Clinton1121web

Jerry Welch
We never know the journey God has for us. We may think
we do, but we don’t. The Bible says His ways are higher than
our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts
(Isaiah 55:8-9). I’m glad they are. I’m glad He has better plans
than I do.
Our adoption journey began with a pull, an emotional tug
at the heart. Adoption is a good idea. A nice thing for someone
to do. Little did we know God was beginning a process
of calling us to adopt. Three times He called us to adopt.
Three times we obeyed.
We considered adopting again. We prayed about it. We
were open, and our “yes” was on the table. But we sensed
that God was moving slowly. So, we waited.
Meanwhile, God was calling someone else to adopt. He
placed the call on the heart of a child who shared that call
with her family. They answered with a “yes,” but adoption
is expensive. After years of trying, they hit what seemed to be
the final wall. In a tearful post, the mom shared the greatest
burden of her heart. They would have to abandon the adoption
process for lack of funding. They just kept hitting dead ends.
But thankfully, a friend read her post. A friend from church
who had been praying about how God wanted her family
to invest in the kingdom of God. A friend who had not been
called to adopt, but who suddenly felt the undeniable call
to help.
No one whom God calls to adopt should have to abandon
that call for lack of funds, not when the family of God can help.
That’s when it happened. A phone call between two women,
my wife and the woman who read the post, connected
their hearts’ desire to do something about adoption– first and
foremost to do something to help this family to continue
their journey.
What happened next was the birth of an organization
called Hearts of Compassion, the orphan care and adoption
ministry of Colonial Heights Baptist Church. The goal was to
help bring awareness to the plight of 147 million orphans
around the world and to help fund adoptions by Christian
families. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world.
It’s not enough that children be adopted into earthly families,
we long for them to be adopted into God’s family as well.
How do you take the gospel to all nations? Sometimes,
one child at a time.
The two women, with the help of their church family, were
able to help the tearful mom at the end of her rope. That
family did adopt a little girl from China. We call her our first
Hearts of Compassion kid. That was almost eleven years ago.
But one child was not enough. God began to stir the heart
of a congregation to get behind the idea of adoption. Some
were called to adopt. Others were called to help families
adopt. Through the help of ministry partner, Lifesong for
Orphans, the Hearts of Compassion team found like-minded
believers who provided exceptional administrative help to
36 • NOVEMBER 2021