Think Orphan - In Pursuit of Orphan Excellence

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222. An Honest Conversation Around Church and Foster Care with Jason Johnson

This week, Jason Johnson from Christian Alliance for Orphans returns to the show. Jason is a writer and speaker who encourages families and equips church and organizational leaders on their foster care and adoption journeys. In this episode, Jason names and shares many of the struggles and challenges that foster and adoptive parents go through. He encourages us to find safe spaces and communities where we can process our emotions and have open and honest conversations.

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221. War Relief, Deported Children and the Ukrainian Church with Kim de Blecourt

This week we've got Kim de Blecourt from Nourished Hearts back on the show to talk with us about their ministry in Ukraine, the effects of the war on vulnerable children and the importance of coming alongside indigenous churches. Nourished Hearts is a ministry that encourages, inspires, and creates community around those who are involved with adoption, foster care, or orphan care internationally.

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220. Family Care Through Collective Impact with Kimberly Quinley

Kimberly Quinley, a pioneer of family-based care, has spent nearly 40 years serving in Thailand. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of Step Ahead, an organization committed to see all children in Thailand grow up in safe and nurturing families. Kimberly is a founding leader for Strong Families Alliance Thailand (SFAT), a Christian alliance with the same vision and goals as World Without Orphans. In episode 220, we cover everything from the core pillars of family strengthening, to collective impact, creating national roadmaps, and more.

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219. The “Uncharitable” Truth About Nonprofits with Lindsay Hadley

In episode 219, Lindsay Hadley is on to discuss the upcoming release of the documentary "Uncharitable". After many years in the nonprofit sector, Lindsay has become one of the most sought-after consultants and producers. This conversation challenges us to envision an unconstrained nonprofit sector. What if the charities could attract the best leaders, talents, and ideas? What if smaller operations with less impact stopped and those resources went to the best organization solving the problem? We get into these questions and more in this episode of Think Orphan.

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218. Infant Adoption in a Post-Roe World with Elizabeth Kirk

In episode 218, we hear from lawyer and professor, Elizabeth Kirk. Elizabeth is the Director of the Center for Law and the Human Person, as well as a research associate at The Catholic University of America. Her work spans a variety of law in child welfare, parental rights, and adoption policy. In addition to her career, her lived experiences as an adoptee and an adoptive parent, give her a unique perspective and voice to speak into the conversation happening around adoption today. She talks with Brandon about the role that infant adoption could play following last year's Dobbs decision at the Supreme Court, misconceptions around adoption, as well as insight on the decision making process for women that have an unplanned pregnancy.

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217. On The Ground in Lesotho – The Power of Family Reunification

In episode 217, we have a special on the ground episode to share how one organization's journey and commitment to reunifying families has inspired others. Trust for Africa's work in Lesotho has gone beyond their own organization and now supports other organizations to transition to family-based care. Naomi Schalm, Mafusi Semethe, Mbele Horoto, and Bokang Lipholo all join us in this conversation to celebrate the movement underway in Africa's "Kingdom of the Sky."

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216. Poverty and Family Separation in Child Welfare with Sarah Winograd

In episode 216, we hear from US care reform leader, Sarah Winograd from Together for Families. Sarah speaks passionately about the complexities in child welfare and foster care as a system, how poverty contributes to family separation, and the problematic ways we've seen and judged birth families. She asks the hard questions- if most children aren't coming into foster care because of abuse, what resources and systems are we investing in to keep those families together? What are we doing to intervene and stabilize families in order to prevent separation and keep children in families? Can the church do better?

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215. Thriving Families with Jenn Hook

In episode 215, we have the privilege of sitting down with Jenn Hook to glean from her experiences in the foster care system and hear about her newly released book, Thriving Families. Jenn is the Founder and Executive Director of Replanted. She's also the author of Replanted: Faith Based Support for Adoptive and Foster Families.

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214. Storytelling to Empower with Jeff Rogers

In episode 214, we've got filmmaker and justice advocate Jeff Rogers on the show. Jeff talks with us about his work over the years that has highlighted and advocated for children outside of parental care and communities that have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. Jeff shares with us about the new feature documentary Beyond the Island which tells the story of HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea and highlights the work of advocates and the triumph of overcomers. Through the conversation, we learn more about the role that filmmaking plays in enacting community change and advocating for vulnerable children.

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213. The Annual Review/Preview Show with Phil and Brandon

In episode 213, Brandon and Phil reflect on 2022 and look forward to 2023 for the podcast and orphan care ministries. This is our annual show to share the state of Think Orphan and what exciting things are coming down the pipe for the podcast. We want to hear from you while we do it all!

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212. How To Transition Your Board and Donors to Family Care

In episode 212, we've got a panel of executive directors that oversaw the transition of their orphanage to family based care. We'll be asking them the hard questions of how they worked with their board of directors and their donor bases to take the journey with them. Brandon will be interviewing past Think Orphan guests and orphan care leaders, Brent Phillips of Cherish Uganda, Ashlee Heiligman of Global Child Advocates and Spencer Reeves of Child Hope International. This panel took place live in Atlanta, Georgia at the Christian Alliance for Orphans Annual Summit.

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211. Helping Foster Youth Redefine Normal with Justin Black

In episode 211, we're talking with foster care alum, entrepreneur and advocate Justin Black about the new book he co-wrote with his wife Alexis called Re-Defining Normal. Justin shares with us his experience spending some of his childhood and adolescence in care and the importance of supporting foster youth as the exit care. It's a great conversation to think through family, community and what it means to help young people heal and establish their own family successes.

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210. Creating Circles of Care with Adrien Lewis and Jake Barreth

In episode 210, we're talking with Adrien Lewis and Jake Barreth of the Global Orphan Project to learn about their ministry and dive into the Care Portal platform. We get into conversations on youth that are aging out of care, hear about the crisis in Haiti and learn how Care Portal is changing communities throughout the US and Canada. All that, plus Brandon and Phil subject our listeners to pointless sports banter (and it's not even Phil's other podcast!)

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209. Subversive Mission with Craig Greenfield

In episode 209, we've got our buddy Craig Greenfield back on the show to catch us up on the Alongsiders movement and tell us about his new book Subversive Mission. We talk with Craig about the five fold ministry framework that he adapted from Ephesians and get our questions answered about ethical cross-cultural missions. If you are doing missions work overseas, this is an episode you don't want to miss.

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208. Attachment and Trauma Focused Therapy with Deborah Gray

In episode 208, we're in conversation with author and preeminent attachment expert Deborah Gray. Deborah shares from her decades of experience serving children and families through therapy and sets baseline understandings on trauma and attachment. In addition to the stack of books that Deborah has written, she also shares about the Attachment-Trauma Focused Therapy post-graduate course that is now available for the first time ever in an online format. All that, plus we've got our favorite Brit, movie director and podcast editor, Samuel Rich, filling in for Phil this week.

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207. Reimagine Orphan Care with The Archibald Project and Global Child Advocates

In episode 207, we're talking with Nick Runyon, Ashlee Heiligman and Julie Ann Walton about their new media series called Reimagine Orphan Care. Nick from The Archibald Project shares with us about storytelling and the power of media to help orphans and vulnerable children and Ashlee and Julie share some of the misconceptions they've encountered when talking with others about orphan care. All that plus some wrap up conversation on CAFO Summit in Atlanta.

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206. From Street Kid to Foster Dad with Peter Mutabazi

In episode 206, we're talking with Peter Mutabazi about his childhood growing up through various challenges in Uganda and how learning from those experiences propelled him towards foster care and adoption. Peter shares with us about his new book, Now I Am Known, which really encapsulates a lot of what we talk about on Think Orphan. Not to mention, we've got Phil back in the fold after a couple of months off from the pod and we're gearing up for CAFO Summit in Atlanta this week!

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205. The Foster Care Compilation

For our final summer compilation episode, we'll be looking at foster care in the United States - an area that many of our audience members has some familiarity with. We've all heard the triumphs and the challenges of engaging in foster care and this week, we'll be hearing from three guests that are leading the way towards better practice in foster care. Each of our guests have a lot of personal experience welcoming children into their homes and will be walking us through the child's experience, the family's experience and how we can better engage the church and community more broadly to lend a hand in helping children in foster care systems. Check out their books to learn more from each of these guests.

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204. The Orphan Care in Conflict Compilation

Caring for orphans and vulnerable children doesn't happen in a vacuum. Throughout the world, there are certain contexts that are particularly challenging to help children and families, none more so than when there is war and conflict. For our third summer compilation, we'll be looking across three different countries in the world where conflict has made orphan care work more difficult and also all the more necessary. As we hear from Ruslan, Kara and Ashlee, let's commit to praying for peace and the protection for children.

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203. The Transition to Family Care Compilation

This week we're jumping into our second summer compilation episode and we're learning from friends and colleagues throughout the world about transitioning from institutionalization to family-based care. Delia, Jonathan and Spencer take us on a learning journey of why institutions are not the best place for children to grow up. Beyond hearing their stories, they also provide insight for moving care forward. We'd encourage you to check out their respective organizations to learn more about care reform and pursuing family care in their respective countries.

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