What do you call something that has 34 legs and is 248.9 miles? An Adoption ministry.

Or, at least, that’s how one group from Highview Baptist Church recently expressed it.

During the early morning hours of Saturday, April 24, a group of 17 students from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary — the majority from Highview’s Kingdom First adult Bible fellowship (ABF) — banded together to support Ken and Sarah Lovett, fellow seminary students and members of Kingdom First, who are in the process of adopting two children from Ukraine.

The task before the group was completing the annual Kentucky Derby Festival mini-marathon. While the event itself was memorable, the cause behind it was eternal.

The Lovetts had felt called to proclaim the Gospel in their own lives through adopting two children. Considering the expensive fees associated with adoption, Ken and Sarah began to think about creative ways to raise money for the adoption. With the help of their friends, the Lovetts proposed running the half-marathon with hopes that others might be willing to donate money to support them in the run.

The idea quickly gained support from their ABF, including co-teacher and Southern student Robbie Sagers.

“Right now there are two young children in Ukraine, babies who don’t have a father or a mother,” Sagers said. “We don’t yet even know their names — we don’t yet even know if they are a ‘he’ or a ‘she!’ But we do know that soon, Lord willing, those two orphans will be brought into a home, and Ken and Sarah Lovett will be to them simply ‘Dad’ and ‘Mom.’”

The response was overwhelming. Not only did more people race in the half-marathon than the Lovetts had originally expected, but others supported the cause by generously sponsoring runners and purchasing official “Lovett Or Leave It” race-day t-shirts. One individual was even able to raise more than $1,600 for the adoption.

“God just kept blessing us with friends who wanted to run for us,” Ken said.
“Some were even friends of friends that didn’t know us personally. We ended up with not just 10, but 17 people running. And several of our friends didn’t just raise $10 to $15 per mile, but rather $20 to even $100 per mile. Pledge cards were still in the mail on the day of the race, but from the amounts we knew already when we were crossing the finish line, it came out to more than $8,000 raised.”

The Lovetts are currently in the process of working with an adoption organization that pledges to match dollar-for-dollar, up to a certain amount, the contributions already made — thereby doubling what contributors give. The Lovetts believe that with the dollar-matching grant, the money needed for their adoption will have been met through the race initiative.

The day’s events were memorable as pelting rain fell early in the race, coupled with the chaotic presence of 15,000 other runners all seeking to cross the finish line. The race began with a difficult and hilly trek through Iroquois Park, a brief trip through Churchill Downs and a downtown finish with hundreds of onlookers cheering on the runners.

The race and its accompanying difficulties experienced were lessened in the minds of the runners in light of the eternal reason for why they were running: two Ukrainian orphans located thousands of miles away who do not have the love of a mother or father. With each additional mile came one more dollar toward expediting the adoption process.

Russell D. Moore — senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at Southern, and author of “Adopted for Life” — believes that events like the “Lovett Or Leave It” run for adoption can serve as a catalyst in mobilizing churches to form strong, vibrant cultures of adoption.

“These are precisely the kinds of things virtually any church can do,” said Moore, who also serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church and co-teacher of the Kingdom First ABF. “Not everyone can adopt. Not everyone has the money to help fund an adoption. But everyone can do something. “

“In this case, folks ran for adoption . . . and, in so doing, encouraged others to help some Ukrainian orphans. This is faith working through love. The parts of the body love and minister to one another, and to some Ukrainian orphans they haven’t even met yet.”

Ken found that the run for adoption sparked phenomenal opportunities to have conversations about the Gospel — both in his life and in the lives of others who ran.

“God has used this to open doors for our runners to talk about the Gospel with coworkers and friends who asked why they were running the half-marathon,” he said.

While the adoption process itself feels as though it were even more difficult than a 13.1-mile run, the Lovetts hope to bring their children home sometime later this year or in early 2011. Asked about how the seminary community can pray for the adoption, Ken requested prayer for the protection and provision of the babies that are soon-to-become he and Sarah’s children. Ken also requested that individuals pray that the entire adoption process — including all of the paperwork involved — would progress smoothly.

Sagers summed up the mission of adoption and the purpose of the day’s events.
“Someday, perhaps, we’ll get to tell those children about the race we ran, the money so many were good to provide and the prayers petitioned on their behalf,” he said. “More than this, though, we’ll be looking forward to telling them about the Gospel, about the Father God who has adopted us into his own household through the life, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.”

This article first appeared in the May 24 edition of Towers, the print journal of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY and is used with their permission. Source: http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2010/05/towers_5-24-10_web.pdf