Give Them This Day Their Daily Bread
Imagine the scene…children of all ages and sizes sleeping soundly in warm beds, with the sun breaking over the horizon as a new day dawns, and the delicious aroma of baked bread filling the air. That is how each day begins at the Santa Maria orphanage in Lima, Peru. Every morning the delectable smell of fresh bread baking fills the air as the orphanage prepares meals for 120 people. It takes quite a lot of work and money to feed the children and staff three meals a day. But if the orphanage were not there…who would give those children even one meal a day, let alone three? Thank God for the willing hearts of people like those at Santa Maria, eager to rescue and care for children, and to give them their daily bread.
We also thank God for YOU, who have partnered with us through your prayers and finances and made each of our trips to Santa Maria a possibility. Through your partnership we were able again to visit this month and to stock up their pantry with all sorts of needed food items…and of course…with some extra goodies, too, that every child likes! Our trip was truly a good time visiting with the children and helping the orphanage.
It is summer in Peru and the children are enjoying their summer vacation. They have vacation Bible classes to attend, as well as other special summer activities—not the least favorite of which is swimming in a little pool onsite, and swinging on the swings. The orphanage is full of children playing everywhere. What a glorious sight it must be to our Heavenly Father to see each one, knowing the contrast of circumstances from which each one has come and the transformation of life that has been granted them all.
One such child who has undergone a transformation is 12-year-old Leo. Leo arrived at the orphanage in August of 2010, brought there by his 19-year-old sister who had made the decision to leave the jungle region where the two had been abandoned. His mother was dead. Nothing was known about his father. Because Leo had not experienced the guidance and encouragement of anyone in the jungle, nor had he been educated properly, Leo could not read or write when he came to the orphanage. He is now in third grade and exhibits a great desire to learn. He particularly enjoys arts and crafts workshops, and since last year has dedicated himself to the art of making bracelets with thread in his spare time. I think the Lord must feel pleasure when He watches Leo using his creative gifts in a constructive manner. Much like Leo with the bracelets, the Lord knows how to create something beautiful out of what looks like nothing much to the world.
This month I would like to invite you to help us meet a great need that Leo and other children in the orphanage have. It is…to give them their daily bread. Here is what I mean. The director has asked us to take on the responsibility of paying for their monthly electric and propane gas bills. They desperately need our help. If you recall, recently we were enabled by the Lord to pay the electric bill for the orphanage. Had we not, they would have had their electricity terminated that same day. That was not the first month that they had struggled to make ends meet. As mentioned earlier, to bake bread for and feed 120 people three meals per day for thirty days is very expensive, not only in monthly food costs but also in electricity and in the cost of propane gas. Without the food, the gas or the electricity, they cannot bake their daily bread…or supply any of the three meals the children and staff survive on. And they simply do not have enough money come in each month to do it alone.
It seems the Lord has brought us together for such a time as this, to be a source of supply and blessing for the least of these…for our Lord Jesus Himself, actually, according to Matthew 25. Just in propane gas and electricity bills we will need $1,500. We also spend approximately $1,500 per month on their groceries with each trip that we take when we stock up their pantry. Those two costs alone bring us to $3,000 per month needed to continue helping this orphanage survive. That does not include extra needs like the beds, blankets, socks, Bibles, and underwear that we have given in their past times of need. All that said, we would like to put out a challenge to all of our supporters to jump on the bandwagon and help Peru in a big way this year. We are calling the challenge, “Give Them Their Daily Bread”. We estimate that with $3,500 per month we can pay for their electricity and propane gas, supply for their food, continue their educational programming, and meet other needs that will vary from month to month (whether clothing, medical, repairs, etc). This, of course, does not include our cost of travel to and from Peru, or the administrative costs that Homes of Refuge has on a monthly basis, but it is a minimum needed to impact Peru for the next year.
Some of you are already giving on a monthly basis…and we are SO VERY grateful…please don’t stop. But for others of you who are not committed to a monthly amount already, I ask you to please ask the Lord how you can participate in “Give Them Their Daily Bread.” If just 70 people committed to $50.00 per month for one year we could supply this orphanage with what they need. I am asking you to consider how the Lord would invite you to store up treasures in Heaven through this avenue. Maybe you are a part of an adult Sunday School group that could take on the challenge. Among all of the adults each week, perhaps $50.00 per month (or more) would be completely possible. In considering the potential groups that might like to be a part of this eternal and rewarding work, I have put together a small list that might spark your creativity. What if the Lord could grace YOUR group this year to supply the daily bread of hungry orphans and needy children in a foreign land? Here is my list of potential participants: Sunday School Classes, Youth Groups, Children’s Church Groups, Home/Cell Groups, Women’s/Men’s Bible Study Groups, Weekly Prayer Groups, Business Men’s Groups, Christian Businesses, Homeschool Co-op’s, Missions Departments, Multi-Family-Sponsors (several families join together to adopt the project and pool their resources together for one year), etc. I know that the Lord will show each of you how you can be involved, and if perhaps you are to present it to a group of which you are currently a part. Think of what a blessing it would be to offer the option to others who might never have realized before that they can be a part of impacting children in another country. Would you seriously contemplate how this year you could help us to Give Them Their Daily Bread?
For the children, and for His glory,
Rosa Rivera
Homes of Refuge, International
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