January 2014 New Horizons

Twice Adopted by Love

by Patricia E. Clawson

Perhaps more than most of us, Stephen Slack and Mark Richline understand what it means to be an adopted child of God. That’s because both were adopted as infants by godly families in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Now their own families belong to the OPC. These are their stories. Just Another Slack Growing up, Stephen Slack, 26, often forgot that he was adopted, even though he is African American and his family is Caucasian. “The cool part was even though this is so, I still most of the time don’t even remember I’m adopted,” said Stephen. When he was at River of Life Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where his father, William Slack, was (and still is) the pastor, Stephen was just treated as the son of their minister, which was fine with him. If he acted up, which wasn’t often, they would call him out. “My local church was awesome in helping to raise me,” remembers Stephen. “The church was just as loving and accepting as my family. Most of all, they ... Read more

The Lord’s—and Our—Path to Rachel

by Mark and Jennifer Sallade

We are planners. At the Sallade home, we think and we plan. Then we think and plan some more. We have five-year plans, ten-year plans, family goals, and multiple possible future budgets, all carefully crafted to take into account any possible contingency. So the Sallade family thought. A Man Plans His Ways—Fall 2011 The family-growth aspect of our plan was (Lord willing, of course!) to have two biological children, two or three years apart, and then adopt a child. It seemed foolproof. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful, biological daughter, Anna Kate. We loved and cherished her. But three years after she was born, there we were, waiting. As so many others have experienced, we waited and prayed, waited and prayed. The Lord was not delivering according to the plan. And with every month, time was slipping away. Hope turned to disappointment; disappointment became desperation. Friends all around us were planning, praying, and welcoming their third, fourth, and fifth children. We knew it ... Read more

Adoption: Glorious Inheritance

by Joel D. Fick

Our daughter’s fussing started this summer just as we reached the summit of the Siskiyou mountain range that divides California from Oregon. Home was on the other side of the country in north-central Florida, far from the lofty mountains of north-central California. But a family reunion still farther north in north-central Oregon had us driving along Interstate 5 from Los Angeles to Portland on this seemingly endless northern trajectory. We had been driving for some fifteen hours, and we were all tired. We were at that particular stretch of highway known to be among the more treacherous routes in the entire interstate system because of its sharp descent of 2,300 feet in the span of about seven miles. By the time we had descended into Medford, Darya’s fussing had turned to intermittent bouts of full-on screaming, and there were still many miles to go. Our adopted daughter Darya (now five years old) has Down syndrome, and this steep decline was wreaking havoc on her already narrow ear canals. ... Read more

Saints or Sinners?

by Norman De Jong

Have you ever wondered why some pastors have a more positive relationship with their congregation than do others? Have you ever tried to analyze the factors that make one pastor deeply loved by his parishioners, while others seem only to engender doubt and disagreement? Being a pastor in today’s church can be a very trying experience. One need not travel far or live long to realize that many churches today, of all denominational stripes, are experiencing much disagreement and conflict. For example, in our recent trip to Florida, we ended up worshipping with a PCUSA congregation one Sunday morning. The Sunday school class, led by one of the elders, was a poor example of what Bible study should look like. He led us through chapters 2–4 of Daniel in forty minutes and was totally skewed in his “lecture.” The worship service that followed had promises of being better. Their webpage gave the impression that this congregation was still committed to the historic Presbyterian creeds. As the ... Read more