Church grants for adoption novel idea

PORT ARTHUR?The lack of immediately available financial resources often is a stumbling block for couples who feel called to adopt. But churches are among those embracing a culture of life by meeting a portion of those needs.

“If we’re going to be pro-life, we’re going to do all we can to encourage life,” said Dustin Guidry, pastor of Ridgewood Baptist in Port Arthur. Adoptive couples may apply for funds from a designated account at the church that will be sent to the adoption agency they are using.

When Guidry and his wife, Kerri, adopted their third child, they benefited from a grant through Show Hope, an organization begun by musician Steven Curtis Chapman. That assistance was particularly helpful as they adopted the special-needs child. Two of the four Guidry children were adopted through Homes of St. Mark in Houston, which offers the advantage of setting fees on a sliding scale based on income. Their first son joined the family late last year.

Ridgewood picked up on the idea gained through Guidry’s experience with Show Hope and began inviting members to contribute to a fund to aid adoptive families of the church. “We give up to 50 percent of the highest amount in the fund in a six-month period. If it’s at $5,000 then the church gives $2,500 to the adoption agency on behalf of the family. If two people come in, that allows us to fund two families within that period with an equal amount of money,” Guidry explained.

A recent letter from a family receiving one of the grants relates the gratitude for such help. Describing the “unique road of adoption” as having been filled with roadblocks that seemed impassible, the family shared, “The Lord has always used one common means to bless us with children?unselfish people. People who found themselves in situations they didn’t plan made the tough decision to choose life. People who carried and nourished life for nine months chose selfishly to give that life away. Others who wanted a different life for the children they loved sacrificially placed them in our home,” they added.

“With our latest blessing, the Lord brought in a whole new dynamic, you, the family of Ridgewood. What a surprise it was for us to find out that we would be recipients of a monetary gift through the church’s adoption fund ministry.”

The family praised the church’s commitment as “a body of believers who are living and practicing the pure and undefiled religion mentioned in James 1:27.”

When the first family received a grant and church members caught a glimpse of the newly adopted baby, Guidry said, “People started giving like crazy.” The church has yet to have a circumstance in which the fund was completely drained in a six-month period, although the pastor would see that as a good problem. “If we had to take up an offering to meet our commitment that would be easy to raise,” he added.

Another congregation, Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, offers grants to member families who adopt and is looking into the possibility of interest-free loans for members pursuing expensive international adoptions.

Such grants are particularly helpful for families who are given short notice of the availability of a child for placement. Pastor Voddie Baucham experienced this firsthand after the Bauchams adopted their last child through Covenant Care last fall.

“Were it not for the help of such a grant, we would have been in no position to consider this adoption on such short notice,” stated Baucham in his online blog post to the church. “By God’s grace, we were blessed to have help in our time of need so that we could help Micah in his time of need.”

“There was never a time with the adoption of our four children that we were financially able on the front end to pursue adoption,” Guidry admitted. “However, somehow and some way God was able to provide for each adoption. We found that our adoption process mirrored our adoption into the family of God in that we were utterly unable to provide for our adoption through salvation, but praise be