Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / What about the American Orphan? A conversation with Kinsey Thurlow

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What about the American Orphan? A conversation with Kinsey Thurlow · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_02: This episode is sponsored by Super Summer Challenge.
0:03
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0:12
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0:21
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0:34
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0:38
SPEAKER_02: Hi friends, welcome to the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: Today I am honored to introduce you to Kinse Thurlow, who has lived in the Kansas City area for many years with her husband and are currently serving at the International House of Prayer.
0:53
SPEAKER_02: They both have participated in helping lead worship, whether it's behind the sound booth or on stage writing music and leading others in worship.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: Recently, Kinsey Thurlow has led a prayer movement for the orphan.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: This has been an amazing journey just for her and for others who've followed along and who have maybe been motivated to pray or be aware of a need that they didn't know before, whether it's opening their home to an orphan or encouraging and supporting families that are.
1:28
SPEAKER_02: I think you'll enjoy the conversation that we have about this need that you might be surprised is closer than you think.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm gonna just dive in because um, well, I think part of um the story about how I know you is gonna be shared on the May 9th episode with Sarah Hagerty.
1:53
SPEAKER_02: Um I'm gonna kind of give the long version of the story.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: Um, but how I know you is because of her, really.
2:02
SPEAKER_02: And and we haven't really gotten to know each other that long.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: Um but we also have a really fun connection because I know knew your husband and your sister-in-law when they were in high school.
2:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like a long time ago.
2:18
SPEAKER_02: And I was sort of a leader person.
2:19
SPEAKER_03: Oh, so you were not in high school.
2:21
SPEAKER_03: I was not in high school.
2:22
SPEAKER_03: Okay, you mentioned that to me, but I didn't understand whether you were the leader person or you were in there like a super group.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: The 18-year-old, 19-year-old leader for sure.
2:30
SPEAKER_02: Barely.
2:30
SPEAKER_02: You were barely a not that much.
2:35
SPEAKER_03: Super mature 19-year-old.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, super mature.
2:37
SPEAKER_02: No, I just signed up to pay for a program where you were put in positions of leadership.
2:44
SPEAKER_02: So don't learn how to be a leader, right?
2:47
SPEAKER_02: That's what you do in internships.
2:49
SPEAKER_02: Trial learning by fire.
2:50
SPEAKER_03: Just get in there and do it.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:52
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, it was so cool because I had heard of Kinsey and um, and actually the first time I heard of you, Kinsey, is that at one of our ABLE meetings, which is a a group of homeschool moms that get together and kind of do some encouragement and support, they were highlighting the 40 weeks of praying for the orphans.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: And I think it was just like the first week it launched.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: And they they played the song, and I was it was horrible.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: Like I was so moved by it.
3:24
SPEAKER_02: I was a weeping, sobbing mess.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: I had no Kleenex on me, and so the stuff that I used to like wipe my face, and it was like an embarrassing cry.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Like, I didn't want anyone to see me.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: Um and so I know we're gonna be talking some more of that later, but that's like my first introduction to you, and I didn't even know you.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: But um, I think we share similar burdens for the orphans and um for the fatherless.
3:48
SPEAKER_02: And um anyway, so when we first met in person, I was kind of connecting the dots, and I was like, wait a minute, do you have a sister-in-law named Katie?
3:59
SPEAKER_02: And I guess she's just by Kate now.
4:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and she's no longer Thurlow.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: Um but she was one of my favorite girls.
4:06
SPEAKER_02: I loved her.
4:07
SPEAKER_02: I still I'm sure I would feel the same way, but it's been years since we've seen each other.
4:12
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, it was kind of all these fun connections and connections, yeah.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the world is so small.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: It is, it seems so small.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: That whole like five people away from knowing the whole world, yeah.
4:23
SPEAKER_03: Six degrees of separation or whatever.
4:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that sounds way more intelligent, like how you put that.
4:28
SPEAKER_03: Well, I didn't make it up, I just repeated what I mean.
4:30
SPEAKER_02: You did you were able to repeat it.
4:33
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
4:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so when I first got to meet you in person, you were pregnant, yeah, ready to be a mama.
4:41
unknown: Pregnant! Yay!
4:42
SPEAKER_02: So you guys have just known each other like months.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, not even in a year, eventually.
4:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: So, but it's it's been really fun because we kind of got thrown into this group where we went deep fast.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, you share your deepest, darkest secrets, and you hope that's the other person's safe.
5:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that stuff.
5:02
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
5:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it has been really good.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: Good.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: So, but we will rewind for everyone else because I'm just sharing to my friends how I get to know this really awesome person.
5:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I'd love to hear some of your story, your and John's story, and you know, a little glimpse.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: I love some of your your writing and your sharing on your blog about life as a new mama.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: It's really beautiful.
5:26
SPEAKER_02: You just you are a gifted writer, um, and your perspective is uh is really sweet and fresh.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: Um, I really like it.
5:34
SPEAKER_02: So, but anyway, now you take it away and you tell us a little bit.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: About John and I?
5:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
5:41
SPEAKER_02: Story?
5:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, your story.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, okay.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, John and I met probably about nine or ten years ago.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: He he was a worship leader, is a worship leader still.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: And um I am not musical and don't play an instrument and don't sing, at least into a microphone.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: But I joined his worship team as the PowerPoint girl.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: That is so great.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: So it was our Cinderella story.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: The worship leader fell for the PowerPoint girl.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: That's so great.
6:20
unknown: Yeah.
6:21
SPEAKER_02: That's a good way to put it.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: You're just like almost like a groupie, and you just you got to be.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: So that's I mean, that's the very, very short version.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: We had quite a dramatic dating experience.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: We dated uh for a couple months and broke up for a year.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, yes, I have a few, yes.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: Those stories, yep.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: But it was we got we we uh we uh got back together, of course, and it was glorious.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: And so we are celebrating our seventh anniversary this month.
6:58
SPEAKER_02: Yay! Congratulations, yes, that's awesome.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: Seven six months.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: We are yeah, we're having a lot of fun.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to find our new normal with our little four-month-old daughter, yes, that we adore her.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: She's precious, she's precious, hoped for and longed for, and here she is, and thriving and a new, a new fun normal.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so you've been in the Kansas City area how long?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh 11 years.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I moved from Texas.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: I Texan.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay, through and through, huh?
7:38
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: That's never had the cowboy hat, but it's still Texan.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: I don't hear it.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't hear it either.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, I I know, I lost it.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit sad.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh lost my twin.
7:52
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
7:54
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a I guess it's a little subtly there, but not but not too extreme.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: And so is your family still all back in Texas or um uh we're kind of everywhere.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: I got some in Texas, some in Missouri, some in Oklahoma.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: We're kind of scattered.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: So you came here and you put down roots and and it just got the package deal along with it.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: John and I did not know each other until we moved here.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: He moved here from Colorado.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Um he came two years before I did, and I moved from Texas, and we met here, and that's awesome.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Now we're raising our family here.
8:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and you're not just raising your family.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: Um, you guys got a lot of stuff going on you want to share about some of that.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, um, we're both a part of the International House of Prayer.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Here in Kansas City.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, John is a worship leader.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: He's been a worship leader for well, he's been leading worship since he was maybe 15.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: But uh he uh he's a worship leader.
9:00
SPEAKER_02: He's a songwriter too.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: He's a songwriter, musician.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: He's releasing an album, um, late summer, early fall.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: Oh I didn't know that.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's exciting.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a great one.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm biased, but oh well, and I haven't heard a bad one yet.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, it is in the works right now.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Finishing touches going on right now.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: How exciting.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: Yep, that's great.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: And and how many is this now?
9:32
SPEAKER_00: How many albums?
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, gosh.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: I'd have to like go back and count.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: I want to say like eight.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, something like that.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, I was thinking like eight or nine.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: So beautiful.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Great.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: But this might just be the best one yet.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's great.
9:48
SPEAKER_02: Well, we can only grow, right, as we practice and continue to grow in our gift.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: That's so great.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you guys um both moved here to participate with International House of Prayer, and you both have essentially stayed on in different capacities.
10:02
unknown: Yeah.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: For John, that's looked like worship for you.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: What does that look like?
10:08
SPEAKER_00: So uh one of the main things that I um have kind of put my hand to um in the last decade or so is just working among the fatherless.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Um and really the story of how that even started was um in my early 20s before moving to Kansas City as a college student, I traveled overseas um to Russia and interned in orphanages.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Just lived among the kids.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: And um I did that for four four summers in a row.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Um and really those those uh experiences with the the children overseas were my initial eye-opener to the injustice of fatherlessness and children who are um living and growing up without families.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Um and it was it was those trips that those times um among the children in Russia where I just knew I'm not gonna be the same again.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: My my like something has been embedded in my heart, and um it's gonna really just influence the the trajectory of my life now.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Um and so uh I when I moved to Kansas City, I had this uh passion to work among the fatherless, and I and I knew that God was um leading me to put down roots in Kansas City.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I really had a wrestle in my heart over it because at that point um in my journey in all of this, I didn't think that America had orphans.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: So um I didn't know how to reconcile.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: God, you're you're telling me to put down roots in Kansas City, but there's not any orphans here.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like you're calling me to that also.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Right.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I just I kind of had a a rebuttal.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God, what about the orphans?
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I feel like what he was doing in that time was um, or actually what I heard him say was, Kenzie, I want you to pray for them.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: I want that to be your primary way of sewing into these children right now.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Um and I didn't know how that would look in the years to come, but uh what happened when I uh started praying, and I had prayed for orphans in in years prior, and um, but I really had um just just a marked change in how I approached it during that time.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: I really got serious and consistent in praying for the fatherless, praying for the fatherless overseas, um, which was really just my my grid at that time for what orphanhood was.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: I only knew to pray for for kids overseas.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what happened was the the burden in my heart for it started expanding hugely.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: I I thought I was letting something go by by putting down roots here in Kansas City, but what God did by just drawing me into the place of prayer over it was just exploded it in my heart.
13:38
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: Um because I touched something in him that I couldn't have touched if I was just necessarily doing doing ministry or living among the kids.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Like that really did something in my heart.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: But when I started engaging with God's heart over it, wow in a in a on a regular basis in a really focused way, it just totally wrecked me because I touched something in him and and really got to start tasting what he was feeling over these children.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: And um it was maybe seven, eight years ago.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll just tell a really quick story that kind of that kind of just uh brought us into the 40 weeks of prayer eventually, but um there there was a there's a building about three or four minutes down the road from my house where I live right now.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Um and I passed this building often and just as I was driving different places and I never knew what was inside this building.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what it was.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: There was a sign outside that said something about helping children and helping families.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I didn't know what it was, and I didn't honestly I didn't care, I didn't give it much thought.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, but a friend of mine uh who did know what that building was invited me one evening to go with her and just spend some time there.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And um I didn't know what to expect, but I went with her and a few other friends, and um we walked in and we we were in it sort of resembled a school cafeteria, um, maybe 15 round tables, and so we sat down and we just waited.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Their room was empty.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we waited maybe five or 10 minutes, and a line of little girls in their pajamas walked into the room, maybe four four to eight years old.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then a little line of boys walked in, and another line of girls, and they just kept coming in, and there were um 49 of them in all, ages four to twelve, and they lived there.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: That building was their home.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they were essentially the orphans, and they lived five minutes down the road from my house, and I never knew that they were there, I had never looked their way.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Um but I was made to look that night.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I just got my eyes opened to the reality that um the orphans still exist in America, yeah, even though we have changed our terminology.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: We don't say orphan here.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, we'll say foster kid or ward of the state or waiting child.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: And we don't say orphanage.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Um that night I was in an orphanage.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: They called it a facility.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh it's the same reality, even though we've changed our terminology.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: And so I just started kind of looking around my city, like, where where else are these children and where else are these facilities, these orphanages?
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And um, I just found them kind of scattered all around my city.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: I found a boys' home where there were 60 boys living, and and then a home for 12 to 18-year-olds where there were 75.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And I just found them just kind of hidden away in the corners of my city, and I had never known to look to see that these children were there.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, but was just uh just really taken aback and and wrecked over the reality that there were orphanages um just minutes down the road from where I lived.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
17:41
SPEAKER_02: That's beautiful.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: So it is I mean, I think like you said, we've changed the terminology, so we they have kind of been forgotten and like lost.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: And you we you know, we have those famous movies that we've watched, you know, Annie, or you know, it's always a like the painted picture of a terrible orphanage, but it's painted as so long ago that we forget what's going on right now.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so just what I started doing at that point.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, I just started visiting this this orphanage or this facility um weekly.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I would go a few times a week.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: I would go to um just help the kids academically, because a lot of them um uh were behind.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: And and that is the reality for um not every child, but a a good number of children in foster care um because they have just lived through a storm.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: The reason that they are not in their families um is because of abuse or neglect or abandonment.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: Um it's not anything that there was that was their fault.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Right.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Um and so the victim in all of this.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And so um I just I just started learning and just educating myself on just the the basic knowledge of what was happening in in this nation.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: And I learned that um like right now there's 400,000 displaced children in America.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: 400,000, you said?
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 400,000 um that are not in their families right now.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: And some of them live in foster families and some of them live in these facilities.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, over 50,000 of them are living in facilities.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Really?
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: And so does that usually happen because a foster family isn't available to take them, but they've been taken out of their home?
19:46
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: So there's just not enough uh families for these children.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: So they kind of uh go to these facilities just waiting for an open family.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: So they do they give and because I'm not as familiar with I'm I've been familiar with some different friends who've done foster care, but it seems like maybe the younger ones are given priority for a a family, a temporary family over the temporary housing, uh, but as they get older, they might be placed in the housing uh the facil facilities instead of the families.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, really, um, it's kind of a pretty devastating scenario of what happens.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Um it's just that foster families um are typically more willing to take younger children.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Um the teenagers aren't as uh readily received.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: So um there are a lot of teens living in facilities, and there's a lot of younger kids too.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is it's a lot harder to find a family for an older child.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: And um and there's a lot of children or a lot of teenagers um that age out of foster care every year with no family.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Um so right now uh there's 400,000 children in foster care, and about 25% of them, 100,000 of them, need adoptive families today, immediately.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Um and then the other 300,000, they're just kind of in limbo with the court system, waiting to see if they'll be reunited to their birth families or if they'll um be made available for adoption.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, but every year 20,000 teenagers are aging out of foster care with no family.
21:47
SPEAKER_03: And so what happens when they age out?
21:48
SPEAKER_03: What does that look like for them?
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh the the statistics are very poor.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Um they I think it's 1% or less.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Go to college, a a lot of them end up um unemployed, homeless, in prison, in prostitution, in human trafficking.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Um back in the system I'm sorry?
22:14
SPEAKER_02: Back in the system again.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Like the cycle.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the cycle continues.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And there is a small remnant that um and go on to be successful.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Um I've known a couple of those.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Um but but overall the majority, the statistics are pretty poor of what happens when they age out.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: What sort of um I guess programs are out there to uh for those who age out, or you know, or is anything being done to help awareness for that age group in particular to help bridge that gap?
22:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean, because it's it's something we've probably all heard about before, but you know, these numbers are pretty staggering.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there are um different ministries and different organizations that try to create sort of um a bridge for them as they transition into independent living.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Um so there are things that that try, but but really what they need is a family.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Um they are they're coached and prepared of to live independently, but still they're living independent as family.
23:30
SPEAKER_04: Right.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, they might be 25 years old, but they still don't have a mom and a dad to go to at Christmas time, or you know, so um so really what they most need is is family, even as 20-year-olds.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: No.
23:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally.
23:48
SPEAKER_02: Someone should take them in and they feel like they could call at any hour or you know, be there for those special days and all that sort of thing.
23:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: So as you look at this, and I I know that a lot of times as Christians, um, or just the world in general, we we pray for a crisis and it's it's kind of the last resort.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, well, I can't do anything else, but I'll pray.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: Um and I think I think that's part of the problem how our culture sees prayer as the last result.
24:20
SPEAKER_02: But in this situation, it sometimes feels so overwhelming.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: And I personally, you know, I'm I'm like, Lord, am I supposed to run an orphanage someday?
24:29
SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, because uh like my heart wants to, you know, like, you know, adopt 20 kids, you know, um for all the different reasons, but um it's not a reality, uh, at least in this time of life.
24:43
SPEAKER_02: And so sometimes it feels like, oh, you know, all I can do is pray.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: But I know in your journey, you've not only seen your heart enlarged for the orphan and praying, um, I think just in unity with the heart of God for um that just special need, um, but I think you've seen some miracles as well in, you know, because the forty the 40 weeks finished at the end of the year, but you're obviously this is an ongoing issue.
25:12
SPEAKER_02: It didn't, you know, not everything was fixed, but I know you have some great, great testimonies and just neat little miracles along the way.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I actually the Lord just um has has highlighted to me over the years that um that prayer is absolutely the most important thing we can do.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: It's not the only thing that we should do, but it is it's the most powerful thing that we can do.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Um and we want to put action to our prayers.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: We want to pray and ask God to to move in the lives of the fatherless and to open up homes for them, but then be willing to be the answer to our prayers if the Lord puts his finger on our hearts.
25:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, totally.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Um But just the power of actually praying for these children is that we're not wanting to just give them a different living situation.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: They do need families and they do need good homes to go to, but but they need the restoration of their souls, they need salvation, they need it, they need to be pointed to Jesus who can heal them because all of the kids that are living in the foster system have come from really hard places.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Um they have all lived through some measure of trauma.
26:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And they really need healing, and that can only come from the hand of God.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, it, you know, there's there's counseling and psychiatry and medication that these these children are given.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that that can't be beneficial, but but there are there are places in their hearts that only God can reach.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: And and I I heard someone say one time, um, a speaker on adoption, he said, we can we can give these kids shelter and clothing and family, but if we don't lead them to Jesus, we're just making them a little more comfortable that hell is still in front of them.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Like we have to point them to Jesus.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: And just in my own experience of being among these kids, um, you know, I'll I'll take a name of a kid that I'm working with in a particular season and just start praying for that child in particular.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: And it hit me one day that, man, you know, I'm praying for a little boy named Cameron.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: And it just hit me one day, there there might be, there's probably not one other person on earth praying for Cameron right now.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: And so if if you were to commit to pray for even one child, um, as simple as that is, you might be the only voice on earth saying that child's name up to heaven and praying for their life.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I have lots of people that pray for me.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: My my husband prays for me, and my mom prays for me, and my friends pray for me.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: But but some of these children don't have a single person on earth praying for them.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: So if we commit to be intercessors for even one child, that's really huge.
28:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a big deal.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's so good.
28:29
SPEAKER_02: I think we could talk about this for hours.
28:32
SPEAKER_02: We could.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of stuff here.
28:35
SPEAKER_02: But um I I think I would love to have you share a little bit of what you did um for those 40 weeks.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: But then then just real specifically, some of the things that that we could do now that we could join in, you know, whether it's following along with what you're doing and what you're highlighting in the stories, but how everyone in their own city can make some changes that can get that list um where they can find that one name and start praying and all that.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: So just um in a really short way, I'll just say that the 40 weeks was um we just rallied people across the nation to um pray for 40 weeks for um the the fatherless children in our nation.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: And we we send out prayer points um every week via social media and um through my blog, I was just writing lots of stories of children that I had um interacted with just to kind of give um context and just windows into the lives of these children as we pray for them.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: And so um and those were really good.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: I I thought that was really neat, just made it really personal and families who were actively making a difference too.
29:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:55
SPEAKER_02: Just being able to house those orphans.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Right.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: So um, so we got foster families involved and adoptive families involved, and um, and just told children or told stories of some of the children that are currently in foster care.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: And um, and that's something we still do.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: I still do that some through my blog, and we're still sending out prayer points through Instagram and Facebook.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Um but um practically like no matter what city you're in, um uh different ways that you can really just step into the lives of these children.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Um uh there's a few different ways.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: One of my my favorite ways um is just to find those those facilities in in your city where these children are living.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can Google it.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: You just Google residential treatment facility um for children or group home for children.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you can even put orphanage in your Google engine and um and it'll pull some up, pull some of these places up.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Um if all else fails, you can just contact the foster um agency in your area and ask them where the residential treatment facilities are in your area, just because you're interested in being a volunteer.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: And and these facilities, um most of them already have volunteer opportunities available.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay, because they're looking for people.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can be a tutor or a mentor or a lunch buddy, they have things available already.
31:31
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Um and then also um one of the things I've done the uh over the last several years um is just come alongside families who are fostering or adopting and just being a support system to them.
31:44
SPEAKER_04: That's good.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, whatever they need.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Like if they need you to scrub their toilets or bake or make dinner or help kids with homework, um, just to kind of lift the load and and make them feel that they're not alone because they've said yes to a really hard thing.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: And um just want them to feel supported.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then of course, prayer, and there are actually um a small percentage of the children who need families are um can be viewed on the internet.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Um if you visit the Heart Gallery of America dot org, okay.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, you you can actually even click on your state and you can view um the pictures and profiles of some of the children in your state.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, and just choose a child to start praying praying for.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
32:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:39
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love it.
32:40
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: Because those are all three things that we could do right now.
32:44
SPEAKER_03: Right.
32:45
SPEAKER_03: If you're not ready, prepared to open your home, or just aren't in a position to do that, then I like that there's some easy, yeah, easy inroads.
32:52
SPEAKER_03: Tangible ways is not just finances.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
32:55
SPEAKER_02: Right.
32:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:56
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
32:56
SPEAKER_02: That's really beautiful.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love it, Kinsey.
32:59
SPEAKER_02: I I know that there's gonna be a lot more coming through you in this message over the next couple years.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: And um and I know that you're gonna continue to um to speak out for the the voiceless a lot of times.
33:17
SPEAKER_02: And I I just love that I know that people are gonna hear this who maybe haven't thought um about this um maybe ever before, or just like you said, had it in a context of okay, I went on that missions trip and you know that's a need overseas.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: And while that is a very valid need, we have it in our own backyard a lot of times.
33:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so it's beautiful.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much, Kinzie.
33:40
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
33:41
SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate it.
33:42
SPEAKER_02: Give Adam a little snuggle from me.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: All right, thank you so much.
33:50
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
33:50
SPEAKER_02: All right, well, friends, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Kinsey Thurlow.
34:01
SPEAKER_02: It is an emotionally charged conversation to think about those without a home who are feeling hurting and left alone.
34:10
SPEAKER_02: We want to do everything we can to come alongside them in their time of need, whether it's opening our home or encouraging and supporting those who do, giving financially or praying for them, which is truly one of the best ways we can help support.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: So I encourage you, we'll link to all those different places that Kinsey had spoken about to be able to find maybe that one name that you could take a few months and pray specifically for.
34:37
SPEAKER_02: And maybe one of the miracles that you'll get to witness is their name is off the list because they've been put in there forever home.
34:44
SPEAKER_02: So, in the meantime, I hope you find more ways to live simply wholehearted.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: Finding time to create more unplugged, purposeful, and intentional moments.