We are thankful to meet a few of our partners in the past few weeks. It is always encouraging to meet like-minded people who are passionate about supporting vulnerable children and youth. The work is challenging, but it doesn’t stop them - their love, compassion, wisdom and perseverance continue to make a difference to the lives of these children, youth and even their families. Their work is often behind the scenes, coordinating between various stakeholders, counselling and providing practical care and support, preparing and executing outreach events to advocate and recruit more foster parents/volunteers, being the voice for the vulnerable… the list continues. Each case, each individual is unique, never to assume the same. So let’s not forget to express our gratitude and extend encouragement to them!

It was a cozy joint-intro tea session yesterday morning with Boys’ Town Fostering Services. All who attended were encouraged! A beautiful and very natural and heartfelt sharing by foster parents Alan and Eliz, who have been on this fostering journey since 2016! Here’s a few parts of their sharing: “Eliz carrying foster child (FC) in her sling while singing in the choir! He was so calm that nobody knew he was at the choir” “FC was in the hospital for a few months since birth…he smiled for the first time when they brought him home” “FC is our teacher, he teaches us how to teach him” “Eliz always places herself in FC’s natural mother’s shoes, and that helped in their first meeting at the hospital, and just small little details e.g. getting Alan to bring FC to natural mum, that reduces any potential tension when a mother meets another mother.” “Allan shared a few times about their conviction of the importance of reintegration.” More details from the sharing will be released. Watch this spa...

  Below is a summary of the sharing by Amy at the Fostering Tea Session with  Boys' Town Fostering Services  on 24 September 2022. Amy and Victor Amy was given an opportunity to host foster parents at one of the events organized by her workplace. It was truly a memorable and eye-opening experience for her to hear the heartwarming stories of the foster parents as they shared with Amy and one another their fostering journeys. One of the foster parents commented that “If there is a room in your heart to foster, you will create space in your house to foster.” “It was very touching to see a foster parent taking care of a foster child with severe disabilities, feeding and attending to the child.” Amy shared. This is not the first occasion that Amy was exposed to the world of fostering. At work, Amy had a prayer group with colleagues who are also foster parents. This was the push she needed to talk about fostering a child with her husband, Victor. Victor had initial apprehension...

  Foster parents Ping Loong and Donna shared their fostering journey at the Fostering Tea Session organized by  Boys' Town Fostering Services  and  Home For Good - SG  on 9 July 2022. HOW IT BEGAN... Donna has always wanted to foster. However she always imagined it would happen after they had children of their own. In 2019, Donna experienced a serious heart attack. She recalled different aspects of her life flashed through her mind as she was wheeled into the operating theatre. “ I might be seeing God soon. Can I say goodbye and leave in peace? My marriage... parents... have I done enough? ” In the last few moments of consciousness, Donna realised that she had two regrets – not prioritising God and spending more time with Him, and not giving back to the community. Thankfully Donna recovered and the near-death experience prompted her to look for opportunities to give back. However, she soon realised it was hard to find ways to help due to the restrictive safe dis...

From our intro sharing session on 16 April 2022 with Boys' Town Fostering Services . Doris has been fostering for 3+ years (since 2018). She has cared for 2 foster children and provided respite care for 2 children. Doris first had a calling to help vulnerable children in 2013 when she came across information about fostering on her Church’s magazine. She was interested to find out more and attended an info-sharing session organised by MSF.. After the session, she shared the information with her husband but he expressed his concern about the timing as their children were still young. Nevertheless, fostering continued to remain at the back of Doris’s mind. In 2018, Doris felt a very strong stirring in her heart. She experienced several signs from God that that she was going to work with children. Doris felt that God was telling her that she was ready to foster and was very convicted. Doris broached the topic with her husband and was pleasantly surprised that he agreed and attended the...

From a joint tea session organized by HFG and Boys' Town Fostering Services  on  13th November 2021 Annie came from Hong Kong and she used to volunteer with children with autism in dormitories back in Hong Kong. She spent six hours to play with these children and had to leave after her volunteering work ended. This left her a desire to do more in-depth work as she realized the impact she had on them was limited as she had to leave shortly after the children became familiar with her and started to bond with her. When she was based in Singapore, she felt that God gave her a desire to help children. God spoke to her in a loud voice one morning “there is a girl that I want you to take care”. Annie knew intuitively that God was asking her to care for a foster child. She shared the idea with her husband and her husband voiced his concerns of the foster child not getting along well with their own child. Annie prayed to God to soften her husband’s heart. A few months later, she broach...

Sharing at the Sept 2021 intro tea with Boys' Town Fostering Services . Kuan Ying and Colin likened their journey to “The Unexpected Journey” of The Hobbit! AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Colin and Kuan Ying are ex-civil servants. They have two adult children. Kuan Ying once attended an MSF Volunteer Event. She was very moved to see a teenager in a wheelchair on stage thanking his foster parents wholeheartedly for looking after him since he was a little child. That helped her see the immense impact of fostering on vulnerable children and seeded a desire in her to foster children with special needs. Amazingly, her children were supportive about it. Colin, her husband, without hesitation readily agreed. As part of MSF’s application process to become foster parents, they had to go through a gruelling interview with the assessors. The whole process was completed within 3 months. Training followed soon after to equip them for fostering children. Their first placement was supposed to have been a...

Sharing at fostering intro session, in partnership with Boys' Town, on 29 May 2021. Joyce and Land decided to foster despite juggling with their busy schedules as full-time IT project managers and as parents to their only son. The couple first heard about fostering from an employee from the Ministry of Social and Family Development in 2014 and were shocked to find out about the unfortunate experiences that children face in an affluent country like Singapore. They were initially apprehensive as both of them were working full-time and had very busy schedules. The couple pondered for a while and thought “if we can make a difference with just 1 child, it would be good enough” . With that thought of making a difference with one child at a time, Joyce and Land opted to only take 1 child. Howe ver, when a second child was placed with them through an emergency placement, they decided to take her in. One thing led to another, and they are now fostering 3 children (2 males aged 12 and 11 yea...

Sharing by Fabian & Bee Cheng at the joint fostering tea session with Boys' Town on 21 Nov 2020 (online). It was not an easy decision for Fabian and Bee Cheng to commit to apply to be foster parents. There were worries that they would be unable to cope with the addition of a foster child. Fabian first mooted the idea of fostering to Bee Cheng as he wanted to make a difference in a social cause with a great need. God has placed a burden in his heart for abused children for many years – he would feel a tinkling in his heart whenever he read news articles on abused children. After serving in the Sound Crew Ministry in Church for 7 years, he felt ready to explore serving in another area. Bee Cheng was serving in another ministry in Church and was already occupied in other work. She had her own reservations on how the family would adapt to having a foster child in the household. Not knowing the background nor the temperament of the foster child further added to her concerns. When F...

  Amy’s online sharing at the fostering intro with Boys Town on 18 July 2020. In her capacity as the Head of a legal department, Amy was not originally directly involved with fostering. Her first encounter with fostering was at a dinner where she had the opportunity to interact with foster parents. She saw a special needs child strapped into his wheelchair being fed lovingly by his foster parents. She was very moved by their actions. Another foster father told her that while his home was not big, “if you find room in your heart, you will find space to foster.” His words were seared into Amy's mind. The next year at the same event, she met an Indian foster father receiving a long service award. He had brought his biological daughter, and his Chinese foster son whom he had fostered for 19 years. The boy spoke fluent Tamil. The foster father was grieving over his wife's recent passing and this was the first time he had attended without her at his side. The boy recalled his late fo...