More and more churches are encouraging families to adopt children likely to have significant disabilities. Beth Guckenberger is one of the most prominent champions of adoption in the church and a fabulous resource to parents as they embark upon their adoption or foster care journey.

Beth and her husband, Todd, live with their family in Monterrey, Mexico where they serve with Back2Back Ministries, an international orphan care ministry headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Both Beth and Todd graduated from Indiana University with degrees in education and between biological, foster, and adopted, are raising nine children. Currently the ministry has operations on three different continents (Mexico, India, and Nigeria). The Guckenberger’s have lived in Monterrey since 1997 and in that time have hosted thousands of guests on the ministry campus.

Beth is the author of Reckless Faith (Zondervan, 2008), Relentless Hope (Standard Publishing, 2010), and Tales of the Not Forgotten (Standard Publishing, 2012). She travels and speaks regularly at women’s and missions conferences, youth gatherings and church services. Her topics include, but are not limited to, orphan care, missions, parenting, marriage/intimacy, and general faith. Her style is story-telling and she draws from her field experience as a missionary and parent of nine children for illustrations to biblical concepts.

Beth contributed a video for Inclusion Fusion 2012…Holistically Serving the Adopted/Foster Child. In the video, she shares some of her experiences dealing with the emotional struggles of adopted and foster children as they adjust to the reality of becoming part of a new family. She did a great job of describing how the adverse childhood experiences of kids available for adoption and foster care contribute to difficulties “doing church” and shares helpful strategies for church staff and volunteers who interact with them at church.

Here’s Beth’s presentation…

Check out Beth’s website to learn more about the impact of her ministry.

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Our Key Ministry website is a resource through which church staff, volunteers, family members and caregivers can register for upcoming training events, request access to our library of downloadable ministry resources, contact our staff with training or consultation requests, access the content of our official ministry blog, or contribute their time, talent and treasure to the expansion of God’s Kingdom through the work of Key Ministry. In addition to our downloadable resources, those who register for our resource kit can view any presentation from our Inclusion Fusion Disability Ministry Web Summits “on-demand”. All of these resources are made available free of charge. Check out our website today!