Steven Bell, a worship pastor at Hindman First Baptist Church and the executive director of adult and family ministries at Camp Nathanael in Emmalena, Kentucky, won a total of $61,450 on the television game show “Wheel of Fortune” last week (Sept. 20).
The iconic game show kicked off its 41st season earlier this month and will say goodbye to long-time host Pat Sajak at the end of this season.
During his introduction on the show, the Kentucky pastor was able to share that he and his wife are advocates for fostering and adopting children.
“My wife and I are just huge proponents to make sure we do everything we can to make adoption more affordable for families,” he told Sajak.
The Bells have six children, two of whom they adopted from the foster care system and another whom they adopted from Congo.
“Being on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ was kind of surreal,” Bell told ChurchLeaders. “I was taken back to being 10 years old and watching the show in front of my grandmother’s floor model television set.”
Bell said that he never dreamed that he would one day “be standing behind that same wheel” he watched with grandmother and “certainly would have never imagined winning.”
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Bell also shared that “God has begun to open up so many doors to share our story of foster care and adoption.”
He added that many of the producers, crew, and other contestants knew that he was a pastor, so there weren’t many questions asked about what he does.
“However,” he said, “the ability to talk about my family and our story opened up so many doors for me to give glory to God for all of his provision and blessings.”
“I was able to talk about the gospel with various people on set in off-camera conversations,” Bell shared.
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