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Imagine…

Have you ever thought about adoption? Perhaps some of you here are adopted yourselves, or have siblings who are adopted. To my knowledge, though, none of us who call Priory home have actually adopted any children ourselves. [pic]

Last week, I told you about my friend Mike Nicholson and his conversation with a person in his church about Calvinism. Mike and his wife Rachael adopted a little girl. They know her grandparents through church. The girl’s biological mom is a troubled young woman. Her first daughter lives with the grandparents because mom has some issues with drugs. So when she became pregnant with a second child, Children’s Aid Society immediately told her she could not keep the baby. She approached Mike and Rachael, who had done some babysitting for the grandparents, if they would be interested in adopting this second child. Mike and Rachael thought and prayed about it and agreed. They had just a matter of months to make the decision; the mom was already pregnant!

That adoption surprised Mike and Rachael. They had not pursued adoption. They had not been looking for a child to adopt. Literally, somebody rang their doorbell one day and asked if they would like to adopt a baby!

Now, imagine this. My parents live near Wheaton College, a Christian school outside Chicago. Over the past few years my parents have gotten very involved with international students studying for the ministry at Wheaton. They have gotten to know a number of African and Chinese students.

One of the African students who recently graduated is from Uganda. His name is Robert and he is a Bishop for the Baptists in Uganda. (You can go puzzle out Baptist Bishop on your own….) Robert and his wife had no children of their own. They had tried but seemed unable to conceive. A number of years ago, a Muslim woman with 5 children became a Christian and started coming to Robert’s church. I don’t know if her husband had become a Christian or not, but died while his children were young. Then the mom died. It was very sad.

Rob did the funeral for the woman. And as is customary at the funeral, which was a public event with many people present, Robert also read the woman’s will. It is done this way in public so there is no question of what the will said within the community.

As Robert was reading the will, he came to the place where the woman described her wishes for her children’s care. Imagine Robert’s surprise as he was reading this woman’s will when it said that it was her will that he, Pastor Robert, and his wife have her 5 children!!! I can imagine he stopped, reread what was on the page, and, being in front of everybody, had to keep going! Amy and I met Robert on one of our visits with my parents. I remember he said he was completely shocked! He had no idea this was the woman’s plan! He looked at the 5 children, sitting in the front row of the church, and then at his wife. She nodded. They took the children home!