Steve Davis, former associate director of Children's Emergency Relief International, tells how San Antonio, Texas-based Baptist Child & Family Services launched CERI nearly a decade ago.

"An article was written in the Baptist Standard (a Texas Baptist news journal) about our work in Russia, and we got a call one day from a gentleman (David Knight) in Kingwood (Texas) who said that he thought we had some common interests and wanted to know if we would be willing to meet with him. Our president and I went to Kingwood and met with him. He told us his story about how he got involved in Moldova. He actually had planned to do another mission trip. His pastor had called him kind of last minute to say, 'Would you come to Moldova with us?'

It was a medical dental trip. He went to Moldova, and they put him in charge of organizing the kids to see the doctors and dentists. He had a couple of girls that were helping him, named Stella and Sveta, 13, and 11. He's having a really hard time remembering the kids' names, they're all Eastern European names. He decided he wouldn't forget their names, so he took his pen out, and he wrote their names on his hand.

That evening as they were going back to their hotel after a long day's work, David just started crying in the back of the car, and nobody really knew what was going on with him. It was kind of odd. David's a big guy. He got back, and he couldn't sleep. He couldn't get these girls off his mind, so he got his Bible out and started reading in Isaiah. He read for a long time; he came across Chapter 49... the verse or paraphrase is ... 'I have your name written on the palm of my hand.' He looks at his hand.

He decided he was going to call his wife. I think they already had four kids and one on the way. He said, 'I don't know what God's trying to tell me, but I think he's trying to tell me something by this. His wife's response was, 'You need to do whatever God's leading you to do.'

So the next day, he went to the orphanage director, and he asked about the girls and found out that one was a true orphan. One, I think her mother had died but her dad was living somewhere. By then, he had determined that he wanted to try to adopt them if they were adoptable.

So the daughter thought she knew where he might be. They got in the car and drove there. They got a social worker to go with them. As they drove into the town where she thought he would be, she saw him walking beside the road in a burial detail. They stopped the car and got out, and they introduced David to the dad, and David told the story about how he still had their names on his hand. He said, 'I'd like to adopt your daughter, but I'd have to have your blessing.' (The father) said, 'Well you seem like a very good man.' He said, 'I'm a drunk. That's all I've ever been. That's all I ever will be. If my daughter wants to go to America with you, I give you my blessing.'

David's telling us this story was just to say if you would consider working in Moldova, I'll help you with some of your funding, and he's done that. He continues to be a donor of ours."