in him there is no darkness at all.” (John 1:5)

Today, there are nearly 20,000 children in Michigan who are in the Child Welfare System. 

Family disruption and societal discord are in far too many situations taking a toll on our

communities, schools and families.

Our very commitment and responsibility to care for each other, particularly those who society might describe as the

“least among us” is being questioned and challenged.  There are countless stories of children and families whose

futures have been altered because of LCFS and our Lutheran congregations in Michigan.

I recall a chapel service at St. Peter Lutheran School in Hemlock, Michigan that I attended several years ago. A

junior high aged girl sang a solo which included the phrase “We must run to the darkness and seek out the hopeless.”

Her song and that phrase has stuck with me perhaps because of her personal story. She had been in foster care in another

state. Somehow she ended up in Michigan with no family. Her future wasn’t even on the radar screen. She was placed

with LCFS and that is when her future began to take shape.  When I met her, she had a family and had been adopted. Her

teachers told me that when she first arrived in school two years earlier she wouldn’t talk and she was a “loner”.

What a leap from there to singing a solo in front of the entire student body. Consistency, encouragement and achievement, build

confidence.

“Running to the darkness and seeking out the hopeless” isn’t something everyone would routinely want to do, but

it is what we are called to do. Together we must “Picture the Possibilities” and be the change we wish to see in the

world.