Isaac Melber
10 min read ⭑
“I want the church to see adoption as beautiful and to recover it as central to how we understand the gospel as I prepare for the pastorate. I want adoptees to see that their story is not confusion but purpose, and adoptive parents to see the weight and beauty of what they’ve been entrusted with.”
Isaac Melber has big plans to be a pastor one day — but he’s not waiting until then to start making a difference. As a college student and adoption advocate, he inspires others with his story of a life shaped by God’s redeeming grace. In his debut memoir, Twice Delivered, he shares his journey from being born in a remote mountain village in Ethiopia and adopted into a Christ-centered family in the U.S., along with the struggles of growing up between two worlds, wrestling with questions of identity and belonging. Join us in this honest interview, as Isaac gets honest about his fear of failure and disappointing the ones he loves, how deer hunting refreshes his mind and body, and the spiritual disciplines that are moving his heart ever closer to Jesus.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
Food is always about more than food; it’s also about home and people and love. So how does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?
One of the places that has always made me feel connected to my story is Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. I still remember walking in and recognizing the smell of spices and fresh injera before I even sat down. Ethiopian food is deeply communal. Everyone shares from the same plate, tearing pieces of injera by hand and eating together.
I used to laugh quietly whenever non-Ethiopians asked for forks. Growing up, Ethiopians always ate with their hands, so forks at the table felt strange to me. There is something personal about sharing food that way. It slows people down and turns a meal into connection and conversation.
As someone born in Ethiopia and adopted into an American family, I have often felt caught between two worlds. But meals like these reminded me that Ethiopia was still part of me. Sitting around the table eating doro wat and injera connected me to a culture and history I have grown to appreciate more deeply over time.
What stands out most to me is what the meal represents. In Ethiopian culture, nobody eats alone. Food brings people together. Honestly, that probably says more about me than any bio ever could.
Niki Clark; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
What “nonspiritual” activity have you found to be quite spiritual, after all? What quirky proclivity, out-of-the-way interest or unexpected pursuit refreshes your soul?
One of the most relaxing places for me has always been sitting in a deer stand deep in the woods. Hunting has been part of my life since I was young, but the best part was never really the deer. It was the quietness, the beauty of the woods and the people beside me.
I loved hearing squirrels moving through the trees and the sound of the feeder throwing corn across the ground. Most people would probably get bored sitting for hours without seeing anything, but I never did. The woods slowed life down.
Some of my favorite memories were with my dad and brothers. A lot of those hours in the woods helped me bond with my dad and showed me the importance of a father-son relationship. Watching him taught me what it meant to be both a godly man and a strong man.
Looking back, I think God often meets people in quiet places. For me, the woods became one of them.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness; every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite, and how do you confront its power?
If I’m honest, my kryptonite is the fear of failure.
Ever since I was young, I have carried a deep fear of letting people down. Being adopted, I often felt pressure to make my life “worth” the sacrifice my birth family made for me to come to America. So whenever I failed or struggled with sin, I felt ashamed.
As someone who hopes to one day become a pastor, that fear still follows me. Over the years, I have watched stories of pastors falling into sin or walking away from the faith, and sometimes I wonder, “What if I fail like that one day?”
But over time, God has changed my perspective. I realized my greatest problem was not disappointing people but sinning against him. Oddly enough, that brought freedom because it reminded me that Christianity is not about pretending to be perfect. It is about needing grace.
I still wrestle with the fear of failure, but I am learning that God does not ask me to be flawless. He asks me to be faithful.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
I’m a college student and aspiring pastor, spending most of my time in Scripture, study and preparation for a lifetime of faithful ministry. Outside the classroom, my newly released memoir, “Twice Delivered: A Story of Two Families, Two Worlds, and One Redeeming Love,” tells my story of being born in Ethiopia, adopted into an American family and growing up with one foot in two worlds, one family in front of me and another 6,000 miles away.
A turning point came when I returned to Ethiopia and was reunited with my birth family. I still remember sitting in that space and realizing how much of my story I had misunderstood, not as random, but as carried by God’s providence in ways I could only see in hindsight. Beyond the book, my deeper work is helping people reframe their lives through redemption. I want the church to see adoption as beautiful and to recover it as central to how we understand the gospel as I prepare for the pastorate. I want adoptees to see that their story is not confusion but purpose, and adoptive parents to see the weight and beauty of what they’ve been entrusted with.
Why should it matter to you? Because everyone is trying to make sense of a story that feels unfinished. If there is one redeeming love holding all of it together, then it changes how we endure suffering, how we understand identity and how we see God in both the ordinary and painful parts of life.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Whether we’re cashiers or CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need God’s love flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
The Holy Spirit has shown up most clearly in the places where I had no control and no strength to carry myself.
When I am in Scripture, praying out loud or walking through seasons I did not choose, God often brings truth back to my mind right when I need it. It does not always feel emotional in the moment. It feels like being steadied.
I have experienced that in grief connected to my birth family, when loss and unanswered questions felt heavy. Scripture I had memorized would come back with clarity and weight, not because I was searching for it, but because I needed it to hold me up.
I have also seen it in interruptions, like when I broke my arm on senior night of wrestling. What felt like disappointment became a moment where Scripture I had memorized came back to me, reframing how I saw the situation and reminding me that God was still present and in control.
I recognize the Spirit’s work when I share my story and people respond in ways I cannot produce. Their understanding of God deepens, their trust in him grows, and their view of him becomes more magnified and rightly ordered.
That is how I know it is not just me. I can speak, but I cannot create that kind of change in someone’s heart.
Over time, I have come to see that the Holy Spirit does not just strengthen my work. He sustains my life. I am not the one holding my story together.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?
Right now, I am learning to grow in my walk with God through two simple practices that are reshaping my spiritual life: praying out loud and journaling.
Praying out loud has made my relationship with God more personal and present. Instead of prayer feeling internal and distracted, it has become conversational. Confession and gratitude are no longer routine thoughts, but real moments of speaking honestly before God. I am learning what it means to actually talk with him, not just think about him.
I am also journaling regularly. I write down struggles, prayers, gratitude and moments when I see God at work. It has made my walk with Christ more vivid because it slows me down enough to notice what I would normally forget. When I look back, I can see patterns of God’s faithfulness that I miss in the moment.
When I feel discouraged, going back to those pages re-centers me. Like Israel, I am prone to forget what God has done, and journaling has become a way of remembering his faithfulness in real time.
These practices are teaching me this: God is not distant from my life, but present in the way I speak to him and remember him each day.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and changed your heart?
As I look back, a few resources have shaped my walk with God more than I realized at the time: a worship playlist I created called “Twice Delivered,” the biography of George Müller (“George Müller of Bristol 1805-1898”) and Romans 8:28.
At a younger age, I struggled with listening to music that did not honor God, so I created a worship playlist for my morning drives to school. It became a steady rhythm that helped center my heart on Christ, especially in a season where I was wrestling with identity. Songs like “Saved My Soul” and “It Is Well With My Soul” reminded me who I am in Christ and of God’s faithfulness through hardship. That playlist eventually became an anchor for my book, as each chapter is tied to a song from it.
The biography of George Müller also deeply shaped my trust in God. One story that stayed with me was when the orphanage had been praying for provision for weeks, and in their need, there was a knock at the door. Someone arrived with food and money that had not been expected, provided at exactly the right time. It strengthened my belief that God truly provides for the vulnerable and stirred in me a desire to care for those in similar places.
Romans 8:28 has anchored me since coming to faith in Christ. In seasons of loss and questions about God’s goodness, it reminded me that he is working in all things for his glory and our good, even in moments of pain like breaking my arm on senior night of wrestling.
Certain things can be godsends, helping us survive, even thrive, in our fast-paced world. Does technology ever help you this way? Has an app ever boosted your spiritual growth? If so, how?
Technology has been a controversial topic over the years. Many believe it has taken people away from God, and while I understand that concern, I also believe God calls us to be good stewards of what he has created.
In my own life, my phone has become a simple but helpful tool in my spiritual rhythms. I set reminders for prayer throughout the day because it is easy for me to move through a full day without intentionally stopping to pray. Those reminders help me pause, refocus and pray for specific people instead of letting the day pass me by.
Over the last couple of months, I have also started using social media more intentionally to share short reels from my story. I am not the most tech-savvy person, but I have seen how God can use something as ordinary as a phone screen to encourage others. Several people have reached out in person, saying the videos helped them, especially because conversations about adoption are not always open or accessible in their own circles.
For me, technology is not the center of spiritual growth, but it has become a small tool that helps me remember to pray and helps others feel seen and encouraged in their own stories.
QUESTION #8: dream
God’s continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
What you can expect from me in the future is faithfulness in whatever God places in front of me. I do not have every detail mapped out, but I do have a growing conviction to be a pastor who is deeply grounded in Scripture and attentive to people wrestling with identity, loss and unanswered questions. I want to continue learning how to handle God’s Word faithfully while caring for people with both truth and compassion. At the same time, I hope to remain deeply invested in the world of adoption and foster care, advocating for the vulnerable and reminding people of the dignity and value every person carries.
My calling is to be both a faithful pastor and a voice for those who are often overlooked, and I plan to pursue both to the best of my ability.
You can also expect me to keep writing. My memoir is only one part of the story God has written in my life, and I sense there is still more to say, more opportunities to help people see their lives through the lens of God’s redeeming work and sovereignty.
At the center of it all, I hope to be someone who continually points people back to Christ and helps them see that their story is not random, even when it feels unfinished.
Isaac’s story of adoption reminds us that we, too, have been adopted as sons and daughters of God.
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal. 4:4-6, ESV).
That word “Abba” is the informal version of “father,” like “dad” in English. How we view our new relationship with God matters. Our salvation isn’t some cold, clinical transfer to a new kingdom. It’s a warm welcome. An eternal embrace. A loving adoption.
How can we bring this mindset into our next conversation with God?
Isaac Melber is an author, speaker and adoption advocate whose life spans two continents and two families. Born in Ethiopia and adopted into a Christ-centered home in the United States, his journey of identity and redemption has deeply shaped his faith and calling. A student at Carson-Newman University, Isaac is preparing for pastoral ministry and future theological training. Through biblical teaching and personal testimony, he encourages adoptees and adoptive families while helping the church see adoption as a powerful picture of the gospel.