Ministry Focuses on Helping Children Aging Out of Foster Care
Direction 61:3 is a young ministry in North Texas that is trying to serve an overwhelming need.
She walked into the office of First Baptist McKinney in 2012 where Myron Wilson served as worship pastor and asked for help. The 18-year old girl was living in a van and was out of gas. That’s when Wilson first learned that young people age out of foster care and end up living on the streets. Wilson and his wife took her in for several weeks, but she had trouble adjusting.
Photo by Melissa Askew / Unsplash / Creative Commons
He says God kept prompting him. A couple years later, Wilson met a woman involved in foster care who said 38% of the homeless population in Texas are youth who have aged out of foster care. He wanted to do something, and he knew Christians in the affluent area of North Texas where he lived had resources to help.
So in 2015, Direction 61:3 was born. In 2016, its first home for aged-out youth was donated. In 2017, Wilson became the executive director. And in 2018, the ministry opened their doors to girls who needed help.
“I consider this demographic the unreached people group in the United States,” Wilson said. “These people have never seen or heard or experienced the love of Jesus, and they’re right here in our backyards.”
They come from all kinds of abusive situations, he said. They’ve experienced abandonment and neglect. “When you surround them with people who love Jesus and who have the values of Jesus, you will see a transformation take place,” he said.
The ministry is named for the transformation described in Isaiah 61:3, “…provide for those who grieve to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”
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Wilson described a young woman who had a 3.6 grade point average at her high school and had been accepted into a nursing program—but was about to be taken to a homeless shelter on her 18th birthday because she had nowhere to go. Direction 61:3 took her in a year ago. She is doing well in nursing school, bought a car, and recently gave her life to Christ.
Wilson says many families are not able or equipped to take a troubled teen into their home. Instead he suggests Direction 61:3 can “do the messy work,” and the Christian community can support it financially and with volunteers.
Direction 61:3 is gaining momentum with the addition of five more homes for young men and women ages 14 to 24 and the purchase of five acres where Direction 61:3 hopes to build homes for up to 50 young people. Its budget has also doubled in the last year from about $568,000 to $1.028 million. It is a licensed foster care agency with the State of Texas.
Wilson said the first priority of Direction 61:3 is evangelism—pointing young people to Christ. But it also adopts a holistic approach that includes education, career preparation, life skills, and relationship building.
In the ministry’s Kingdom Cars program, residents can earn a reliable used car by completing certain requirements, like graduating from high school, getting a job, and saving $2,500 to buy the car. If they remain in the program for another year, the $2,500 is given back to them with interest.
Direction 61:3 operates differently than other agencies. It gives teens their own rooms so they each have a safe space. Residents must attend worship each week. Most of its current house parents are single adults. They must be conservative evangelical Christians who have raised teens or have worked with vulnerable youth.
Because it doesn’t currently have the budget to buy homes, it works with investors who buy a home and lease it to the ministry for three years. It takes about $7,000 per month to meet the needs of each group home with four residents.
Direction 61:3 does not currently belong to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), but plans to join are “on the horizon.” About 90% of its support comes from Christian individuals, churches, and business owners. Wilson says they may need to pursue grants and relationships with larger businesses and corporations to meet its funding needs.
