Just under a year ago, we announced that Divorce Ministry 4 Kids was becoming Hope 4 Hurting Kids. Over the last year, we have continued to find new ways to help hurting kids and train those who work with them. We have published roughly 230 articles in that time with just under 100 representing new content and the remaining representing the migration from Divorce Ministry 4 Kids and I Am A Child of Divorce. We continued to create new free resources and offer new avenues to find help. And, as we move into our second year, we have some exciting plans to increase the utility and reach of Hope 4 Hurting Kids all with one aim in mind – to help hurting young people to find hope and healing.

With that goal in mind, we are excited to announce that Brad Iverson has joined the team of Hope 4 Hurting Kids as an Advocate for Hope 4 Hurting Kids. Brad was born and grew up in the State of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Penn State University and Summit University (Baptist Bible College). He served as a Senior Pastor in Western New York, and then in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania for 25 years before he his wife Margie left the Pastorate to serve with Awana Clubs International. They served in Southern California, and later moved to Fort Worth, Texas where they now reside. Brad and his wife Margie met in a small church in Pennsylvania where Brad went to preach one Sunday. They have been married 43 years, and have been blessed with three children (all grown) and 3 Grandkids. Brad has a lifetime of ministry experience, and knows first hand some of the struggles and heart issues that hurting kids face, but more than knowing the struggles and hurts, he knows there is Hope 4 Hurting Kids.

Brad will be contributing articles on a regular basis and speaking at conferences and other events on behalf of Hope 4 Hurting Kids. We are excited to have Brad on board and look forward to seeing how God will use his passion for helping hurting kids to further expand the work we are doing. Check back Thursday for Brad’s first article which will share a little more about his background and mission.

We are excited to announce another new feature here on Hope 4 Hurting Kids called H4HK FAQs!

Our mission at Hope 4 Hurting Kids is:

…to help young people from diverse backgrounds, families, circumstances, and situations who are experiencing hurt, pain and adversity to find hope and healing.

In terms of the Hope 4 Hurting Kids website, we approach this from two distinct angles.

1. We provide information, resources, ideas and hopefully inspiration for people who work with kids. This includes parents, teachers, children’s ministers, coaches, grandparents, and anyone else interested in helping a child or teen who is hurting.
2. We provide vehicles and resources directly to hurting kids and teens. Features like Ask Us and our online Chat Rooms are examples of this approach, and the new H4HK FAQs series of posts is also intended directly for kids and teens who are seeking help.

I’m excited to announce a special opportunity from Hope 4 Hurting Kids to win free tickets to the Third Annual CM Conference hosted by CM Connect and Kidz Blitz! in Louisville, Kentucky on February 20-23, 2017. Read on to learn how to win, but first let me tell you a little bit about this amazing conference.

About CM Conference

I have been to every CM Conference from CM Connect since the very first one. The team at CM Connect is dedicated to putting on a conference that offers all of the great training of the “big boys” at a much more affordable price. When I was asked once to explain what makes CM Conference different, it wasn’t hard to pinpoint:

This is what a children’s ministry conference would look like if it were put together by children’s ministers. It is equal parts challenging, in depth-learning, rejuvenating corporate worship, valuable networking and a refreshing gathering of friends. From top to bottom, it is clear in everything about the conference, this event is about serving those called to children’s ministry.”

We are pleased to announce an exciting transition today for Divorce Ministry 4 Kids and Hope 4 Hurting Kids. Effectively immediately, all ministry previously done through Divorce Ministry 4 Kids will be done through Hope 4 Hurting Kids. Articles and information previously hosted at DivorceMinistry4Kids.com will gradually be moved over to Hope4HurtingKids.com, and all future postings will be made on Hope4HurtingKids.com. We are excited about this evolution of the ministry which started over six years ago with the creation of Divorce Ministry 4 Kids, and we look forward to moving ahead and continuing to help hurting kids through Hope 4 Hurting Kids. We recognize that this transition likely raises some questions, and the purpose of this article is to answer those questions to the best of our ability.

Why Is Divorce Ministry 4 Kids becoming Hope 4 Hurting Kids?

There are many reasons we decided to make this switch now. Here are a few of the main reasons:

1. When we started Divorce Ministry or Kids in 2011, our main purpose was to minister to children who had experienced the divorce of their parents. We quickly realized that there were many kids who experience the trauma of family disruption even though their parents havn’t technically divorced. These include kids born to single mothers, living with their grandparents, living with cohabiting parents, gay parent led families and many more. Unfortunately, many of these kids, and the people working with them, would not take advantage of the resources we were offering simply because the name Divorce is in the title of the ministry. The principal reason for the name change is so that these kids can get the help they need.
2. When I launched Divorce Ministry 4 Kids, it was in response to a call I felt to minister to these kids. I liked the name and didn’t do a lot of research on it before we locked up the domain, developed a logo and invested some time and money into it. THEN, I found out there was a great curriculum out there for children of divorce called Divorce Care 4 Kids (DC4K). I have nothing but respect for DC4K. I teach a local DC4K group in my home town and have for years. The writer of DC4K, Linda Ranson Jacobs, is a mentor and has become a great friend. In fact, she has written extensively for Divorce Ministry 4 Kids (and you’ll see many of her articles as we transition those to Hope 4 Hurting Kids). Despite all that, people have always confused the two ministries, and understandably so. This move is designed, in part, to delineate the work and ministry we now do from the curriculum of DC4K.
3. Our ministry has also expanded since we started Divorce Ministry 4 Kids. As we created resources for, and worked with, kids dealing with the trauma of family disruption, we discovered that those same resources and that same information is helpful to kids who are experiencing all different types of circumstances and difficulties. For example, over the last few years a major portion of our work has focused on resources and training related to helping kids to deal with difficult emotions. These emotions like anger, depression, anxiety and stress are prevalent in the case of family disruption, but they are obviously not limited to just family disruption. Our ministry has expanded to include kids in all types of situations, and the people working with them, and the move to Hope 4 Hurting Kids more accurately the work we are currently doing.

Has There Been Any Turnover in People?

No. Hope 4 Hurting Kids and Divorce Ministry 4 Kids have always been related. They were both started by Wayne Stocks, and for a long time, Divorce Ministry 4 Kids was a “proud member of Hope 4 Hurting Kids.” The individuals behind the two ministries are the same and this is simply a rebranding/simplification of the ministry we have always been doing.

What Changes Can We Expect from this Transition?

You will see the following changes if you currently follow Divorce Ministry 4 Kids or are searching for one of our resources:

• Effective immediately, any new articles and resources that would previously have been posted on DivorceMinistry4Kids.com will be posted at Hope4HurtingKids.com.
• You will also begin to see articles and resources not specifically designed for children from disrupted homes but which may still be beneficial to children dealing with the fall out from a family disruption.
• If you follow Divorce Ministry 4 Kids in a blog reader, Facebook, Twitter, etc. you will want to follow Hope 4 Hurting Kids from hereon out (more on how to do that below).
• Articles and resources previously published on Divorce Ministry 4 Kids will slowly be reissued on Hope 4 Hurting Kids. These articles will be republished in their entirety (and at times updated) and taken down from Divorce Ministry 4 Kids. We are working hard to make sure that any links to Divorce Ministry 4 Kids will be redirected to Hope 4 Hurting Kids so that any old links will still lead people to the right place, but we would ask that any new links to these articles be linked to Hope 4 Hurting Kids.
• Future workshops and presentations will be done under the moniker of Hope 4 Hurting Kids rather than Divorce Ministry 4 Kids.

What Won’t Change?

• • We will still be helping kids who need it and teaching other people how to do the same. We have believed from the beginning, and continue to believe, that the mission of helping these kids dictates that we produce and provide the highest quality information and resources that we can. That goal will continue at Hope 4 Hurting Kids.

When Divorce Ministry 4 Kids launched in 2011, I took the time to introduce myself as the founder of that ministry. I have neglected to do that here on Hope 4 Hurting Kids. The following is an introduction that I wrote back in 2011 for Divorce Ministry 4 Kids which I have now been updated to include the last six years.

I am, first and foremost, a sinner saved by grace.  I will save that testimony for another time, but if you are really interested you can find it here.

I am married to Tricia and the father of four kids: Joshua (23), Jacob (15), Lyndsey (13) and Nathan (9).  God has worked through my relationships with my wife and kids to teach more about Him than He has through any other method, and that is just one of the reasons that I am eternally grateful for all of them.

I did not grow up in church – far from it. As a child, we used to attend Catholic Mass once a year at Christmas time, but that was the extent of my exposure to God. After my third child (Lyndsey) was born, some friends invited us to their church. They had actually invited me previously, but that was the first time I actually took them up on the offer. I felt like I owed it to my kids to check out this whole “God thing.” So, I accepted their invitation, and I started to research. I read the Bible, and I started to read anything I could get my hands on about the Bible. Through that process, and through the church I was attending at the time, God drew me into his kingdom when I was 30 years old.

A few months later there was a need to fill a spot in the two-year-old room, and I had a nagging small group leader, so I “volunteered.” That year, I fell in love with working with God’s kids. The following year, the need was in the 2^nd grade room, so I moved up and agreed to start doing some of the large group teaching. What started as a once-a-month commitment quickly became an every week schedule and a daily pursuit, and God showed me the joy of teaching His Kids about Him.

After that, due to some other circumstances, my family and I changed churches. I was out of Children’s Ministry for about a year-and-a-half. It was during that time that I really felt God’s tug on my life and realized that working in children’s ministry was not just something that I was doing to fill a need but something that He had called me to do. I couldn’t have been happier about that calling! I immersed myself in the world of children’s ministry.

In addition to the call to teach children about God, I felt like God was calling me to encourage and equip others who work with children so I started blogging about my family and my work in children’s ministry at a blog called Dad in the Middle. I started the blog to collect my thoughts and write about the things I am passionate about in my life – those being God, My family and children’s ministry. I won’t go into details on the name of the blog, but you can find more about it on the About page of the website.