Menu
What if there was a home? Isaiah 117 founder shares vision at local event
What if there was a home?
The question Ronda Paulson of Tennessee asked herself more than a year after her family became foster parents for the first time is simple enough.
What if there was a warm, inviting place for children to go after experiencing the trauma of removal day by DCS?
What if there was a space the DCS workers could take the children while still having office space within which to find placement for them?
What if there was an organization that eased the transition from removal day to placement, thus making it easier for foster families to say, “Yes”?
Those are the threefold goals of Isaiah 117 House, which began in Franklin County, Tenn., in 2017 and has subsequently had inquiries from a total of 41 states and four countries.
One of these is Putnam County, where a team has spent the last six months spreading the message of Isaiah 117 House, then began the fundraising stage of the local ministry with a pair of fundraisers Thursday at 3 Fat Labs Wedding and Event Barn.
After comments from local speakers, including program co-coordinators Rissa Shepherd and Courtney Miller, Paulson shared a bit of her story, how she went from a potential foster parent with a less-than-willing partner in her husband, to the foster parents of a baby named Isaiah, to someone who found herself angry at God but ultimately letting herself become part of the solution.
After entering to round of applause, Paulson quickly dispelled any praise for herself.
“It is the story of the God that I have loved my whole life building houses for children that He never forgot,” Paulson said.
And that’s the goal of Isaiah 117 in Putnam County — to build a home where children can go on the worst days of their young lives, where DCS workers can do their job while not also having to entertain scared, confused children in a government office, where potential foster families find the help they need in order to say “Yes.”
Speaking to a group that included a number of local faith communities, Paulson issued a bit of a challenge.
“We’re not coming to town because the case workers aren’t doing their job,” Paulson said. “We’re coming to town because a state office is doing the church’s job.”
It’s all there in the scripture upon which the organization is founded:
Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.
Those interested in supporting Isaiah 117 House and “changing the way foster care begins” may reach out to Shepherd at rissa.shepherd@isaiah117house.com or 423.518.3760 ext. 128, or by visiting www.facebook.com/isaiah117houseputnamcoin.