A touch of the Father’s love:
Scriptures for children at risk

Pam Mercer, a volunteer from the US, with a girl at the Viva Esperanza orphanage in Oaxaca, southern Mexico. This facility receives Scriptures under the Bible Society of Mexico’s Scriptures for Children at Risk program. Photo: ABS/David Singer (MEX05DJ-46.JPG)

by David Singer, American Bible Society

MEXICO — Viva Esperanza, an orphanage hidden behind high blue stucco walls in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, provides a security that most of the 78 children living there never knew when growing up at home or living on the streets. The youngest child at Viva, just three months old, was rescued from a rubbish dump. One girl matter-of-factly explains that, after her father was imprisoned for killing her mother, she was sent to live with her grandmother. Her grandmother would make her sit naked in a bucket of cold water whenever she cried. For her Viva Esperanza, which is Spanish for ‘Living Hope’, more than fulfils its promise.

Softly-spoken, self-taught legal adviser, treasurer and surrogate father for 19 boys at the orphanage Elias Hernandez Lopez explains that many of the children are brought to Viva Esperanza by government agencies. Yet the government provides little by way of ongoing support. Just occasionally, especially near election time, it will send milk and groceries, says the 43-year-old.

He explains that ‘God as loving father’ is the organising theme that runs through the activities and structure of this and many other orphanages in Mexico. Recent figures show that 82 per cent of victims of violence in Mexico are children who, living within their own homes, are subjected to physical and emotional abuse. Christ-centred orphanages such as Viva Esperanza offer a life-saving alternative.

Most of the 35 staff members at the orphanage are volunteers supported by churches in Mexico or the United States. Cynthia Vez Zuñiga, 25, is from the US. She says she is ‘mother’ to 19 of the children; she wakes them, cooks for them and nurses them when they are ill.

Educational

She regards the Bible Society of Mexico as a key partner in this ministry, providing 10 different age-specific Scripture-based educational pieces for the children. One very popular colouring book, Animals of the Bible, is published by the American Bible Society. She says the children get engrossed in the attractive materials even outside classes. “Some go back to read, others just to colour.”

A girl from the Viva Esperanza orphanage in Oaxaca, southern Mexico. This facility receives Scriptures under the Bible Society of Mexico’s Scriptures for Children at Risk program. Photo: ABS/David Singer (MEX05DJ-66.JPG)

In a country where two million children do not attend school, the orphanage teaches its residents from kindergarten through to the age of 13. Those without severe behavioural problems then attend public school. Ms Zuñiga says that 60 per cent of the children come from the streets, 20 per cent from dysfunctional families, and, for the remaining 20 per cent, the parents are in jail. “Most children,” she says, “stay until they are 19 or 20. They have nowhere else to go. As time goes by, God liberates them and their behaviour improves. When I see their life change, that’s when I know it’s worth it. At some point almost all make a decision to follow Jesus.”

As if to illustrate the challenges of parenting love-starved children, Kate McConnell and Pam Mercer, two other volunteers from the United States, get repeatedly interrupted by ‘their’ girls while they talk about meeting the emotional and physical needs of teenagers just a few years younger than themselves.

Daily devotions

Ms Mercer, at 28, is dorm supervisor for the teenage girls. Serving as mother for nine of the girls includes disciplining, conducting daily devotions, helping with homework and guiding them in personal hygiene, or, as she puts it, “Help them to be growing as teenagers should grow.”

She introduces 16-year-old Lucero Espanoza, whose drunken father abused her. Lucero says, “Family Social Services brought me here. It’s really cool; my life here is different from on the outside. I learn about God. Out there they teach me a lot of things I don’t want to know about. Here I don’t hear worldly songs or see bad films.”

In Mexico City, where 130,000 children live on the streets, another orphanage, one that takes its name, Place of Refuge, from Numbers 35:6, also relies on the Bible Society’s Scriptures for Children at Risk program. “For many years,” says Ruth Corona, the wife of Place of Refuge’s founder and director, “we went into the streets with meals and with materials from the Bible Society. Using puppet shows, we would teach Christian values. But in 1996, seeking to have a broader ministry to children at risk, we opened the orphanage.

Exhausting

“God has called us to do this — it’s a real application of the Christian life. One of the rules of our organisation is that directors live in the orphanage with the children and build relationships.” With two children of her own, Mrs Corona adds, “Sometimes it’s so exhausting.”

Sixty to seventy children live in the rambling three-storey facility, along with between seven and ten mothers. “Most children here,” explains Mrs Corona, “have serious legal problems, usually related to sexual abuse. Ninety per cent attend public school but live here.”

There is also an active street ministry still, again distributing Scriptures provided by the Bible Society as well as donated food and clothing. Altogether, Place of Refuge is responsible for distributing annually more than 50,000 Scripture Portions and 100,000 Selections, all provided by the Bible Society.

Maintaining the orphanage is a hand-to-mouth undertaking. Support, says Mrs Corona, comes from churches. “We get donations of goods and food but very little money. The majority of support comes from things we make and sell. We sell donations of used clothing and enhance some new things. Chickens are donated for our twice-weekly food distribution.”

One of the mothers, 24-year-old Maria Isabel Nolasco, was brought in with her three children by a man in the street. She had fled her husband’s physical abuse. She says she now follows Jesus “a little.”

Antonio*, now 14, was brought to Place of Refuge four years ago by his grandmother. He has had no contact with his father, who was a drug addict, or his mother, who is in prison, since. “Yet,” he says, “I don’t feel alone. I feel loved.”

He arrived on a Friday. On the following Sunday he got a Bible provided by the Bible Society, heard about and gave his life to Jesus. “It changed my life,” says Antonio. “Now I want to become a pastor and help other children living on the streets.”