God's Vision and Provision
-- Jan Druckenmiller, October 2006
Jake is a six year old boy who recently came into the Rehoboth Children's Home. He was admitted along with four other children who were transferred from another child caring facility that had been closed down by the Department of Social Welfare and Development due to physical mistreatment of the children. We were very glad to be able to accommodate these children at Rehoboth. Bob and Barbara Morriss' vision was to provide a safe haven, a place of rescue for children whose birth families could not adequately care for them. In this case, it has included rescuing children from a less than adequate child caring situation. Bob and Barbara chose the name, Rehoboth, because of it's meaning - "God has made a place for us." At Rehoboth, these five children now have a place where they can receive the nurture and loving care that they need and deserve. In the case of Jake, he is also receiving an education. We looked to the day when we would partner with the private, Christian school located up the hill behind Rehoboth in providing for the educational needs of our children. That day arrived when Jake, Rommel and Romeo began attending there in June with the start of the new school year. The school has given us a discount on tuition and we are fortunate to have sponsors who will cover the cost of the boys' education.
Over the course of its three years of operation, the Rehoboth Children's Home has steadily been earning a reputation with various governmental units and organizations in the Philippines as being a "place of excellence." We recently had our accreditation visitation/assessment by DSWD and hope to soon receive status as an accredited child caring agency. In addition to providing good care for children, the Rehoboth Children's Home is dedicated to carrying out Bob and Barbara's vision of being a temporary shelter with the ultimate goal of providing the children with what they need most - a new family. Since December, 2005, eleven children have left Rehoboth for various parts of the world and more children have been matched or are waiting to be matched with prospective adoptive families. This past February I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Laraya, Executive Director of the Intercountry Adoption Board. At one point in our conversation, she commented (with a somewhat surprised tone in her voice) that Rehoboth was "placing a lot of children for adoption!" I think this was surprising to Dr. Laraya because many child caring agencies in the Philippines are not motivated to do the necessary paperwork to make the children in their care available for adoption. They do not have this vision of moving children on to a better life with a future and a hope in the arms of an adoptive family. We are very thankful for Eden, our fulltime resident social worker, who works diligently to complete the paperwork and move it through the various channels for the children to become legally available for adoption, either domestically or internationally.
As children leave for adoption, their places always seem to be quickly filled and the Rehoboth Children's Home has been remaining full. When the Home is full to capacity, we have to turn away further referrals of children by DSWD. This has caused us to look to the future. The "for sale" sign on the property directly across the gate from Rehoboth that has been there for the past several years has begun drawing our attention in a serious way. It is 2.2 hectors of land with a flat center area conducive to building. An expanded vision for the Rehoboth Children's Home has begun to formulate in our minds and hearts:
- We would like to build another house that could accommodate 24 more children. We would like this facility to be more appropriately designed for babies and toddlers with adequate diapering/bathing facilities and a larger nursery. We would then use the current two houses for the older children, preschool age and up.
- We would like the building plans to include a residence. It is our goal as a family to eventually do an extended stay in the Philippines. Fe, our Deputy Administrator, does an excellent job in running the Home but she carries a heavy load and we want to be able to support her by being physically present. We would, of course, return to the U.S. periodically on furlough with the hope that another missionary couple could come in our stead and the residence would be there for them as well.
- We would like to have dormitory rooms either in a separate building or connected to the residence to accommodate work teams that come from the U.S., Australia and other parts of the world. Work teams were an important part of the Rehoboth Children's Home during the construction phase and continue to be so. Even more important than providing needed help in terms of maintenance and fix-up, work team members connect with the staff and children and catch the vision of the ministry. They become part of the expanding support base for Rehoboth in terms of prayer, financial support and other helps.
- We would like to see the Rehoboth Children's Home develop some self-sufficiency. The land has 50 to 80 mango and other fruit trees and has the potential for some self-sustaining operations. We envision gardens where the Home could grow some of its own produce. Raising a few hogs and some chickens would be another possibility. We would like to develop some small income producing businesses such as an Internet caf or laundry on the roadside frontage of the property as another form of financial support for the home.
- We would like to help the people of the Philippines to become better providers for their children. There would be fewer children in orphanages in the Philippines if the Filipino people had the means by which to support and raise their children. This includes education, heath care, counseling and work opportunities. The large size of this piece of ground opens the door to a continued vision of growth in the future. We envision the Rehoboth Children's Home becoming a center where people from the surrounding area could receive help in these areas of their lives.
As you can see, our dream is big. The price of the land is $165,000. Added to that would be the construction costs as well as the increased operational costs in running an expanded facility. But we know that God is even bigger than our dream and we are looking to His provision for the funding that would be required in order to purchase the land and construct the buildings of phase one. This would include the baby house, residence and several commercial spaces. To date, we have most of the funds needed to purchase the land and are in the process of negotiations with the seller. We hope to secure the land very soon and can then move on to working on a site plan and laying out the present and future use of the property. We are inviting others to consider being a part of this expanded vision. This could include making a contribution toward the land purchase/construction, donating architectural or engineering services or joining a future work team to Rehoboth to work on the project.
The Rehoboth Children's Home has become all that the founders, Bob and Barbara Morriss, envisioned it would be and, now, perhaps it will become even more!