Watershed Moments

A kind note came in today to Dan Cruver, Director of Together for Adoption, and we’d love to share it with you all. This adoptive father was excited to share some news about accepting a leadership position at a domestic adoption agency and provided encouragement by sharing some of his testimony.  ABBA Fund was blessed to be a part of this family’s adoption journey by providing an interest free loan through one of our church partners at the end of March this year to help bring their child home!

I wanted you to be one of the first to know, because the Lord has used you as a very instrumental part of this process in our lives over the last few years. Looking back we can see that we were at a watershed moment when we attended the first Together for Adoption Conference in Greenville. Honestly, it’s a little scary to think about the turn our lives might have taken had we not attended the conference. Out of that one weekend the Lord enabled us to joyfully embrace adoption as a picture of the Gospel (as opposed to embracing it begrudgingly as our “Plan B”). Through your ministry, we were blessed to have a Gospel perspective on adoption from the start, and it’s made all the difference in our journey over the last few years.

I can’t really express in an e-mail the passion that we now feel for adoption. I suspect it’s similar to what you feel in your own heart. Suffice it to say that we have a strong sense that this is where the Lord has been leading us for quite some time. Not only have we been blessed to adopt our children, but we are now asking the Lord that He would work through us to advance the Gospel in broken lives all across our state, that many birthmothers would come to know Jesus, and that many children would be saved from abortion. 

Thank you again for your ministry; know that God is working through you and through T4A in very real ways.

To find out about this year’s Together for Adoption Conference, please visit www.togetherforadoption.org.

Russell Moore: Our Adoption Story

I just pre-ordered Dr. Russell Moores forthcoming book on adoption – Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches (Crossway)

Here is a brief video we produced for Together for Adoption –

“Adoption: Both Doctrine and Calling”

Great article on Together for Adoption at the North Carolina Baptist website.

We are planning our second conference for fall 2009 in Nashville, TN – stay tuned!

 

Together for Adoption Conference Audio

All the audio from our recent conference is now online:

• Jason Kovacs and Maridel Sandberg – “Conference Welcome and the Christian Alliance for Orphans’ Vision for Orphan Ministry“
• Dan Cruver – “Adoption in God’s Story of Redemption“
• Rick Phillips – “The Good News of Adoption“
• Carl Robbins – “Adoption and the Multi-Ethnic Family of God“
• Tullian Tchividjian – “Our Adoption and Visiting Orphans in Their Affliction“

Adoption Conference Review

I want to reiterate what Dan shared on the Together for Adoption blog yesterday –

The first Together for Adoption conference was held this past Saturday, November 1st. Over 160 people gathered together to consider our adoption in Christ and its profound implications for orphan care and the earthly practice of adoption. Rick Phillips, Carl Robbins, and Tullian Tchividjian not only gave us great cause to rejoice afresh in God’s provision of adoption through Jesus Christ, but also much food for thought about how our adoption by God should inform and shape the church’s ministry to orphans. God gave us a wonderful day.

It was also our privilege to serve with so many committed volunteers. They served with much humility and grace. We thank God for each of them. We could not have held the conference without them.

For those of you who were not able to attend the conference this past Saturday, we hope to have the audio available for free download before the end of this week.