care began before its involvement with Isaiah 117.
The congregation started its own ministry to provide for foster children in 2014, member Anna Barber said.
The Paulsons pose for a family portrait.
“Our ministry is called Threads of Hope,” said Barber, who leads the effort. “We collect clothing, diapers and all sorts of things to just meet the child’s needs.”
Threads of Hope’s work eventually connected the church with Isaiah 117.
“I feel like God was preparing White Station to be a part of Isaiah 117 for many years,” Barber said. “It’s really opened their eyes to that need, and it has really become heavy on their heart.”
In advance of the Isaiah 117 house opening, White Station is hosting fundraising meals and volunteer events. The location next to the church will be the organization’s first in Memphis, a metro area of 1.3 million people.
“Any city church needs to have partnerships,” Turner said. “You can’t do all the work on your own. But if you are going to care for orphans, this is one way to do it.”
“Any city church needs to have partnerships. You can’t do all the work on your own. But if you are going to care for orphans, this is one way to do it.”
Isaiah ‘opened our eyes to this world’
The idea for Isaiah 117 originated on a Thursday afternoon when the Paulson family went to pick up a foster child at the Department of Children’s Services in Johnson City, Tenn.
Ronda Paulson and her husband, Corey, entered the foster parent pool in 2014.
“It was literally just putting one foot in front of the other trying to live out what I’ve been studying and researching,” Ronda Paulson said.“It led us to foster care classes, and that’s when you learn about children who enter the foster care system and what they are going through.”
Before that class, the Paulsons had never thought about how difficult foster care could be for a child during placement.
“You don’t stop and think, ‘What does that day feel like?’ or ‘What does that removal feel like?’” Ronda Paulson said. “As that all started to unfold, it truly devastated me that it’s not a day to celebrate for that child.”
A year later, the Paulson family picked up their first foster child at the Department of Children’s Services office. That baby boy, Isaiah, left the office under the Paulsons’ care in a borrowed outfit and a cockroach-infested diaper bag.
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
“Isaiah came to us and opened our eyes to this world that we didn’t even know existed,” Ronda Paulson said.
Their vision for a safe haven began forming, and in 2017, the couple founded the nonprofit.
The name derives from Isaiah 1:17, which declares, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Following God’s calling
As Isaiah 117 pushes for more locations across the nation, Memphis volunteers and White Station members are connecting with the cause.
Amy Abbott poses with a check from Altar’d State for Isaiah 117.
Amy Abbott, who serves on Isaiah 117’s community awareness committee in Memphis, said she always wanted to be involved with the foster care system.
“I was listening to a podcast randomly, and it was talking about this Isaiah 117 house coming to Shelby County,” said Abbott, a member of the Highland Church of Christ in Cordova, east of Memphis. “And I just thought, ‘Wow, did (God) hit me over the head?’ This is all I needed to be involved with.”
Ronda Paulson urged others to follow Abbott’s example.
“If you feel that God is leading you to start something new, don’t ignore that prompting,” she said. “I do think he is calling his people.”
NIC FRARACCIO, a senior journalism major at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., is The Christian Chronicle’s summer intern. Reach him at [email protected].
