Welcoming energy could be felt through the phone when Sam Collier picked up and said "Hello.”
I’ve seen Collier up close several times at events, and frankly, he is a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy.
That being said, Collier, an Atlanta native and one of the teaching pastors at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, believes that God has given him a greater story to tell.
Collier’s story, which has a lot of twist and turns, started out with what he would call rejection and abandonment.
Collier was born into a life that was deemed unsafe and placed in the foster care system where his parents, the Colliers, would adopt him. Collier is clear that if it hadn't been for his adoptive parents his life would have taken a completely different path. In fact, just the mention of his parents’ names causes Collier to light up and get excited. In Collier’s new book A Greater Story he paints a clear picture of why faith and adoption are very important to him.
According to IFoster and other leading foster care/adoption advocacy groups, the number of kids in America's foster care system is estimated to be around 400,000 to 440,000 kids, many of them, kids of color. Collier knows that with figures like these, he's a blessed man to have the parents that God has given him.
“My dad was never surprised, in fact, he normalized greatness," Collier shared, noting that for this reason, he hopes that sharing his story will encourage others to trust Jesus to make their stories great and perhaps even pursue adoption.
One instance in Collier’s own life that required him to put his trust in Jesus to make his story even greater occurred not long ago, when Steve Harvey invited Collier and his sister onto his show to meet their biological mother.
Despite being nervous to appear on the show, Collier said he knew that this was something that God was calling him and his sister to do.
“I can remember the show's therapist telling my sister and me that whatever you came here with, you're going to leave with," Collier recalled of the day.
Collier knew that no matter how the show worked out, he was going to walk away with the faith and gifts that God had given him to make his story greater, namely, the chance to connect with his biological mother and to share his God-given story on national TV.
Photo courtesy: Sam Collier Facebook
