The 24-year-old foster care worker sat at the table eating lunch with her church friends. She spoke of the difficult night she’d had taking a 13-year-old foster child to the emergency room. She spoke of the need for more foster parents because some children must spend the night on the floor in their office. She said that siblings are often split up because there aren’t enough families who will take the kids.
There are 3,302 foster children in South Carolina and 135 in Spartanburg County, according to South Carolina’s recent DSS report, and this number seems to be decreasing. In addition, an estimated 21 percent of children (under 18) in Spartanburg are below the poverty line (with a 10 percent margin of error), according to Census Reporter for Spartanburg County.
Driving down a road, there was a small, bright green sign that read, “Garage Sale.” The sign was out front of Eastside Baptist Church in Spartanburg. Arrows pointed to the parking lot and another paper sign was taped to the door of the church’s gymnasium.
It said, “Proceeds go to Hand in Hand ministries and PS I Love You.” Hand in Hand serves children who aren’t getting their basic needs met, and PS I Love You provides clothing and goods for foster families through a free shopping boutique.
Inside the church’s gymnasium, a woman with colorful hair, hoop earrings and several tattoos stood behind a plastic table checking people out. Shoppers didn’t just leave with goods; they left having contributed $642 to the needs of foster families, and the economically vulnerable in Spartanburg and the surrounding region. In fact, Eastside Baptist Church didn’t just do a garage sale; they also raised money through a Vacation Bible School penny drive and collected school supplies throughout July. The funds and goods were then donated to the two ministries.
But why? Sure, there are foster kids to serve, but, compared to other states, the number is relatively low.
Pastoral intern Landon Norris shared his motive behind contributing to these local ministries.
“Many churches can become so focused on international missions — though I am in full support of international missions — that they seem to forget that God has sovereignly placed our churches and those in our churches where they are for a reason.” He continued, “That is to bring the gospel and its hope to those around us.”
Melissa France, with Hand in Hand ministries, spoke about the needs of foster children. She said that care is often focused on providing food, but she said that hygiene products are also crucial.
“The children are bullied if they smell bad,” she said. “A bar of soap could change your life.”
Laura Timmons, with PS I Love You ministries, also seeks to restore dignity and hope in foster children through a beautiful boutique where foster families can shop for free. Timmons said that Jesus often met the practical needs of those He ministered to first. She said that it’s overwhelming when a foster child enters a home with only a trash bag. Foster parents essentially provide children with a whole wardrobe when seasons such as winter hit. Foster children also have needs when the new school year rolls around.
Timmons said the money that Eastside Baptist Church donated from their garage sale helped cover a back-to-school event at Shoe Carnival, providing foster children with a new pair of shoes and a backpack of school supplies.
But ministering to foster children doesn’t stop at practical needs.
Timmons said they try to take advantage of every opportunity to pray for the children who walk in their door to shop their free boutique. Recently, a foster girl called a PS I Love You worker to share the news that she trusted Christ as her Savior.
Even the story behind the name, PS I Love You, points to something greater. The PS is an abbreviation for Psalms, and their old logo had the numbers 68:5, which says, “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation.”