Adoption Ministry

David and I have been wanting to make a list of all the not-so-coincidental-coincidences that have happened since we've started working with our church's adoption ministry. There are so many ways that things have just clicked into place with this. We thought that everything would be such hard work, but as is often the case God had everything mapped out and all we had to do was show up--in part because we have been surrounded by a wonderful team of folks that have passionately shared this vision and the tasks we have before us. Here is a sampling of what we have experienced in the last few months.

• A few months ago we thought of having some kind of adoption celebration event. We envisioned a small afternoon concert with a nominal ticket price so that some money would be raised for our church's adoption ministry. We really just wanted to increase adoption awareness as a part of our church's culture.
• We spoke with church leadership about our plans. They just happened to already have a plan for an orphan/adoption ministry with a sponsorship component, programs for adoptive and foster families, and a grant-making fund. Only no one was running the adoption programs. And there was no money in the account. So we were given the green light to do what we could towards re-energizing this ministry.
• David and I just happened to have the exact same vision for what this ministry could look like. Simultaneously over the course of one weekend each of us began thinking of our church as potentially being a one-stop shop for information and financial support for Christian adoptive parents in our area and possibly beyond. We both hoped that if anyone heard of someone wanting to adopt in our area the name of our church would immediately come to mind. (This may not seem like a big deal, but the terms we expressed our ideas on this to each other could not have been more similar, and that is not generally the case with us. Usually our "shared" ideas are the result of much discussion and compromise.)
• In September we talked with some folks in our Sunday school class who had expressed interest in helping with this. They just happened to have even bigger dreams than ours for what sort of adoption celebration event we could do at our church. Their vision included a program and an auction and much more of a push to get others to show support financially for this great cause. They just happened to have the energy to create the event with a very tight time frame.
• We just happened to be able to find a date on our otherwise very crowded church calendar and were able to claim November 13. November is national adoption awareness month.
• A whole lot of folks just happened to want to show support for the event by donating generously to our silent and live auction.
• Our church's search for a new pastor ended in September after nearly two years. David and I had prayed that whoever came to our church would be receptive to our plans. The person that our church chose to fill the pulpit and pastor our congregatation just happened to be an adoptive father of two who just happened to be experienced in starting crisis pregnancy centers and with helping with a fledgling adoption ministry at his previous church.
• David and I started thinking about what other churches in our area we would like to work with on this. One church in particular seemed like a great fit. Before we approached anyone there, we received notification that the church we had in mind just happened to be hosting an adoption seminar with our agency a few weeks before our event is to take place. We were able to talk to some people there about coordinating our efforts.
• A local television station just happened to be planning a story on adoption that will air a week before our event. We had already contacted the anchorman of this station, an adoptive father himself, to be our master of ceremonies. He contacted us about appearing on the program and promoting our event that way as well. (We filmed our part of the story today, and though I felt we had some communication problems since we are so inexperienced with this kind of thing, there was another family there who did really well and I know that it will turn out fine. We filmed our part in our church's library with Faith there with us and she was taking full advantage of our preoccupation with the interview. It is hard to speak eloquently on adoption and your future children when your current child is tearing things apart, dropping books in your lap, and reappropriating the library checkout computer.)

There was coordination of all these happenings on a higher level for certain. We feel very humbled by all of the things we have witnessed through this work. Please continue to pray for us, and if you are in our area email me for more details on our November 13th event!