(Cindy Decker, a member of the Just Jump Ministries, Inc. Board, attends
First Baptist Church in Sedalia, MO. She teaches the College Bible Study class and can often be found in the kitchen cooking food for church events.)
Ephesians 1:3-5 "How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure."
Several years ago, I went on a mission trip to Ecuador with my church. This was a medical mission trip and I have absolutely no medical training. I was told that there would be something important for me to do. We held medical clinics in communities where the neighborhoods had very little medical help. My job was to greet people as they arrived and let them know when it was their turn to see the doctor.
The doctor that went with us from our church loved people and loved Jesus. He wanted to treat the whole person, not just address their physical issues. One day, a college student came to the clinic. She was very pretty, well dressed and working to get her degree. As she was getting the needed medication, Dr. Allmon told us that her mother was a prostitute and had given her up for adoption. She loved her adoptive parents very much and they had given her a wonderful life. She said she was a Christian, but, couldn't get over the fact that her mother kept her siblings, but not her. She felt unloved, abandoned and alone. Dr. Allmon said out loud that he wished there were someone who could relate to her. This was it! This was why I was there. I said that I could talk to her from one adopted child to another.
Our interpreter came with me and we sat and visited with this young woman. I don't even remember her name. But I do remember telling her how much God loved her and provided for her in a way that her birth mother could not. I shared how God had showed me that my birth mother giving me up for adoption was not abandonment, but an act of love. God showed us this sacrificial love first by sending his only Son so that we might become His adopted children. I hope that this young woman left feeling accepted and wanted, knowing that Almighty, Holy God loved her so much that He adopted her when she gave Him her heart. She was a child of the King of Kings. There is no greater love than this.
