This Sat morning, we are thankful for Jason and Irene, foster parents from the HFG community, share their fostering journey at our joint fostering intro session with Epworth Foster Care . Both of them literally glowed with joy as they shared about their fostering journey! Definitely not expecting this… if you know that they are parents/foster parents to 5 biological/foster children, including a few months old foster child. Here’s a few takeaways from their sharing. - Fostering has bonded their family closer together, including their extended family. Jason shared that his marriage is also stronger now, because of better communication with his wife and how fostering and his faith have changed his attitude/heart. Fostering requires team work! Irene shared that she has also come to know herself much better now, and that she needed help first in order to help others. - Fostering has blessed each of their biological child (e.g., extending grace to others) as well as their relatio...

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!

29 Oct 2022 -  HFG partnered Epworth Foster Care for the ”Drop Box” movie event. The show was touching and a great reminder of how the life of every child is precious in God’s eyes. Epworth’s manager of fostering, Li Koon and HFG foster parent, Kuan Ying, welcomed everyone! HFG foster parents, Vivienne Ng and Audrie Siew/Chune Keat were on the panel together with Epworth’s Manager of fostering, Li Koon. Representing HFG, Vivienne shared how the Lord broke her heart with His love for vulnerable children that she saw through her work and led her to foster. She highlighted that research showed that a child can be on a positive path if there was just one stable and caring adult who believed in them! Audrie shared how her foster girl, Ellie (not her real name) came just 2 weeks before her final P2 exams, not knowing how to read even simple words like “CAT” or say A-Zs. It was heartbreaking when Ellie shared how she had never passed a single test or spelling before. Audrie could see how...

  Sharing by Kai Mei at the joint intro tea session with Epworth Community Services on 31 July 2021. Kai Mei has four children of her own and came to know about fostering through FamChamps, which is organised by Focus on the Family Singapore. During one of the sessions, she heard a foster mother and her son shared about fostering. At that point of time, the concept of fostering was foreign yet something happened in her heart. Her family started to explore if this was something that God wanted them to do. It didn’t stop at that talk. One of her friends was a foster mother and linked her up to attend this same tea session organised by Epworth some time ago. After that tea session, God laid upon their hearts to seriously consider fostering. How Jeannie (not her real name) came to join her family was truly by God's grace! When Epworth called Kai Mei for the first time to take in Jeannie, their family was worried as they mentioned she would cry for a few hours. However, they decided to ...

A summary of Mark and Sue’s sharing at the intro session on 31 Oct 2020 (online), with Epworth Foster Care. Despite having their hands full as parents to two boys (currently aged 8 & 10), Mark and Sue were willing to explore fostering after attending a Home for Good tea session back in 2015. They took the big step to foster in 2018, and they are currently foster parents to a 3-year-old boy (he is in back carrier of Mark's bicycle). They have also previously fostered 2 other young children. Sue was initially apprehensive when submitting the application form to foster, as she was worried about the changes to their family’s dynamics. Nevertheless, as she read Bob Goff’s ‘Love Does’ with Mark, the couple felt convicted to obey God’s command and serve vulnerable children through fostering. For many years, God had placed in their hearts a desire to do missions together as a family, and it was now clear to them that their mission field first began at home. Although fostering has its c...

Fostering intro sharing, co-organised with Epworth Community Services , on 29 August 2020. Sandy first heard about fostering through newspaper articles. Learning about how vulnerable children came into care moved her heart to want to do something for them. Despite knowing the stringent criteria and tough application process, she and her family still decided to go through with it. Upon being approved, Sandy was excited to begin her fostering journey as her heart was soft for the children. Initially, each time MSF called to ask her to take a child, she rejected every request as the timing was just not right. Eventually God moved her heart to be less choosy, convicting her that these precious children were not commodities. Soon after, she received her first placement, followed by a second placement and is currently caring for her third foster child. What moved listeners was Sandy's authentic sharing about her struggles and failure in her second placement. Fostering a child is not a be...

Joint sharing with Epworth Foster Care We started our fostering journey since 2017 and have fostered 3 children since then. I was 48 years old, my husband was 52 years old, and we have 4 adult children of our own. My second son and his wife, then fiancée, helped in various ways like playing and reading to Adam* (name has been changed to protect the child’s identity), our first foster child. They are the best form of support in our fostering journey. Whenever we brought Adam out together, people on the street would ask if he is my grandchild! There are both memorable moments and challenges encountered as foster parents. For example, when our second foster child, Billy*, first came to us, he struggled with managing his emotions and attitudes would often change suddenly. Due to their background, some of the foster children may display such behaviours because they feel alone, and there is no one they can trust especially when living in a stranger’s home. There needs to be constant reassura...

On 30 May 2020, HFG-SG organised our first ever "Online" fostering intro session, together with Epworth Foster Care The Filipino couple (Land and Joyce Palmero) came to know about fostering 6 yrs ago through a church mate. Having pictured Singapore as a perfect country before coming over, they were shocked to hear that there were children in Singapore who did not have safe homes and that there was such a pressing need for more foster parents. They struggled in deciding whether to foster as both were v busy at work. However, they were inspired by something one of the foster parents mentioned in a fostering tea session, "What you can give, you give”. Upon reflection, they were convicted by God to give these vulnerable children a safe and loving home just as much as they had been blessed abundantly in their lives by Him. The couple have fostered 4 children so far, with some of them having special needs such as Global Development Delay (GDD) and ADHD. There were challenges a...

       Joint fostering tea session with  Epworth Community Services Epworth Foster Care in July 2019. Angeline Wee shared her 1.5 year journey as a foster parent. It started with a seed planted > 10 years ago. when her sister-in-law provided temporary care for babies under Sanctuary House and she found herself going over to coo over the babies. Fast forward years later, when her son was in P6, Angeline started to look for different areas of ministry. She considered mission trips, particularly those involving rescuing women and kids from sex trafficking. She heard of someone else fostering at that point. Curious, she enquired more about fostering and after an exchange of text messages, Angeline found herself scrolling through the fostering section of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) website. Mooting the idea to her husband, she was taken by complete surprise when he readily agreed without hesitation! And so, in a matter of 6 mths, they wen...

  Joint fostering tea session with  Epworth Community Services / Epworth Foster Care  on 27 April 2019. So blessed by having a foster father (for a change) share at our fostering tea on sat!! Edwin Lee started by sharing his Philosophy of Life which led to his wife and him fostering. 1) If God gives you a glimpse of something that might be on His Heart, check it out! 2) Live for the audience of ONE 3) Get your investment Time Horizon right. He cited Francis Chan's rope illustration that our life on earth is just a tiny fraction of eternal life. As such, we should prioritize working on what really matters for eternity. Some years ago, a song his 2 kids used to listen to kept playing in his head. Called "Two Shirts", it comprised verses from Luke 3:11, Mark 9:35 & Matt 6:19-21 (if we have 2 shirts, we should give one away to the person with none) sung to a simple melody. This song gave him pause to consider if he was really making use of what he had been given. With ...

Joint intro session with Epworth Foster Care on 16 Feb 2019. Seow Kian Yong (SKY) and Yan Shan have no children and initially considered adoption. However, they had some apprehensions and later explored fostering. They took in their first foster child 3 years ago. Dan (not his real name) was in P4. At first SKY & Yan Shan didn’t want to foster him, given his behavioral issues. However, that Sunday Service, the message was focused on love and the couple changed their mind and decided to give it a go. Dan had been staying in KK hospital (KKH) for a few weeks due to his family situation. When Sky and Yan shan went to KKH to pick him up, he cried, threatened to run away, threw a fit and insisted on staying at KKH. It took the Child Protection Officer (CPO) some time to calm him down. They later found out that Dan thought he was being adopted and would never be able to see his family again. Eventually, he followed SKY & Yan Shan home. It turned out to be a very challenging first exp...

  23 Nov 2018 - First ever CBD fostering intro lunch in collaboration with Epworth Community Services for Foster Care Week! Joseph Gan, our HFG foster parent is also a co-founder and president of a cyber-security startup. We are excited to have a foster father sharing as they play such an important role. We have been amazed by the transformation of their foster child, Jason (not his real name)! Foster parents come from all walks of life and Joseph's sharing also shows how busy professionals can also step up to foster ! Joseph and Li Ping, his wife, started fostering 3 years ago. They have seen personally what research also showed - that children really do grow better in foster families than children’s homes ! Fostering allows vulnerable children to grow in many ways through having closer and more secure relationships in family settings . They saw Jason bloom over time. Jason came as very fearful 9yo boy. They patiently took a step by step approach in caring for him with realist...