NASHVILLE (WordNews.org) Dec. 15, 2011– Recently, Christian singer/songwriter Mark Schultz did a benefit concert for a clinic that helps unwed mothers-to-be.

“They can come in and get counseling about adoption as opposed to abortion,” Mark says.

During the night, he heard a presentation that left an impression.

“I heart a staggering figure—One and a half million abortions happen each year, and 15,000 adoptions.”

It hit home for Mark.

“I was adopted when I was younger,” he says. “I’m really realizing how grateful I am to be here, to have been able to be on this earth and to live to do these songs and perform and do what I love.”

The benefit concert put a vision in Mark’s heart that is just starting to shape up.

In 2007, Mark rode across the country to raise money for orphans and widows.

“I wonder if I’m supposed to be the voice for the orphans,” he says. “I was that and now I have a platform. It’s my time to speak for them. The last couple of days it’s been awakening in me.  My wife is an OB/GYN. How do we team up and save lives and make an impact and live for something bigger than ourselves?”

Mark makes reference to James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

At the benefit concert he asked how many were adopted. Two hands out of 1,000 went up.

Then he asked, “If you’re a child of God,” raise your hand. “

Then he asked the first question again and everyone got it.

“One by one all the hands went up,” Mark says. “Being adopted in this world is like being adopted by a heavenly Father. We all live in a fallen world. Spiritually it’s not the way it was supposed to be. We were supposed to be in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve made a mistake. God adopts us and redeems us out of that.
“That’s the way I look at adoption on earth. God adopts us and redeems us out of that,” he says. “It’s the same way I look at adoption on earth. As a mom getting pregnant out of wedlock, is that a perfect scenario? No. But God adopts me and God adopts you and gives you purpose and a reason to live again.”