Cause Champions: Orphan Prevention — Episode 1

Jeff Murphy
I really was impressed where it’s not all about me helping, it’s about being behind and encouraging the community and the churches to help. They’re the champions. We’re just trying to give fuel and resources to help them do what God created them to do. I may not be that guy on the front line, you know, but I can fuel it.

The Murphy Family understands the calling of fueling local needs with their resources… But it first started with an international trip to Haiti as a family.

Jeff Murphy
And the first trip to Haiti was with our oldest daughter, and she was just a freshman, sophomore in college.

But just getting in the Scripture and reading that, you know, God puts us here for a purpose. And if we can do something that we go to Haiti and you get wrecked and you see these kids, it’s just like you just want to… you just want to go do something to help prevent that and get involved with something.

Michelle Murphy
I feel like Haiti gave us that passion to come back here and make a difference here in just ways that we could. We went up to a local clothing donation place and they would work and just that was kind of bringing that back from Haiti of learning that we share and that we’re not going to fight over our clothes, and we’re going to help other people and give back, and to serve, as a way of serving here.

Maddie
I look up to my parents in so many ways. But something they really left an impact on me and growing up was how they were generous, and generosity looked several different ways. It looked like giving money. It looked like giving our time.

And then also, yeah, taking us to Haiti and just allowing us to see what other people might be going through. Um, and just really, yeah, seeing their hearts for it I think really made an impact on me and my siblings, just that we are called to give, and we’re called to give generously and to serve and to love those that the Lord calls us to.

Michelle Murphy
It probably was after we went to Haiti, but we would always try and do something, as far as why would we flying over our own people and internationally, that’s great to help out, but we want to make a difference here. And so that’s when they started Care Portal.

Maddie
I became so passionate about vulnerable children and families in need back in Haiti, but to come back to the United States and realize that that same need is here in our own backyards, really it hit hard for me.

Jeff Murphy
Well, the CarePortal is a technology to take, you know, a situation where a family needs a bed or the child can be removed, you know, well I hear, oh, what does that mean? When a child gets removed? Well, they could be put in the foster care system. Well, that’s not what we want. We want to keep the family together. So when they start talking to how they were going to do this and create CarePortal it just from a business, it’s just like, well, this is genius to sit there and give the caseworker that knows there’s a problem can put it into a system that will send an email or pick a church and a zip code where the problem is and send an email to the congregation and the congregation says you know I signed up to receive this.

Michelle Murphy
One time we went up and said set up the bunk beds for the family. And they were there and just seeing the excitement of the kids. So that was early on that we did that. And another time it was just, you know, the cleanliness of a house was just they were going to be removed if you didn’t go help get the house in shape, just, you know, cleanliness of it.

Adrien Lewis
We live in one of the most amazing countries in the history of the world. And yet the most vulnerable kids just keep losing in our neighborhoods. There are over 7 million hotlines of kids whose families are on the brink of falling apart every single year to child welfare. And of that, there is like four hundred plus thousand kids who end up getting removed. That means they have to go somewhere else and live with a different family.

And as we’re praying through this and thinking, God how might you use us to make a difference? He gave us this crazy idea on how to use technology to connect the most vulnerable kids in crisis with churches in proximity that might want to help. And out of that vision CarePortal was born. And so now we have an opportunity for churches and businesses and nonprofits who are looking to serve the most vulnerable kids, to know right in their neighborhood, in their ZIP code, exactly how they can help, and when, and why. And Maddie’s family is a great example of how that plays out.

Maddie
So, my church is a CarePortal connecting church. And so, we receive requests weekly. So, what that looks like is we get the funds and then we go. Let’s just say the need was for a car seat. We’ll get that money, will go to Walmart, get a car seat, and then we’ll connect with that family and get to drop off that car seat.

So, after we meet the initial need for a CarePortal request, the request doesn’t stop there. It keeps growing in relationship ups are formed and these moms and I actually become good friends. They start to call me when times are rough, and they ask for prayer, they ask for encouragement, they ask questions about the gospel. And we just start to do life together, truly.

Michelle Murphy
It isn’t just about fixing something that they… you see them developing a relationship with these people that need mentorship and that’s what it’s all about.

Maddie
But specifically with these families that we come across that we serve through CarePortal, I see something change within them and it is because they’re getting exposed to the Jesus in me, the Jesus in my pastor, the Jesus, and I see that we can be the light to them.

Jeff Murphy
And if we’re sowing seeds in the right places, that’s going to help advance the kingdom. To me it’s a long-term play, it’s a long-term investment and I know in my heart that these kids are going to be what’s going to change everything. They’re going to be the future.

Maddie
And it’s almost as if they’ve been… they’ve been missing something and they’ve been living in this dark, lonely place. And they start to see that there’s hope out there. And ultimately that hope is Jesus Christ.

And so, to hear them say, I want to change the trajectory of my kids’ lives, that’s the Kingdom impact, that is the ripple effect, and that is many lives changing and it’s a beautiful thing. And it’s because the church can step up and be the church and to be the hands and feet of Jesus.