Adopt a Minister is a non profit organization that employs ministers (or ministerial graduates) in poor countries.
Our Staff (100% Volunteer)
Reva Moore Founder, President
Rose Marie Babb Vice President
Mary Grace Promoter
Darlene Sabandal Philippine Coordinator
Joe Knapp Website
How we started
Adopt a Minister International
Founder Reva Wallace Moore
In 1998, I sat amidst some 2000 women in a Women’s Ministry Session in Toronto, Canada, listening to our guest speaker, Adli Campos, a minister’s wife from Puerto Rico. Adli told God that she was tired of just taking care of her family, tired of fixing breakfast, washing clothes, etc. She wanted to do more for God. In four years time, Adli was responsible for the baptism of over 4,000 souls. While I listened, I became inspired and for over 30 minutes, I talked with God in my mind, asking Him to please call me also to His work, in that I will do anything for Him.
Back home in Louisiana, Edwin Wallace, my husband of 23 years, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor so I told God, “Please go ahead and heal Edwin so that I could start working for You!”
Throughout my husband’s illness, my faith never wavered. I believed that God could give him a miracle. But God had different plans. In spite of our (mine and my sons’) pleadings, the Lord allowed Edwin to rest. At first, I was very angry with God, but not for long because my love for Him is very strong. So, I accepted His lot for me. A week after the funeral, God asked me in an audible voice; “Build Me a church.” I got excited and figured He wanted me to build a House of Worship in my hometown in the Philippines. I had recurring dreams about this church for 8 years. Even when I had wanted to retire early, without hesitation, I donated every dollar of my late husband’s life insurance money and built the beautiful Batiano Seventh Day Adventist Church in Romblon, Philippines.
After the grand opening of the church, the Lord placed another burden in my heart (through a dream)—a burden to help our hundreds of unemployed theology graduates in the Philippines, which I didn’t know this problem even existed.
In the dream a woman in “white” took me to a building. Inside the building I saw a very huge room with a wooden floor. I couldn’t believe what I saw! On the floor were hundreds of babies. Each baby was sitting two feet from each other. The babies looked like they were only a few months old. They were naked, dirty, and malnourished. On the back part of the huge room was a fenced-in area with many more babies, except the babies were a few years older. I was very surprised to see the babies and asked the woman, “Who are the mothers who abandoned them?” The woman didn’t answer me. Instead, she said, “This is your new job. Take care of the babies.” Then she left.
In the dream, I was so excited to care for the babies. I placed them on one side of the room, and then I scrubbed the floor with soap and water. Then, one by one, I bathed the babies, put clothes on them, and fed them.
Sonny Mercurio in his nipa hut (on the left picture) was one of the first adopted ministers. Little did I know that the babies in my dream are the hundreds of unemployed ministers in the Philippines. I found this out when I asked for two ministers to go to the church that I had just built.
Today, there are over 300 unemployed theology graduates in the whole Philippines. These ministers are unemployed due to lack of funds. Around 30 to 40 new graduates from our 5 SDA colleges/university are added every year to the total number of the unemployed. A few of them work for a stipend ($30), or for a sack of rice per month. I also learned that many of them had left the ministry to find secular employment. I felt very badly but didn’t know what to do.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the unemployed Theology graduates. I wondered how they feed their children and how they live since they don’t have jobs. At first, I ignored God’s bidding for three months. But each night while I slept, I’d wake up every 2:00 a.m., as if Jesus was standing by the side of my bed, asking me, “What are you going to do for the unemployed Theology graduates?” Each night I cried, telling God to find someone else. Eventually, I started asking my family and friends to send money to pay the salaries of a few ministers. Thus, the Adopt a Minister program got started.
These ministerial graduates are very talented and spiritual young people. Some of them have been waiting for placement for as long as 10 years. The majority of them worked their way through school. Many spent as many as 9 years in college as working students. They do not have means of transportation so, part of their monthly pay goes to paying their travel through tricycles and jeepneys.
We invite you to consider adopting a minister. Please view our site and contact us if we can be of any assistance.
Adopt-a-Minister International is an American IRS #501(C)(3) non-profit organization. All Americans can use their receipts on their income taxes.
AaM International pays the salaries of unemployed ministerial graduates in the Philippines through donations and sponsorships of wonderful people from all over the world. AaM International works directly with the conference officers of the Philippines, who place and supervise the ministers’ work.