A lesson here, if we will hear it . . . The answers are not always easy, but these are children our Savior loves. And so will we. Enrique is a 17-year-old with a lifetime of bad choices behind him. He was first brought to Hope Mountain when he was 13 and terribly addicted to drugs. He was gone within two hours. Another few months on the streets, and then he was brought to Hope Mountain again. And again, he was gone within two hours. That cycle was repeated over and over again—at least ten times in the next few …

A lot of folks are not going to like this post—but these things have to be said. Residential care works. Not for every child, not in every situation, and certainly not when it is no more than the warehousing of children. But, done right, it works. For kids who have been on the streets, for kids who have been trafficked, for kids whose years of being abused, abandoned, or exploited have destroyed their ability to accept love and build relationships, it works. But there is a cottage industry built around blasting residential care. Like the quote in last week’s post …

Eventually, eventually, the story gets okay, but it has a lot of twists and turns to get there—and along the way an important lesson about thoughtful care for mortal-risk children. I’ll also introduce you to a debate that impacts the lives of millions of children. Jaime was a child of the streets. Abandoned by a prostitute mother, he spent his days in begging and thievery—and his nights under an overpass, a piece of cardboard his street mattress. Eventually sent to a shelter, he was adopted for the first time at age seven. By eight, he was back at the shelter, …

Stories. The best ones catch us by surprise, bring a smile, and perhaps refocus our priorities. This one—this week—from (missionary/Hope Unlimited for Children CEO) Philip Smith in Brazil: Christmas 2014 in Brazil. Think hot. Sometimes Santa is not who we expect him to be. Sweltering in the Hope Santa suit this year was a former street kid. Luciano graduated from Hope in 1996, got a good job, married, and became a worship leader at his church. A few months ago, he reached out to me saying he felt called to return to Hope as a houseparent. Then in July, he …

It’s a really wonderful part of the worship tradition at the City of Youth. At some point in each chapel service, our kids have the chance to give back.  Not financially, of course, but of what they have. They do this through their prayer requests. During what we might call an offertory, the kids walk 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. …

It was an extraordinary conversation. The local Children’s Council was visiting our Hope Mountain campus. The problem, it seemed, was that we are creating “unrealistic expectations” in the lives of former street kids. They are well-clothed attend private schools have high-level vocational training programs live as families They come to expect that their lives will be different than those of their parents and the kids who ran the streets with them. They somehow believe that their education, the social skills they learn, their vocational skills—and their dreams—will lead to better lives. But, according to the Children’s Council, hoping for a …

Day 30:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8-9) Our goal is not to “plant the Hope flag” around the world—but it is to see change in the lives of mortal-risk children everywhere. We have discovered that we can impact thousands and thousands of lives by helping other organizations doing similar work understand how we do what we do. We call it Hope Institute; our CEO, …

Day 27:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15) Our mission: Transforming the lives of children at mortal risk, providing them and their future generations with a productive future and eternal hope. It’s thrilling to sit in our graduate church and look around the room at generations …

Day 25:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope But as for me, I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; Lord, do not delay. (Psalms 70:5) Drugs are constantly available to children from the streets and slums of Brazil. Once at Hope, many of our kids must work incredibly hard—with God’s help—to be free from them. Anna is one of those kids. As a child, she was introduced by a caregiver to the drugs easily-accessible in the slum where she lived. . . . One day he made me smoke a …

Day 22:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Psalms 147:3) Guilherme rarely appeared in Hope photos. He was just too cool. Try as we might, we could never get him to stop flashing a peace sign or wearing his hat to the side; that was just his personality. He was a great kid, full of smiles, but he was definitely his own man. And he ran away. He had done it before, and he always came back. This time though, on his first night away, he was hit by a drunk …

Day 21:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13:13 KJV) Sometimes the King’s English can be a challenge, but it really hits the point here. Charity, in the truest Christian sense of the word, is an outgrowth of our relationship with our God. And it always calls us to look at the big picture for our kids. Hope is not a bowl-of-rice-in-a-warehouse organization. The kind of love—charity—that we show for those God has entrusted to our care must be transformational—long-term, life-changing care. That’s …

Day 20:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here. (2 Corinthians 5:17) The children’s stories do not always end as we want them to—as we pray for them to end. Luis Roberto was a bright, sweet kid who saw his father shot down by drug traffickers. Worried for his safety, his mother convinced the authorities to send him to Hope Mountain. But even at Hope Mountain, Luis often expressed the heaviness he felt of needing to fill his father’s shoes and provide for his …

Day 19:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:5-7) Like the other Hope houseparents, Jardelho and Natalha have made a ten-year commitment to Hope. They are primary care providers for a home with three sibling groups—a total of …

Day 14:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. (Psalms 68:5-6) Hours after the children scuttle off to bed, houseparents gather for a late-night dinner and prayer meeting. Almost every night, as dinner winds down, the houseparents form a circle, and—holding hands—they intercede before God for each child. Together, their passion for every child in their care is palpable. These special houseparents sign ten-year contracts …

Day 11:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts his voice, the earth melts. (Psalms 46:6) Our children come to us steeped in a culture that places values on all the wrong things: materialism, carnality, and disregard for those in need. Much of what the team at Hope does is help children listen for the quiet voice of our Sovereign Lord—calling them to a deeper faith in Him, to care for others, and to practice spiritual disciplines. Please pray with us that in the midst of the cultural noise, the voice of God …

Day 6:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) Before coming to Hope Unlimited, the children we serve are often swept into destructive lifestyles by a cultural current pulling them towards drugs, crime, sexual exploitation, and poverty. A central part of our philosophy is maintaining a campus culture that, instead, directs the children in a positive trajectory. We count on older children, whose lives have already been transformed, to help …

Day 5: 30 Days of Prayer for Hope But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless. (Psalm 10:14) Paulo never knew his father, and he was abused and neglected by his mother. She turned him in to the authorities, saying she did not want him anymore. She abandoned her son. Thankfully, he recently found a home at Hope. He asks every day about when he might return to the only family he has ever known, but his …

Day 4:  30 Days of Prayer for Hope Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16) We have seen it happen so many times: a squad car arrives at the City of Youth with a terrified child in the back seat. The child does not know why he has been picked up and does not understand why he’s being brought to this place. That’s why, instead of adult staff members …

It’s a refrain I hear pretty often. “Orphanages are bad. All of them.” That sounds good, and perhaps it echoes the well-meaning hearts of those motivated by Christian love to see every child in a family. Besides, we shudder —with good reason—when we see the cold walls of nursery orphanages in eastern Europe or places where young children and teenagers are essentially warehoused. “Please, sir, said Oliver, “I want some more.” God forgive us for ever treating children so. And so, in that line of reasoning, unequivocal statements are made: For all orphans, residential care is bad. We immediately assume …

Serious, and important, discussion here. I was reading an orphan care blog a few days ago. The blogger wrote about his new and deeper commitment to supporting orphan care, and how he was ready to make some lifestyle changes in order to financially underpin the work of those caring for orphans. And then his throw-away line: “except I will not give anything to help any orphanage, and you shouldn’t either.” Tough words, but words that reflect many, possibly most, of those who are serious about orphan care. The word orphanage has become an epitaph, conjuring images of a Twistian warehouse …

  My wife, Susan, recently wrote about Hope’s Valentine project at her blog, My Place to Yours. With her permission, her words are reprinted here. My word for 2013 is shelter. Simply hearing the word brings to mind thoughts of safety … stability … home.  I suppose it’s because I’m one of the fortunate ones. Many (most?) of you are, too. While I’ve had my share of challenges in life … some I pray none of you will ever experience … there’s never been a time when I wondered if I was loved or a time I questioned my long-term safety or …

I’ll admit it. I don’t understand the rush from Summer to Christmas. I prefer to enjoy my days without wishing them away. But I do understand anticipation. I like watching the eager anticipation of little ones as they prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior. I like teaching them about gift giving, about how it commemorates the bringing of gifts by the Magi. And especially the looks on their faces as they tear through wrapping paper to open their presents on Christmas morning. As our thoughts begin to turn to the gifts we want to give (and receive) this …

EVERY child deserves the chance to Thrive . . . and YOU deserve a chance to help! Through the years, many supporters of Hope Unlimited for Children have asked if we have a child sponsorship program. Because Brazilian privacy laws expressly prohibit us from linking a sponsor to an individual child, we have always had to answer “no.” Even so, that did not change our desire to find a way for supporters to connect with our kids. Out of this long-time desire, our new Thrive Team program was born. While not linking a sponsor to a specific child, Thrive Team …

Last February I introduced our readers to Hope’s annual Valentine’s Project. We transform Brazil’s Day of Love to make it a special affirmation and learning time for our girls, and we inviting you to participating with us. Because many of you are new to “The Least of These,” I am reposting last year’s blog.   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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …