Mobilizing Churches To Care For Vulnerable Children In Pennsylvania: An Interview with Matt Stohrer

What would it take for every child entering foster care in our county to land in a safe, loving, gospel-shaped home? That question drives our conversation with Matt Stohrer of Keystone Family Alliance. Matt’s family has fostered 23 children and adopted nine, and he now helps churches turn conviction into action in caring for vulnerable children in Lebanon county. We trace his journey from military service to foster care and explore how structure, teamwork, and faith create sustainable ministry for vulnerable kids.

Matt outlines three practical pathways any church can begin right away: Gateway requests that meet urgent needs like cribs, beds, and clothing; care communities of six to eight volunteers who provide meals, rides, and consistent support to foster families; and a clear pipeline to recruit and equip new foster and adoptive homes. We also face the sobering realities—over 15,000 children in Pennsylvania foster care, and many foster parents leaving within two years without support.

Grounded in the doctrine of adoption and the call to care for orphans and widows, we discuss hospitality as mission, trauma-informed care, and how Keystone Family Alliance equips churches with training, coaching, and ready-to-use frameworks that multiply impact while lifting the administrative burden from pastors.

Learn more at keyfam.org or email matt@keyfam.org
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome to Catechizing Conversations. My name is Cisco Victor, and glad that you have joined us for this podcast today. Today we have a special guest with us, Matt Storer from the Keystone Family Alliance here in Lebanon County. And one of the goals here of Catechizing Conversations is not only to work through some of the reform confessions together on a continual basis, but also to highlight various ministries that are here in our county that are doing work for the Lord. Matt, welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Thanks, Cisco. Thank you so much for taking the time and having me on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Absolutely. So uh Matt is coordinator of the Keystone Family Alliance here in Lebanon County, and we have some things in similarity. Both of us have nine children. And I'm curious what kind of reactions do you get when you tell people that typically uh wow, and then you can see it on their face, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah. It's like what is going on with you and your family? It's always a good lead into uh the ministry for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Right. So I was just recently uh speaking somewhere and I said that in my opening introduction, and it's like you hear pin drop. Uh sometimes I wonder if I'm just thinking that, or you know, people are really shocked. I always think of the joke too when I was when my wife and I uh were younger and we had several children walking through the grocery store. Somebody would always say, You know, are all these children yours? And I wanted to say, No, I just like to go through the community and pick up kids and say, Hey, you want to go to the grocery store? So yeah, you're you're definitely an outlier in in this culture. But we also have something in of similarity as well, in terms of both of us graduated from Liberty University.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yeah, that's right.

Family Background And Military Service

SPEAKER_00 2:15

So uh Matt, could you tell us a bit more about yourself and uh how you became involved with Keystone Family Alliance and what is the Keystone Family Alliance?

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Sure. Before we start, I asked how far back should I go? Born and raised in New Hampshire, and back in my wife and I were married 25 years ago, 2001, we're coming up on our 25-year wedding anniversary. So we're pretty excited about that. But back in, I'll just fast forward after high school, I joined the New Hampshire Army National Guard as a UH-1 and UH 60 helicopter repairer. And I've been in the National Guard at a full-time capacity ever since, coming up on 29 years now. And the military has blessed me beyond belief on a numerous, numerous things, hindsight being 2020, looking back, just had an awesome career with the military. But my wife and I met in 2000, and I just remember that so so very well. We both believers, both eager to love, to glorify God. And we started our journey in 2001. I was living in New Hampshire at the time. She was living in Ohio, and I was driving out to Ohio. It's actually a funny story. I was driving out to Ohio almost every Friday, 626 miles, 11 and a half hours. And I was buying her roses. I was like amazed. And her father is like, Matt, you need to stop with these roses and start saving for a house. I was like, Oh, that's really good advice. Six months into our courtship, I proposed six months after that we were married. That was 25 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

So I'd like to just get interrupted real quick. So finding out all these similarities because my wife and I just celebrated uh 25 years, and then she's from New Hampshire, and we lived in New Hampshire 10 years. So between New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, what's your preference?

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Uh, that's a tough one.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Uh it is a tough one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 4:17

New Hampshire will always be home, but I love the growing season in Pennsylvania. There's uh two more warmer months down here than in New Hampshire.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

But there's better lakes in New Hampshire. For sure. For sure. All right, sorry for the interruption. Go ahead.

Calling To Foster And Adopt

The Church’s Role In Caring For The Vulnerable

SPEAKER_02 4:30

No, it's good. What was, you know, our the military. So we were married in 2001, six months after our wedding, I was deployed to Bosnia for 10 months, and then 9-11 happened in that time frame, and then I was home for almost a year, and then I deployed again for another year. And uh that and that's tough, you know. It's like when when you're married and then you're deployed. I remember I was for the first five years of our marriage, two and a half of those, I was, you know, training deployment or whatever the case may be, but I wasn't with Amy, and I know that was really tough. So after that second deployment, we we were eager to start a family, and Amy Amy always had it on heart, like from a young age as a teenage, that she always wanted to, you know, foster, and we started doing that. And so in our journey, we've fostered 23 kids, we've adopted nine, eight through foster care. But it's interesting how seeds are planted way back when, and and Amy, she desired to do this, and you know, I was like, yeah, okay, sure, we'll we'll do we'll do this. And we were placed with children in New Hampshire, and then we moved down here to Pennsylvania, then we fostered more children down here. But for me, I think once I saw the need of children in our own community that that needed a home. And you know, with foster, the number one primary thing with foster care is like you want to keep those children in a safe place so those biological parents can do what they're it's necessary to to have those kiddos back. And we were able to step up, step in and do that capacity at the time. And but here in Lebanon County, when I was when I met with the Lebanon County caseworker not too long ago, she said, you know, 50% of the kids that come into foster care go up for adoption. So we've we've been absolutely blessed to foster all these kiddos in our house and have that those connections and relationships. And we've also then adopted a whole bunch of our kids through foster care, and it's just been an absolute blessing. So as a believer, you know, all throughout scripture, you know, God talks about caring for the vulnerable. And early on, as I was we were fostering and I saw the need, and then what I do for the military for a long time, I was always an instructor and you know, holding soldiers accountable to the standard. So it it all kind of fit, you know, when we read God's word, we read, we see the gospel, we see the work of Christ all throughout the Old and New Testament. But then in the New Testament, he's like, on in the Old Testament, we're talking about following God's commandments. We love God, we glorify Him. And so there's a lot of correlations. And I was we had a Bible study actually at work yesterday, and we were talking about there's a lot of correlations in the military and the structure in the military, and the structure about being a Christian. You know, we read God's word, our doctrine, but it's so much more than that. The canon of scripture, and how awesome is that we have the whole canon in the in the life that we live here to read, to learn about Christ, and to follow his commandments. And it's all throughout scripture to care for the vulnerable. The Lord put it on my heart in early of 23 to start to start advocating, to go to churches because as a foster parent, I knew the church could do so much more. And I wanted the opportunity to just go around to churches and say, hey, church, the body of Christ. Like we're cared, we're called to care for the vulnerable. Here's a way that we can do it in our own society, in our own community. And we have, I mean, it's uh we have children because there's not enough foster homes. We have children sleeping on benches in the Lebanon County Children and Youth for days until the next available foster home is found. And when I was talking to Lebanon County Children and Youth, they were telling me, you know, sometimes we have to place kids in downtown Philadelphia because there's not enough foster homes in Lebanon County, but Lebanon County is littered with churches, you know, or like state college or you know, somewhere that you wouldn't even think like we have to go that far to find a foster home when we have Christians that love the Lord. So why isn't the church knocking down the the door at Lebanon County Children and Youth and saying, Here we are? So why isn't that the case?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

So so you're uh putting your faith into practice with you and your wife did that and have fostered 23 children, you have nine adopted children looking at the picture here on the computer, beautiful picture of your family. But it was that that led you to start working with the Keystone Family Alliance because you wanted to see this more Christians. It's like your your family has done. Bring these vulnerable children into their homes. Absolutely.

Founding Connection With Keystone Family Alliance

SPEAKER_02 9:43

And it was an answer to prayer. So I I started pursuing to open up my no my a nonprofit. I think I named it Listen with Your Heart Ministry, and I was starting the 501c3, and this is not my cup of tea. Like all this administrative action. And um, I was I was pursuing this, and then I was trying to put my board together. So I was calling around to some friends. I'm like, hey, will you be a part of this board? This ministry I'm starting to start. It's on my heart to do. And one of the my friends that I called, they're like, Matt, have you ever heard of Keystone Family Alliance? And I'm like, no. So I, you know, Google them real fast, and I was like, oh man, their mission statement's almost identical to what I wrote on you know that document. And so I ended up calling one of the caseworkers, and the caseworkers, like, you got to talk to Vince Smith, who's our executive director. And I ended up talking to Vince. Long story short, I was like, Vince, I'm starting this nonprofit in Lebanon County. I want to, I'm just trying to advocate for the churches to care for the vulnerable children. And I just I remember I remember him saying, He's like, Oh Matt, we've been praying for a Lebanon County coordinator. I was like, Well, you just found him. And so I started with Keystone, I hit the ground running, they have all the infrastructure, you know, statement of faith, everything. And I was able to immediately get to work within Lebanon County for advocating.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

So for the person listening who has no idea what Keystone Family Alliance is, what what it what makes it run? How does it work? What's the core mission of the Keystone Family Alliance?

What Keystone Family Alliance Does

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Great question. I have yeah, there's primarily Keystone Family Alliance. What we do is we provide churches with a family advocacy ministry, and we educate, we equip, and motivate Christians all across Pennsylvania for the needs of vulnerable children. And we partner with churches and we provide, and I say that family advocacy ministry, and what I mean by that is like we have all the resources to walk alongside churches and say, here you go, church, here's a a ministry that you can adapt, you can add to, take away from, but we're gonna walk alongside of you so we can educate, motivate, and equip the Christians, the believers in your church to care for the vulnerable. And there are three primary ways to do this. And the way I look at this, it's extremely tangible. Like we go to church, we love God, we worship him, and then throughout the week, how can we serve? How can we, you know, where the rubber meets the road, you know, where the light of Christ, how can we penetrate the darkness in our community? It, you know, it's a it's an actionable step. So there are three primary ways. And the first one is gateway. And gateway is just a registration to receive an email. I mean, how simple is that to receive an email? And you're receiving an email for a known need in the community. For instance, a caseworker will post we need a mattress for this family that's caring for these children, or it could be an adoptive family, or it could be a kinship family. And if you can meet that need, you reply back, submit. I can I can bring a mattress to Lebanon County Children and Youth. And that's a very tangible way. It's just like I can respond to an email, send a mattress, a dresser, clothing, baby, whatever the case may be. If you're interested in uh signing up for that, go to keyfam.org and and then find Gateway, and there's a registration form for that. Gateway's kind of neat to me. I mean, all of it, but there's two primary way things that I think Gateway does. It shows that Christians in our community are meeting tangible needs for Lebanon County children and youth. And it's an opportunity for that person meeting that need to meet a family in Lebanon County and to bridge that gap. There have been numerous times when I'm able to share the gospel with them. I invite them to church, you know, to start building that connection because ultimately it's just sharing the love of Christ. I mean, this is just a mechanism to share the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

And I'm glad you said that and and said that first, because there's probably someone listening hearing that you and your wife have uh fostered 23 children, now have nine adopted children, and they're saying, I just can't do that. I can't even do one. And maybe they disqualify themselves. But with this, a person can get involved in this way by providing a tangible need and meeting that need and in the name of Christ.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

That's right. It's interesting when I think about, you know, you say have you nine kids, everyone, and people are like, okay, interesting, you know. I don't know what to say, let's move on. Yeah, I see. But a lot of people, when you're fostering, I we've heard this for years, we're like, oh, I could never do that. Well, you could do that. Yeah, and it's tough, but sometimes in our walk with Christ, you have to put yourself in a vulnerable situation. And in for me, I am uh excited when I can put myself in a vulnerable situation because in our experience, you know, it's one thing to have like four or five kids, but then when children youth call and say, Hey, we have a sibling group of three, can you take three more kids? It's really a leap of faith, right? So we know that if we step out in faith, we love the Lord, the Lord's gonna meet us. And he has met Amy and I when we've done this, and you get encouragement when you're like, Oh, you put yourself in a vulnerable position, you step out in faith, you're met, and then you do more because you see that the Lord's gonna meet you for everything in scripture that talks about because we love him, we're gonna follow his commandments, but there's a sense of eagerness for me to put myself in a vulnerable state so I can follow him. And that's essentially what fostering is, because it's tough.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

And what I love about this is you're speaking from experience and you you've put yourself in these shoes to do this. So as we listen, this is not someone just theoretically saying, yeah, it's hard, yeah, it it takes risk, it takes faith, you you've done this and God has met you.

Gateway: Meeting Tangible Needs

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Amy and I would we had a 12-passenger van. We weren't those crazy people with a 15-pack, you know, but just 12. But I remember when we were a part of our journey doing this, I would always look back in the back seat and I'm like, well, there we have one more seat available. And but just that it was an awesome experience. And I think a lot of people, you know, when you talk about fostering or adopting it or the foster care system, it's usually met with I could never do that. And if it was on my own accord, I pr Amy and I probably would have struggled very, very much, but it wasn't necessarily on our own accord. You know, we were following God, loving him, and stepping out in faith.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Well, thank you for pushing back on my idea that there's someone listening saying I can't do that because a lot of times we can do something and much more than we think we can. And often it's our own doubt and unbelief that's holding us back. So you mentioned the gateway to provide tangible resources. That's one way to get involved. And and then what's the second way?

SPEAKER_02 17:13

So the second is a care community, and I think this is where the majority of the church comes around. And a care community is this. We have a fossil, say, hypothetically, you have a foster family in your own in your church. A care community is a group of six to eight believers that just wrap around that foster family for up to a year or longer. You build a relationship with them, you for you do acts of service, you provide a meal. And the meal, it seems like we have a lot of meal trains, like in churches or whatnot. But the meal is one night a week where that foster family doesn't have to worry about providing for their family, they can just enjoy a meal around the table, which is paramount. So if you have like four people in the care community, you know, it's one time a month you're providing a meal, and like everybody could do that, but you're serving a family every single week. And then transportation, because in a foster situation, uh that foster child has numerous appointments, or you know, going to Lebanon County Children Youth for a visitor, and this just gives an opportunity for the care community to say, hey, I can do that transportation, I can bring that do that need. But it's an act where the church is wrapping around that foster family and and caring for them. And one thing I would like to share about this foster parents will not ask for help, and they just won't. Maybe some will, but the majority won't. And and I know a lot of times churches will say, Well, if you need anything, let me know. Yes. Well, when have you the analogy I like to use sometimes is if you see someone in a pool that's maybe drowning, they're not saying, Hey, I need a life jacket, you know, they can't even communicate. And a lot of the times when you're fostering, that's what it is, when you're just so overwhelmed, you're not gonna go to a pastor and say, Hey, I need help because you're always fearful of them saying, Well, why'd you put yourself in this situation? And but the care community is a way for the church to reach out to see them, say, Hey, we see you, we're coming after you, we're gonna support you because we know their journey is extremely tough.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I mean, that's that's just a beautiful illustration and so necessary, because I think everybody right now could be thinking about their own personal church, and there's someone in their church that is a foster family that has stepped out of faith and is doing this. And perhaps everyone's just standing around in a sense, looking and saying, Well, good luck. I I hope it goes well for you. But that's not demonstrating the community that the church is supposed to be. And so this is not just an individual goal or endeavor or adventure. It should be a churchwide goal.

Care Communities Around Foster Families

SPEAKER_02 20:10

They have found over time that a third of the people that part participate in a care community will actually start fostering and adopting because at large, fostering, you know, that's pretty scary. You know, we don't want to step into that realm. But once you see it and understand, or or maybe they'll say, like, well, I could do this if I had support. And then that's a way that we're bridging the gap in the body of crisis care for those in need. Yeah, but the care community is tremendous for those churches that partner with Keystone Family Alliance. We do all the training. We call the liaison for Keystone Family Alliance within the church. We call that an advocate. And that advocate is, you know, building the ministry. And Pastor, you're going to love this because we don't ask the pastors to say, hey, this is one more ministry. We provide people within the church all the education and the training to do so. Now, obviously, it's under your leadership, but we equip those within the body to run this ministry. So it's not one more thing for the pastors or the leadership have to do.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yes. This is a ministry that is equipped, that is knowledgeable, that has years and years of experience and the resources. And they're actually coming alongside of the local church and saying, we will help you do this, help you to support your foster parents.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Yeah, it's truly an alliance. So Keystone Family Alliance, but alliance is a key word because I'm we're providing a that ministry to numerous churches. And then the core staff, me, we're in at the time I have an assistant too, and we just walk alongside. We walk alongside all those advocates, you know, the care communities. We answer questions about Gateway. And then we also encourage, and which is the third part of the core, I would say the the things that we advocate for within the church is just for people to foster and to potentially adopt if if they feel called to do that. And there are here's some statistics. There are 15,000 kids in foster care in uh Pennsylvania. 1,100 of those kids are gonna age out out of foster care every single year. And we know that 80% of the boys will be incarcerated within two years. 70% of the girls will be pregnant and signal single before their 21st birthday. And it's worse the church, right? Like let's motivate, let's mobilize, I like using army terms, let's mobilize the church to care for the vulnerable.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

And you just mentioned it earlier on just looking at how many churches are in Lebanon County. So if you have fifteen thousand children in Pennsylvania that are currently in foster care, many of them are gonna age out. Truly the question is where is the church? And then we're also seeing many of these children get placed in homes that intensify and exasperate the vulnerability they already have. And so particularly what Keystone Family Alliance wants to do is see these children placed into good Christian homes.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

That's right. So in my journey at Keystone, I always ask, like, why isn't the church doing this? Because I know the church loves Christ, and I know the Christians within the church want to follow God's commandment, so that can't be so it must be an awareness issue. There are a lot of churches that I'll have the opportunity to speak at, and then I'll throw those statistics out. And I just I truly believe that people just don't know. I don't, you know, we have numerous children in Lebanon County that need structure, they need a home to go to. And it's just so clear and concise. You know, it's kind of interesting in the military. We have something called an operation order, you know, and that's what tells us, you know, the units what what to do. And when I read the book of James, for instance, James 127 to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, you know, it's just so clear and concise to me. I'm like, this is we love God. God says care for the vulnerable. And I use James, you know, you know, further in chapter two, it says faith without works is dead. But it's so much more than just following just the commandments. We follow the commandments because of the gospel, because of the love that he has for us. And it's just so clear and concise to me, like black and white, like we have kids in need, we have a body of Christ that is numerous in our own community. Let's mobilize the church, let's spread the awareness and get these Christians in a place where they can care for the vulnerable in our own community.

Recruiting, Supporting, And Retaining Foster Parents

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Exactly. And I mean, this is the history of the church from the church in the book of Acts, and we know in the early church of doing such things as this as taking in the children that were discarded, the children that were forgotten, the children that literally were left on the side of a hill somewhere, bringing them in to the homes and and to the church community. And I think it could it it really lessens the sense of intimidation when a person thinks it's not just going to be me, but as you gave that beautiful picture, is the church wrapping the arms around that foster family and saying, We're in this together, what can we do to help, even if that means providing those meals throughout the week, recognizing, hey, there's a family in my church that has really taken on a big need, and we don't want to see them go at this solo.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Yeah, it's it's tremendous when you have a group of people that are praying over you, that are lifting you up. Because there are some pretty tough days when you're when you're in the trenches, and it's nice to have a battle buddy there to do it with you.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

And and so 15,000 children currently in Pennsylvania in foster care. And one of these statistics is just standing out to me from what you were talking about. 90% of foster parents will quit in under two years when they don't have enough support.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Mm-hmm. That's tremendous. It's one thing to recruit people to step into this to this ministry to foster and adopt. But if you don't sustain those families, and that's a huge, huge number, but we know that if we support those families, many of them will foster longer and stronger, well beyond two years. So we if we can recruit the Christians to care for the vulnerable and then support them with the care community, they're going to be able to do that mission longer and stronger. And then we're just spreading awareness all throughout the church. Right. And and ultimately, and I I don't, and we never want to lose focus, and certainly we're not, but it's an opportunity to share the gospel through through your service, through your love, through following God's commandments. And, you know, when we talk about fostering, and I say, hey, that child's going to come into your home and you're going to be able to share the gospel with that child, but you're a test, you're you're sharing your testimony really to the caseworkers, to the in-house services that are there. And you have numerous opportunities to share your faith, which is tremendous, and which what we're called to do.

Equipping Churches And Sunday School Teams

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Reminds me of a book that I read several years ago. It's a it's a intense book, and it's in a sense an intimidating book. It's entitled The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosario Butterfield. And the ultimate theme of the book is hospitality, and that the means of sharing the gospel is through your home, and it's through opening your home. And I think this is the ultimate hospitality and home ministry that you're bringing children in need into your home. And again, the goal is not simply to do that, and and that's a wonderful act and work, a good work, but the ultimate goal is that these children would grow up with the gospel and in the Christian faith.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yeah, absolutely. Every child in foster care has a level of trauma, neglect, abuse, or just the simple fact of fostering, say creates a level of trauma because when you take a child out of their biological home because it's unsafe, that's going to create some level of hardship, obviously, for everybody around. Another aspect of Keystone Family Alliance that's really important to identify is equipping, equipping the saints to care for children. Now, a lot of families do this very, very well, but we equip foster parents, adoptive parents, we equip churches to care for children in those vulnerable states. We do training for churches. So for instance, if you have a child that maybe is acting up, maybe has come from a broken home, and you want your Sunday school teachers to be equipped, we provide the training to the Sunday school teachers. It's a very broad ministry, and we're really trying to provide every tool necessary for everybody in the church to care for the vulnerable. And I would be remiss if I didn't say this, but our motto is everybody can do something. What is your something? And we just try to provide and equip every Christian in Pennsylvania to be able to do that.

Theology Of Adoption And Motivation

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Matt, could you speak to the correlation between Keystone Family Alliance, the idea of fostering and perhaps ultimately adopting, as you and your wife have done, with the biblical doctrine of adoption? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Ephesians one, right, comes to mind like we are all adopted. For everyone who believes in the Lord, we are adopted. It's interesting when I reflect on that because now we live, we live in a society today, and I'm gonna share a little bit of military aspect. You know, freedom's not free. And uh, we know this from all those, you know, service members that have paid that ultimate sacrifice, and for what? For our freedom. We in the United States, we are free from persecution. And as a believer in Christ, we're called to care for the, to love the Lord and follow his commandments, to, to preach the gospel, and we're free from persecution. You think about all the other countries around the world that are loving the Lord, that are being persecuted, and here we are in the United States with a plethora of resources to love God and follow his commandments. So I think about we're adopted. What an awesome opportunity now for us to care for the vulnerable. Just we were vulnerable. And now we have the freedom in Christ to go out into the darkness, the dark places of our community, and to love those just like how Christ loved us. Yeah. Now we don't obviously have, you know, the power of salvation, but we can share the gospel, we can love those kids just the same way that Christ loved us.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Yeah, it's reflecting in our personal lives what God has done for us. So many images in the Old Testament of God saying to his people that they were like on the side of the road and he picked them up and cared for them and and loved them. Of course, one of the goals here in our our podcast is to focus on the confessions of faith and just a beautiful question and answer of what is adoption. And the answer begins with adoption is an act of God's free grace whereby we are received into the number. So once once we didn't belong, and now we belong. And so you're saying that that that heart that's been experienced, that kind of grace and then that kind of love is now wanting to do the same for a vulnerable child.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Absolutely. The numerous children, you know, with the fostering that we've done in adoption, and we share the gospel, but it's not always saying that we're gonna have that conversion where that child's gonna see, you know, God's grace and you know, fall and just be a blessed. But what we're doing is we're planting seeds. I mean, that's what we're called to do. And you know, I pray for my kids all the time, and fostering is tough. It it is it is tough, tough work. And but it we should, we should we don't need to do it alone. We have the entire church to care for for those doing it and then to walk alongside.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

So it's a very realistic uh picture that you're painting, that this isn't an automatic success story, and there are times that the children that are brought into a Christian home don't come to faith per se. But as you said, that seed has been sown, multiple seeds have sown over all the time that they've been in your home, and you continue to pray for them. And if you had not brought them into your home, then who is praying for them? Right exactly. There's those challenging times, but what would you say is some of the most encouraging moments for you as you've worked in this ministry?

Growing Church Partnerships And Shared Doctrine

SPEAKER_02 33:37

My uh my wife wants to continue to foster and adopt, and I think we will do that. I have a handful of teenagers right now, so everyone that's listening, you already know you already know the hardships I'm trying to get through right now with that. But I think the most encouraging or one of the most encouraging aspects of this ministry is that the church at large has started to really equip themselves to put themselves into this dark place. And you know, I say dark place because it's tough work. You know, I say dark because we're the light. And what an awesome opportunity for the church at large to step out into our own community and to be the light of Christ, right? So dark and light. I've seen numerous churches. We've partnered with a handful of churches, and within that church, we have care communities that are growing. We have people that are starting to foster, we are having people starting to adopt these children, and the ministry is starting to grow. And, you know, the one thing I've learned about this ministry, it's it's not on Matt's timeline, right? It's on God's timeline. And we are to remain faithful and steadfast. And but God's working in Lebanon County in this ministry and in the hearts and you know, stirring the hearts of those within his church to to start caring for these kiddos. And it's very encouraging to see.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

So you're seeing churches get involved that were not involved. You're seeing pastors that were ignorant of the fact that this ministry existed, becoming aware, just like myself. Uh, been here in this county now over 10 years, and I I wasn't aware. I may have seen it cross my webpage at some point on the internet or an email, but I never really focused in. And then I attended a breakfast that you held for pastors and really could see the vision that you were casting. And so you're seeing more awareness come about to this ministry.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Absolutely. I have not talked to a pastor yet that doesn't believe in the church caring for the vulnerable. But I think where Keystone Family Alliance really gets its traction is that we're just providing churches with the ministry. Now, going back to when I was starting, you know, listening with your heart ministries and the 501c3 and all, you know, the coronation aspect, I mean, that's a huge undertaking. Like for a church to start a foster care or a vulnerable care ministry, that's an undertaking. But we just want to walk alongside churches and say, here you go, church. Here, here it is. Add to, take away from. And a lot of the times we encourage churches to come up with their own ministry name. You know, we just want to provide all the resources and the documentation, say, here you go. And here I am. I'm gonna walk alongside of you and we're gonna support you because collectively we're just doing this mission together. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Now, the churches that you partner with, it's a a broad base in terms of there's not one particular denomination or one particular fellowship, but you you do ask that churches that partner with you hold to some commitments. What are those?

Prayer Requests And How To Get Involved

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Yep. So we have a statement of faith, and it's actually fairly lengthy. Now, we when we say the five solas, grace alone, scripture alone, faith alone, glory of God alone, and Christ alone, all collectively together. I mean, that's that's the gospel. We have, you know, it's kind of funny, it's like three or four pages long about, you know, what we believe, litter with scripture and our affirmation. Let's see, I actually have it right here because I didn't want to miss anything. We have a church commitment of you know what we'll provide to the church and and what we ask for the church to provide in Keystone. But those core principles, and when we say the five solos, so we're all walking in the same direction. You know, the Bible is it clearly demonstrates Christ all throughout the Old and New Testament. We want to be firm in our our faith as we live out our commandment or our love for the Lord and the commandments that we're following for him. So he so to do his will in the community. So we just want to be on the same page. And a lot of the churches, many denominations, but all moving forward in the same direction.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Right, all Christian, all gospel-based, and as you said, having those five solos. And I think one of the distinctives of a Presbyterian context in our church is if we held to our doctrine as we should, it has a very, very high view of children. We not, of course, not only Presbyterian, but many other Christians, of course, recognize that Jesus said, Let the little children come unto me, for such is the kingdom of God. And so this is a ministry that is putting that into practice and saying, Yes, children have a high high value in the eyes of God, particularly those that are vulnerable and need to be brought into a covenant community. The Apostle Paul addressed children, which was such a radical thing to do in the book of Ephesians, because they would have been equal to slaves or women who were were viewed in low regard in that culture, and yet we see all three of those groups of people addressed by the apostle as being made in the image of God and of great worth. So so this is a awesome ministry that's taking place that it would be to our detriment not to partner, not to be aware of it, and to pray for you. How can we be praying for you, for your family and and for the alliance?

Closing And Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 39:35

I think just stirring the hearts of the Christians in Lebanon County to just to take a step forward into the ministry to care for vulnerable children. You know, when we talk about vulnerable, either the church is gonna pick them up or the latter's gonna pick them up, right? Like vulnerable children can't Can be used for evil where evil is gonna find them, or the bot where the body of Christ can find them. I would this is my this is what my prayer's been since I've started with Keystone Family Alliance. My prayer is that when a child comes into care, that child goes to a loving Christian home. And there's no reason for the amount of children that are in Lebanon County, there should be no reason for the amount of child for the amount of Christians that we have in this community. There should be no reason that when a child comes into care, that child goes into a Christian home. I think prayers for family, to do life well, to you know, to teach, to be focused. This year specifically, I've really focused more on about being intentional. You know, military service, working with Keystone Family Alliance, numerous military schools. You know, I have a ministry at home too, and just to be extremely intentional with my family could definitely be a prayer, yeah, prayer request. But there's a lot of work we all need to do in Lebanon County, whether it just be gateway or joining a care community or doing that leap of faith into that foster community. Everyone can do something. What is your something? And uh if there's pastors out here, out there that are listening to this and would be interested in joining Keystone Family Alliance, you can email me at matt at keyfam.org and I would love to connect with you.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Awesome. Well, well, thank you, Matt, for your service to our country and for your service to the kingdom of God and this vital ministry you're doing, not only the ministry, but the ministry in your own home. And we will definitely be praying for you, and and I hope that more will partner and become involved with the Keystone Family Alliance. Awesome. Thank you, Sisco. Well, thank you for listening today to Catechizing Conversations. Uh, this has been an interview with Matt Storm, the coordinator of the Levant County Keystone Family Alliance. Continue to pray for him and for this ministry. And uh, as Matt said, if you're interested in learning more, you can go to keyfam.org or send him an email. And let's pray that God does a great work among the families of Levner County. The Lord bless you.