THE STRENGTH OF MERCY
(An International Adoption Saga)
When I was born again and filled with God's Holy Spirit in 1973, we used to sing this unforgettable song at church, which said:
Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible.
And He can do what no other power can do!
I can't recall a time when I wasn't affected by the needs of the children of the nations, and wanted to see the bowls of those kids that my Sunday School teacher, my grandma and foster parents told me about, filled with food, and clothing provided for those families. As a child at church, there were the faces of children from around the world on colorful posters on the walls of our class, and we'd bring our offerings to give them for the missions fund. My greatest delight was to be able to put the coins in there that my family provided for me to carry in my hand to church, and if I could earn some money doing chores around our place, it meant a whole lot more.
My foster mom who wanted me to know that money didn't grow on trees, used to give a dime for every hundred dandilions that I dug out of the lawn. And into that little brown plastic bank shaped like a loaf of bread, it went, or into the small white plastic church bank with it's steeple. I grew up with parents that were Pentecostal Christians, with plenty of children around our table and as God promises His obedient people in Deut. 28, "plenty to feed them." I grew up singing:
"Yeshua/Jesus loves the little children, ALL the children of the world!"
As a small child, I'd been raised in a missionary minded home with profound respect for the full gospel and a calling to the Great Commission that Yeshua haMashiach/Jesus Christ gave: To preach and teach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the whole world. I had a doll collection, with dolls from around the world, which I enjoyed playing with and taking to my elementary school in the suburb of the large city where we lived, for "Show & Tell."
But to fly over the ocean, traveling across the world to pick up my own precious little one and bring her home had not even entered into my heart, until one day well into my life, when God spoke very clearly and distinctly to me during a time of prayer and said:
How would God bring such a thing to pass? We had a young daughter still at home, who was 10 or so. She had been promised by God in a prophetic vision to my husband Tom, before he was even saved. He saw a vision of himself sitting at the piano with a little blond beside him, who he knew was his own precious little daughter. And now, God was promising us a "B-A-B-Y?""I am going to open the Red Sea for you and your baby will be a brand plucked out of the burning!"
Oh Sarah! -- God didn't recorded everything in the 25 years that you and your husband waited for your son born of a prophetic promise of the Lord! But He tells us in the New Testament that Abraham "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in God." As we read the life of Abraham, human reckoning might be tempted to record what we feel could be a failure or two. But God reckons differently. God looks at the end of our faith. Did we endure to the end, that we might receive the promise? Or did we give up and throw in the towel as they say?
I'll tell you something I learned a long time ago! When God moves in your heart and shows you something He's going to do in your life by faith, it's surer than the sun rising in the morning! Somewhere in a far away land, God was moving and preparing as only He can, an "ark of sorts." A child for which I prayed and the Lord granted the petition for which I'd asked!
THE BASE DESPISED THINGS GOD USES:
"Apply to adopt," the Lord said that autumn of 1996. I will open the Red Sea for you. Your baby will be a brand plucked out of the burning."
We'd made the decision to adopt when the word of the Lord first came to us while in pryer. We were not a "childless couple." We already been blessed with a family of five lovely children, Lisa, Anthony, Robert, David Gabriel and Amber. My husband had never been married nor fathered a child prior to our marriage. One of the specific requests I'd asked God for was a husband that had never had kids, because I had a daughter and three sons, and I wanted them to be "special" to him! When my husband finally came into my life, he came from a family with 4 children. Of the 4 children I had when we married, the children were either out of the home and living on their own, or moved out soon after we wed.
Our older daughter was born two years into our marriage, and when our youngest son moved out, she was the last child left at home. She prayed and believed for a baby sister for 10 years. God is doing an incredible work in the youth of this generation, to believe Him for His will to come to pass in their lives.
OUR APPLICATION TO ADOPT:
We pondered the prophecy over the intervening monthes and especially the meaning of the "Red Sea," spoken of in this prophecy. The story of God opening the Red Sea for the Israelites is found in the Penteteuch. The phrase "a brand plucked out of the burning," is also from scripture and is found in Zechariah 3:1,2.
"And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?"
Week by week, we would go to church services during this time when we were trying to adopt our daughter, we'd sing this song:
God is gonna finish just what He started.
Even though the sea has got to be parted.
So don't be discouraged
And don't be down-hearted
For God is gonna finish what He started in you.
Did God's words to us from Zechariah infer that our infant would be Jewish? Another word God gave us is found in Psalm 68:22.
"I will bring My people again, from the depthes of the sea."
Thy word God is in my tongue: "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travails with child together: a great company shall return thither.
They shall come with weeping. With supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." (Jeremiah 31:8-9)
Obviously, these 2 verses go way beyond God's initial promise concerning our adoptive child. We've been contending in prayer for a work God is doing, that includes other adoptive parents, going to the nations.
There was little background information given to us from the host country about our infant, when we first received her paperwork. Tom is Ashkenazi, (A German-Jew) by birth. I also have a Jewish heritage. Was God referring to us adopting from an European country?
The adoption agency we'd applied to had a program with the Republic of Georgia, and it seemed to fit that description. We taught our home schooled daughter about the country, and researched everything from it's capital, to other notable facts. Books we read on the country said that Stalin was born there, they had a dance company of aged men all over 100, and that people live to be 140 sometimes! With joy and anticipation filling our hearts, we began praying for the baby, the mission, researching the culture, and applying for passports for ourselves and daughter Amber.
The agency gave us a miriad of forms to fill out as there was this mountain of paperwork required, like state patrol or police checks, current medical checkups, a DSHS CPS clearance, financial statement, employee verification letter, and immigration approval in the form of an advanced petition for orphan processing to be filed for. In addition to this, were the supporting documents for our dossier, like our marriage license, birth certificates, etc.
And we must seek the Lord for "kingdom finances." We were certain that same God who cares for the fatherless orphans, cares that there is money to provide for them and their needs. When the Lord's disciples needed money to pay their taxes, Jesus Christ told Peter where to find the tax money in the fishes mouth. He told them which side of the fishing boat to throw their net out on, when they'd fished all night and caught nothing, and He is the same, yesterday, today and forever!
As I said, this initial decision of ours to adopt, and our first application to the agency, was taking place in the autumn of 1996. That December we received the news from an out of state hospital, that our son Gabriel's wife had been killed in a tragic automobile collision, as she, her husband and friends drove out the beach highway to watch a storm, just days before their second wedding anniversary, and his birthday. She was just 18 years old.
Gabe had a spiral fracture to his arm, that was to require surgery. Our family drove to Oregon, where we helped our son pick up his wifes wedding ring and personal affects, talking with Gabe's wife Mary's single mother and two sisters, and the other occupants who'd been in the vehicle, and helping our son in making funeral arrangments. A few days later, Tom gave the message at the graveside service.
THE GEORGIAN ADOPTION MORETORIUM
By spring of the year, we learned that a moretorium had been placed upon all international adoption with the Republic of Georgia. This was extremely disappointing news to the many families involved in the Georgian program with our adoption agency. But after consulting with the agency staff, we made the decision to stand our ground in prayer, feeling this would soon blow over.
But by the end of that long year, our adoption agency who had seen things like this happen before, advised us to transfer to another country program. An agency staff person told us that the Shevardnadze's had come to America on a visit. We were told that the Georgian president, Eduard Shevarnadze's wife was opposed to foreign adoption. It seemed to us that it was more than that. In spite of much prayer, and despite the adoptive parents coalition for Georgia submitting a petition to the Shevardnadze's when they visited the United States, asking that the moretorium be lifted, the moretorium continued, unabated.
PERFECTING FAITH & OBEDIENCE:
During my last pregnancy, I lost the baby I was carrying, and we were deeply disappointed. When Amber was born in 1987, she was part of the fulfillment of one vision that Tom had seen, and believed to be from God, and that was that he would have a little blond daughter. Following her birth, God gave Tom another new vision. It was of Amber with a baby sister.
As women we can say things--hurtful remarks, that we don't even really mean. When Tom and I married, I'd been a single mom for many years, raising three young sons alone, through the difficult years.
Tom on the other hand, had never been married before and had no children, at the time we wed. I was 40 when Amber was born, and the pregnancy had been difficult. When Tom told me about his vision, I said: "God hasn't given me that vision!" Several years went by, and I pondered those careless words I'd said, often regretting them. I'd repented before God. But I wondered many times, if I were somehow being punished for my attitude at the timeour daughter was born. When we'd learned that I was pregnant with the last pregnancy, we were elated, dreaming of this child that we would have, and preparing for it. For 10 years I grieved over this, trying to put the miscarriage behind me and to tell myself that I had a wonderful family." But it was as if one of the children God had planned for us was missing! And I felt the pain of this child's absense in our lives. I believe now that we felt the Heavenly Father's own heart for a foreign born baby, we was unaware of at that time.
MY POLISH UPBRINGING & OUR APPLICATION TO ADOPT FROM POLAND:
"Apply to adopt, God has said! I will open the Red Sea for you, the Lord said. Your
baby will be a brand plucked out of the burning."
We knew God had promised to open the Red Sea for us. What we didn't understand was that by the time this word finally came to pass, only a miracle like the opening of the Red Sea would accomplish the word of the Lord.
When I was a small child, God performed a great miracle in placing me in the home that He did. I'd been placed in an wonderful home, where the name of Messiah, Yeshua haMashiach/Jesus Christ was so precious.
My family's Polish grandfather lived with us in our home, and life was a happy one. My parents loved children and they took some 33 children into their home as foster or adoptive parents. Daddy said regarding his own salvation experience that occurred on the very day Lindburg flew the Atlantic Ocean, that Lindberg went from point A to point B. But that day, I went from "death unto life. "
We lived in Seattle, on a one acre dahlia farm. 
From my earliest memories, my foster parents fed me the Revelation of Jesus Christ, saying
things like:
Philip said: Show us the Father and we'll be satisfied. And Jesus said: Have "I" been so long a time with you Philip and yet you have not known Me Philip?
Jesus said: "He that has seen me has seen the father."
A HEART FOR EUROPEAN MISSIONS:
During family prayer, my family knelt beside those old white painted wooden kitchen chairs, and from the youngest to the oldest we prayed, individually. As a child I prayed: I want to be a missionary.
God imparted a heart for Europe to me in a strange way. My foster parents were very frugal, and Dorothy knew that I loved to read. She would sew my Sunday School papers into books, with a needle and thread. My favorite book of this sort was called "The Legacy." It was a story of a child in Russia, whose family were not free to worship God. They held secret meetings in the forest, where she hid her bible wrapped in a small soft piece of red flannel; in the hollow of a gnarley old tree. Many years later, I learned that my father's German family had, at one time helped to colonize Russia, in what is now the area called the Ukraine. There are a number of excellent articles on these German-Russian immigrants, called Volga-Germans and their settlements, which later came under persecution, so many fled to America.
THE CALL TO PRAY FOR THE NATIONS:
When I was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, God immediately began calling me to pray for Europe. I moved into an old house with two apostolic room mates. One was named Susan, came from a European family and she was a concert pianist in her 20's. The other woman, was a single mother with two little boys, was a former actress, and the ex wife of a concert promoter. We had evening prayer meetings, where we sought the Lord together for the nations, and this love for the people of Europe deepened.
As an intercessor, God would show me many prophetic things with regard to the future, and those of the persecuted church, or the lost of Eastern Europe who needed the gospel. For many years, as a single parent, I felt that "intercessor" was one ministry I could apply myself to faithfully. So this I did. Those three little boys of mine were watched over by God, His church and his angels.
One evening, when we'd been going through a particularly difficult time, I fell asleep, and was awakened by an angel standing at my shoulder, and pointing toward the open door of my sons room. There in the light of the glory of God, I saw a ladder that reached from earth to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it, over the children's beds. God encouraged me tremendously during these years, to be patient and that He was going to provide a Christian husband, an intercessor and partner in the ministry. This God did, and in autumn one year we were married, and eventually ordained to the work of the ministry.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROPHETIC WORD OF THE LORD
It's important to heed prophetic words. In order to properly do this, we need to pay careful attention to the "keys of revelation" contained within the prophetic words themselves, such as time and keys, and other such things. In scripture, the Prophet Habakkuk teaches us this about prophecy:
"I will stand upon my watch, and see what the Lord will say to me, and what I shall answer Him when I am reproved. For the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end it shall speak, and shall NOT lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come." Habakkuk says that "The just shall live out of his faith!" (Habakkuk 2:1-4)The phrase: "At the end it shall speak," means that the closer one gets to the actual fulfillment of a prophecy which God has promised, the clearer things will become. The fact is that when a prophecy is first given, we may not immediately understand the full implication of it. By the time God is done, we grow into that word, and cleave to it, like one flesh.
That year we gathered our own dossier together, having reviewed the requirements for the country of Poland, and submitted our request to an agency qualified to update home studies, since ours was still valid. In this way we could apply independantly to the Adoption Commission in Warsaw, Poland, my mother died. During the next year, we spent much time in prayer for revival fires to burn through Poland, and God gave us a number of prophetic words for cities. We were told that our documents were in order, but without a Polish speaking facilitator, it was difficult to learn much else.
We'd been involved in this program for a year, before we learned from a foreign staff person, that there were very few adoptable children in Poland. We were not dismayed, because with all of our hearts, we believed the prophetic word which God had given to us. God had said: Your BABY will be a brand plucked out of the burning. But we wondered: What does God want us to do now?
THE RED SEA PARTS"
We were praying day and night for various needs, as they arose. Arriving home from a trip to Canada, having put over 18,000 miles on our car, including our time spent in Labrador. God had spared us from a hurricane in Port du Basques. We'd seen the fruit of the ministry God had given us there.
When we arrived home we were tired and what money we had was gone. It was a few days later that God said:
"Now reapply to adopt."
But we obeyed this word of the Lord, and learned from our agency that they had a program that was suitable for us. We again filled out an application, and all of the necessary paper work. By summer, referrals were trickling in at the rate of a couple a month. In July or August, the staff overseas went on summer vacations, so not much was happening. But by fall, things began to progress more rapidly and by autumn, we were given a referral for a baby.
Tom said he'd stop by the agency and pick up the video, to save the time it would take to mail it. When he returned home, he had a couple little photos, a video and medical report. We made coffee and plugged the video into the VCR. As the screen lit up and rolled forward, suddenly, there on the screen, with the voices of the adoption staff was a tiny little dark eyed dark haired baby propped up in a chair. They interacted with her, so we could see that she was very alert, and developing naturally for her age. We must have watched it over and over at least six times, looking at the screen and at each other! "That's our baby! we said!"
We notified the agency and they faxed our acceptance to the host country. The time went quickly, and soon it was time for the adoption to be completed in open court without us, by proxy. When we boarded the plane to fly to meet the newest heaven-sent member of our family, it seemed like a beautiful dream. We were rudely awakened as we flew into hurricane winds. The pilot unable to land, had to land the plane at a nearby airport, where we waited four long hours for the storm to abate. Then we were flown to our destination.
MIRACULOUSLY SPARED BY A VISION LIKE BABY JESUS
Knowing the adoption was approaching, we knew that we wanted to be on the same side of the ocean as our adopted baby as the date neared. But meeting her was still several weeks away. So we stayed in Scotland for several weeks, visiting with apostolic Christian friends in Glasgow area, and waiting to fly to pick up our infant. After about a week in Glasgow area, we found an excellent off-season rate bargain on a 2 bedroom rental flat in the Trossachs, near Callander. Here we spent the remainder of the wait, evangelizing around Scotland and attending a meeting of a new work of the Lord in Stirling, not far from Stirling Castle.
When it was at last time to leave we were warned of the Lord, as individuals were warned of impending danger in the scriptures. We were expected in the host country to pick up our adopted daughter, so we sleepily packed our things into our rental car in the dark hours of the morning. Our hearts were heavy with a burden of intercession. As we prayed enroute from Callander to Glasgow, we dispatched angels to assist the airport ground crew, and to help them to discover the source of the mechanical failure, which God had warned us of prophetically by His Spirit. By the time we parked the car at the drop off location, and ran to the departure gate, we heard a blessed announcement over the loud speaker, that our airplane had been grounded due to "major mechanical failure." The airlines sent us on to Amsterdam, where they paid for our hotel, and meals till we could catch our flight the next day to meet our adopted baby. We were on 11 flights during that 2 month period.
When we got home, we learned that a pastor and wife we knew had been killed aboard Flight 261, when their plane plunged into the ocean due to just such a mechanical failure. How we praised and thanked God for the prophetic warning.
Looking back on the experience now, the adoption took us three years, and we flew to Europe on Christmas Day. As we left Scotland, where we'd waited to catch our plane, the Spirit of the Lord wept into my spirit a word of knowledge concerning imminent danger.
God continued to say: "The airplane, pray for the the airplane," till we prayed this through, praying in our prayer language called "speaking in other tongues." We raced to the Glasgow Airport, parked, and just as we got to the departure gate, we heard the announcement, that the plane had been grounded due to a "major mechanical failure." When we arrived home, we learned that friends, had died aboard a flight that plunged into the ocean off California, returning from Mexico, due to a "mechanical failure." We praised God for bringing us all safely home.
A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING
As the plane descended, we could see the snow covered landscape for the first time. Arriving at the airport, Tom, Amber and I made our way into the terminal with our luggage. An adoption fascilitator met us at the airport. Loading our baggage into her small car, she explained that she wanted to show us where we would be staying, and after we took our luggage to our flat, then she would take us to meet our new daughter right away.
With the in country contact's help we felt a sense of relief. As she maneuvered the car out of the airport parking lot and onto a major arterial, and The agency back home had arranged for us to stay in a comfortable apartment which they used for their adoptive clients. When the adoption staff member took us to our living quarters, we were glad to get some sleep. The facilitator explained that before she left, she would show us where to purchase necessary items, so that we could buy food.
The one minor problem, was that the small refrigerator did not keep things cold very well. But we remedied this by shopping more often, enjoying the sights each day. Our facilitator drove us in her vehicle to the location where our infant daughter was being cared for.
OUR TWO WEEKS IN THE HOST COUNTRY
Our in country facilitator turned up the driveway next to a cement grey multi-story apartment building, built during the 50s. Neighborhood children of about 8-12 years of age played outside the building, and watched curiously as we passed.
The depth of the snow had forced us to park a considerable distance away from the building itself, and I was glad for the warm red chenille gloves Tom had given meas a gift prior to leaving our home. I'd stuffed them into my pocket before getting on the plane, and they were warm, as we hurried into the open door of the building, and up the open concrete stairs. The chilly wind blew up the stairwell behind us.
As we ascended the stairs and began to climb from one level to another behind our facilitator, we wondered what the foster family was like. They'd only been briefly described by the caseworker, who also shared some of the hardships of what their apartment life was like, where our newly adopted baby daughter lived. The agency said that the building had been without heat in the building for some time. The baby crib had blankets hanging around it to keep breezes off the baby,
As we entered a pleasant woman, whose dark hair was pulled back, appeared in the doorway, and greeted us with a warm smile. On her hip she carried our baby!
I reached for her and took her out of the arms of the care giver, and danced her around in a circle. She was so incredibly beautiful! She had silky dark hair, and large dark eyes, and looked much like she appeared in the small photo and video of her that the agency had given to us when she was just 4 1/2 monthes old. She was wearing white two piece pajamas. We laughed as we observed that she had lots of hair. From our first photo and video of her, sent to the agency in the states, we noticed how abundant her hair was. Her foster mother had pulled the top of it into a small pony tail on the top of her head.
I reached out my arms, and almost danced with her across the room of the small apartment, easing myself into a chair where I could look into her big dark eyes for the first time, noticing that the room didn't seem cold at all, but in fact, was quite comfortable. Tom and Amber gathered around, talking to our new daughter and exclaiming over her. We took turns holding and looking for the first time into the sweet little face of the newest member of our family, burying our teary faces in her silky dark hair.
RUNNING THE RACE SET BEFORE US:
After we'd spent some time getting to know our new child, we gave the gifts we'd brought.
I was reminded of the words of the bible, about "running the race," set before us. God had truly opened the Red Sea for us. What did the future hold for this nation? As we went to the post office to mail adoption announcments, the strains of a song song filled the air. Outside in the streets the grey sky hovered overhead and rain fell like angels tears, the statues commemorating the war silouetted against the bleak sky over the square. Our prayer was and still is that they will know Yeshua haMashiach/Jesus Christ as Lord, and Him alone!
The Lord had watched over His word to perform it just as He had promised that our baby would be a brand plucked out of the burning. Did this mean that the hard earned freedom would not last long?
After a brief visit, we returned to our flat alone. We'd been advised to visit our baby daughter a time or two before taking her away from this foster home permanently. We returned the next day, bundled her into her snow suit, and took her out for a drive, stopping at McDonald's, for hamburgers, and propping her in a colorful plastic highchair.
We stayed in the city for two weeks, walking in the snow in the park, and visiting with friends at an orphanage. We'd collected and brought with us some supplies for the orphanage. They were very hospitable to our family, inviting us to lunch one day. We'd also purchased warm wool blankets that we thought would be of benefit to those who cared for homeless children.
During the day, we shopped for groceries, sharing the gospel tracts we had in that language, mailing our adoption announcements from the post office and taking our adopted baby to see the staff at the adoption agency there, and taking photos before returning home. Our newly adopted baby girl didn't cry when we bundled her into the clothing we'd brought, and took her away for the last time. But we cried, and so did the family who had cared for our child, throughout the adoption process, the court hearing, and our trip to bring her home.
A DIVINE IMPARTATION:
My husband and I know that what God imparted to our family, was an impartation of His love for the fatherless, and that brought our adopted baby to us, but it did more than that. The bible says that "God sets the solitary in families." Our daughters adoption totally transformed our lives.
It also taught us more than we ever knew about the worth of one soul to God. We know that God fought for years, for the life of our child, as he does for multitudes. As He did warfare when He robed Himself in flesh in the person of Messiah, Jesus Christ; who walked among men, and died on the cross as our atoning sacrifice as "The sinless lamb of God;" raised and ascended into heaven. Isaiah 9:6, says: This child shall be called:
"Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
It is so life changing, that few people that we've known that have experienced a partnership with God in this way, ever stop with one child. Rather, like Oscar Schindler's obsession to save Jewish people, saving kids becomes "a magnificent obcession" for them. "As the proverb goes, It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." It takes nothing less than a series of miracles, but I have watched these people drawing on the nature and the power of God, and the gifts of the Spirit to bring forth the things God has placed deep in their hearts.
ADOPTIVE PARENTS:
In the bible, Mary's husband Joseph, was an adoptive father. The bible says that Joseph, the step-father of the Lord Jesus, was warned in a dream, to take his wife and child and to flee. At this period in time, King Herod moved to slay all of the male babies, in that area of the world. God has a destiny for every child born into the world, and He knows our future.
I can remember a prophecy a friend named Dean Hill gave to us many years ago now, which God had given to Ken Copeland, on the subject of mercy. God said in this word, that it is His mercy that will multiply the food, as we go into foreign nations, where needs of this sort must be met.
God's mercy is over all the works of His hands.
We will always be thankful and never cease to praise God for all He has done and is doing and will yet do in our lives!
The Campbells live in the Pacific Northwest and are the parents of six children.