The timing is what seemed odd. Four years ago, God told Josh and Beth Glymph to simultaneously do the two hardest things they’d ever done.

“Foster care and church planting,” says Beth. “I thought there was no way He’d ask us to do both at the same time.”

And yet, everything began to make sense after the Glymphs adopted three children, two out of foster care, while starting Refuge Church in the Jacksonville community of Ortega. Ortega had almost no evangelical witness, but it did have families who looked as eclectic as the Glymphs..

“People here who were fostering and adopting said, ‘Hey, there’s a family that’s doing what we’re doing,’” Josh says. “That’s how the Lord began to build this church.”

Now, the Glymphs share the gospel with families from all kinds of backgrounds. “We didn’t set out to plant a church for foster and adoptive families,” says Beth. “But now that it’s happened, we get to see the Lord working right in front of our eyes.”

Prayer Requests

• Foster and adoptive families like the Glymphs to grow in their love for Jesus and each other.
• New witnessing relationships to form out of Refuge’s foster and adoptive care ministry.
• Families who’ll be willing to help plant more churches in Jacksonville’s other unreached communities.