You Are Called to Care for Vulnerable Children
Think about the children in your life that you care about. Think about your sons and daughters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, neighbors, family friends, or children in your church. If their parents could no longer care for them, who would you want to take them in? What if that person also could no longer care for them?
How many people would you have to go through before your answer would be to place them in institutional care? We may never have to face that choice or be at risk of losing our children to family separation, but many vulnerable families do face that possibility in America and across the world.
Children belong in healthy families.
We instinctively know that children belong in families. In the very beginning, God created Adam and Eve and placed them in a family. God’s design for how image-bearers would be fruitful and multiply was through families. Adam was created from the dust of the ground, Eve was created from Adam’s rib, and children would be created through the family.
Families offer children nurture and support.
Children would not only be born into the family—they would be taught, cared for, loved, and nurtured through the family. Parents teach their children to know, love, and follow God (Deuteronomy 4:9; 6:7). Parents train their children to walk in the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 22:6). Parents discipline and instruct their children (Ephesians 6:4). Parents encourage their children (Colossians 3:21). This is why God designed families to be the primary place of nurture and formation.
Supporting at-risk families is caring for vulnerable children.
Within the church, we have the opportunity to step in and support families who are at risk of separation or working toward reunification due to poverty, addiction, neglect, or cycles of abuse. Caring for vulnerable children and families is not just something we are told to do because it is a “good deed.” Caring for vulnerable children and families reflects the heart of the gospel. It is an overflow of our faith in God (James 1:27). Supporting at-risk families requires sacrifice and work, but it is a good work that the Lord calls us to and equips us for.
You can help at-risk families.
You can care for vulnerable families and help prevent family separation. Whether this is through supporting family preservation, offering wrap-around services, participating in foster care or adoption, Family Advocacy Ministries, prayer, or giving, there are many opportunities for you to serve—and many resources from Send Relief that can help you do it faithfully.
Equip your church to strengthen families.
Explore resources that equip you to strengthen families and support family-centered care here.
Give a meaningful, family-centered gift this Christmas.
Support children in foster care and vulnerable families through the Protect Children and Families category in the Send Relief Gift Catalog.
Published December 3, 2025