I will never forget the day. My husband and I had planted a church in 2013, and we were about 4 years into this calling on our lives. We had two young children and although things were going well, we were very much in survival mode. Planting a church is no small task. Having babies and paying the bills can be overwhelming. I felt that we were at full capacity of what we could handle at that moment.
We were driving down the road, and my husband started to share a dream he had to start a non-profit organization serving families. “What?! How can we possibly do that?” (My thoughts.)
Before the story continues any further, let me give you a little back story. Shortly after we planted our church, our eyes began to open wide to the crisis of broken marriages. We had couple after couple coming to us for advice and counseling. Having only been married about 9 years ourselves, I often felt ill-equipped to give advice to people around our same age. I did not feel qualified to walk with people in this kind of pain. What could we possibly add to this area of ministry when our hands were full, and we were so young? The journey that the Lord was taking us on was confusing to me because I could think of so many other people that would do better at the job than I would.
Isn’t that just like God? He calls us to something that we don’t feel like we are able to do. But that is not His point.
He is simply asking us to trust Him.
At the same time, we had friends who had been trying to conceive children for years with no success, and this was another point of pain for them. They began to seek more information about adoption and were quickly discouraged at the cost to adopt. What was the Lord asking us to do? What could we possibly contribute to these areas?
We also felt a burden for friends who had accepted the call into ministry but were finding themselves burned out and lacking direction, leaving them wanting to quit.
All of this felt daunting. I was very overwhelmed and to be honest, at first, I just said NO. How were we going to make any kind of difference in these areas? How can we hold anything else when what are already carrying seems so heavy?
We didn’t have an immediate answer to any of these questions as we were driving down the road that day, but it was the beginning of a burning desire to step up and be obedient to what God was putting in front of us. When we are called to something bigger than ourselves, God is not asking us to figure it all out and make it all happen on our own. He is simply inviting us into the journey and wanting to show us that He can be trusted.
The non-profit did not happen that day, but we did say yes to doing something. Later that year, we started an annual marriage conference at our church. We started pouring into families as God gave us the strength. We were obedient to the call, even though we could not fully see the whole thing. Charles Stanley has a quote that encouraged me to “obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.”
Now that you have a small bit of back story, let us fast forward to 2022. We had been doing our marriage conferences yearly and providing family and parenting seminars throughout the year. We were pointing people to Jesus and showing them that to have a successful marriage and family could not be found in the ways of our culture and world.
People were giving their lives and families to Jesus. The Lord began knocking on our hearts again and reminded us of this dream He had given years ago. It was time to start the Fathom Family Foundation. We knew this was the right time and started figuring out what we needed to do to make it a reality. You see, family is God’s idea. It is His design for people to love and be loved with the love of the Father as a foundation. It is His heart that no one suffers pain or feels stuck. He calls us to life that is abundant.
John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
The enemy of our souls has put stakes in the ground and is fighting with all he has to break up marriages, to end families, and to stop a calling that people have on their life. We are all called to make a difference in this world and there is a fight that is waging war against that. In October of 2022, we received the official paperwork that Fathom Family Foundation was a real thing. It has been amazing to watch what God has been planning for this ministry all along.
I quit my job to tackle this, but it really is not about me.
It is about obedience.
He takes full responsibility for the results.
In order for this to work, we must surrender to his plan, his timing and his vision. He gave us a mission for this organization:
One child,
one marriage,
one family at a time, until every home reflects the beauty of God’s Kingdom.
We are waking up every day with this mission burned on our hearts knowing that we cannot do any of it without God and His strength.
To date, we have been able to give two adoption grants to amazing Christian families, we have hosted a Refresh Retreat for pastors and ministry leaders, letting them know they are not alone, and we are providing encouragement for marriages to be healthy and pointing it all back to Jesus.
This is in no way patting ourselves on the back. It is just giving you a little more information on why we are here and what God has called us to do. We know that this is bigger than us. We are looking for partners to help this mission move forward.
Let’s make a difference together. Let’s fight this fight and give God all the glory. It is truly an honor to be a part of what He is doing. We are awake to the tactics of the enemy, and we are ready to see life abundant for marriages and families all over our country and world.
Written by: Taran Nelson. Taran is the Executive Director of Fathom Family Foundation and serves in ministry with her husband, Rev. Kyle, and their three children in Jacksonville, FL.
