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Identity Quest Spawns Adoption Support Ministry
By Craig Pinley
WHEATON, IL (February 3, 2005) - Jody Moreen's quest to learn more details
concerning her adoption has turned into a ministry in the Chicago area
that has helped many adults in
their own similar journeys.
After discovering the benefits of an adoption support group years
earlier, Moreen started leading meetings through her home congregation,
Faith Evangelical Covenant Church, about six years ago. The monthly
meetings now average 8-15 individuals as people share adoption
experiences, discuss issues relating to adoption and offer mutual support.
Another Covenanter, Sue Coons, has been especially helpful over the
years with the group, Moreen says. The Evangelical Covenant Church of
Hinsdale, where Coons attends, has also been supportive as it recently
offered a Sunday school series on the spiritual dimension of adoption.
Moreen previously conducted a six-week Bible study focused on adoption.
Although the adoption group at Faith Covenant does not follow a
"Christian" agenda, Moreen has seen how her spirituality – and that of
others – has benefited the sessions – and the participants. "I pray to
honor God and I openly share my faith in God and his word and prayer and
allow others to do the same," she says. "There is rarely a meeting where
the Christians who attend do not openly share their faith and God's hand
in their adoptions. A number of Christians and other local Covenanters
have been involved in the group and give testimony to their faith in
God. They reach out warmly as the 'Body of
Christ' to attendees, many of whom have no church or faith background."
A longtime Covenanter, Moreen's adopted family was involved with
Northwest Covenant Church in Mount Prospect during her childhood. She
and her husband, Scott, attended North Park University (then College)
and eventually moved to Hudson, Ohio, attending a Covenant church there.
It was while in Ohio that questions about her adoption and her
cultural/ethnic background surfaced. She discovered a local adoption
support group (including adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents)
and found much encouragement hearing stories from the participants.
After her family moved to Indianapolis about a year later, Moreen found
another adoption support group and began an adoption search for her
birth family and history. Nearly three years later, she found out
information about her birth family - although both of her birth parents
were deceased, she discovered the whereabouts of three sisters who had
been told that Jody had died at birth.
Moreen, now a mother of three, eventually discovered much about her
Norwegian roots (her family's name was Johnson) and learned some
valuable medical history while being welcomed into the family by her
biological siblings. Her positive experience was integral to her
increased involvement with the local support group (she became the
group's facilitator), she says, and Moreen later joined an informal
adoption sharing group at Hope Evangelical Covenant Church, where she
and her family attended.
Seven years ago, the Moreens moved to Naperville and began attending
Faith Covenant, where they had attended previously. When she couldn't
find an active adoption support group in her area, Moreen advertised and
discovered a viable interest. Along with her
leadership at Faith's group, Moreen conducts workshops and occasionally
speaks about adoption to large groups. She also edits a Christian
adoption publication (available online at
www.adoptionblessingsnewsletter.com) and hosts an online support group
called Adoptees Christian Fellowship on Yahoo Clubs. The Internet group
has a membership of 130 from throughout the world and information
includes devotionals, testimonies and other resources.
"I find that the persons who attend the group most often are challenged
in their emotions with issues of adoption," Moreen said. "They are then
very open to spiritual matters and hearing testimonies of God's
leading/healing in the lives of Christians in the group. Many who come
are searching for answers, for resolution, to come to terms with their
identity,
their brokenness. I find it fascinating that in the six years I have
been leading the group, how much freedom I have seen in our environment
for Christians to share. No one has ever objected.
"I believe the Christians in the group have done much to reach out and
build relationships with the other members," Moreen continued. "This
builds trust and I find the attendees who are unchurched and not
Christian are very open in our group to the gospel because of
relationships built in this adoption community and safe environment. We
have shared about God's unconditional love and forgiveness. We have also
shared in our group the Biblical adoptees and those separated from their
birth families in scripture - Moses, Esther, Joseph and Samuel. Many who
knew of these biblical figures did not connect their adoption stories
and find it fascinating that the Bible has so many who were touched by
adoption or being raised apart from their birth families. Many have told
me later that they looked up and read these biblical accounts."
To learn more about the adoption support group at Faith Covenant, email
Moreen at adoption@wideopenwest.com.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
