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Yesterday was January 15th. On that date, in 1944, my mother was born in Pennsylvania. In 1967, she married my Dad and became Jeanne Stocks. I was born five years later, the third of four boys. My Mom would have been 70 years old yesterday. God had other plans though, and my mother died on September 8, 1978 at the young age of 34 less than six months after my younger brother was born and two ...

Linda Ranson Jacobs is a good friend. She has been a mentor and you'll find many of her articles and insights here on Hope 4 Hurting Kids. One of the positions she holds very strongly that gets an awful lot of feedback is that rewards based behavior system do not work. She has written a couple of articles about it on her blog at DC4K: A Class Without Stickers! Are You Kidding Me? (Part 1) ...

One of my favorite Bible verses is: Be still and know that I am God. - Psalm 46:10 With four kids, two dogs and a busy live, I find myself surrounded by constant motion and constant noise. This time of year, that only intensifies. In the midst of all of that, is important to remember to find time for silence. So, this Christmas, those of us here at Hope 4 Hurting Kids wish you and ...

Dear Hurting Child, This weekend is Christmas! You probably knew that all ready. The malls have been decked out in red and green for well over a month now. Traffic is crazy, and you don’t even want to venture into the local store to do any last minute Christmas shopping (Trust me! I know!). Children have sent their Christmas wish lists to the North Pole. Parents have fretted over how to ensure that their kids ...

This week's weekend reading is on a topic I had never heard of before seeing this article (8 Steps to Companioning). It is something called companioning. I don't know all the details, but it appears to be very similar to the idea of mentoring or discipleship. Read through this article from Christian Works and think about how it might apply to your work with kids. Ideas for Further Thought and Discussion What do you think ...

For many of us, Christmas is a joyous time filled memories of Christmases gone by, but for many children the season brings all kinds of additional stressors and emotions.  This includes children spending this holiday season suffering through their parents divorced, with absentee parent(s) and under tremendous stress for any variety of reasons. At Hope 4 Hurting Kids, we’ve put together the following simple infographic to help you help hurting and stressed out children navigate this Christmas ...

When you work with kids who are hurting from any variety of circumstances, it is important to know when you are in “over your head” and when you need to seek professional help for the child. Know your limitations For those us who are passionate about helping kids and/or who have worked with kids for some time, we sometimes want to do it all ourselves to make sure that child we are working with is ...

I love working in children’s ministry.  God has blessed me with the opportunity to tell young children about Him. That is one the greatest blessings He has ever bestowed on me. Leading a small group of children is one of my favorite things to do in children’s ministry.  I love to talk to, interact with, disciple and to dig into the Word of God with them.  I love to build relationships with them, and I believe ...

One new feature on Hope 4 Hurting Kids will be our "Weekend Reading." Every (read most) weekend, we will provide a link related to working with distressed and hurting children. Sometimes these links provide useful information on working with hurting kids. Other times they will be meant to get you thinking or spark a conversation. As an added bonus, we are presenting our first and last Saturday Link on Tuesday to celebrate Divorce Ministry 4 Kids ...

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 ...

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 ...

There’s a new way to get help here on Hope 4 Hurting Kids.  This past weekend, we launched our presence and efforts to accumulate useful information on Pinterest.  If you’re on Pinterest, you know that it can be a wealth of information. Unfortunately, sometimes it is so much information that it’s hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. Our goal here at Hope 4 Hurting Kids is to draw your attention to information and ...