Adoption: Living the Gospel

“The gospel of Jesus Christ means our families and churches ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans close to home and around the world.”  - Adopted for Life

“Adoption is about an entire culture within our churches, a culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.”  - Adopted for Life

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  James 1:27, Bible    

For much of the past 5 years of my life I have thought that adoption was a great thing to do but something that was not for me.  It was too uncomfortable, too expensive and too hard.  It has been a journey for me and my wife that has recently led us to pursue adoption more seriously in the country of Uganda.  

In January of 2012, we had the opportunity to share with our home church 5 words that we wanted to be a part of our lives for the whole year.  Those words included Prayer, Orphans, Community, Rest and Jesus.  Orphans made the list because we think that the idea of an “orphan” hits home for all of humanity.  Even though you may have been born with two perfectly capable parents in this life you still have a void in your life.  You see we all were born enemies of God.  In that state of being an enemy, we were also orphans without a home, without a Father and without hope.  I have often imagined what it might be like to be an actual orphan in this life, void of any real identity, address, heritage or future.  Void of the love and nurture of a mom and a dad that love and cherish you and tell you how cute you are.  This love that we experience from a loving mother and father is a foretaste of the love and affection of our heavenly Father.  

Psalm 40 proclaims that “He has lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud.  He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip.”  Our God has done something for each of us that we couldn’t do for ourselves.  He has adopted us out of this life and given us a new hope, new future, new address, and a new heritage full of brothers and sisters that stretch backwards into history and forwards into tomorrow.  It is hard to fathom a future in which you were once enemies to God, to a future in which we are now friends of God.  Romans 8:23 refers to all creation groaning as we await for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  God knew before the creation of the world that we would be adopted as his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ (Eph 1:5).  And so we wait...but in that waiting we act...we show our belief in the spiritual adoption that we have experienced by demonstrating it on this earth to physical orphans.  We overcome the hurdles of fear, expense, struggle and discomfort of a physical adoption because Christ overcame.  This is the gospel!    
~ Paul

This is a story that begins with a passion... a passion to be obedient, a passion for the lost, a passion to care for orphans and ultimately a passion for God's Glory.  This is the story of the Braddy's filling their home and ultimately acting out the gospel.  Join us on our journey... through this blog we will attempt to keep you informed of the steps we are taking and the progress that is being made.  As you read this... please pray for us and the children God has for us.