Where He Calls, He Leads: God’s Calling and Provision for Audrey and a New FAM at CrossLife East

This summer, CrossLife East Church launched its first Care Community. Their lively new family advocacy ministry (FAM) is wrapping around a family with two teenage girls, and they are poised to take on more families.

Audrey Dunst is one-third of the Advocate team at CrossLife East, and she was willing to share some of her story about what ultimately led to the beginning of the impactful work her team is doing in Orlando.

Audrey’s story is one of an undeniable calling that just wouldn't go away. From the time she was 17, she knew that God was leading her to care for vulnerable kids. A mission trip to Haiti was the catalyst where God opened her eyes in a powerful way to the suffering and immense need worldwide. Looking back on her calling to serve, she said, “I’ve had that heart for a long time.” And from that time forward, God seemed to be closing all of the doors, but the fire in her heart stayed lit.

Life just kept happening. Audrey went off to college. She got married. She started a family. For years, the time was never right to foster or adopt, but as she said, “When the calling never goes away, even when doors are shut in your face, you know it is from God.” Indeed, that calling never did go away. 

With a busy family and young children, it still wasn’t the right time for Audrey and her husband to foster or adopt. But a few months ago, she met with Commission 127’s Michelle Stewart and felt God’s shepherding hand leading her into a new adventure. It became clear that there was another way to live into her calling. She didn’t need to be the one to foster or adopt in order to care powerfully for vulnerable children. 

Michelle outlined for Audrey and the team Commission 127’s mission. How they support churches, equipping and empowering them to sustain foster and adoptive families and the vulnerable kids they are caring for. “It was a pretty easy process because C127 makes it so easy,” Audrey said of getting the Care Community started. “They just laid it out so easily.” 

Now that Audrey has been serving as an Advocate for several months, she enjoys looking back and seeing the Lord’s provision in her life and her Care Community’s ministry. “God has taken my crumbs,” she said,  “and He is making a banquet.”

Her words speak to the ability of the FAM structure to amplify her efforts.

She recalled her past efforts to initiate similar work for vulnerable families within her church. Those attempts, as she recalled, never came to fruition. “I couldn’t do it alone,” she said. She was lacking the essential support and structure. Now that Audrey and her church have partnered with C127, they have been able to thrive and excel in their critical work. “When the support was added into the equation,” she explained, “it exploded into a beautiful ministry.”

Audrey still hopes to foster or adopt in the future, but right now, she is grateful to be meaningfully participating in God’s healing and redeeming work through her Church’s FAM. As she and her family serve together, she enjoys teaching her kids that “The things we are doing are eternal and not just temporary.” Thankful to have a role in this eternal work, she said, “Right now, the way I can love these kids and these families is very tangible.” 

Reflecting on her life and calling, Audrey is reminded of a poignant phrase that makes sense of her story thus far. “If God calls you to it,” she said, “He’ll see you through it.” From the time she was 17, she knew she was called to care for the vulnerable, but doors just kept closing. Audrey’s recent experiences, starting a Family Advocacy Ministry in her church, serving as an Advocate, and launching a Care Community have confirmed what she knew to be true. “If God initiates it, He sustains it, and He completes it.”