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SCCF Celebrates New Fund Honoring Local Family
Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Angola, IN – The members of Sonlight Community Church recently found a way to create some good out of a challenging situation. Over the past few years, the church congregation came together to raise money in support of the family of Brecken and Case Gilbert as they pursued an international adoption. When that adoption was unable to take place, the church decided to honor the initial purpose by establishing a designated endowment fund at the Steuben County Community Foundation and naming this new fund after the child they had hoped to adopt.

The Kaleab Gilbert Fund was established in October 2020 to provide permanent support for Sonlight Community Church.

The family was introduced to Kaleab through friends who had traveled to Ethiopia. At that time, Kaleab was a 7-year-old who lived in an all-boys orphanage and attended school in Addis Ababa. The Gilberts stayed in touch with Kaleab through letters, missionaries, and social media throughout the years. When those family friends adopted two boys from the same orphanage, the Gilbert family pursued the adoption of Kaleab for 7 years. After a series of complications and the decision by Ethiopia to end international adoption, the Gilbert family was ultimately unable to adopt Kaleab.

The Gilberts remain in contact with Kaleab still to this day. They shared, “Our hope is that the money that was donated for his adoption can be used to support others in need in the future.” The Kaleab Gilbert Fund will be permanently endowed, with its earnings providing an annual automatic grant to the Sonlight Community church that will be used for children and youth programming.



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