Life Today Interview: Adoption (Not Accommodation)

GUEST AUTHOR: Herbie Newell, author of Image Bearers: Shifting from Pro-birth to Pro-Life and the Executive Director of Lifeline Children’s Services discusses the difficulties governments are causing for organizations that want to help children while maintaining their core beliefs.

 

BIO: Herbie holds a Master’s of Business Administration in Accounting from Samford University. He worked with WAKM Companies, LLC, a prominent accounting firm, for several years as an independent auditor before being led to Lifeline. He joined the Lifeline staff in 2003 as the Executive Director. From January 2004 to December 2008, he served as the president of the Alabama Adoption Coalition. Herbie was chosen as a Hague Intercountry Adoption evaluator and team leader by the Council of Accreditation. Under Herbie’s leadership, Lifeline has increased international outreach to 25 countries through adoption and strategic orphan care, obtained licensure in 12 states, attained membership into the ECFA (Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability), and established the foster care arm of ministry at Lifeline. Herbie has been invited to speak at many events concerning adoption and the church’s response to orphan care, including the National Council for Adoption, Christian Alliance for Orphans, Together for Adoption, Care Net and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Having witnessed the plight of older orphans on many trips overseas, Herbie’s burden for the fatherless was a catalyst for forming (un)adopted in 2009, the strategic orphan care ministry of Lifeline focused on equipping orphaned and vulnerable children with life skills needed to bring about community transformation. During the summer of 2013, Herbie and his family traveled for 7 weeks throughout China, working hands-on with (un)adopted and orphanage partners. Also, during the summer of 2018, he and his family served for 5 weeks in Colombia with Lifeline’s adoption and orphan care partners. He and his wife, Ashley, live in Birmingham, Alabama, and are parents to son, Caleb, and daughters, Adelynn and Emily. Following her graduation from Samford, Ashley worked as the Assistant Director of Sav-a-life, a Birmingham based crisis pregnancy center, where she counseled hundreds of women on life-giving options for their babies. Herbie and Ashley share a passion for the unborn, life, and adoption and desire to spend their lives advocating for the least of these.

 

Interview originally posted here.