A Simple Smile — a Beautiful Reward

Sandi Brown always thought she was going to be a world missionary. At 10 years old, she felt a call to missions and followed it all the way through college, where she minored in missions and even traveled to Cambodia for a missions internship with her college.

Sandi’s husband, Kirk, had a life-changing moment with the Lord at a youth summer camp and was also called into ministry. The speaker had called students who were struggling with poor self-esteem to the altar. Kirk, feeling hatred toward himself, was one of the first ones there. He says he felt impressed by the Lord to turn around; Kirk saw hundreds of other students dealing with the same thing. It was at that moment Kirk says that the Holy Spirit gave him the desire to minister to young people struggling with low self-esteem.

After completing their degrees at Central Bible College (now Evangel University), Kirk and Sandi pastored for 24 years in three different churches. As they continued to work in ministry, they always felt that at any time, the Lord would call them to go overseas. They told their kids and led their church in overseas missions trips every other year.

Finally, in 2021, Kirk sensed that their time at the church was drawing to a close. After applying to several other churches and jobs, there were no open doors that the couple felt peace about. Kirk and Sandi decided to apply for Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) missionary appointment and began to go through the interview process. However, they could not pinpoint any specifics about what country they wanted to go to or what they felt called to do. For their last round of meetings and training, they were invited to Springfield, Missouri, to meet with AGWM leadership. The Browns felt the lack of peace growing in intensity as the process continued.

At the same time, a burden for foster care was beginning to grow inside them. Years prior, they had adopted their three kids out of the foster care system. Now with all their kids married, they began to feel a burden to be involved in foster care again, but they did not believe they could work as world missionaries in tandem with foster care agencies. As their travel dates loomed closer, they began to pray, asking God which path they should choose.

Eventually, the Browns called the AGWM offices and said, “We don’t have any peace about this. We have to put our application on hold because we can’t say for sure that this is what God wants us to do.”

For Sandi, the phone call was not easy — she had earnestly believed in the call that God had placed on her life and the career she had pursued for so long.

A week after their call to Springfield, Sandi was reading an article about U.S. missionaries to foster care on AG News. She had never heard of anything like that before, but it sparked a flame in her. She called Kirk, never believing this type of ministry would appeal to him.

 But Kirk immediately said, “We need to do that! I don’t know what it means, but we need to do that.”

The Browns began transitioning to become endorsed chaplains and U.S. missionaries with Chaplaincy Ministries. As they prayed over this new opportunity, all of the peace they had been lacking was finally found.

“God never asked us to pick between missions and our burden for foster care,” Sandi said, “He combined it together in this awesome thing that we had never even heard of before.”

Today, their foster care ministry is called Bridges of Hope, encompassing their goal of bridging the gap between churches and foster care agencies. Their main focus is on the youth that age out of the foster care system who, although legally adults, have suffered trauma and often lack the skills to live as an adult.

In Wisconsin, where the Browns reside, 300 young people age out of the system every year. To help with this need, the Browns provide “blessing bags” to get these young adults started with their new lives. The bag contains apartment starter items, devotionals, gift cards and more. The need is so great for these essential items that foster care agency workers will sometimes drive across the state to pick up blessing bags from Kirk and Sandi’s house.

The Browns have also started a mentorship program in their county that features monthly life-lesson sessions and an opportunity to connect with healthy, Spirit-filled advocates. Once a month, the young adults and their mentors meet in a church to participate in a Bible study and life lesson to learn how to live well on their own. Most recently, they have included a Rent Smart program, which provides information on renting, how to avoid getting evicted, knowledge of rights and responsibilities, and how to compare and contrast when searching for an apartment.

One particular young lady they encountered began to tell Sandi her story of how she had been in the foster care system, got adopted but was abused and was put back into foster care. She did not have a good mother figure in her life. As she was leaving, Sandi asked if she could give her a hug. While hugging her, Sandi whispered encouragement into her ear, and as they pulled apart, the girl was crying.

“It’s been so many years since someone has hugged me,” the girl said.

In the same meeting where Sandi hugged the young woman, two of the young adults thanked the Browns for their support, saying, “Nobody ever sees us. No one ever helps us. No one ever advocates for us. Thank you for realizing this need.”

Kirk and Sandi both agree that the most challenging part of their ministry is knowing the number of young people who need help and trying to find the balance between what you can and cannot do. They say, however, that the smiles of those they help are more than rewarding.

“Sandi and I brought a dresser over to this young lady’s house,” Kirk recalls. It was this huge, old dresser someone in the church donated. When we walked into her apartment, there were some dirty dishes piled up in the sink and in the living room there was a lamp, a TV, and three cushions that she was using as a couch. She had nothing. But she had a grin on her face because she had a place to put her clothes and stuff. When she saw that dresser, it was like we made her day. It just meant the world to her.”

Often, church members do not know what happens to youths who age out of the foster care system. The Browns say that everyone has the capacity to help, even if they are not foster families. They can help mentor young adults or fill needs, such as donating items or giving people rides — the mission field is ripe for harvest.

As Kirk and Sandi work to bridge the gap between the local church and foster care agencies, they are showing young people the love and support of Christ. Galatians 6:2 (NIV) says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”