Building Trust: CarePortal's Role in Family Stability

Hey, welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Life After Addiction on I'm excited to sit down and chat. I'm here with Rob. Rob, how's it going today, man? man? man? Dude, I'm actually extremely excited for the guest that we have today. she is someone that has welcomed me and is a great connector here in the city of Rono. And so, it's awesome to hear what she does and I'd love for our audience just to get a glimpse of what's actually happening in our world, right? and the need for things that this individual is doing. Her name is Kim. I don't want to introduce her and talk about her, so I'm gonna allow her to talk about herself and just let us know a little bit about what she does. Nice. Well, Kim, how are you doing? Great. Awesome. You just want to share your name and your ministry real quick with everybody? everybody? everybody? Kim. So, my name is Kim Tulu and I am leading care portal here in the Reno Valley. So yeah, good stuff. What's what's Care Portal? If you can like dive in a little bit deeper, right? Cuz like I never heard of Care Portal the first time I met you and it was just it's nice name, but like what does Care Portal actually do? Like how has it been of great impact here in Rono, but not just here in Ronok, it's actually in the United States, correct? Yes. Yeah. Yes. So if you can just tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah. Yeah. Care Portal is a connecting technology that helps connect their community to the needs of children all over our each community. So it is a national organization but it also is very grassroots because it's trying to help each community support the children in their community and and how it works is it has we have agencies that are enrolled here in Reno. We have many agencies. We have Reno City DSS, Reno County DSS, and then we also have and when I say DSS, I'm talking about Department of Social Services. Some people don't know the abbreviations. So, and then we also have some schools that are enrolled. We have all of Bodatat County public schools enrolled. and then we have some city schools and we're just working to grow through the schools, right? And then we have many smaller nonprofits that are part of care portal and they'll put in requests on behalf of children and their families as they're working with different children. They'll find out about needs and then they will put them in the care portal and then the 20 nearest churches will receive that request and have an opportunity to help meet the need. But it doesn't is not limited to churches. We have a lot of community organizations and community responders that also see those needs and respond on a regular basis. So in for example there is a faithful donor who lives in Northern Virginia and he regularly funds requests in Reno and just because he sees the request and he has a heart for kids and he wants to help and so we have many people that do that thing as well. And then when that happens, a church would claim those funds and then go buy the item and then deliver it to the family. So, wow, that's so good. That's so awesome. It's amazing to hear that there is an organization that's out there that's like a secret Santa. We don't know who's going to get blessed today, but like how many communities are have that you guys have discovered that are in need? Like what's the is there like a statistic of the number of families that are actually reaching out and like what's the rate of individuals or families that are coming in monthly or even daily for that matter that are needing help in the communities that you guys serve and support? Yes, that's a good question. so in the Rono Valley we have 400 kids in foster care. That is the most kids in the state of Virginia. Wow. it is it's a really high number. So we have a lot of need here in Reno. So we probably have the most care portal requests in the state here in the Reno Valley. Valley. Valley. And regularly we're averaging around 90 to 100 requests coming in a month from these agencies. And but on the same note we have we're we're we're meeting 80ome percent of those requests as a community. So, we're doing a great job keeping up and seeing those and meeting them and so but yeah, there these needs are all over the state. in and each community has many needs and I can't speak to all of those cuz I'm only in charge of the Rono area, but we get a lot of requests coming in every The idea of Care Portal was to help intervene in the foster care crisis, which is another large number in our country of children in foster care and and what we see are a lot of children that are needing support. So, the families that we are serving are really serving those vulnerable kids that are at risk of foster care, of entering the system or they're already in the system and they need support. And so most of the families that we are serving are children that are being raised by a grandma on their own or an aunt. our church has adopted a family and it's an aunt who took in five kids to keep them out of foster care and she is in her mid50s and has her own health issues and her own things from her, childhood. And so, she's trying to raise all these kids on her own. And there's so many families that we meet that are in those situations. every now and then we're supporting u a family that has two people working, but most of the families we serve are single parent households where they just don't make enough. But even like you said, when they are two people working and bringing in income, it can be really hard for them to pay all their bills and they don't have a safety net. We see so many people that don't have a safety net. So, they're doing okay and then their car breaks down and then all of a sudden they don't have the money to fix the car. They can't get to work and then it can spiral. And that happens all the time. So, when Care Portal steps in, we're usually stepping in a crisis situation, something like that, where something happened and they need a little support to get them back on their feet again. And so we are not typically in those spaces where we're just going to we're not going to pay a rent check every month. That's not what we're looking to do. We're looking to wrap around support when things happen and help build that family up to be able to take care of themselves cuz that's what they want to do. And the people we were we meet, they are not looking for handouts. They want to do it themselves. But sometimes we all just need a little help, . know. know. It's fascinating though because you talk about the support for keeping the kids from going to foster care, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The government doesn't step in until after they've been in the system, right? right? right? So, so we're talking about running up all these expenses and whatnot. And if you're a family trying to prevent, hey, I'm for just from an economical standpoint, standpoint, standpoint, trying to save the government hundreds of thousands of dollars here. Yeah. C can I get a little bit of help? Yes. but the government doesn't step in usually, right? Until things fall apart and the kids in the system and then they show up at our door, right, with a bag of clothes and all that and, go through that whole process. But yeah, it's fascinating. I really love hearing that. that. that. Yeah. Yeah, that is exactly true that the if we can prevent them from ever having to go into the system is so much better off because a lot of times if one thing happens and another thing happens, it can be detrimental to that family. So we that's where we really love our preventative care cases where we can just wrap around and support that family. So nothing has to happen there. And one of the things that DSS had told me like last year they said we don't know how we did our jobs before Care Portal. We don't know how we did it because they didn't have that support and when their funds run out and they care about these families too. They want to help them but they only have limited resources and limited ability to help. And so they love the churches and the just working together. A lot of times we work together like a little bit of government funds are used and then the church pays the rest. we do that a lot. What I love about this organization is that it allows the church to actually be the church. And what by that is there's actually no walls. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That cause division and divide over any doctrinal issue. But it's meeting the need and having the opportunity to bless a family and show them the love of the father. Yes. And I think this is something that's often missed within our church culture is that we get so wrapped up in our building and what we want to do that we don't even go outside to look and see who our neighbor is. Yes. Yes. Yes. And as you mentioned, there's so many individuals that are in distress, don't know how to make ends meet, and yet we have these opportunities right before our eyes. you guys get 80 to 90 calls every single month that you have to meet the need of a family. It's like what if that was your neighbor? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like have you stepped outside to say how are you doing today? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I see that you juggle a lot and you're taking the kid from this event to that event. It's but are you well? And more likely than not, if we don't have the eyes to see and look at people with eyes of compassion, we'll miss that opportunity. And so, I'm so grateful that this is an organization that really bridges the gap, but also allows us to be that for the church or for the for the broken, right? And so, I wanted to ask this question. What compelled you, Kim, to get into this? this? this? Like why did you like what was it that happened in your life that caused you to say, what, I really want to be involved in this and I have a heart for this. Right. Cuz I think often that times things are birthed from a place of pain. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so and if that's not your story, absolutely that's okay. Right. But I just would love to hear from your perspective like what compelled you to get involved with care. Yeah. It's a good question. well, I have an interesting story. My sister and my brother both adopted multiple kids out of foster care type systems. They adopted them in their home. So, my family is a very blended extended family. my sisters adopted four kids and my brother adopted three. And so, I've lived in the adoption foster world. And and I've always like wanted to help and of course I'm there for my family, but I didn't I knew that like we were never in that situation where we like the Lord told us to do that and and so we were like well what can we do? And so when I found out about Care Portal and our church was also looking for ways to serve and give and we know there's a lot of organizations where we can just volunteer but it wasn't feeling very authentic to us. It wasn't feeling like we didn't have a connection there necessarily. It just felt like well we could do that but where are we supposed to be? And we found out Care Portal had just come to Ron Oak and we found out about it. We're like this is awesome. Like this is what we want to do. this is going to get us serving our neighbors and giving us a place to give. And so we our church so we started I started out just leading our church team and did that for many years and then somewhere along the way they wanted me to step into a leadership role and so that's how I landed here but it was really through just my heart and love of doing it. And one thing that I found is that the more that you do it, the more that it honestly it changes us as Christians too because you see you're just like that person, . you that could have been you that could be you tomorrow, like you never know what is going to happen in your life and we all need each other and we need to be there for each other. So the more that I met folks, the more I loved it. I'm "Wow, look at everything you're doing." And you're doing that alone. I couldn't do that alone. I don't think I'm as strong as you, and I'm so impressed. I want to do that. And so, yeah, I think that's why the Lord tells us to love our neighbor because he knows that not only is that serving them, but it's transforming you as well, . So, it's really good. I think one of the things I always noticed when like my wife and I would talk about our foster care experience is we have our youngest is adopted. We adopted her out of the foster care system and then we have Kinship. Our second oldest kid is as my niece. niece. niece. Oh wow. And remember we would talk about it in church and try to inspire people to get involved, to be a part of the system and help. A lot of people just lock up. I can't bring them into my home. I don't feel like I'm supposed to bring them into my home. Yeah, but then there's always that missing piece like you make the statement, well, you can do something, right? And that's that missing piece where a lot of times people are I really don't know what to do. What do I just send a check to DSS? what do I do to help? And so, hearing a ministry like yours that bridges that gap. Yes. Is phenomenal because it gives church people because a lot of church folks do want to get involved. Yes. Yes. Yes. They just a lot of times they just don't know how. Yes. And then they first thing they start thinking of is seven-year-old temper tantrums in the bedroom tearing the house apart and it's like no I'm running from that as fast as I can. And so I really love that being a connector and your family experience like driving that. It's such a cool story. Yeah. Yes. That's what I always forget to say that when I speak to churches like this is a way that everybody can be involved. This way everybody can step in and help. And it's simple. Like it can seem scary, but it's pretty simple to buy a box of diapers and say, "Hey, here's a box of diapers." so it's not it in that way it's accessible, right? For if you're a little scared, it can help you step into a space where it's a little scary, but I'm just leaving a box of diapers, right? And so it I think helps you get comfortable with meeting people you don't know in a way that then maybe one day you meet somebody and you just heart breaks for them and you fall in love with that family and you can continue to do things for them, because at that point it's a relationship. It's not, it's not dropping off a box of diapers. It's hey, I care about you, . Good. I love that you just said that. that's a perfect segue because I couldn't help but think about how it's so important to continue to build the relationship as we meet their need. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's the opportunity to now meet their spiritual need. Yes. Yes. Yes. And so, a lot of these individuals have physical needs, but they don't realize that their physical need is the opportunity or the doorway to their spiritual need. Yes. Right. And so it doesn't just end there because at the end of the day we have to look at it and say well who's our provider? Well the father's our provider. He's Jehovah Gyra. And so as it has been freely given to us we must freely give unto others. And so it's like now when you have another need you call upon the name of Jesus. Yes. Yes. Yes. And he will open up another door for you. you. you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so it's I think people have a tendency of meeting other people's needs because they don't know how to share the gospel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think this is a great way to get the church out of the building as we get these requests through the portal. portal. portal. And it's all right, there's a need for a family. Hey, Jackson family, you've never been out here yet. I want you guys to do it. I don't want the pastor to do it. The pastor's been called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. That's right. And so this is an opportunity to get these families that have likeminded or similar age children to have even their children come up with the gift of food and say, "Hey, we just wanted to bless you guys today." what does that do for the kid for when they get older? Now they understand the importance of "Wow, I've been blessed with a family that has always provided." Now when I see someone else in need, I'm going to also teach my kids when they get older to meet that need as well. well. well. That's right. Right. And so like this is a generational ongoing secret Santa like I just I love this whole thing Kim and I my scatterbrain but I think about basketball right in basketball one of the most underrated stats in my personal opinion are the assist because you didn't score the basket right the left hand like the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing or opposite sorry but anyways you didn't get the like you're playing the background most of the time. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. But from a different vantage point, you get to see all the blessings that come through and the requests that are made. And so it's man, wow, God used me in that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and so like that's the beauty. It's man, you're just you're the greatest assist if you will, how we would say it, in that terminology. But it's man, you're just throwing out assist all day long. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you're just making things happen. And so like that's why I connected with you, Kim, is because every person that you've allowed me to step into their life since I've been here has spoken nothing but highly and wonderful things about you, right? And so like I want you to understand this in this moment. The impact that you have in your community goes far beyond just the lives that you've been able to transformed with Care Portal, right? you're actually bringing the body of Christ together in a way that's very unique by meeting the needs of others. And so it's getting people to understand, man, this is actually bigger than me. This is bigger than my vision and my ministry. This is about us coming together to meet the needs of the world because God came to meet our need by setting us free and causing us into his mar calling us into his marvelous light, . And so yes. Yeah. I know I got a little winded there, but so I'm just curious. Do you have any favorite stories? People that have been connected through Care Portal or people that you've you've come across that I know it's hard to pick one, right? But just call them out. Your first time anytime somebody asks you, like what gets you up out of bed in the morning or what, makes you excited about this ministry? What's the first story that pops into your mind? Oh gosh. well, the the first story is probably the longest running story. it's is still running in my life is an aunt that I met and she's the one I told you that our church felt called to adopt, but she had five kids at the time that we met her and she had taken them in to keep them out of foster care. And she needed help because she had just agreed to take in two twins that were addicted to meth when they were born. and they called her, in a moment "We need a place for these twins, and you're the the best kin to care for them, right?" she doesn't have she's she's like the only one that could do it in her family. and so, so she said yes. which I'm you're an angel that you said yes to that. And of course, that set her back financially that month cuz she had to get a bunch of stuff. So, we helped her pay her rent that month and just thinking, this is like I got to bless you, but didn't think a whole lot past the paying the rent, in that thing. because it was over phone mostly. We were trying to coordinate how to do it. And so, we were talking a lot on the phone, but I hadn't met her in person at that point. And she calls me like a week later, and she's just "How's it going? I just wanting to She's just wanting to chat. She just want to talk to me. She was talking to me about raising the babies and she was I forget how to do this. And I was yeah, I do too. . And so we were talking about having babies again and what it was like and twins, and and then she would just chat with me and call me and she just regularly checked in on me and I was well, let's just talk, and so we kept up that relationship and then she had a situation where she was thinking about moving and so she would call me and ask me what I thought about it, and I was well, I think maybe it could work. it sounds like a sounds like you've done your research. And she's "Well, I don't know what to do. I don't know how I'm going to do this." I'm "Well, I think our church could help, ." So, we rallied our church and everybody came and we all helped her move into a she really needed a bigger space. She had a really tiny space and she had a lot of people in there and it was actually not a very safe apartment, which we have a lot of in Reno. A lot of these really old apartments that aren't that safe that people are living in. And so we helped her move into this bigger space. And when we did that, our church just fell in love with her. She had middle school boys. They fell in love with them. They're the sweetest boys. And and they said, "We really want to support her. Like we loved meeting her. We love this. And we want to keep helping her." and she was our neighbor. You mentioned that, Robert. She lives like four minutes from our house. and we would have never met her probably if it weren't for Care Portal. Portal. Portal. And so, our kids went to the same middle school, had no idea. And so from that, we just continued a relationship and her boys would hang out at my house. Sometimes there would be situations where she would have to go overnight somewhere and she didn't want the boys to miss school. So, they would just hang out at our house, during those times and I would sometimes she would need me to pick them up from middle school and I'd pick them up, drive them. So, it just became this relationship that we've just been walking with her along the way and she needs a lot of support. She has to make hard decisions. She's made some decisions that have really trapped her financially. And so, our church is really wanting to help her with those decisions and how to get out of that and free her up financially. And so, so she she relies on us for a lot of emotional community support. our and it also isn't just our church which is the beautiful thing about Care Portal from all this. We've had like folks that go to three different churches that have supported this family in different ways like so their Young Life the boys were going to Young Life and connecting with a lot of folks there and we got them plugged in there and then they go to a youth group at a different church that was I thought going to be a better fit for them with the youth group and and that was Mayo. He leaves the youth group that you met. Mayo's awesome. And so he goes they Yeah. So Mayo will pick them up and take them to youth group and then the boys go to church with Mayo and some other folks that lead Young Life that go there. And then there was another couple that has stepped in and helped in different ways and different times that goes to a different church. So, it just shows you the beauty of how honestly like myself alone, I can't even help meet all of her needs. that's too much for me. That's overwhelming to me, too. so we all really need each other in all these spaces. if we all come together, there have been times where I'm emotionally overwhelmed with her burden. I don't know how to do this. I can't fix this myself either. And then when I call out to the church community that I love, I'm "Guys, this is her situation." They're all "This is what we can do and let's take our meals and how can we love her?" And I'm "Yeah, let's all do this together." And it's so much more fun and it's less overwhelming for all of us. So that's something that I see with Careportal happen all the time where a lot of churches come together and because none of us can do anything alone, . So good. I heard a preacher say one time, can't remember who it was. So if anybody knows the preacher, you can drop it in the comments, but Joel Ostein, no. no. no. Oh, sorry. You just threw me off. I just saw the big grin, and but like we always typically want to be the means or the end, right? But the gospel's called us to be the means to an end. Yeah. It's that level of humility and that piece of connecting people like you said it earlier like you just get in the middle. that's really what Jesus did when he stretched himself out on the cross. he was the means and the end but he stretched himself out on the cross so he could become the means to the end. Yes. Right in the middle. And that's our call as Christians. And I and this something I've been wrestling with, because I'm so used to being in leadership in ministries. And it's okay, God, where are you calling me to just fade into the background, and just point, parenting four kids has taught me a lot about that, walking through our foster care journey and realizing that man, I don't need a large ministry. I don't need a church of 500. who else is going to take care of this newborn infant, right, right, right, that we've been called to take care of? And so on the surface, it looks a lot smaller. We're just behind the scenes hiding. Nobody really knows, . know. know. Yes. Yes. Yes. But yet, it's in those moments that stories like yours, like this family's life is being transformed because you were willing to step in and just be the means to the end. Yeah. her middle schoolers and when you talked about kids and the impact of kids, like it's not just our kids that are benefiting. Like the kids that we serve, they see the church show up for them over and over. and think about like the life-changing impact for them. But yeah, to your point, I what I'll describe our care portal community as, which I love them so much. All the people in our community are like the most beautiful, loving people you will ever meet and they're like the secret people. like nobody knows about them and they're amazing because they're so humble and they just love people and they just do what Jesus tells us to do and they do it over and over again and they step into things that are overwhelming but they trust that the Lord's going to show up and he always does and I think that's why it's so faithb buildinging to do this work because it's it is it's out of our control and we just have to trust the Lord. Like Lord, what are you going to do right now in this situation because I don't have enough money to fix this problem, but you do like you can fix this like not to say fix that's the wrong word but you can step in and provide the beautiful answer that's needed here when we don't have it . Yeah. So, so Kim, you have been so gracious to share so much about the ministry. Where could our audience and our listeners, find viewers, listeners, however you want to look at it, it, it, find Care Portal? where can we find you? how do we do this in our own community? How do we create this in our own community? Yeah. For those that don't necessarily live here in Rono, what does that look like? If you can just give us a little bit of details on that. Yeah. Yeah. So, Careportal is really accessible for anybody. If you just go to www.careportal.org, you can actually respond. You can see all the needs in your community and you can actually meet a need directly. Even if you're not an enrolled church, you can meet a need and and then it will connect you to somebody with the church nearby to meet the need. or you can enroll your church and or you can even if you're an agency and you want to post requests, you can actually apply to submit requests on the portal. So you can do a lot on that to get you connected. If you open up that map and there is no requests around you, then that probably means there's not care portal in that community yet. And just just call me and I'll connect you to the people to help you start get it going. it can get going from a lot of nonprofits will start care portal in their organ in their community. they'll they'll just do it as another part of what they do to serve kids and families. or you can actually some people just start it directly through Care Portal National and they'll start it that way. So it just depends on the different area. In Virginia, we have all of it. and so there's a lot of ways to get it going if you don't have it where you are. Yeah, that's good. Thank you. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. And I just want to thank you like for stepping up and like filling this need, meeting this need. Like I could tell story after story of seasons in our life where like our early days on min even not just foster care but like missionaries like doing the whole work of the ministry and secret Santaas if you will. Yeah. Not knowing a detail about what's going on in our life and just like a grocery car dropping at our front door at the right time or even when we were in foster we were we had our newborn and my wife was over the mountain in Charlottesville which was an hour and a half from our home every week for four or five days. And so we're homeschooling the other kids. I'm still working full-time. And Wow. and the right people would show up and just randomly drop a meal on our front door and people like discount the impact. But when your whole world is like just feeling like a pressure cooker and then that person steps in and just relieves just the tiniest bit of pressure like what it does for those families that are being impacted and so we haven't used Care Portal directly but I still feel compelled to say thank you. Yeah. because it's people like you that are doing work like this that really make a huge difference for you just to de like Yeah. decompress and the stress and all that stuff. Those little those what seem like little needs have such a huge impact on foster families. So, it's just knowing that you're not alone out there, that there's others that see you and care about you, . Yeah. It's powerful. powerful. powerful. Oh, roy the God who sees. He sees all of our needs and he meets them in ways that we can unexpect. And so, man, here at Rebuilding Life, we truly believe in rebuilding life. And it was an honor to have you, Kim, here on the podcast today. And we're going to leave a link below for care.org. so if you guys have any questions and you guys want to learn more about what Care Porter is doing, please hit the link below. Also, give this video a like and a subscribe. We want to hear from you. Leave a comment below. How has this impacted you? how can we be praying for you? We love you and we hope to hear from you all soon. Peace.