Written by Emily Harmon


Eighteen thousand, one hundred twenty-nine. That is the number of children experiencing foster care in the state of Illinois today. Nationally, that number exceeds 400,000. Four hundred thousand precious children living in brokenness and heartache. Many of these children have experienced trauma and great loss, leaving them with deep wounds and a host of insecurities. 

When we hear the words “foster care”, it is children that typically first come to our minds and oftentimes the foster care community as a whole can be forgotten. In addition to children, the foster care community is made up of foster families, case workers and vulnerable adults (biological parents and kids aging out of foster care). Everyone within this community is in need of support, encouragement and the love of Christ. 

So the question arises, how can we as the body of Christ come alongside the foster care community and live out James 1:27 in a real and practical way? “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27 ESV. 

As Jami Kaeb became aware of the vast needs within the foster care community, she had a growing burden to see God’s people provide much needed support for those involved in foster care. In April of 2011, The Forgotten Initiative was born to serve as a bridge between the Church and the foster care community. The vision of TFI is: “Every foster care agency supported by local churches, faithfully reflecting the redemptive love of Christ.” This is the heart behind all that TFI does and God in His goodness has expanded the outreach of TFI beyond the Bloomington-Normal area with TFI having advocates serving in 24 states across America. 

The role of a TFI advocate is to build relationships with both the local foster care agencies and local churches. As these relationships are established a TFI advocate is able to understand the specific needs of the local foster care community and then take those needs back to the churches, who can begin to meet those needs through the generosity of the body of Christ. 

For the TFI ministry to the Bloomington -Normal area, meeting those needs in 2024 involved providing 110 beds/cribs and bedding to the local agencies to give to families in need. More than 35 car seats were given along with baby monitors, diapers, wipes, cleaning products, etc. Many churches like to provide “journey bags” to the local foster care agencies. These bags are gender and age-specific including essential items for a child entering foster care, as well as something comforting and fun such as a stuffed animal. Each journey bag contains an age-appropriate Bible as the heart of TFI is to always point all those to whom they minister to the One who can heal and redeem broken hearts and bring hope to the hopeless. 

Some other ways churches may bless and support local foster families is by providing “wrap around care” to foster families within their church. This can look like providing meals, offering practical help with day-to-day tasks, and most importantly providing foster families a safe space to share their heart and the struggles they face as they minister the love of Jesus through foster care. 

The opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus to all involved in foster care are endless! The local TFI ministry is looking to build a team of dedicated volunteers to support advocates as they minister to this often-forgotten community. Would you prayerfully consider how God may have you be involved with TFI? 

Every child, every case worker, every foster family, every biological parent impacted by foster care is cared for and loved so deeply by their Creator, and when we give of our time, energy and resources to invest in these precious people, we are doing it as unto the Lord. “And the King will answer them, ‘truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40 ESV

If anyone has interest in volunteering for TFI, please email Staci Widener or Jamie Fifarek at bloomington.il@theforgotteninitiative.org.

Written by Jill Christiansen


At first, Zach Harmon thought it was the flu. Nausea and a general feeling of being unwell plagued him for 10 days. It kept getting progressively worse. Finally, on December 20, 2024, he felt so ill he called in sick. 

Zach works for UPS. The holiday season is their busiest time. Because of this, Zach kept working until December 30. That day found him in a Walgreens parking lot, curled up in pain on the floor of his UPS truck. Unable to work anymore, he called his wife, Emily, and arranged to meet her at the UPS center. Then he called his supervisor for help, because he couldn’t drive out of the parking lot. His boss came and took Zach back to work, leaving the truck behind.  

Emily had arranged for someone to stay with their children. They arrived back at UPS at the same time and went to the doctor. The doctor diagnosed a kidney stone. The next day Zach was admitted to the hospital where they put a stent in to help the stone pass and to help fluids flow more easily out of his body.  

Ten days later the kidney stone was still there so they used a procedure called shock wave lithotripsy to help dissolve it. A week later he had x-rays to make sure the stone was gone, and five days later the stent was removed. 

Zach and his family had planned a special family day for New Year’s Day. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do that. “That stent was in for a little over 3 weeks,” Zach recalls. “Not only did I have to deal with the pain from the kidney stone, but also the extreme discomfort from the stent. But finally the kidney stone broke up and passed, and I started to feel better.”

Zach and Emily met through friends in January 2012, while they were volunteering at a ministry called Bearing Precious Seed. This ministry translates the Bible into different languages. Zach and Emily worked together on the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans, collating them and getting them ready to ship to Mexico and India.  

“We met again in February. I called Emily’s father and asked for permission to see her. We got married in August that same year,” says Zach. They have been married 12.5 years and have been blessed with five beautiful children. 

Zach was under a 25-pound weight-lifting restriction for a month, so he couldn’t work. During this time, he received disability pay, but it was only one-third of his normal salary. “We had to cut back on unnecessary expenses,” recalls Zach.  “We got the kids together and explained that to them. And then we prayed and trusted that God would provide according to His riches in glory. My family needed me. Since Emily is a stay-at-home mom, we live on my paycheck.” 

During this time, Zach tried to look for the blessings instead of the hard things. It helped him to remember something his mother used to say, “When you are going through hard things, in 100 years you’ll look back and it will be nothing.” Zach didn’t have to look too hard for those blessings, because God began to answer their prayers. 

A family brought them a meal and left a sizable gift. Their community group prayed, and the church helped them financially. “Emily used to teach piano,” Zach says. “The mother of one of her students randomly sent us a note with $100, the exact amount of a need we had.

There were other, more important blessings. “I had more time for reading and prayer. I had more time to spend with Emily and it was nice for the kids to have me around. I got a lot of cuddle time in with them!”

When Zach looks back on this difficult time, he can see how the promise of Romans 8:28 applies to his life: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. 

“Not all things are good,” Zach says. “If you are baking something you might use flour, and salt, and butter. If you taste each of these things individually, they don’t taste that great. But if you combine them with other ingredients, you wind up with something delicious.”

Written by Aaron Whisler

As Missions Emphasis Month drew to a close, our pastor, Matt Horine, used this text to remind us that the mission of God is to make his name great throughout the whole earth. Where God’s name is great – where God’s name is worshipped – there is true joy. So, if our mission at Calvary is “Helping Others Find Joy in Jesus,” then it would follow that we have committed ourselves to the cause of God’s mission: to help the nations find their joy in worshipping his name. This is the mission of God; this is the mission of Calvary Baptist Church. 

Each February, Missions Emphasis Month gives us an opportunity to explore this truth in a couple of over-arching ways. One, is to be reminded from God’s Word by various guest speakers. Another is to engage in events that closely, personally remind us of the missions partners that we support and the work they are doing in the mission of God.

Our Missions Emphasis Month began with a visit from Jeff Van Goethem, a long-time pastor with a unique blend of experience in the cause of missions and spiritual discipline of prayer. After encouraging us regarding the “Urgency in Missions” during the morning service, Jeff returned in the evening for a session on “Fervency in Missions”, especially as it pertains to the necessity of prayer in fueling the church as it carries out the mission of God.

The following week saw a familiar face return to CBC. Paul Campbell was born and raised in our ministry and now serves as one of our missions partners, pastoring a church plant in Logan, UT. Paul joined us for a “Missions Chili Supper,” during which a packed elementary gym not only enjoyed some good home cooking, but also the chance to hear updates from Paul on the church planting effort at Gospel Peace Church in Logan and throughout the state of Utah. He expanded his report in the Sunday morning service the next day, including the encouraging news of a prospective permanent meeting place for GPC!

Long-time CBC missionary Bob McQueary visited the next Sunday and shared updates on the work that he and his wife Gayle are carrying out particularly in the 10/40 window, training pastors and Bible translators for the work of planting churches. Bob also gave insightful, biblical counsel into being sensitive to God’s leading in the life of a believer, an exhortation that comes from decades of ministry experience. 

That evening, Bob joined us for an Interactive Prayer Gathering that included updates and the chance to pray over all of our missions partners. Those in attendance enjoyed hearing in-person reports from BibleTelling, The Forgotten Initiative, Ministry & More, and the McQuearys. Videos were also made specifically for this event by the Holmes, Wallers, Hos, Archibalds, and Jack Campbell. It was a wonderful opportunity to be reminded of the work God is assuredly doing through our missionaries to fulfill what we read in Malachi 1:11!

Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from the Interactive Prayer Gathering was a trend that we hope would be an ongoing impact of our emphasis on missions. No one could miss the direct connection of so many of our missionaries to their life experience at Calvary Baptist Church. Whether raised in our church, coming to Christ through the witness of our church, being discipled by our church, being organized by our church, or being sent by our church, many of our missions partnerships are a result of God’s working through CBC. If God’s mission is the glory of his name throughout the nations, our hope would be that a consistent, persistent emphasis on this mission would lead to ongoing generations of those from Calvary taking this mission to the nations. Would that Missions Emphasis Month 2075 bear the same testimony!