God’s Hope Chest Ministry

God’s Hope Chest Ministry works with Family & Youth Initiative of Washington, D.C., and sponsors an annual birthday celebration for adolescent youth in foster care in need of adoption.

Initially, the ministry was named Kids Save, but the name was changed to avoid confusing it with Kidsave International. A donor in the Washington area gave a $5,000 contribution to support the ministry’s work. The mission was to help facilitate the adoption of children, particularly foster children ages 9 to 17 in the Washington metropolitan area, but that goal shifted after outreach to church members indicated that the adoption qualifications were too rigorous.

God’s Hope Chest now focuses on birthdays because, most of the time, there are no family celebrations of birthdays for this group in our communities. This event has been celebrated annually in the church fellowship hall with 22 to 25 children and 40 to 55 adults of different ethnicities and races from Washington, Maryland, and Virginia.



Those interested in supporting this ministry are asked to contact Sister Oretha Chandler or Deaconess Dena Bowen by calling the church office at 202-829-2773 or sending an email to office@19thstreetbc.org.