July 15, 2025 • 26 mins
Vince Smith leads Keystone Family Alliance as its Executive Director, drawing on his extensive expertise in organizational leadership and community engagement to drive transformative programs. Over the years, Vince has spearheaded innovative outreach and sustainable initiatives that create opportunities for vulnerable children and families to thrive.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
We really should have waiting parents, not waiting children.
Over 100,000 children are available for adoption through
the US foster care system, and 27% don't have anyone like a
relative or foster parent in theprocess of adopting them. 60%
are between the ages of five and17, and 2/3 are part of sibling
groups of two to eight children.Hey listener, my name is Marcy
(00:27):
Bursack. My husband and I chose Adoption
is our Plan A. After blogging about our journey
adopting A sibling pair, I beganmentoring families right in my
own living room. That passion grew into the
Forgotten Adoption Option, a nonprofit and now lead as a
volunteer while working full time in the tech industry.
From my blog, Three Books app, and Classroom Lesson, to now a
45 minute course called Foster Care Adoption Simplified, which
(00:50):
you can find at forgottenadoptionoption.com,
I've created practical, heartfelt resources to help
families navigate the foster care adoption process.
As you listen to this episode, Iencourage you to ask yourself,
who in my circle needs to hear this?
It's often people in what we call helper professions.
People like therapists, nurses, doctors, police officers,
(01:11):
firefighters, social workers, and teachers like my husband.
These are the people who tend tostep forward to adopt children
from foster care. But this work isn't only about
becoming an adoptive family. It's also about becoming an
advocate and ally. Every waiting child deserves not
just a forever family, but a community of people who champion
their future. Whatever LED you to this
(01:33):
podcast, I am thrilled that you were here.
My mission is simple, to help every waiting child be with
their forever family. And that's exactly why I host
this podcast. Welcome to the forgotten
adoption option podcast. In this episode, you'll hear
about how Pennsylvania churches are uniting to support Foster
(01:56):
and adoptive families during thepandemic.
A while back I was asked to present a webinar through a
group called bear into beautifuland a woman named Jess Pete
learned about my presentation and we got connected on social
media cause a little bit of likefollow the dots.
So she is the Erie County Coordinator for an organization
called Keystone Family Alliance,and I began shipping my books to
(02:17):
her to use at a raffle for theirfundraising event.
Fast forward, we like kept in touch over social things like
that a few years and Jess invited me to be the keynote
speaker for the Keystone Family Alliance's annual fundraising
events. This is like February 2025.
And that's where I was introduced to Vince, the
Executive Director of Keystone Family Alliance.
Over the years, Vince has spearheaded innovative outreach
(02:39):
and sustainable initiatives thatcreate opportunities for
vulnerable children and family authority.
It's quite an interesting back story.
So we'll we'll dive into that. I invited Vince to be a guest on
the show to share about his mission and approach.
Because I really think that the organization has something
really beautiful going on that'sworking that others across the
country could really implement wherever you are.
So listen, there just might be for you to take and tell.
(03:01):
It might be for you to just be aware of, but I think there's
some really good takeaways from here.
And you've heard me say that before, but not everyone has the
desire to adopt. And I know some of you have
expressed that you want to do something that's helpful.
So I really believe what Vince has to share is a way that you
could help and make a significant impact.
So Vince, you're also the founder of the organization.
And this is such an interesting story.
(03:22):
Can you share with our listeners, like, where did this
all come from? Where did this kind of get its
inklings and then take legs? Yeah, well, I actually like to
say I am a cowboy. I have a degree in animal
science from Penn State University.
I was working as a herdsman for a large Angus farm taking care
of 600, had a black Angus and and kind of loving that life
(03:45):
that God clearly ended up calling me into full time
ministry as a youth pastor. Eventually came back to State
College Christian Church was thechurch that I attended as a
college student at Penn State and ended up being asked to be
the lead pastor of the church in2006.
(04:07):
And at that time there was 50 year old congregation with no
adults had ever gone on a mission trip.
We were pretty inwardly focused congregation and we knew that
that story needed to be rewritten.
So I just really started to prayintentionally about what that
could look like for our church. And within a week of that
(04:28):
prayer, I got an invitation to go to Zambia to help start up
piggery. So now I'm using my animal
science degree as a pastor serving vulnerable children in
Africa. And it was that trip where my
wife and I really just kind of had our hearts broke for the
needs of orphans. At the time, 10% of the
population was orphaned because of the HIV and AIDS.
(04:51):
So that whole pandemic just kindof opened our eyes and we were
able to come back and share withmy small church the needs that
we saw in Zambia. And we had 40 kids at a day camp
that summer that raised $800 that we sent over to a friend in
Zambia to sponsor 3 orphans at an existing orphan school.
(05:12):
And then he sent me 15 profiles of children who were orphaned,
not going to school, not eating food every day, didn't have
medical care. So I just shared those with my
small church. And almost immediately, all
fifteen of those children were being sponsored by individuals
in the church. So my friend in Zambia sent me
(05:33):
another 15 profiles. And before I know it, our Church
of about 100 is sponsoring 46 kids now in Zambia.
And they started a, a school that they called Haven of Hope.
Haven of Hope then blossomed into two schools in Zambia, one
in Uganda with now more than 400children that are being
sponsored and now graduating from, from high school, serving
(05:54):
their communities in a whole bunch of different ways.
So I, I love to share that storybecause what what I found as a
pastor, it wasn't that my churchdidn't care, they just had no
idea what the needs were and they didn't know how to take a
practical next step. So that was far away.
Over the next three years at 30%of our church that went on a
(06:15):
mission trip to Zambia and met their sponsored child, changed
our church, changed hundreds of orphans lives, but the same time
in Centre County. Then I'm meeting with 12 pastors
every week and we're just praying together.
But a few of those guys said, what if we actually did
something to serve the communitytogether?
(06:35):
So I said to them, what if we started an orphan care ministry?
And they said absolutely, let's do that.
I asked them if they'd find a representative from their church
who had a heartbeat already for foster care, adoption or
international orphan care. And so they found somebody and
we began to gather those church representatives and within a few
(06:57):
months officially became what was known as the Centre County
Orphan Care Alliance. And we just started to kind of
serve in this space. But what we found is when I was
on an elevator with one of the directors at Children and Youth
Services, I just said, hey, as achurch in the county, how can we
serve your agency? And her response was, you're
going to do one event and we won't hear from you again.
(07:18):
There's kind of this churches doSavior for a day, but we're not
there for the long haul. So that kind of broke our
hearts. We realized, hey, we need to
rewrite this story. And thankfully, within a year
and a half, the churches in our county had become the number one
recruiter of Foster in adoptive homes.
And then within three years, they said, hey, you guys aren't
(07:40):
going away. Can we have a, a seat at your
table? And we've been in the room with
them for now well over a decade,and just really seen the story
rewritten on behalf of the county's kids.
So that that was a long kind of intro to how the story got
started, but there you go. I feel like we got a listener
that was like, hang on, I had topull my car over Marcy.
(08:02):
He did the piggery. Like, were you raising pigs?
Is that what you call a piggery?Yes, it is.
It is a place where you're gonnagrow and raise pigs.
And it actually was supposed to have a fishery attached,
attached to it. So like pig waste feeds the fish
and it's all like this self sustainable kind of raising pigs
to be able to support the work of a ministry over there.
(08:23):
Nothing that feels absolutely not connected to helping in this
space. Like there we go.
Vince was doing something completely that seemed different
and I'm curious cause some listeners might remember Gary
Schneider who started Orphan Sunday mentioned Zambia and his
work with that. Were you all connected at some
point? So I, I know Gary, we have
talked love the what Gary's doing.
(08:44):
We actually were never connectedin Zambia, so no connection
there. Just.
Like ignited a couple different yeah things to happen from
there. And so wow, Vince.
OK, so you, you, you, you. Do you still have the hat and
the boots because you introduce yourself as a cowboy?
I absolutely do still have my boots and hat and I still have
(09:07):
cows and sheep and stuff in the backyard so couldn't let go of
it that quickly. Amazing.
And you also mentioned somethingelse that stuck out was when
you, when you're having this conversation with, with the
professionals in the system and you're like, how can we serve
you? Which is probably a question
that isn't asked a lot, right? It's not high.
I have this idea. I'm here to tell you it's what
(09:28):
do you need? And to get a response that
wasn't like, oh, that's so nice that you asked.
It was more like you're not going to really hang out and
help in this space. I'm curious, like in your own
heart vents, because I think sometimes we can hear feedback
and honesty and it can be hard. And I'm curious, how did you
process that in a way that wasn't like, well, they don't
want my help? Yeah, I actually don't remember
(09:53):
how I fully responded to that, with the exception of knowing
that that isn't the story that the Jesus in the Bible that I
follow wants us to be able to tell.
And unfortunately, I do think there's way too many churches
that say, Hey, we, we follow theBible, but they're actually not
obey what the Bible tells us to do.
(10:14):
So I oftentimes feel like we do need to apologize for what some
of us have made the church into rather than, you know, what
Jesus says. You need to go serve the least
of these like pure religion is to look after orphans and
vulnerable children. If we want to get the gospel
right, we need to be doing this.So that just kind of was a
(10:36):
conviction for us that we need to lean into this space and
rewrite that story for our localchurches.
I. Think it was well received, Ben.
So that's a that's a nice ear when people can, you know, you
can see like I'm hearing you even though I don't want to hear
what you just said, but I I hearwhat you said.
So OK, so we've got this alliance forms, but we're still
not the keystone. We're in a whole different name
(10:58):
still. So what's the next phase of the
story? Yeah.
So in 2020, we just started to feel like God was telling us to
take what was happening in Centre County to the other 66
counties in the state of Pennsylvania.
And so during COVID in 2021, I sit in front of a camera with
what felt like a really huge faith step for us.
(11:20):
I was pastor in a church that wehad planted 6 years before that.
We loved the church, we loved the people and my wife is like,
really Vince, you're going to gokind of start a new career.
We have to raise funds and but we knew this what God was
calling us. So we just kind of asked 4
questions in that camera during COVID and that virtual event.
And we just started to say, whatif one day through the local
(11:42):
churches in Pennsylvania, we recruit at least three foster
families in all 500 Pennsylvaniaschool districts that are
willing to take sibling groups and children over the age of
eight years old, a demographic of kind of unwanted children in
this space. So that was our first what if?
The second was what if we could have a care community willing to
(12:05):
wrap around every one of those families before they ever said
yes so that they would be well supported in their journey.
Research kind of shows us that nearly 90% of foster families
are not going to make it to the two year mark, but if we can get
a care community to support them, nearly 90% of those
families being supported are going to make it beyond two
(12:28):
years. So that was our second what if.
Our third what if was just what if one day there were at least
550 Jesus followers in every county registered as volunteers
through a platform we call Gateway, where they're going to
receive an e-mail anytime Children and Youth Services has
a need in their county. Then they can just respond to
(12:50):
that e-mail to meet tangible needs or mentors for biological
moms trying to get kids back or,you know, whatever.
So that that was our third one Fsaying, hey, what if we can help
our churches love their neighbors by having this real
need come in their inbox. And then the 4th what if is what
if one day we can have at least 39 churches in every county
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getting in the room together to work together to share ideas and
resources and imaginations to rewrite the story on behalf of
Pennsylvania's vulnerable children and families.
So those were kind of our 4/4 what ifs that took us statewide
and eventually officially becameKeystone Family Alliance.
And over the last four years, it's just been a real joy to
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watch God do more than we could have asked or imagined.
Where we have county coordinators now and and 27
counties that kind of oversee that vision locally with more
than 4500 people using Gateway last year, 1100 people were
serving on care communities. We through direct events, had
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more than 75 people step up in the the last handful of months
to Foster and adopt. And so we're just loving it.
Literally hundreds of churches now doing something in the state
that we're doing nothing a couple of years ago.
So that's the morph into Keystone Family Alliance.
(14:14):
Incredible history because I think for people that are
thinking, wow, like you kind of just took a leap of faith and
then you kind of jumped in and you learned and I am
particularly fascinated and encouraging you that like what
what you're doing is incredibly right and beautiful, right?
Like I just think about in my own area, I'm like, man, if we
had like every church kind of doing a piece of this and being
(14:37):
supported in that. And, and for listeners, if
you're new to this space, then you're thinking, why did they
just say that foster families kind of aren't here two years
later? And, and Vince, maybe we can
touch on that. Like what, what are things that
lead foster families to kind of step in, go through this lengthy
licensing process, deal with thethe red tape of everything and,
and get introduced to kids? And then why are they leaving
(14:59):
two years later? Yeah, I like to say we all sign
up for this with like a level 10kind of commitment.
Like, hey, I'm going to go change a child's life.
This is going to be a for me andmy wife, we had three biological
children. Our youngest was 8 when we
entered this space, and we thought we're pretty good
parents if we do say so ourselves.
We got this thing figured out. Our first placement was a
(15:24):
three-year old little boy and an18 month little girl that showed
up with Mountain Dew in their bottles.
They had all kinds of trauma that they came into our home
with and that evening was absolute chaos at our home.
They didn't come with enough clothes to be able to even dress
them. The next day they were
scheduling doctor's appointments, therapy
(15:44):
appointments, visits with socialworkers, visits with bio
parents, and it's just absolute chaos.
And then we go to a July 4th party the next day that our
neighbors invited us to. They're the only people we know,
but there's 100 people in the, you know, the outside picnic and
these children are running up toeverybody sitting on their laps,
(16:05):
like, no, just the attachment issue.
So that story I think just kind of illustrates like the trauma
that we don't expect. I would say we thought this was
going to be a piece of cake, butthe cake got really messy really
fast. And so I think that's what and
those were a three-year old and a one year old.
When you take in a 13 year old who's had a number of years of
(16:28):
neglect, abuse, whatever, they're coming with a bag a
bunch of trauma that we are not equipped to handle when we say
yes to this. So our level 10 commitment goes
to a level 5 pretty quick, and alot of times it's just like one
more thing and I'm done. I'm going to call CYS and come
tell them to take these kids. So that's why we're passionate
about the care community models where we need teams to do this
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journey with us so that we can do it longer and stronger.
It's like as you're with this group of people from the church
that are saying, hi, we've got you and and So what kinds of
things are they doing to be supportive vents?
Like are they helping with the clothing piece you mentioned?
Are they stepping in with childcare?
What are they doing? Yeah, a year and a half ago we
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took in a sibling group of threein our school district.
We're not a long term option forthe county anymore because we've
adopted A handful and we have toknow the difference between our
load and limit. But those kids showed up that
night and we said we'll take them for, you know, we've got
six weeks and we'll try to recruit a foster family for
them. But when they showed up, they
(17:33):
didn't have enough clothes. All the stuff I just had
mentioned before, it was just, it was chaos at our house.
Somebody in our care community showed up with the lasagna that
night. My wife was like, praise Jesus,
we can make it through the night.
That lasagna was a game changer because she didn't have to think
about making a meal. So the next day when people in
our care community show up and say, can we help drive your
(17:56):
kids, these kids to appointments?
Over the next six weeks, our care community saved us hours
and hours and hours of drive time that now we could get the
laundry done or we could take care of things that we needed
to. I went out of town for a week.
The team showed up and, and said, Hey, we're going to make
(18:17):
sure that your family has a mealevery night.
A few nights they picked the kids up, took them to their
house, fed them, brought them home at meal time.
So I just like to say when I gothome, my wife still had her
sanity. It was so important.
So these these teams, we like tosay everyone can do something.
What is your something? Maybe you can't or you shouldn't
(18:38):
foster or adopt, but you can absolutely take a meal.
You can provide transportation, child care, so a foster family
can get out of the house. I hear families all the time say
we have not been out of the homefor a year and a half.
I wish I had one of these care communities and we're saying we
wish you did too 'cause we want you to stay at it longer and
stronger. Amazing and the lasagna just
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make it that that sounds delicious, but like a a big meal
for a growing family. I mean, that's that's a huge
gift. And I wonder then, so if a
listener's thinking I could totally do those things.
I just don't know. How do you do you kind of give
suggestions to these care communities of like here are
ways to step in or how how does kind of that approach work?
(19:20):
Yeah. So we're an affiliate of a
ministry called Promise 686 thathas the systems to be able to
kind of coach this. So they've just been a huge tool
for us as we've expanded across the state where there's
training. And so a care community has a
team leader and they're able to use an online system to schedule
(19:42):
meal delivery. So a care community, when you
commit to it, we want you to be 1 of at least five people
serving 1 foster family. So that foster family is going
to get a meal delivered to theirhome every week.
So that's kind of the low hanging fruit.
If you sign up, you're probably going to be part of taking a
meal or having a meal delivered.But maybe you can help with the
(20:05):
child care or the laundry. We have college students giving
guitar lessons to foster children, which gives the the
family a break and it gives thatchild another mentor.
So there is all kinds of suggestions through the tools
that we have. And again.
Our team goes in and equips churches to be able to do this.
(20:25):
We want every church to have an advocate that runs these through
the local church. Yes, I'm just like Googling on
the other side. I'm like, OK, it's like a
software and it's, wow, that's super effective.
I'll have to check that out too.And so, OK, so let's say,
because this kind of goes two ways, Vince, let's say a
listener is in Pennsylvania, their church does or doesn't
have this. There's kind of that angle of
like, what can that listener do?But let's say we're a listener
(20:48):
outside of Pennsylvania, like we're in Missouri, right?
We don't have a connected systemlike this that I'm aware of in
our churches. We have little like groups going
on at various ones here and there, but it's not everywhere.
How would we take action if we're one of those people?
What would we do next? Yeah, there's, there's
definitely a handful of different levels that I could
(21:10):
suggest there. And we're always happy to do
consulting with churches or ministries that are saying how
can we equip churches to do thisbetter?
But for sure, Promise 686 is a great tool.
They're working in about 42 states, I think around the the
country right now. They would be a great
connection. CAFO, So the Christian Alliance
for Orphans, their website has numerous resources and, and
(21:35):
organizations that are doing this stuff around the country.
And as I mentioned, our, our website is full of resources.
We are happy to do consulting with churches to help get them
connected to the right pieces orhelp them launch.
But yeah, there's lots of, lots of resources out there.
And I would say it's probably very dependent on that
(21:58):
individual church. If they're in Pennsylvania, we
absolutely can equip Pennsylvania churches.
We have a team that's that's ready to do that.
It's simple and so effective andcollaborative.
And so I'm curious like, let's let's say, because maybe there's
a listener that's like what you had shared a few minutes ago.
Someone was like, oh, I'd love to have that kind of support
(22:19):
around me. Do you have encouragement
wherever we are in the nation, if we're like, this is hard,
Like this is really hard. I'm a single mom.
I've been doing this a long time.
Whatever our story is, what would you encourage us to do if
we don't have this kind of support system?
When my wife and I started, I was a pastor.
We walked into church that firstSunday with these two extra
kiddos. Everybody knew we were doing
(22:40):
foster care. They walked up to us and said,
how can we help you? We probably knew we needed help,
but we didn't know what to ask for.
And did you actually mean it when you offered the help?
So there's kind of this, the beauty of the care communities
as people go through an orientation and they commit to
serving you. So you know you're not asking
(23:01):
them to do something. They didn't sign up for it.
I say all that to say, like my wife and I didn't know we needed
help. I would say if you're in a space
where this isn't happening yet, you get to be the voice to start
to help people understand that there is a need and don't let
people think that you're doing OK.
(23:21):
If you're not, don't be afraid to invite somebody in or even go
to your church, your church leadership and say, hey, here's
here's the deal. Here's I can show you a video
from Keystone Family Alliance orfrom Promise or KFO or something
that shows you that there's a real need.
And here's some systems on how we can get our churches engaged
(23:42):
to make a difference to my family and to the other families
in our community that might be doing this.
So I would just say, hey, speak up because your voice absolutely
matters. They, I just keep saying this,
our church, it's not that our churches don't care, they just
don't know what the needs are and they don't know how to take
a practical next step. So if you'd like to get
(24:05):
something started in your space of influence, reach out.
Talk to the right people. Start telling the people at your
church you want to make some things happen.
It's kind of a theme of everything we're talking about
where it's not like, hi, I just had good intention, I'm going to
sleep for 5 minutes or a day or a year.
It's like we want to create longterm impact by helping to
(24:26):
support families in this space. And so as we close, Vince, you
mentioned we can go to your website.
What is the URL? How would we find you and your
work? Yeah, so key fam.org, So KUIFA
m.org, and feel free to shoot mean e-mail.
It's just vince@keyfam.org and we would be more than happy to
get you connected with resourceslocally.
(24:49):
We're working with folks all over the country or try to point
you in the right direction. Vince, it's such a gift to be
able to share what you're doing with our listeners and so glad
to know how Once Upon a Cowboy and and a Piggery doing all
these things and now the things you're doing for kids.
It's incredible. And you still get to have your
animals. So it's it sounds like a win win
for everyone. Yeah, absolutely.
(25:10):
And I think I think what kind ofwith that point, it doesn't
matter what your background is like we just say like God's
going to use you. You might be the wrong person
with the right, wrong resources,the wrong time.
But if he's inviting you into space like, go for it doesn't
matter what your background is, just take the next step.
(25:35):
Thank you so much for spending time with us.
It truly matters that you listentoday, because by tuning in,
you're opening your heart to thestories of children in foster
care, sparking empathy and starting to see how your unique
role, whether as a friend, advocate, or even as a future
adoptive parent, can bring hope and belonging to a child or
sibling group that is waiting. I also want.
(25:55):
To personally invite you to reach out to me, to ask anything
that's on your heart. I promise no judgement.
You can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
And I mean it when I say you canask anything.
I know it can feel awkward to ask questions publicly, and
that's why I carve out time during my lunch hour and
evenings while my kids and husband are at martial arts to
mentor others one-on-one. Your questions matter, your
(26:18):
curiosity matters, and most importantly, the role you are
playing in helping children in foster care matters.
Together we can bring hope and belonging.
Until next time, take care and keep the conversation going.
We really should have waiting parents, not waiting children.
Over 100,000 children are available for adoption through
the US foster care system, and 27% don't have anyone like a
relative or foster parent in theprocess of adopting them. 60%
are between the ages of five and17, and 2/3 are part of sibling
groups of two to eight children.Hey listener, my name is Marcy
(00:27):
Bursack. My husband and I chose Adoption
is our Plan A. After blogging about our journey
adopting A sibling pair, I beganmentoring families right in my
own living room. That passion grew into the
Forgotten Adoption Option, a nonprofit and now lead as a
volunteer while working full time in the tech industry.
From my blog, Three Books app, and Classroom Lesson, to now a
45 minute course called Foster Care Adoption Simplified, which
(00:50):
you can find at forgottenadoptionoption.com,
I've created practical, heartfelt resources to help
families navigate the foster care adoption process.
As you listen to this episode, Iencourage you to ask yourself,
who in my circle needs to hear this?
It's often people in what we call helper professions.
People like therapists, nurses, doctors, police officers,
(01:11):
firefighters, social workers, and teachers like my husband.
These are the people who tend tostep forward to adopt children
from foster care. But this work isn't only about
becoming an adoptive family. It's also about becoming an
advocate and ally. Every waiting child deserves not
just a forever family, but a community of people who champion
their future. Whatever LED you to this
(01:33):
podcast, I am thrilled that you were here.
My mission is simple, to help every waiting child be with
their forever family. And that's exactly why I host
this podcast. Welcome to the forgotten
adoption option podcast. In this episode, you'll hear
about how Pennsylvania churches are uniting to support Foster
(01:56):
and adoptive families during thepandemic.
A while back I was asked to present a webinar through a
group called bear into beautifuland a woman named Jess Pete
learned about my presentation and we got connected on social
media cause a little bit of likefollow the dots.
So she is the Erie County Coordinator for an organization
called Keystone Family Alliance,and I began shipping my books to
(02:17):
her to use at a raffle for theirfundraising event.
Fast forward, we like kept in touch over social things like
that a few years and Jess invited me to be the keynote
speaker for the Keystone Family Alliance's annual fundraising
events. This is like February 2025.
And that's where I was introduced to Vince, the
Executive Director of Keystone Family Alliance.
Over the years, Vince has spearheaded innovative outreach
(02:39):
and sustainable initiatives thatcreate opportunities for
vulnerable children and family authority.
It's quite an interesting back story.
So we'll we'll dive into that. I invited Vince to be a guest on
the show to share about his mission and approach.
Because I really think that the organization has something
really beautiful going on that'sworking that others across the
country could really implement wherever you are.
So listen, there just might be for you to take and tell.
(03:01):
It might be for you to just be aware of, but I think there's
some really good takeaways from here.
And you've heard me say that before, but not everyone has the
desire to adopt. And I know some of you have
expressed that you want to do something that's helpful.
So I really believe what Vince has to share is a way that you
could help and make a significant impact.
So Vince, you're also the founder of the organization.
And this is such an interesting story.
(03:22):
Can you share with our listeners, like, where did this
all come from? Where did this kind of get its
inklings and then take legs? Yeah, well, I actually like to
say I am a cowboy. I have a degree in animal
science from Penn State University.
I was working as a herdsman for a large Angus farm taking care
of 600, had a black Angus and and kind of loving that life
(03:45):
that God clearly ended up calling me into full time
ministry as a youth pastor. Eventually came back to State
College Christian Church was thechurch that I attended as a
college student at Penn State and ended up being asked to be
the lead pastor of the church in2006.
(04:07):
And at that time there was 50 year old congregation with no
adults had ever gone on a mission trip.
We were pretty inwardly focused congregation and we knew that
that story needed to be rewritten.
So I just really started to prayintentionally about what that
could look like for our church. And within a week of that
(04:28):
prayer, I got an invitation to go to Zambia to help start up
piggery. So now I'm using my animal
science degree as a pastor serving vulnerable children in
Africa. And it was that trip where my
wife and I really just kind of had our hearts broke for the
needs of orphans. At the time, 10% of the
population was orphaned because of the HIV and AIDS.
(04:51):
So that whole pandemic just kindof opened our eyes and we were
able to come back and share withmy small church the needs that
we saw in Zambia. And we had 40 kids at a day camp
that summer that raised $800 that we sent over to a friend in
Zambia to sponsor 3 orphans at an existing orphan school.
(05:12):
And then he sent me 15 profiles of children who were orphaned,
not going to school, not eating food every day, didn't have
medical care. So I just shared those with my
small church. And almost immediately, all
fifteen of those children were being sponsored by individuals
in the church. So my friend in Zambia sent me
(05:33):
another 15 profiles. And before I know it, our Church
of about 100 is sponsoring 46 kids now in Zambia.
And they started a, a school that they called Haven of Hope.
Haven of Hope then blossomed into two schools in Zambia, one
in Uganda with now more than 400children that are being
sponsored and now graduating from, from high school, serving
(05:54):
their communities in a whole bunch of different ways.
So I, I love to share that storybecause what what I found as a
pastor, it wasn't that my churchdidn't care, they just had no
idea what the needs were and they didn't know how to take a
practical next step. So that was far away.
Over the next three years at 30%of our church that went on a
(06:15):
mission trip to Zambia and met their sponsored child, changed
our church, changed hundreds of orphans lives, but the same time
in Centre County. Then I'm meeting with 12 pastors
every week and we're just praying together.
But a few of those guys said, what if we actually did
something to serve the communitytogether?
(06:35):
So I said to them, what if we started an orphan care ministry?
And they said absolutely, let's do that.
I asked them if they'd find a representative from their church
who had a heartbeat already for foster care, adoption or
international orphan care. And so they found somebody and
we began to gather those church representatives and within a few
(06:57):
months officially became what was known as the Centre County
Orphan Care Alliance. And we just started to kind of
serve in this space. But what we found is when I was
on an elevator with one of the directors at Children and Youth
Services, I just said, hey, as achurch in the county, how can we
serve your agency? And her response was, you're
going to do one event and we won't hear from you again.
(07:18):
There's kind of this churches doSavior for a day, but we're not
there for the long haul. So that kind of broke our
hearts. We realized, hey, we need to
rewrite this story. And thankfully, within a year
and a half, the churches in our county had become the number one
recruiter of Foster in adoptive homes.
And then within three years, they said, hey, you guys aren't
(07:40):
going away. Can we have a, a seat at your
table? And we've been in the room with
them for now well over a decade,and just really seen the story
rewritten on behalf of the county's kids.
So that that was a long kind of intro to how the story got
started, but there you go. I feel like we got a listener
that was like, hang on, I had topull my car over Marcy.
(08:02):
He did the piggery. Like, were you raising pigs?
Is that what you call a piggery?Yes, it is.
It is a place where you're gonnagrow and raise pigs.
And it actually was supposed to have a fishery attached,
attached to it. So like pig waste feeds the fish
and it's all like this self sustainable kind of raising pigs
to be able to support the work of a ministry over there.
(08:23):
Nothing that feels absolutely not connected to helping in this
space. Like there we go.
Vince was doing something completely that seemed different
and I'm curious cause some listeners might remember Gary
Schneider who started Orphan Sunday mentioned Zambia and his
work with that. Were you all connected at some
point? So I, I know Gary, we have
talked love the what Gary's doing.
(08:44):
We actually were never connectedin Zambia, so no connection
there. Just.
Like ignited a couple different yeah things to happen from
there. And so wow, Vince.
OK, so you, you, you, you. Do you still have the hat and
the boots because you introduce yourself as a cowboy?
I absolutely do still have my boots and hat and I still have
(09:07):
cows and sheep and stuff in the backyard so couldn't let go of
it that quickly. Amazing.
And you also mentioned somethingelse that stuck out was when
you, when you're having this conversation with, with the
professionals in the system and you're like, how can we serve
you? Which is probably a question
that isn't asked a lot, right? It's not high.
I have this idea. I'm here to tell you it's what
(09:28):
do you need? And to get a response that
wasn't like, oh, that's so nice that you asked.
It was more like you're not going to really hang out and
help in this space. I'm curious, like in your own
heart vents, because I think sometimes we can hear feedback
and honesty and it can be hard. And I'm curious, how did you
process that in a way that wasn't like, well, they don't
want my help? Yeah, I actually don't remember
(09:53):
how I fully responded to that, with the exception of knowing
that that isn't the story that the Jesus in the Bible that I
follow wants us to be able to tell.
And unfortunately, I do think there's way too many churches
that say, Hey, we, we follow theBible, but they're actually not
obey what the Bible tells us to do.
(10:14):
So I oftentimes feel like we do need to apologize for what some
of us have made the church into rather than, you know, what
Jesus says. You need to go serve the least
of these like pure religion is to look after orphans and
vulnerable children. If we want to get the gospel
right, we need to be doing this.So that just kind of was a
(10:36):
conviction for us that we need to lean into this space and
rewrite that story for our localchurches.
I. Think it was well received, Ben.
So that's a that's a nice ear when people can, you know, you
can see like I'm hearing you even though I don't want to hear
what you just said, but I I hearwhat you said.
So OK, so we've got this alliance forms, but we're still
not the keystone. We're in a whole different name
(10:58):
still. So what's the next phase of the
story? Yeah.
So in 2020, we just started to feel like God was telling us to
take what was happening in Centre County to the other 66
counties in the state of Pennsylvania.
And so during COVID in 2021, I sit in front of a camera with
what felt like a really huge faith step for us.
(11:20):
I was pastor in a church that wehad planted 6 years before that.
We loved the church, we loved the people and my wife is like,
really Vince, you're going to gokind of start a new career.
We have to raise funds and but we knew this what God was
calling us. So we just kind of asked 4
questions in that camera during COVID and that virtual event.
And we just started to say, whatif one day through the local
(11:42):
churches in Pennsylvania, we recruit at least three foster
families in all 500 Pennsylvaniaschool districts that are
willing to take sibling groups and children over the age of
eight years old, a demographic of kind of unwanted children in
this space. So that was our first what if?
The second was what if we could have a care community willing to
(12:05):
wrap around every one of those families before they ever said
yes so that they would be well supported in their journey.
Research kind of shows us that nearly 90% of foster families
are not going to make it to the two year mark, but if we can get
a care community to support them, nearly 90% of those
families being supported are going to make it beyond two
(12:28):
years. So that was our second what if.
Our third what if was just what if one day there were at least
550 Jesus followers in every county registered as volunteers
through a platform we call Gateway, where they're going to
receive an e-mail anytime Children and Youth Services has
a need in their county. Then they can just respond to
(12:50):
that e-mail to meet tangible needs or mentors for biological
moms trying to get kids back or,you know, whatever.
So that that was our third one Fsaying, hey, what if we can help
our churches love their neighbors by having this real
need come in their inbox. And then the 4th what if is what
if one day we can have at least 39 churches in every county
(13:12):
getting in the room together to work together to share ideas and
resources and imaginations to rewrite the story on behalf of
Pennsylvania's vulnerable children and families.
So those were kind of our 4/4 what ifs that took us statewide
and eventually officially becameKeystone Family Alliance.
And over the last four years, it's just been a real joy to
(13:34):
watch God do more than we could have asked or imagined.
Where we have county coordinators now and and 27
counties that kind of oversee that vision locally with more
than 4500 people using Gateway last year, 1100 people were
serving on care communities. We through direct events, had
(13:54):
more than 75 people step up in the the last handful of months
to Foster and adopt. And so we're just loving it.
Literally hundreds of churches now doing something in the state
that we're doing nothing a couple of years ago.
So that's the morph into Keystone Family Alliance.
(14:14):
Incredible history because I think for people that are
thinking, wow, like you kind of just took a leap of faith and
then you kind of jumped in and you learned and I am
particularly fascinated and encouraging you that like what
what you're doing is incredibly right and beautiful, right?
Like I just think about in my own area, I'm like, man, if we
had like every church kind of doing a piece of this and being
(14:37):
supported in that. And, and for listeners, if
you're new to this space, then you're thinking, why did they
just say that foster families kind of aren't here two years
later? And, and Vince, maybe we can
touch on that. Like what, what are things that
lead foster families to kind of step in, go through this lengthy
licensing process, deal with thethe red tape of everything and,
and get introduced to kids? And then why are they leaving
(14:59):
two years later? Yeah, I like to say we all sign
up for this with like a level 10kind of commitment.
Like, hey, I'm going to go change a child's life.
This is going to be a for me andmy wife, we had three biological
children. Our youngest was 8 when we
entered this space, and we thought we're pretty good
parents if we do say so ourselves.
We got this thing figured out. Our first placement was a
(15:24):
three-year old little boy and an18 month little girl that showed
up with Mountain Dew in their bottles.
They had all kinds of trauma that they came into our home
with and that evening was absolute chaos at our home.
They didn't come with enough clothes to be able to even dress
them. The next day they were
scheduling doctor's appointments, therapy
(15:44):
appointments, visits with socialworkers, visits with bio
parents, and it's just absolute chaos.
And then we go to a July 4th party the next day that our
neighbors invited us to. They're the only people we know,
but there's 100 people in the, you know, the outside picnic and
these children are running up toeverybody sitting on their laps,
(16:05):
like, no, just the attachment issue.
So that story I think just kind of illustrates like the trauma
that we don't expect. I would say we thought this was
going to be a piece of cake, butthe cake got really messy really
fast. And so I think that's what and
those were a three-year old and a one year old.
When you take in a 13 year old who's had a number of years of
(16:28):
neglect, abuse, whatever, they're coming with a bag a
bunch of trauma that we are not equipped to handle when we say
yes to this. So our level 10 commitment goes
to a level 5 pretty quick, and alot of times it's just like one
more thing and I'm done. I'm going to call CYS and come
tell them to take these kids. So that's why we're passionate
about the care community models where we need teams to do this
(16:51):
journey with us so that we can do it longer and stronger.
It's like as you're with this group of people from the church
that are saying, hi, we've got you and and So what kinds of
things are they doing to be supportive vents?
Like are they helping with the clothing piece you mentioned?
Are they stepping in with childcare?
What are they doing? Yeah, a year and a half ago we
(17:13):
took in a sibling group of threein our school district.
We're not a long term option forthe county anymore because we've
adopted A handful and we have toknow the difference between our
load and limit. But those kids showed up that
night and we said we'll take them for, you know, we've got
six weeks and we'll try to recruit a foster family for
them. But when they showed up, they
(17:33):
didn't have enough clothes. All the stuff I just had
mentioned before, it was just, it was chaos at our house.
Somebody in our care community showed up with the lasagna that
night. My wife was like, praise Jesus,
we can make it through the night.
That lasagna was a game changer because she didn't have to think
about making a meal. So the next day when people in
our care community show up and say, can we help drive your
(17:56):
kids, these kids to appointments?
Over the next six weeks, our care community saved us hours
and hours and hours of drive time that now we could get the
laundry done or we could take care of things that we needed
to. I went out of town for a week.
The team showed up and, and said, Hey, we're going to make
(18:17):
sure that your family has a mealevery night.
A few nights they picked the kids up, took them to their
house, fed them, brought them home at meal time.
So I just like to say when I gothome, my wife still had her
sanity. It was so important.
So these these teams, we like tosay everyone can do something.
What is your something? Maybe you can't or you shouldn't
(18:38):
foster or adopt, but you can absolutely take a meal.
You can provide transportation, child care, so a foster family
can get out of the house. I hear families all the time say
we have not been out of the homefor a year and a half.
I wish I had one of these care communities and we're saying we
wish you did too 'cause we want you to stay at it longer and
stronger. Amazing and the lasagna just
(18:59):
make it that that sounds delicious, but like a a big meal
for a growing family. I mean, that's that's a huge
gift. And I wonder then, so if a
listener's thinking I could totally do those things.
I just don't know. How do you do you kind of give
suggestions to these care communities of like here are
ways to step in or how how does kind of that approach work?
(19:20):
Yeah. So we're an affiliate of a
ministry called Promise 686 thathas the systems to be able to
kind of coach this. So they've just been a huge tool
for us as we've expanded across the state where there's
training. And so a care community has a
team leader and they're able to use an online system to schedule
(19:42):
meal delivery. So a care community, when you
commit to it, we want you to be 1 of at least five people
serving 1 foster family. So that foster family is going
to get a meal delivered to theirhome every week.
So that's kind of the low hanging fruit.
If you sign up, you're probably going to be part of taking a
meal or having a meal delivered.But maybe you can help with the
(20:05):
child care or the laundry. We have college students giving
guitar lessons to foster children, which gives the the
family a break and it gives thatchild another mentor.
So there is all kinds of suggestions through the tools
that we have. And again.
Our team goes in and equips churches to be able to do this.
(20:25):
We want every church to have an advocate that runs these through
the local church. Yes, I'm just like Googling on
the other side. I'm like, OK, it's like a
software and it's, wow, that's super effective.
I'll have to check that out too.And so, OK, so let's say,
because this kind of goes two ways, Vince, let's say a
listener is in Pennsylvania, their church does or doesn't
have this. There's kind of that angle of
like, what can that listener do?But let's say we're a listener
(20:48):
outside of Pennsylvania, like we're in Missouri, right?
We don't have a connected systemlike this that I'm aware of in
our churches. We have little like groups going
on at various ones here and there, but it's not everywhere.
How would we take action if we're one of those people?
What would we do next? Yeah, there's, there's
definitely a handful of different levels that I could
(21:10):
suggest there. And we're always happy to do
consulting with churches or ministries that are saying how
can we equip churches to do thisbetter?
But for sure, Promise 686 is a great tool.
They're working in about 42 states, I think around the the
country right now. They would be a great
connection. CAFO, So the Christian Alliance
for Orphans, their website has numerous resources and, and
(21:35):
organizations that are doing this stuff around the country.
And as I mentioned, our, our website is full of resources.
We are happy to do consulting with churches to help get them
connected to the right pieces orhelp them launch.
But yeah, there's lots of, lots of resources out there.
And I would say it's probably very dependent on that
(21:58):
individual church. If they're in Pennsylvania, we
absolutely can equip Pennsylvania churches.
We have a team that's that's ready to do that.
It's simple and so effective andcollaborative.
And so I'm curious like, let's let's say, because maybe there's
a listener that's like what you had shared a few minutes ago.
Someone was like, oh, I'd love to have that kind of support
(22:19):
around me. Do you have encouragement
wherever we are in the nation, if we're like, this is hard,
Like this is really hard. I'm a single mom.
I've been doing this a long time.
Whatever our story is, what would you encourage us to do if
we don't have this kind of support system?
When my wife and I started, I was a pastor.
We walked into church that firstSunday with these two extra
kiddos. Everybody knew we were doing
(22:40):
foster care. They walked up to us and said,
how can we help you? We probably knew we needed help,
but we didn't know what to ask for.
And did you actually mean it when you offered the help?
So there's kind of this, the beauty of the care communities
as people go through an orientation and they commit to
serving you. So you know you're not asking
(23:01):
them to do something. They didn't sign up for it.
I say all that to say, like my wife and I didn't know we needed
help. I would say if you're in a space
where this isn't happening yet, you get to be the voice to start
to help people understand that there is a need and don't let
people think that you're doing OK.
(23:21):
If you're not, don't be afraid to invite somebody in or even go
to your church, your church leadership and say, hey, here's
here's the deal. Here's I can show you a video
from Keystone Family Alliance orfrom Promise or KFO or something
that shows you that there's a real need.
And here's some systems on how we can get our churches engaged
(23:42):
to make a difference to my family and to the other families
in our community that might be doing this.
So I would just say, hey, speak up because your voice absolutely
matters. They, I just keep saying this,
our church, it's not that our churches don't care, they just
don't know what the needs are and they don't know how to take
a practical next step. So if you'd like to get
(24:05):
something started in your space of influence, reach out.
Talk to the right people. Start telling the people at your
church you want to make some things happen.
It's kind of a theme of everything we're talking about
where it's not like, hi, I just had good intention, I'm going to
sleep for 5 minutes or a day or a year.
It's like we want to create longterm impact by helping to
(24:26):
support families in this space. And so as we close, Vince, you
mentioned we can go to your website.
What is the URL? How would we find you and your
work? Yeah, so key fam.org, So KUIFA
m.org, and feel free to shoot mean e-mail.
It's just vince@keyfam.org and we would be more than happy to
get you connected with resourceslocally.
(24:49):
We're working with folks all over the country or try to point
you in the right direction. Vince, it's such a gift to be
able to share what you're doing with our listeners and so glad
to know how Once Upon a Cowboy and and a Piggery doing all
these things and now the things you're doing for kids.
It's incredible. And you still get to have your
animals. So it's it sounds like a win win
for everyone. Yeah, absolutely.
(25:10):
And I think I think what kind ofwith that point, it doesn't
matter what your background is like we just say like God's
going to use you. You might be the wrong person
with the right, wrong resources,the wrong time.
But if he's inviting you into space like, go for it doesn't
matter what your background is, just take the next step.
(25:35):
Thank you so much for spending time with us.
It truly matters that you listentoday, because by tuning in,
you're opening your heart to thestories of children in foster
care, sparking empathy and starting to see how your unique
role, whether as a friend, advocate, or even as a future
adoptive parent, can bring hope and belonging to a child or
sibling group that is waiting. I also want.
(25:55):
To personally invite you to reach out to me, to ask anything
that's on your heart. I promise no judgement.
You can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
And I mean it when I say you canask anything.
I know it can feel awkward to ask questions publicly, and
that's why I carve out time during my lunch hour and
evenings while my kids and husband are at martial arts to
mentor others one-on-one. Your questions matter, your
(26:18):
curiosity matters, and most importantly, the role you are
playing in helping children in foster care matters.
Together we can bring hope and belonging.
Until next time, take care and keep the conversation going.
Host
Marcy Bursac
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