How come every time I start a letter or a report it has an apology on the front end because I have taken too long to get to it? It seems that the urgency of getting the many things done here that need to get done crowds out the other necessity of reporting to you about these things. Along with the apology, though, I must also thank you for your faithfulness in praying and giving to help support the ministry, when for much of the time you are maybe not getting informed as much as you would like.

Well, let’s back up a little bit to let you know what has put us in scramble mode and kept us there for some time. Back on March the 18th, we were treated to our own personal “Dakar” desert race. There were taxis racing back and forth across the orphanage property bringing in supplies so that people could set up shacks and claim property on the uninhabited dune behind the orphanage. This all happened almost overnight and it was (as it always is) very organized and well planned. It is usually inspired by the organizers who are paid by the participants, who in turn are hoping to not get thrown out and thus be able to steal themselves a piece of land. The local governments usually overlook it as it is hard to get those people to vote for you if you have thrown them off of what they now consider their land, and the police usually ignore it unless some furious land owner is willing to pay them to go in and oust the new residents. The result is that we now have hundreds, yes, hundreds of new neighbors and one rather large claim right up against the orphanage encircled with a green mesh fence (see photo).

This event caused us to see the urgency of getting back to having our borders defined and legalized. From the beginning, we have had three properties, donated or purchased, in our possession. We only occupy a small portion of that property but it is the hope that one day we will be able to use the rest of the property to support the orphanage. The problem with getting it legalized is that it is a full time job that involves unimaginable processes and legalities, and there are others who are laying claims to parts of this property. Yes, in Peru you can have multiple documents produced by the same municipality for the same property given out to different people. It seems everyone has their price including government officials. Fortunately, our documents precede the others, and we have had a constant presence there for over 10 years now. The issue for us is having the energy and resources to fight to protect our claim on the land now. Frustrating? You bet! However, this is the way things happen here. It’s just sad that it is happening in the middle of our process of hiring personnel in order to have the required staff for accreditation.

While Filiberto was in Lima, he discovered that there was an investigation being done on us because of a complaint received by the Ministry of Labor. Apparently, the son of one of our former employees, who had quit in December, decided that the severance the employee had received was not sufficient, so he went to the Ministry of Labor to have us investigated for incomplete payment. This was a real shock because when we went to visit the employee about the final separation and for signing papers, all was fine and good. Alex even checked with a lawyer to make sure that what we had done was correct. The employee was happy and said that maybe if they were bored, they would come back in and help out at the orphanage, but now this. It is not only the legal hassles we face, but also the fact of feeling defrauded by another believer that hurts, so I went and spoke to their pastor. We all sat down together and had a conversation where we discovered that the son had coerced the former employee to sign the document that registered the complaint. He was later sorry that he had done it, and their pastor called his sister who is a lawyer who confirmed that what we had done was correct. We felt good to have that settled and to be able to handle things as they are prescribed in the Bible. The only problem is that the investigation by the Ministry of Labor will still proceed. They are asking for our records back to earlier years in the orphanage before our (the new board’s) time here when the director did things more “informally” as they say here. They did not have the workers under contract, and so they were not receiving their benefits, and there are no records to show the Ministry of Labor. Without these, we will end up having to pay a fine, which is usually quite substantial, all because of the sins of the past.

While all this goes on, we still have the day-to-day activities in the orphanage. There are 21 kids to be clothed, fed and sent off to school, plus all of the “smaller” problems surrounding these things. However, I think we are doing better than we ever have in the past in regards to handling the daily problems. There is a full time educator on staff now. The kids are being challenged and assisted to do better in their studies, and for the most part they are meeting the challenge. There is a full time worker with Child Evangelism Fellowship, known in Peru as APEN, who is setting up a program for teaching the kids biblical truth. The kids seem to be more content, as kids are with better structure, and that is good. We celebrated Mother’s Day with them this month at a restaurant. Although I felt it not the best thing for kids in their situation (not having a mom around), I found it was a required activity that helped with accreditation. Proof once again that the requirements are not necessarily in the best interest of the kids. The outing was well organized and gave the kids the opportunity to show their appreciation for the women who care for them daily and some other mothers who are connected to the institution.

Steve Twinem (Board of Hogar de Esperanza)