Pastor Aaron Brown

Earlier this month four children from Third Coast Church publicly committed their lives to Jesus through baptism. The celebration was incredible. Both their immediate family and their faith family was so proud of their courage and their decision to follow Jesus and fearlessly make him known. However, there’s something extraordinary about these children that not everyone is aware of: two out of the four were adopted…  Let that sink in, 50% of the children baptized on that Sunday would not be in our community, and may not be in God’s family, had their families not answered the call to stand in the gap for families in crisis.

Adoption is a cause close to the heart of the Fearless Churches. Mosaic’s Clothing Co-op, prayer groups, and other programs resource and support families who are stepping into care for a new foster or adopted child. As a family of churches, every year we remind one another that there are over 3,000 children ready to be adopted in Michigan’s foster care system, and each of our Fearless churches commits to praying for a year over one child in Michigan who’s waiting for a home. This year, Third Coast is praying for Joshua. We are a people who seeks out those who need a home and welcome them in with open arms.

Being a part of this church community has changed my life. You see, one of those families baptizing their child a few weeks ago was my family. It was through working directly with the volunteers and programs of Mosaic that softened our hearts to the leading of the Holy Spirit to pursue foster care and adoption, and led us to the social connection that introduced us to our daughter. I can’t imagine life without our fourth child, and ithout the challenge, encouragement, and support of our church our family would not be whole. It was a deep and joyous pleasure to baptize my daughter in a community of people who know her story, with other families that look like ours, and in a community that care about kids who need a forever family.

Don’t get me wrong though, we’re not heroes and our journey of adoption has been anything but glamorous. I could write page upon page about the challenges involved with navigating public social systems, the spiritual conflict of merging two families, our failings in parenting, and the unexplainable emotional turmoil of loving your child deeply and yet feeling the constant nagging grief that in a perfect world they should still be with their birth parents…. It’s dizzying. Every time someone points out how great it was of us to adopt, all we can do is point too Jesus as a source of our strength and perseverance. It’s God’s greatness that completed our family and brought her into His family. There are no hero’s here, just a bunch of imperfect people leaning into a broken world with the power of the Holy Spirit.   

So, today I celebrate that I’m a part of a faith family who relentlessly expresses the gospel of Jesus by welcoming children into our homes and into God’s Family. This is a beautiful part of who we are as a church community. To paraphrase 3 John 1:4, we have no greater joy than to see our children, any children brought into our family, walking in the truth of Jesus. Thank you for supporting my family, and welcoming all of God’s children home.

Not everyone is called to adopt, but everyone can do something to support a child in crisis. Learn more about the children waiting for forever home in Michigan by visiting mare.org, and get involved with Mosaic by visiting mosaicfosteradopt.org