Tyler church wants to provide hope for 100 children who need care

hope for 100

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TYLER—Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler has a simple goal: Provide hope for at least 100 children through adoption or foster care in 2009.

Obviously, that’s far easier said than done. But in just three weeks, 77 families said they are interested in learning more about the possibilities.

Pastor David Dykes launched the emphasis with a Jan. 4 sermon.

Kevin Burdette (left), minister of adult impact at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, and Rocky Gill introduce the Hope for 100 campaign, seeking to find adoptive or foster homes for 100 children in 2009.

“Over the next 12 months, I’m going to challenge our congregation to make a difference in the lives of at least 100 children who are abused or neglected through adoption or foster care,” he said.

To illustrate the desperate need for hope, he offered some statistics:

• Worldwide, there are 143 million orphans.

• In the United States, there are 496,000 orphans.

• In Texas, there are 26,749 orphans.

• In East Texas, there are 2,135 orphans.

“The tragedy is that each year in America, 22,000 teens age out of the system. That means they are no longer available for state aid. Of these 22,000 who never are adopted, statistics prove 40 percent of them will never finish high school, and 65 percent of them will end up homeless or in jail. Of those who age out of the system, they are twice as likely to become addicted to drugs and alcohol,” Dykes told his congregation.

Dykes knew he had one family already on board before he preached. Rocky Gill and his family rejoined the church in 2007. After Gill had served several area churches as pianist, he made his way back to Green Acres. And he carried a dream with him—helping others see the need for adoption.

His journey began when his wife, Carrie, had a “troubled pregnancy” that led to spending 20 weeks in bed. The counsel of doctors not to have any more biological children led to a grieving process for the couple that stretched over a couple of years, Gill said.


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While they considered adoption, Gill was concerned about horror stories he had seen publicized of biological parents who later returned to reclaim their children.

A chance encounter in a restaurant erased those reservations, however.

He noticed an Anglo couple enter the restaurant holding the hands of an Asian child.

“I had a strange compulsion to find out where she came from,” Gill recalled.

One component of the Hope for 100 program is planning mission trips to orphanages

After greeting the couple they had never met before, the conversation reached the point where the man said to the Gills, “It’s a distinctly Christian thing to care for widows and orphans.”

“That’s the moment when the Lord sealed it in my heart,” Gill recalled. “I felt like I was standing there naked. I had no excuse.”

They began the process to adopt their daughter the next day.

“I became so much more aware of adoption,” he said. “James 1:27 became very important to me. And I couldn’t understand why if this was so important to God, why weren’t churches doing more about it. I came to the conclusion that either churches are full of sorry people, or they will do anything if someone will tell them how to go about it. I decided it was the latter.”

Gill began to pray that in Tyler, 100 families would open their homes to children through adoption.

“It got to the point that I said to myself: ‘I’ve got this dream in my head. What do I do with it?’” he said.

A friend gave him the keys to a lake house where he could spend time in prayer. After he meditated on Scripture and prayed, Gill wrote a plan on Oct. 12, 2005.

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This KLTV report focuses on the McGaha family and the Green Acres Baptist Church Forever Families support group.

The Gills returned to Green Acres about the time longtime staff member Kevin Burdette changed titles and responsibilities. As minister of adult impact, his job was to find ways to help adults make a difference in their world.

Gill communicated his prayer to Burdette, who in turn took it to Dykes.

“The pastor was like: ‘This is God’s word. We’ve got to do it,’” Burdette recalled.

The church put together a leadership team to make plans to turn the dream—the prayer—into a reality.

“It’s obvious to me that the Lord was talking to people before we came back,” Gill said as he considered the people who made up that team. It was through the input of members of that team that foster parenting became a part of the plan. “Foster parenting was never on my radar,” Gill confessed.

When the team met last April, Gill didn’t need to start from scratch. He just printed out the document he had formulated 18 months before. “That was our starting point.”

The team put together an informational website, created a logo, produced promotional materials and made contact with the Abba Fund—a group that makes interest-free loans to people who want to adopt but who lack funds up front to make it happen. When the adoptive parents receive their tax credit for adopting a child, they repay the loan.

The response from the congregation has been exceptional, Burdette and Gill said. More than 70 families filled out paperwork declaring their strong interest, and others have told them they are going to follow suit.

“I heard a story Sunday of a husband and wife who both have wanted to adopt, but neither had said anything to the other until Hope for 100 got them talking about it,” Burdette said.

Another component of the Hope for 100 program is planning mission trips to orphanages to keep the need before the congregation, Burdette said.

Green Acres leaders hope other congregations around the state will want to emulate the program, he said.

“We’re hoping this will be a program that others can use. It can be Hope for 25, 50, 100 or 200. The logo, the plan and everything is available to anyone who would want to use it,” he said.

The church will hold an “If You Were Mine” conference Jan. 30 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It will seek to help people answer questions such as “Is adoption for us?” “How do adoption and foster care processes work?” “How do we choose an agency that is right for us?” “Can I really love an adopted or foster child?” and “Can we afford it?”

 


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