Superbowl, Tony Dungy & Adoption

As Super Bowl Sunday comes this weekend, we are excited to give you a unique opportunity to share adoption with your friends and family. Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy and his wife, Lauren, have adopted several children and would love to see more families consider adoption.

A Free Half-Time Video Kit featuring Tony and Lauren Dungy is available to Super Bowl party organizers. This 3-minute video message includes a personal appeal to Americans on the subjects of adoption and the orphan crisis. 

The big win on Super Sunday would be to raise awareness about the millions of children who need a family. I would love to see thousands of local community groups and circles of friends gathering together to stop and consider how they can help.

-Tony Dungy, the winning head coach of the 2007 Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts. 

With the Super Bowl airing on NBC and taking place in Indianapolis, Tony will be prominently featured on TV in front of hundreds of millions of viewers, making it an easy transition to play his video message at any Super Bowl party.  We are asking you as a pastor or host of a Super Bowl party to consider spending half-time watching this video and going through this Conversation Guide with your church, small group, family or friends. Lifesong's complimentary Video Halftime Kit, available on www.adoptionjourney.org/dungyhalftime, includes: 3-minute video featuring Tony and Lauren Dungy Printable guide for event organizers for introducing the video and starting conversations about the Dungy's message Instructions for downloading the video with multiple ways to play it on your TV AdoptionJourney.org offers additional adoption resources, such Church Adoption Funds, FAQ's answered by couples who've already adopted, webcasts, child sponsorship, and features about families and leaders involved with adoption initiatives.

Merry Christmas from Lifesong

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.”       Philippians 2:5-8

To give different this year. To give the love of Jesus. Visit our Lifesong for Orphans Gifts of Purpose Catalog.

Are You Willing? -- Lifesong India

Listen in as Bob Stoll, Lifesong India shares an experience from his time overseas...

I was a guest in a leper colony for a week. I watched as the clinic doctor worked on the ulcerated hands and feet of the lepers. Most had no fingers and toes. They are injured, burned and infected without knowledge because leprosy robs extremeties of the gift of pain.

I stood and watched a woman as she struggled to latch her sandal.

She finally succeeded. The Lord chastened me for not helping her. It occurred to me that I didn't love her enough to even offer my help. Despite my regret, the opportunity was gone. Conviction made it's home in my heart for the rest of my stay at the colony. I hated myself.

But God redeemed my error in a beautiful way.

On the day I left, the doctor assembled the lepers. They sat on the grund under a thatched canopy as I spoke to them from the Bible. When I finished, my friend brought twelve lepers up front, provided me with a towel and besin of water and said "wash their feet". I had not told him of my experience. How did he know I needed to redeem my error? I thanked and praised God for the opportunity and practically dove into the water as I proceeded to wash twenty-four leprous feet.

Since then God has presented me with multiple opportunities to show love to to the unlovely. Sometimes I fail. Will I ever learn? Lord help me...

-Bob Stoll, Lifesong India  

...A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. 'If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,' he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out, touched him and said, 'I am willing.' 

Mark 1:40-41

'Every chance I get...'

Every chance I get, I point adopting families (and those who think they might be) to Lifesong for Orphans. Our Christ Jesus is using this ministry to empower families to adopt children, and thus to point the whole church to the gospel that saves us and the mission that sends us.                                

--Russell D. Moore, author, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches.

Dr. Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church, where he ministers weekly at the congregation’s Fegenbush location. Moore is the author of The Kingdom of Christ and Adopted for Life.

Thanks Dr. Moore for the significant part you are playing in raising awareness and equipping Christ-followers to participate in our Father's powerful plan for the fatherless.