Child Welfare & Safety - Northern Michigan

Our Launch Team

The Safe Families Northern Michigan Launch Team is working hard to prepare for the Northern Michigan launch of Safe Families in 2027. This team is passionate about surrounding isolated families with caring, compassionate community, building the SFFC network base in the community, engaging local churches, and vetting, training, professionally supporting our amazing volunteers to keep children safe and families together!

We are the Mouls. Andy works as IT Director for a group of local family businesses, and Bridget’s days are filled with homeschooling our two sons.

As transplants to Northern Michigan, we have a deep appreciation for a community built outside of family. We have served with Safe Families for Children for several years as both a Resource Friend and Host Family, and we’ve seen how meaningful it is to support families in our area by intentionally becoming their community.

We spend a lot of time watching and coaching our boys playing football and baseball. While it’s hard to leave beautiful Northern Michigan, our family also loves to travel throughout the country absorbing history, landscapes, food, and thrift stores along the way.

Nathan and Margret Zowada have been married since 2014 and are raising a busy, joy-filled family with three children, and one more on the way. As parents, they understand family life is one of God’s greatest blessings, and it can also come with challenges, exhaustion, and seasons when support makes all the difference.

With over 15 years of ministry leadership, Nathan, alongside Margret, has developed a heart for serving others and caring for children and families. They are excited to be part of Safe Families because they believe no family should have to walk through hardship alone. The Zowadas are passionate about offering practical help, encouragement, and the love of Christ to those who need it most.

Tom and Rachel Ruthig are lifelong Northern Michigan residents who care deeply about their community and the families within it. High school sweethearts, they have built their life together around faith, family, and service. They are parents to two children, with a third on the way, and are passionate about homeschooling and raising their kids with strong values.

For years, Tom and Rachel have felt a calling to serve in local ministry, recognizing that the need for mission work exists not only across the world, but also right here at home – (Acts 1:8). Safe Families has given them a meaningful opportunity to live out that calling. As parents of young children, they feel a deep connection to families in crisis and are committed to offering support, stability, and compassion when it’s needed most.

Hi! We’re Lindsey and Eric O’Connor, and we’re excited to be part of the Safe Families Launch Team! Lindsey works in marketing in the construction industry and is excited to bring that experience to helping get Safe Families off the ground in Northern Michigan. Eric works in property management and is a Jack of all trades. When we’re not working, you can find us spending time with our daughter gardening, biking, hiking, and reading good books!

Having lived far from home for a number of years, we can imagine how difficult raising kids could be without deep support from family and friends. That’s why we’re excited to be part of bringing Safe Families to Northern Michigan to fill a much-needed role in our community.

Our Volunteers

Volunteers are the driving force behind the Safe Families movement. It takes many people working in various capacities to support families who are going through difficult circumstances. These dedicated volunteers live out our core values of radical hospitality, disruptive generosity, and intentional compassion. Volunteers serve a variety of roles from hosting children for a temporary period of time to wrapping support around families to providing services such as transportation, parent mentoring, respite care, and supplying tangible items such as diapers, car seats, household items, and meals.