Mercy in Our Midst:
Compassionate Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Sunday, March 11

4-5:30 p.m.

Commons Hall

 

This collection of seminars will provide concrete steps on what you can do to care for vulnerable children in DuPage County.

Speakers include:

Dr. David Andersen

Dr. David Anderson is a psychologist and Founder of Safe Families for Children and youshare. He is also the executive director of Lydia Home. Dr. Anderson was elected an Ashoka Fellow (Global Social Entrepreneur) and a Prime Mover Fellow (Social Movement Leader). Safe Families won the 2010 Peter Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. He also had served as a Church Planting Pastor with New Life Community church. He has been married 28 years and is the father of 3 children. His seminary entitled "Unleashing the Family" will look at the power of and barriers to becoming an “unleashed family” as illustrated by the Safe Families movement. Safe Families has spread to 45 sites around the country and has impacted over 2200 children last year.

 

Dr. Susan Hillis

Dr. Hillis has been a believer for 39 years, married to a godly servant for 34, a mother for 25, a US government federal official for 19, and a university professor for 7 years. Currently she is a Senior HIV Scientist at the CDC, and she holds an adjunct appointment in the School or Public Health at Emory University. She has traveled to Russia and Ukraine 32 times over the past 12 years to work on prevention of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and she has published more than 80 articles in scientific medical journals. She is one of the leading experts globally on the risk of HIV among orphans and street youth. Personally, she is the mother of 11 children, 8 of whom were adopted from Russia after the tragic death of her oldest son at the age of 9 while on a family bike ride. She and her family have seen God place more than 100 orphans in loving families through adoption. Currently her vision is for the church to care for the 163 million orphans in the world. It all begins with the local church caring for the local orphans. Dr. Hillis will discuss the global orphan emergency and the potential of the church to transform the world by caring for the least of these from a personal, professional and ministry perspective. She will: 1) share her personal testimony of the Lord's call that led to their having 11 children 2) share the global evidence of the intersections between the global orphan and global HIV epidemics and 3) discuss the role of the church of transforming the world.

 

Vanessa Roth

Vanessa Roth is the Chief Operating Officer of Outreach Community Ministries and a licensed clinical social worker. She began her education with undergraduate work at Taylor University in Indiana and then went on to the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she received her master’s degree in social work. Vanessa has been practicing social work in the Wheaton area for the last 27 years and she has been with Outreach Community Ministries in various capacities for 20 years. This school year, there are 120 families, over 250 children and youth, in School District 200 who are homeless. This population represents just a sample of the children and youth living in very vulnerable situations right in our own community. Vanessa's workshop will explore scripture that informs our service to others and the ministry opportunities right in our midst that the church is uniquely positioned to provide.

 

College Church Families

Several College Church families who have provided compassionate care to vulnerable children through adoption, foster care and sponsorship will share about how this experience has transformed their lives. We'll hear from Will and Lorraine Triggs, Chris and Sarah Tews and Cam and Christine Williams.