Pastor leads church to begin foster/adopt ministry

David Powell, senior pastor at Salem Baptist Church in Dobson, and his wife, Lindsey, not only felt led to foster and adopt, but Powell’s church partnered with BCH to establish its own foster/adopt ministry. The couple have one biological son, Noah, and two adopted daughters, Ally and Laylin.

When Baptist Children’s Homes (BCH) expanded its Family Foster Care program to come alongside churches interested in beginning their own foster care ministries, Salem Baptist Church in Dobson was one of the first onboard.

Reverend David Powell, the church’s Senior Pastor, has seen Salem’s foster care and adoption ministry meet the needs of numerous children in the custody of their county’s department of social services. It is an endeavor that is also deeply personal to him and his spouse, Lindsey.

“My wife and I were compelled to pursue foster-to-adopt in our lives personally,” Powell divulges. “One of the things we discovered very early in our marriage, and this was something that God impressed upon our hearts, is that foster care and adoption is something we are supposed to be about as Christians.”

The couple has one biological son, seven-year-old Noah. They have fostered several children and have adopted two of them––seven-year-old Laylin and five-year-old Ally who are siblings. What started with the Powell family has blossomed into something even greater.

“Along the way, we realized this was not only something God was calling us to do as a family, but something that He was calling us to do as a church family,” Powell shares.

North Carolina has approximately 16,000 children in its foster care system––boys and girls removed from their families largely due to abuse and neglect. Powell discovered that just in Surry County, his church’s home county, there were not enough foster homes to care for children in their local system.