BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“Father,” he prayed, “I need to see a light at the end of the tunnel.” A Family Divided “The church split had been so devastating, it affected every area of our lives,” Kevin recalls. “When our world felt off-center, the one thing Joan and I had to hold onto was a solid foundation of faith. I was an only child, but my father was one of 13 children born into an Amish family. Dad grew up Amish for the first 12 years of his life. Then his family converted to become Mennonites. “In 1964, Dad married my mother who was a Pentecostal in the Church of God. Dad, who accepted the call into the ministry, soon became a Pentecostal himself. In the late ’70s, he was introduced to KCM and stepped into a life of faith. This all caused a disruption in the family as they warned him of the dangers of faith, the Holy Spirt and a Pentecostal lifestyle. “However, my grandfather, Roman Hostetler, was intrigued. Instead of warning my dad, he listened to him. Although he didn’t make it public, he received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues before he died. “Needless to say, I grew up listening to Kenneth Copeland and Oral Roberts. In 1991, I enrolled in the Pittsburg Institute of Mortuary Science. During that time, Dad accepted the pastorate of a church in Parsons, W.Va. The second Sunday there, I met Joan and was smitten. We married on October 10, 1992. “Joan’s grandfather had been one of the founding members of the church in Parsons. He had taken out a mortgage on his house in order to start the church. Like me, Joan grew up listening to Kenneth Copeland, so we were on the same page. In the mid ’90s, Joan and I took her mother to a Believers’ Convention in Chattanooga, Tenn. I stepped out of working in the mortuary for six years and helped Dad with the church. “In 2000, I went back to being a funeral director while Joan worked in banking. Neither of us were prepared for the church split or the financial crisis. When Joan’s sister started having children, we were ready to start a family. Things weren’t turning out the way we’d expected.” There were no large, unexpected checks in the mail. No sudden healing of the breach in the church. No unexpected pregnancy. However, just like Kevin had prayed, there was a glimmer of light in the darkness. A still, small voice echoed through every molecule of Kevin’s spirit: 'Everything will be all right.' Little by Little With that assurance, Kevin knew he could soldier on. He might not have a family of his own, but God had positioned him to minister to grieving families. Meanwhile, he and Joan continued to stand in faith, dealing with debt little by little. Another thing they continued to do was give financially to KCM and other ministries with whom they had partnered. Because of their financial problems, giving seemed like the wrong solution. But Kevin and Joan knew it was right. Over the next two years, things improved. Kevin and Joan dealt with the debt and saw their finances begin to stabilize. Relationships healed following the church split. One thing that hadn’t changed was that they still didn’t have a family of their own. By 2007, they’d been married for 15 years without any children, Joan remembers. “We had always wanted one or two children,” she said. “The Burlington United Methodist Family Service has a program where you can foster to adopt. To be approved, you have to take a series of classes. “We took the classes, and on Feb. 14, 2008, we were approved for the program. They told us to expect to start getting calls about children. The calls we got were about children who weren’t available for adoption. They just needed homes until they could be reunited with their families. That’s not what we wanted.” In May 2008, the social worker called. “I know you only want one or two children at most, but we’ve got a group of five sisters who are available for adoption. I talked to you about them earlier, but they’ve been in foster care for quite a while. If we don’t get them into a permanent home, we’re going to have to split them up. Would you just come to the facility to consider them? You can watch them and see how they interact.” 18 : BVOV

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