Giving Kids a Home

Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Friends of ours who run another children’s home in Ecuador are finished in 5 years. They’ve run the race for several years and now their board feels their time is up. Sometimes I think about what it would be like to be done here. After all we’re only a few years behind our friends and life goes by.

The idea seems somewhat frivolous. We could be simply Cana-dians again. We could blend in with others and not be a specta-cle. We’d be free from 24 hour a day on-call work. No more diapers, vomit, bum wiping, scraped knees, broken bones or bad dreams in the night. No more wet beds, nosebleeds, bee stings, or temper tantrums. No more fighting for justice, trying to work amidst corruption, or being patient with cruel people.

But...then who would care for the children that don’t have anyone? In our 14 years in Riobamba, we have not yet found one other person willing to devote their lives to rescue the kids. A few volunteers will stay as long as a year, most just a few weeks. All our Ecuadorian staff are paid and can change jobs at their lei-sure.

This past week I did a tally with our social worker to see how many of our kids will eventually be adopted, and how many have a chance at returning to some kind of family. If we didn’t take in any more children, in 4 years we would still have 28 kids left who have no one. They can’t be adopted, and they have no one to go home to.

One of those kids is 13 year-old Denis. He and his sister were caught some years ago robbing someone and were placed with us to protect them from negative influences. The family are all local thieves and the dad is a known murderer. After the kids were with us for a couple of years, the dad came and

told the kids to “escape.” So the kids did run away and went to stay with their sister. They tried living with one family member after the other. After they’d been gone several months, the mother came to our door and dropped them off again. “I don’t want them anymore. I don't even like them,” she said.

In spite of all the pain and rejection, Denis and his sister are great kids. They are smart, warm and playful. They are sincerely interested in following Je-sus.

The other day, when little Bryan fell and scraped his head on a nail, Denis came to his rescue, helped him into the house, and washed up the wound in the bathroom. What he didn’t do is call me for help. One of the other kids came to tell me what happened. Denis’ care of Bryan was thoughtful, caring

Ark Kids Ministries

Ron and Glenda Allan Email: allans@arkchildrenshomes.com 0601-168 Riobamba Telephone: (011 593) 3 260-2559

Ecuador, S. America Web: http://www.arkchildrenshomes.com

Calls are free from Kelowna (or the cost of a call to Kelowna) which calls direct to us in Ecuador. 1-250-448-1922

August News 2010

Ron and I took the older girls to a cheap chicken spot to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday.

We were imagining how it would’ve been if we’d gone to a fancy restaurant for our 35th anniversary and Zoe captured the moment on camera.

Sandbox.

and quick thinking. But he handled the situation alone.

And that’s the real problem. Denis still hasn’t realized that he doesn’t have to manage everything by himself. He can come to us for help, to talk and to share the load. He holds all his pain inside and handles all his difficulties thinking that he has no one. Just the week before, I caught one of the boys stealing his pencil, and he wouldn’t rat on him. He hasn’t learned to open up about what he’s going through.

So I am on a campaign to win Denis. I don’t have to make him be good. He’s very well-behaved. I don’t have to convince him to give his life to God. He already has and does. But I do have to make him see that he doesn’t have to carry every painful thing inside of him.

Ministry to homeless kids isn’t as simple as giving them a bed and a meal. They need someone to love them. They need to find a way out of their pain and rejection.

Maybe someday we will be too old to do this. But someone has to.

Wicked Canadian “Gringos” Some of the boys who’ve grown up and left home, decided to room together. But last week Polo got very sick and they came to get us. It was our first time visiting their house and we weren’t sure which door to knock on so we stood outside for a moment. A lady and her daughter came out of their house at that moment and stared at us without saying a word. Then our boys came and let us in to visit our sick lad.

But the next morning we got a call at 6am. The owner of the house told the boys they had to move out. They said the

kids were a gang working for us foreigners who were there to kidnap children and sell them for body parts. They had seen us “lurking” outside their door. The boys insisted that we were nice people, that we had raised them and were like their mom and dad. But to no avail. The boys had to find new lodging that same day. They would not be allowed back in.

Once many years ago, someone told us he believed we like to work in third world countries because of the respect we gain as foreigners. We still laugh at that.

Dario was talking to us last month, and told us that when he was small he was told that if he was bad, the mean gringos would get him, cut out his organs, pluck out his eyes and leave him to die. When he was later totally abandoned, imagine his horror when the police dropped him off to be cared for by none other

than the dreaded, “GRINGOS.”

And we’re not even “gringos,” we’re Canadian. Graciela likes to be backseat driver when Ron’s driving. She watches the light change and yells, “Green go!” and makes the other kids laugh hysterically!

About 10 years ago, a lady complained to the press that we were marketing children. The reporters came to our door with their cameras but Naomi didn’t let them in because we weren’t home. They reported that we wouldn’t respond to their visit “on the pretext that we weren’t home.” After we heard what went out on TV we went straight to the station and told them they better fix their report in a hurry or we’d lay charges. They very quickly came to our door and gave us a great report on TV the next day. It’s been a battle, but after so many years, MOST of Riobamba is glad we’re here!

Ron celebrated his “Fiesta de Grasa” which translates to “Grease Party.” It really means he makes everyone work to clean the grease from the hood over the stoves and then gives them goodies when it’s all over.

Still, everyone managed to have a good time!

Our head supervisor, Carmita decided to throw the August birthday party and she did it up big, complete with clowns and puppets and everything party-ish.

Above, the twins Graciela and Rosa hold two of the birthday stars, Sasha and Oliver.

Oliver

Annoyed

A couple of days ago, Ron and I were lying in bed and the bed started shaking. Annoyed, I rolled over to glare at Ron for disturbing me, but he wasn’t moving. It was an earthquake. (no damage done)

I’ve been thinking about living and dying, and what we hope to accomplish in our short span of years. We make our footprint on this earth, and after we’re dead, it sort of wears down and washes away and no one ever remembers that we were here. If a few people guild our print with gold to save it for a season, only then does our mark remain. Yet after a while, statues fall, and history books leave only a few sketchy details.

It’s nice to have people remember us fondly, but it doesn’t give us our life purpose. Obviously we want more significance than that.

While our activities and projects begin and end, we may do some good in the process. We may become well known as great Christian leaders, which has only a temporary “feel-good” result and may not always be deserved. We might even make the history books. But so what?

It really all comes back to me being annoyed with Ron on the bed. What does it matter that I am a Children’s Home director while I begin the day with a bad attitude? It’s who we are and how we live out our minutes and days that counts. I can claim my accomplishments to prop my ego, or I can serve God in humility. And that always comes back to the regular day-to-day decisions and actions. Walking with God isn’t about being recognized. It’s about being full of the spirit of Jesus and reflecting that every moment of every day.

Am I kind? Do I complain and argue? Is anger my constant companion or am I drawing from a fountain of grace that comes from being close to God? Will I really walk the second mile for my aggravating neighbour who compels me? Am I hoarding my material goods while others suffer? There are a million questions like that to be answered.

Very few people will care that we existed long after we’re gone. But God will smile with joy and delight at the sweet companionship we’ve cultivated with him, the fervour and passion that we demonstrated while we revealed his love to the na-tions, and the selflessness that is a result of putting God first. That relationship that will carry on for eternity. It’s the footprint that will not wash away.

Where are the “Young Bucks?”

Several years ago we participated in a conference led by a fellow that had (I think) 14 kids. One day he was talking about why no one had very many children and que-ried, “What’s wrong with you young bucks?”

I’m not really concerned that people don’t have large families. But God wants “godly offspring.”(Mal 2:15) — sons and daughters. So here’s the thing. There’s a whole lot more to do than fall into the daily grind. Okay, I know that as we get older a lot of people just want to settle in. But what about the others, the ones who want something more? If God makes us restless, why not catch the hint and take action?

There’s so much to be done. This year we’re hoping to do Christmas outreaches to several Quichua villages. To accomplish our goal, we would love to have help. Those events will all take place in the first 3 weeks of December. Since we’re a children’s home, many of our volunteers are female because of that natural bent to nurture. But not all the work is feeding babies. Reaching the world with the kingdom of God is serious business and not for the faint of heart. So dudes….WELCOME!

Summer vacation isn’t all beaches and parties. Ron puts the kids to work cleaning up the yard.

Jennifer and Tania

Teams and Volunteers

God has blessed us these past few months with great volunteers and awe-some teams from afar. They have sanded, cleaned, done yard work, sorted clothes, changed diapers, and entertained the children. We’ve had some delightful times with them, played wild games, done crafts and then watched them cry over the kids as they go.

Street Boy

Late one night after “street church” Naomi called to say she had a kid with her who was planning on sleeping in the park. Since it was so late, we just allowed Rene to come and sleep at our place. But when we contacted the police, they just said, “Call on Monday.” On Monday we called and they said, “Call tomorrow.” That went on for two weeks. Eventually Rene told us where he came from and we took a trip to Ambato and left him with the police there. They took him back to his mom.

A few hours after we returned home, we heard he was back in Riobamba on the street. We haven’t seen him yet ourselves so we don’t know if it’s true.

Sadly, running a children’s home doesn’t take care of all the unwanted kids in the world. There are homes with parents who simply don’t love their children.

There’s a famous Hasidic Jewish reggae musician name Matisyahu who sings about “One day” when he prays there will be an end to fighting and wars. While that’s not about to happen, it still sits in God’s heart that love should reign. We all yearn for the day, but while we may not see it on this earth, it’s what we work towards.

Love must start among families and work its way out to our friends and neighbours and to the ends of the earth. We cannot apathetically sigh, “Alas, there’s no chance of winning the world so we might as well sit back and make the best of it.” We can and must do our part.

A believer is blessed by the presence of the Almighty God dwelling in him or her. If “God so loved the world,” then we are housing that same burning passion to do the same.

Kids like Rene should not be on the street.

Naomi struggles with the Ecuadorian culture when she refuses to participate in the custom of “bite the cake” on her birthday. I can’t imagine why.

For Tax Receipts in Canada: The Ark Kids Ministries 964 Arbor View Drive

Kelowna, BC. Canada, V1W 5A1

Phone 250-764-0472

On our website we have Paypal which allows online donations

with your credit card. Website is

www.arkchildrenshomes.com

DONATIONS For Tax Receipts in the States send cheques to:

The Ark Children’s Homes P.O Box 2352, Abingdon,

Virginia, 24212 USA

Rosita, who grew up with us, came back to visit us. She’s been on her own for a couple of years now, but missed little Samuel that she helped care for as a baby.

“Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it.” (Quote from Muppets Christmas Carol...you can tell what we watch!)

We’ve had to say good-bye to some great volun-teers this month. These photos show good-byes with Alicia and Jackie.

ATTENTION:

To those of you who live in North America. We will be travelling from Canada to anywhere on the continent from January to July. Let us know as soon as you can if you’re interested in hearing from us. We’ll be there to “speak up!”

Pr 31:8,9 “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”