Empowered to Connect Live Simulcast

We are so excited to be hosting the live simulcast of this year's Empowered to Connect Conference on April 10-11.  

The Empowered to Connect Conference is a two-day conference for adoptive and foster parents, ministry leaders, and professionals designed to help them connect with children from hard places in order to help them heal and become all that God desires for them to be.

The simulcast will be held at Oak Creek Community Church in Mishawaka, IN.  The doors will open at 9:30am each day with the simulcast starting promptly at 10:00am.  We will have coffee and light refreshments available.  The conference will end at 6:00pm each day.  There will be a lunch break from 1:00-2:30 both days and we encourage you to grab lunch with someone else from the conference.

Continuing Education/Training Credits

The conference has pre-approval for 11 credits from the National Association of Social Workers for continuing education credits.  Training credits for foster parents is available as well, but you will need to get approval from your agency.  

The cost for the conference is only $22.  Click on the button bellow to register for this amazing conference!

2015 Dodgeball Tournament

This year our dodgeball tournament will be on March 28th.  It will be held at the Elkhart Youth and Community Center, which is located at 200 E Jackson Blvd. in Elkhart, IN.  Click here to view the flyer.

If you are interested in playing, putting your own team together, or if you have any questions you can email Matt at matt@villagetovillageintl.com.

Will we have a repeat champion?

Why Do We Underestimate Children?

Being a father of five, you would think I would get used to kids amazing me by their thoughts and actions. But this week I was amazed at the generosity of 2 young people.

First, by a nine-year-old girl named Paisley.  Paisley celebrated her birthday on December 31st.  Just like any little girl, Paisley had a birthday party but instead of asking her friends and family to bring presents, she asked them to bring donations for Oasis.  You may wonder why a nine-year-old would even care about something like Oasis.  Paisley's mom found herself in foster care and when she aged out of the system she was not prepared.  She was young, pregnant, and had no place to go.  Many nights she stayed at shelters and in church basements.  Her mom was so excited to hear that something like Oasis was coming to this area.  Paisley was able to raise $228 at her birthday party!

Paisley (in yellow) w/ her family, and V2V board members: Rebecca Johnson, & Matt and Stacey Borst

The second situation was a response from our monthly newsletter that went out Monday (1/26) morning.  I received an email from my son, Tait, a 13 year old young man, telling me that he is going to put a dodgeball team together for our dodgeball tournament coming up on March 28th.  Even though he is too young to play, he is willing to ask 10 adults that he knows to play on his team.  He also left $50 cash on my desk and told me that it was a donation for Oasis.  I asked him why he was doing that and he told me that he wants to help people who are in need.  I guess that is a pretty simple answer to something that I, as an adult, sometimes make too difficult. 

Tait with two of his sisters

Today, our teachers are Paisley and Tait.  Neither of them have much, but they did what they could do.  They did their part.  What is your part?  For me, it is a shift in my thinking.  I need to STOP thinking about what I can't do and start thinking about what I CAN do.