CHARITIES WE SUPPORT
SEVIER COUNTY, TN
One of our recipients for the Kevin Sorbo Charity Golf Classic is Isaiah 117 House. This Christian organization meets one of the most traumatic days of a child’s life with big, lavish love. They are changing the way that foster care begins.
Usually, when a child is removed from a home, they are taken to a CPS office, where they await foster care placement. This often means spending at least one night in an office setting while hearing police and case workers discuss all the bad situations they have just been removed from. They also witness rejection from foster homes and family members that are unable to take them at the moment. Our county currently has 200 foster children and only 20 foster families. Some children await placement for several weeks in this environment. Instead, here they are taken to Isaiah 117 House. When they are informed that a child is being removed, loving volunteers and staff set the house to be inviting to the age and needs of the child. If a little girl is on the way, Barbies and dolls will be brought out and put in the living room. A little boy will be met with cars and Legos. All ages are met with love and compassion. Cookies are put in the oven of a kitchen filled with every imaginable treat a child may want. The child arrives with a case worker who stays throughout their stay. The caseworker has a private glassed-in office where important calls can be made out of earshot of the child but where they can still keep theireyes on them. This home is staffed with volunteers along with April Gillispie and Mallory Griffin. These two ladies are the staff for this home and see that it runs smoothly and remains stocked for every need they can anticipate. They are phenomenal people with beautiful hearts for God and Jesus.
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Upstairs, you will find a giving room. Everything is brand new. Children usually come with a few belongings in a garbage bag. In this room, the kids go “shopping” for several new outfits, full-sized shampoo and soap, toys, and a brand-new suitcase or bag of their choice to put it all in when they move to placement. Many of these children have never had the luxury of even choosing a toothbrush or soap of their own, let alone new clothes. If there is a special request, they do their best to fill it. This room
also has a large freezer filled with family-sized frozen meals. When a foster parent picks up a child, Isaiah 117 House gives the family meals to help during the transition day. They do all they can to serve the child,
the social worker, and the foster family.
The goal of Isaiah 117 House is to expand into all areas. Currently, there are 21 homes in Tennessee and 40 throughout the United States. In helping our local Isaiah House, we can also bring awareness to this program and help it spread to help more children all across our country.
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