I will never forget the night we met Fran. It was our first night at Hope, and only her second or third. My wife and I had traveled to Brazil to see the program there firsthand. A pizza outing for some of the girls at Hope Ranch let us meet a few of the kids without being overwhelmed. While most of the girls actively engaged us—they were very accustomed to English-only Americans on mission trips—Fran shyly caught our eyes and smiled, head down. It was obvious she was new and didn’t yet know the ropes. The next day we …
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Author: | David Z. Nowell
Seeing the one
The stock market is down 10%. S & P downgrades our credit rating. In 24 months, the US-Brazil exchange rate drops from 2.35 to 1.55, eroding our purchase power there by almost 40%. Nobody will give in this climate. And then this morning, I saw the really frightening figure: it is estimated that the global economic collapse has pushed orphan numbers to 163,000,000. 163 million children without homes or family. Time to throw in the towel? Time to surrender these children to a destiny of despair and death? Can’t we admit when we have lost? No. …
Seeing as God Sees
It’s Friday evening; I am sitting on the front porch, watching the thunderstorms begin to roll in, and, quite honestly, feeling a bit overwhelmed. There is a payroll to make, other bills to pay, income is down for the month of July, political maneuvering in Brazil threatens our program, and things are just not rolling as smoothly as they should. Things look pretty dark right now, both literally and figuratively. God, don’t you understand? We are the good guys here. How about a little help? Then I read I John 1:5. “God is light; in Him there is …
Good Soil
I’ve been reading Francis Chan’s Crazy Love the last few days. In Chapter Four, “Profile of the Lukewarm,” he issues this warning: Do not assume you are the good soil. But of course we are the good soil. We’re in church virtually every Sunday, tithe (at least on the net), stay married, and have polite kids. Isn’t that the definition of good soil? Maybe not. Maybe that is the definition of the place where the seeds were planted, but the fledging plant was so overwhelmed by the thorns of the world’s cares that it suffocated. Perhaps we are the exact …
But I don’t want to love them…
For the great majority of the world, orphaned does not mean parentless. In fact, just the opposite is true: only about 20% of orphans are biological orphans; the vast majority of children we call orphans have parents. But they have been abandoned, have run away to escape abuse, or have been removed from their homes because of abuse, exploitation, or neglect. I don’t like these parents—and that is really not strong enough to express how I feel. The one critical task they have been given in life—TAKE CARE OF YOUR CHILD—they have failed. And, more often than not, it is …
A Lesson from Africa
Gary Schneider was just an American visitor in the Zambian church service. But he was struck by what he saw and heard there. The African pastor passionately pleaded with his church to take seriously the biblical call to care for orphans. The local community had seen more than its share of orphans, products of the AIDS epidemic and poverty. Gary watched as members of the church came forward to give of their meager resources—money, food, even the shoes off their feet. Soon the vision of that one church spread across Zambia, and, in 2003, Gary joined with Every Orphan’s …
But What Happens When the Model Doesn’t Work?
Over the last two decades, the model for care of orphans has greatly changed. Decades ago, long-term, large homes were the prevalent model for orphan care. Big dormitories, or at least large group homes, dominated the landscape of care facilities. Without question—and especially in the emerging world—this model had its problems. Sometimes the problems were fairly minor—kids needed more interaction with society outside the grounds of the orphanage. At other times they were quite severe—children essentially warehoused to get them off the streets and out of sight. Think Oliver Twist repeated around the world. Abuse of children in these facilities …
Noblesse Oblige
A good friend has a framed, embroidered motto on his desk, “noblesse oblige” (the obligation of the nobility). I sometimes give him a pretty hard time about it because it can symbolize all that I think is wrong about the Church’s response to issues of poverty and need. It’s like an uncomfortable line that was popular in the privileged class of the South in my childhood, “There but for the grace of God go I”. Condescension is so imbedded in both phrases that they are the very opposite of Christian charity (using that word in the truest sense of 1 …
No place for any child
A children’s prison? Surely what I meant to say was correctional institution, or even reform school, but not prison. We all know children do not belong in prison. Prisons are for adults: hardened criminals, repeat offenders, those a danger to the public. But children’s prisons—which are often more violent and oppressive than their adult counterparts—are a growing worldwide reality. It is estimated that there are some 1 million children in prisons worldwide. Some time ago, a group of Americans visited the children’s prison in Cariacica, Espirito Santo, Brazil—the very prison that led to this April’s formal condemnation of the nation …
Forgiveness
But first be reconciled to each other. Natali had a lesson to learn. As a young graduate of Hope, she knew that the choices she would make in the first months on her own would profoundly shape her life. Her witness led her boyfriend to Christ, and he quickly became a leader at the graduate church. As they moved toward marriage, she encouraged him to be reconciled with his family. He was, and then he asked the tough question: “What about you and your mother?” A bit of background… By the time she was ten, Natali’s mother was prostituting her …
When Love is Not Enough
We know our hearts are in the right place. We really, really, want to make life better for these kids. So, why can’t it be easy? The first year of Hope, two decades ago, every single boy ran away. We gave them a safe place to live, good – and regular – food, all the things that make life normal. But it wasn’t enough; they all ran away, rejecting the life we had built for them. They needed not more, but something very different. What transformation demanded was that they had structure, boundaries, discipline. Our breakthrough came when a retired …
A New Mission Field: Children in Prison
Today I welcome Philip Smith, co-founder and CEO of Hope Unlimited for Children. From earlier posts, you may be aware that Hope recently agreed to explore the possibility of joining the state of Espirito Santo in looking for ways to transform their children’s prisons. As with any new endeavor, we are always aware of the possibility of “mission creep,” — and taking our focus away from the street children we serve. In an effort to prevent that from happening, Philip visited one of these prisons to ask the question, “Are these our children?” This is what he found – in …
Light: Shining in the Darkness
I am pleased to welcome Jeremy Stanley this week. Jeremy is a storyteller at heart. From the Hollywood Hills to a leper colony in Kenya, everyone has a story to tell. Having spent many years in the film & television industry in Los Angeles, Jeremy’s focus and passion is now exposing injustice and sharing stories of hope and redemption around the world. It’s easy to find despair in the darkness. It envelops you. It overwhelms you. You hear stories of children being murdered in the streets. Of little girls losing their innocence and prostituting themselves at desperately young ages. t …
Materialism
Have you ever thought about the “why” of materialism? Sunday night I left Tennessee for Brazil; left my very comfortable home for a 16-hour, three-leg flight. I was met at the small Vitoria airport by one of our houseparents. We traveled through the relative affluence of the ocean-front residential section of town then began to wind our way up broken streets to Hope Mountain. We passed squalor; we came within feet of the brutal children’s prison at Cariacica; we saw filthy children sitting on street curbs. Discomfort. Back in the beautiful Springtime of East Tennessee, it is very …
Was He one of us?
My friend grabbed me immediately after the service. “I finally understand that verse.” A question in my eyes. “The ‘I had no place to lay my head’ verse. Tonight, for the first time, I understand it.” We were at Saturday night worship the night before Palm Sunday at The Net Fellowship, a church formed by former street children who are graduates of Hope Unlimited’s residential program. Joining the graduates, their families, and members of the community who have become part of The Net were about two hundred children who presently live at the two Hope campuses in Campinas, Brazil. And …
But God wasn’t finished yet…
I wrote last week of God’s miraculous provision in preserving Hope Mountain, but that was only the beginning of what God had in store that day. There was a third point to the Vice-Governor’s proposal to us. But first, a bit of background. Hope Mountain (HM), to no small degree, came into existence 11 years ago because our Board was so moved by the horrific conditions they saw when they visited the children’s prison across the valley from HM. Sixteen children crammed into small cells built of block and iron bars; a hole in the floor for a toilet; a …
But God had something else in mind…
A few months ago, the Board of Directors of Hope Unlimited for Children reluctantly voted to close our Hope Mountain campus. It was not without pain to make the decision; the need is desperate there, and hearts, efforts, and money had been poured into the transformation of this former prison facility into a place where the lives of boys could be transformed. But, a decade into the project, only marginal local support had joined the U.S. investment, and the cost of running the project was threatening to strangle the Hope organization. The Board made the decision provisionally: if Hope …
Maddie
Today I welcome Maddie to the blog. Last summer sixteen-year-old Maddie and her family visited Hope Unlimited’s City of Youth in Brazil. She recently spoke at a chapel service at her school about her experiences in Brazil. These words are excerpted from her presentation. Imagine a girl who lives in a comfortable suburban house surrounded by a loving family. She attends Stanford games and vacations in Newport Beach with her family. She attends private school. Imagine another girl who lives in a home of cardboard and plywood, without plumbing or electricity. She walks barefoot on a dirty, trash-filled street. Her mom suffers from mental illness …
A Heart Made New
When Carlos first arrived at the City of Youth two years ago, he was just like so many of the kids who have come to call the City of Youth their home. He had virtually no contact with his mother and became a child of the streets when he fled a physically abusive father. But we soon realized there was something different about Carlos. He was weak, often short of breath, and simply did not have the robust appearance that a young teenage boy should have. A pediatrician in Campinas scheduled Carlos for a battery of cardiac exams. Before he made it to …
Separating the sheep from the goats (a parable along the way to revolting numbers)
Here’s a bit of Bible trivia for you: There is only one person in the parables of Jesus who is given a name. Do you know who it is? Think about for a minute. Lazarus Do you know the story of Lazarus and the rich man? Lazarus is a poor beggar who lies at the gate of the rich man’s home, hoping to grab a few “crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table.” Interestingly enough, it is not the rich man who has a name, but the poor, crippled beggar. Even more interesting, the name Lazarus means “the one …
More revolting numbers…
This isn’t about our capability to change the world; it’s about our will to do so. I’ve written on a number of these blogs about the plight of at-mortal-risk children. They do not choose to live as they do; all choices have been taken from them by poverty, by culture, by environment. The challenge of changing the world is not about our capability: according to the Borgen Project, spending just $19 billion between now and 2015 could essentially eliminate global starvation and malnutrition; $12 billion per year over that same time period could provide education for every child …
A Case for Revolt
2.5%. That’s how much American evangelicals give to Christian causes. Not 15%, not even the biblically-mandated 10%. Just 2.5%. But here’s the really disappointing number: 98% of that tiny 2.5% primarily benefits other Christians. This basically means that of every $100 of income earned by American evangelicals, about 5 cents goes to touch the lives of those that Jesus called “the least of these.” A nickel. This is not about hard economic times preventing us from giving. In fact, the opposite is true: since the Great Depression, income has risen on a fairly consistent curve, with only a few blips along the …
What is Trafficking?
In January you may have read Ileana’s story, a story told far too often not only in Brazil, but in so many places where young girls are seen as commodities rather than as creations in the image of God. In many countries, what happened to Ileana is not called prostitution. Because Ileana was sold in her own home by her own mother, the law identifies this as abuse, but not prostitution; a ridiculous distinction that does not recognize the extent of the devastation Ileana suffered. Not only is what happened to Ileana prostitution, it’s sex trafficking. As defined in The United States’ …
Feliz Aniversário!
The post this week comes from Karen Rodriguez, a member of Princeton Alliance Church in Plainsboro, NJ. A group from Princeton has been in Brazil this month ministering to our kids and refurbishing the sanctuary. How do you get to spend your birthday? Do you get to go out with your family to a nice restaurant? Do they shower you with love, affection, and gifts in many forms? Do you get to pick any cake you want and have people sing to you? Does your dad sing the birthday song to you a week before your birthday and continue to …
Oh Lord, hear my prayer
At the City of Youth, our flagship campus in Brazil, we have a mid-week chapel service for the kids. During the service we have an offertory. Our kids, of course, have no money to give, but come forward and place written prayers and prayer requests in a large bowl at the front of the auditorium. Many of the prayers are simple, a line or two composed at the last minute, but nonetheless heartfelt, “Lord, thank you for giving me this place to live.” Others are longer, maybe running a page or two as a child pours out her heart to …
A New Beginning
It is an appalling truth that many of the girls at Hope have been sexually abused and exploited. Thanks to the grace of God, that is forever in the past as soon as they reach our campus. Unfortunately, it’s a more difficult and much slower process to change their self-perception. These children have been taught since birth that they have value only as a sexual object. But Hope Unlimited is about transformation. Our story is of a tragic beginning absolutely overwhelmed by a triumphant end. Each February, churches and individuals across the U.S. add a little something to their Valentine’s …
It’s up to you
Sarah is in the back of the car sobbing. “Just give me a minute, and then I can talk.” This was her first face-to-face encounter with child poverty. A few minutes before, she had been sitting on a ragged bed as a little girl and a little boy climbed over her. The little girl was beautiful by any standards, even in her filth, but the three-year-old little boy, naked except for a tattered tee shirt, already had the vacant stare so common in the favela. We had walked from the girl’s sagging scrap-sheet metal home to the boy’s shack a …
The Ripple Effect
Jack and Evangel Smith are two people who changed the world. In 1962, they were Presbyterian missionaries teaching at a mission school in Ethiopia when they started a school for homeless kids in their back yard. This was a mission on top of their mission, but they were so overwhelmed by the poverty they saw, they felt they could do no less. Seeing the desperation around them, they told one little orphan boy, “Tomorrow we will start a school for street children. We want you to come, and bring your friends. But,” they warned him, “don’t bring any thieves.” The …
lleana’s Story
The kids at Hope Unlimited come from different backgrounds. Before they are sent to us, they might endure neglect, abandonment, abuse, exploitation, or even torture. Our staff and social workers labor tirelessly to help our students leave the darkness of their pasts behind them, but each child will forever bear emotional and often physical scars. We are their safe haven, and in order to protect their privacy, I will always change the names of the students whose stories I tell, and I will never tell anyone’s story without permission. Last year a visitor from the U.S. asked one of our …
Are we serious?
Do we take Jesus’ words seriously? The numbers don’t look like it: 200 million children worldwide are either biological or social orphans; 24,000 children die of hunger or hunger-related disease every day, two million girls and boys are forced into the sex trade every year. In Brazil, the country where I work with mortal-risk children, up to three million children have been abandoned to the streets; once on the streets they’re lucky to live five years. What is our answer to their cries for help? In this blog, I’ll introduce you to the struggle of some of the world’s most …