Our first fundraising letter

Dear friends and family,                 

We are writing to you with the exciting news that the Lord has led our family to adopt from Uganda! The Lord put this on our hearts over the last month. We’ve always wanted to adopt, but we didn’t know what the Lord’s timing would be.

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27 As the body of Christ we all have a responsibility to care for orphans and we believe our family’s current role is to bring a child into our home and make them our own. Adoption is a picture of the Gospel. Christ adopts us as sons and daughters and makes us His own. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

Mike has always wanted to adopt anytime, but the Lord had to soften my heart. Really He had to bring me out of my selfishness of wanting to “have all of ‘our’ kids first” then adopt. We know that His timing is best. The Lord first brought adoption up through a story my friend told me about a baby that wasn’t cared for, my heart felt so much compassion for a child I didn’t even know. I wanted to rescue that baby. Over the following weeks I kept thinking about adoption, my heart longed to bring a baby into our home that would otherwise be orphaned. Some friends of ours told us that there was a great opportunity to adopt from Uganda and they were beginning the process. Immediately Mike and I

felt we were supposed to do the same.

There are currently 2.5 million orphans in Uganda, a country that has the population of California and is the size of Oregon. One million of these orphans are orphaned by aids. We have decided to adopt from Uganda: one, because the Lord led us to, two, because children in Uganda are less likely to hear about the Lord than orphans in the states and three, orphans in foreign countries have harder living conditions than those in the states.

We are beginning the application process and it is likely to take about 12 months till we have a baby in our home. There is much to go through… paperwork, interviews, home-studies, waiting for approval, fundraising. It will be hard, but so worth it for a precious life, a life that might not even be born yet. We ask that you and your family would prayerfully consider giving financially for our adoption. We ask that you would be in prayer for us and for our baby.

We have setup an adoption fund through our church so donors will receive a tax write-off. Please send funds to our address, but make checks out to Centerpoint Church (in the note: the Barker family adoption).

         We love all of you!

         The Barkers