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With that out of the way we would like to let you know where things are at. I wish that I could tell you of dramatic improvements in terms of the tax situation, the land, and security, but I cannot. We have had a meeting with the mayor of Salaverry and have scheduled another for this coming Wednesday in which we have asked that he have his lawyer present and we are going to petition him directly about exonerating us from taxes. We are not threatening him, we simply want someone on hand who he trusts and who knows the law and can explain why we are not exempt when other private orphanages that we know of are. We continue to be blessed by the help of our own lawyers who are taking things one step at a time and are committed to seeing this thing through.
The most encouraging thing that I can tell you about is that we have continued to provide care for the 26 kids who are presently at the orphanage, and we have a group of people who are willing to continue doing that. We sat down a week ago with all of the workers at the orphanage to explain as clearly as we could the situation we were in; funds promised up until December 31st and then after that we were hoping that the Lord would provide new donors. We had been told that the most logical thing for the institution, legally speaking, would be to let all of our workers go and start over again with a complete restructuring. Given that our priorities are:
- The care of the children
- Fair treatment of our workers
- Sustaining the Institution
It did not seem to make much sense morally to go in that direction. We would have had to ignore the first two priorities firing everyone, and this would also obviously mean giving up the care of the children too. We told them that keeping them on put us at risk, if for some reason we could not pay them then we would be liable and they could take advantage of that. We explained that we were making that decision believing that the Lord would care for us. Several of them voiced their opinions and all that they said had to do with commitment to the kids and the ministry. It was very encouraging. We explained that we were in a position where we would be trusting in the Lord to provide month by month but really what has changed? Haven’t we always been trusting in the Lord to provide for us? Hasn’t He always provided before? It was a unifying experience and I think that we all went away from the meeting more confident in the Lord and what He is doing through this process.
On a sad note Canela, the new dog who took up residence at the orphanage died. It is quite unbelievable I know, but I got a call on Sunday that she was sick and Alex and I took her to the vet. She was really lethargic and dehydrated but we got her on an IV and thought that she would come around. The best we could figure was that she had eaten something bad out of the garbage that she had gotten into the other day. Well I got the call a couple of hours later that she had died and they did an autopsy which revealed that a bone had punctured her intestine. I was talking with some of the boys about it and although they are sad they were only sharing happy memories. Juan told me that Canela liked to sneak into the Amigos house and sleep with Italo. I am sure that was not an unaided adventure.
Please keep praying for the kids and the ministry here as it continues to move forward. We are thankful for your concern and most thankful for what the Lord is doing and will do through his people. Sorry that this note may not be that clear but it was kind of a rush job.
Steve Twinem (Board of Hogar de Esperanza)
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