Tuesday evening, I was getting some “around the deck” spring cleaning accomplished and set up my cleaning headquarters on the deck’s table.

I reached in the box of trash bags, grabbed a bag, shook it open with a snap, and sat down to unsuccessfully hold back tears. Opening the trash bag is not terrifying like popping the biscuit tube. Sometimes, opening a garbage bag snaps back a memory of several of my sons and foster sons arriving at the house with their clothes and other worldly belongings packed into trash bags.

Several sons reported they’d return to their foster homes after school to find trash bags filled with their “life” piled on the front porch, waiting for the social worker to arrive and transfer them to a new foster home. One son saved each bag for future moves until the weakened bag could no longer serve it’s humiliating purpose.

Omega Baptist Church of Dayton, Ohio did a tremendous, loving thing through one of their ministries: they purchased and delivered 40 suitcases filled with hygiene items. Their social justice ministry project, spearheaded by Kendra and Carrlo Heard, and Rev. Joshua Ward delivered “Hope In A Suitcase” that will serve Montgomery County children who enter the foster care system.

The Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/MontgomeryCounty/posts/10159623505501133

This project is near and dear to my heart and I applaud Omega Baptist Church of Dayton for thinking of those brave souls, little and not-so-little, who are suddenly forced into a new, unfamiliar world. To pack one’s worldly belongings into a trash bag is degrading, dehumanizing, and despicable. Sometimes, in an emergency placement, it’s all that is available; I get that. But, we can always do better. We must always do better.

Thank you, Omega Baptist Church! Know you are loved…