Performancing Enhancing Drugs & Preaching

This past Sunday at church was Orphan Care Sunday and we launched a new ministry entitled Rosalynn's Hope, which is a ministry to promote the care of born and unborn orphans. It was a great day even though it started off a bit rough. On Saturday, I dealt with a headache all day that I just couldn't kick...even with more than the recommended amount of Excedrin Migraine! At 1.30 AM, I woke up to feed Emery and my head was pounding so hard that I was getting sick to my stomach; so I woke Lydia up, handed off the bottle, and proceeded to the closest bathroom and paid homage to the porcelain god :) I was a bit concerned because I was scheduled to preach in 7 hours. I woke up again at 4.30 AM to the sounds of my beautiful baby girl crying so I feed her and unfortunately was never able to go back to bed (Lydia offered to feed her; I should have taken her up on the offer).

Needless to say, when I stepped into the church building around 8.15 AM, I was exhausted and felt unprepared to preach 2 sermons. So...I did what any good American would do...I purchased a 5 Hour Energy...and chugged it...and then again between services! I don't recommend pastors use performance enhancing drugs; however, I think there are exceptions to the rules and this was one of them. To God's glory, the morning went amazing well and I think the people of Ninth and O Baptist Church were challenged to consider their role in orphan care. Click here to hear the audio from Sunday morning. Below are a few photos from the day taken by Trent Hunter.

We had displays for the ministry in both lobbies of the church.

Here is a photo of Rosalynn Robb's family. Rosalynn, whom the ministry is named after, was adopted from the Philippines by a Christian family. Rosalynn has been a faithful member of our church for several years.

A shot inside the worship center.

I am grateful for my wife's passion for adoption and that God used her to change my heart toward orphan care. I can't imagine life without any of my beautiful children. A wonderful church member took photos of all the adopted persons (some adults) within our church and below is my favorite picture of William.

Lydia and I have spent some time this week reflecting on the Will's adoption process and one thing that stood out to us was the overwhelming support we received from both of our families. In speaking to another adoptive family this week, I was reminded that many adoptive families deal with racism but by God's grace, we never had to. Lydia and I want to thank our families that made the entire process as easy as possible. We love you.