History of Rehoboth
The vision of Bob and Barbara Morriss, founders of Asian Hope Missionary Outreach, was to create a safe haven for destitute children in the Philippines. While searching for a parcel of land on which to build a safe haven for the children, Barbara had a God inspired dream of the place where the Lord wanted them to build. The photograph on the left is of a painting by Sandy VanMiddendorp of Bozeman, Montana and is a representation of Barbara's Vision.
In Barbara's dream, her vision was that of holding a young child in her arms, standing along the side of the road, and there were soldiers running on the road, and they were carrying guns!
When Bob and Barbara first visited the Christ To The Philippines Church on Masalat Road in Sampaloc, they went to a swampy, vacant portion of land at the back of the church property.
As they were standing on the muddy ground in the tall weeds, a band of soldiers 
from the local "Jungle Fighter's" camp jogged past with all their gear, and they had guns! Barbara later found out that the soldiers jog past daily as part of their training and fitness program. What Barbara took as danger in her dream, the Lord meant for protection.
The Morriss' worked tirelessly over a period of 10 years to complete the construction of the Children's Home. The Sacred Portion Children's Outreach came alongside them in 2001 to help bring that vision to completion. Three humble, but well-equipped modern buildings were completed in 2003. These include two children's homes that can accomodate 15 children each, an adminstrative building and social work office and the Rehoboth Early Learning Preschool. A fourth building was donated by the Lighthouse Group of Manila and consists of a kitchen/laundry with a 2 bedroom guest quarters for visiting adoptive families and short term missionaries. The grounds are beautifully terraced and maintained to create a beautiful, peaceful place where the wounds of a poor start in life can be healed.
The Rehoboth Children's Home was registered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)and began receiving children in July 2003. The home provides a loving, family oriented atmosphere for children 0 to 8 years old who have been orphaned, abandoned, surrendered, abused or neglected by their birth family. The children thrive at Rehoboth with good nutrition, proper medical care and a stimulating and loving environment with quality interaction from their caregivers.
Three years after opening the Rehoboth Children's Home, the facility experienced a constant supply of referals for orphaned and abandoned children from DSWD. Sadly, the home was forced to turn away from the governments referals because they were always filled to their capacity. The relationship with the DSWD and other agencies had become strong as they earned a glowing reputation for moving children quickly to alternative plans for their lives through domestic and international adoption. Even with moving children quickly through the process, the home contined to be filled to capacity and children were still being turned away. In the spring of 2006, a "For Sale" sign appeared on a gate across the road from the front gate of Rehoboth.
In August of 2006, on another visit to the Philippines, the price for the vacant land across the street was negociated to a fair and reasonable price. A purchase contract for the land was signed, and in March of 2007, after five short months of fundraising, the ownership of a 5.5 Acre parcel of ground was transfered to the ministry of Asian Hope Missionary Outreach of the Philippines/Rehoboth Children's Home.
In October, the AHMOP Board of Directors met with eMi (Engineering Ministries International) and came up with a master site plan to govern the future use of this new land. The plan was considered a God sized plan. Nothing less would honor Him.
Now that the land was owned by AHMOPI and the God sized plan had been developed by the board and eMi, 
all focus turned to securing the land with a formidable concrete/steel security wall. Once the funds had been raised for the wall, a young family from Belgrade, Montana gave up six months, and left home, work and family to oversee and give their sacred portion on behalf of the orphan and the project of AHMOP at Rehoboth Children's Home. Josh Mckenzie, a road builder in Montana by trade, worked with a wonderful team of local Filipino men to construct a massive concrete wall which secured the east and west ends of the future home of Rehoboth Sampaloc Ministries.
Typhoon Ondoy struck with furry in September of 2009 causing extreme damage and loss of life on the island of Luzon with the Tanay/Sampaloc area being the hardest hit area. Three Hundred people perished in this storm, and while Rehoboth lost no lives they did not escape with out damage. The wall in the ravine constructed earlier that summer was broken and distroyed where it crossed the stream. The high back wall footing was washed out underneath and an older garden wall inside the grounds of the orphanage fell in to the garden.
The end of December of 2009 an unsolicited gift of $10,000 was given which enabled a work team in February & March of 2010 to reconstruct the damages caused by the Ondoy storm.
The Bozeman Lions Club, after a year and a half of fundraising, completed raising their share of local seed money of $18,750. Upon completion, the seed money was matched 2:1 by the Lions Club International Foundation. These funds are being used right now to build the Rehoboth Medical Clinic, the first building to be constructed in the Rehoboth Expansion Project.
January 15, 2011, a team of 4 men from Bozeman, Montana traveled to Rehoboth. They were charged with the responsibility of excavating and installing the footings and foundation for the new Rehoboth Community Medical Clinic. This first team was the advance team for the next larger work team from New Hope Bible Church of Belgrade, Montana during Spring Break Missions of March 2011. The photos above are recent photos of the work that was accomplished from January 19 - February 21, 2011.
Next page: Rehoboth Brochure
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