ADRA : Adventist Development & Relief Agency International

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Eph 5:20 (KJV)

The roads in city were well-marked and well-maintained. But we were heading out of the city to a little town called Zapallal, Peru. It was the home of 13-year-old Ronald. The roads quickly turned bumpy and dust billowed behind us as we drove up the steep incline to his home. As we stepped inside and greeted his family, his story unfolded…

For almost two years, Ronald had slept in parks and stole from people to survive. Not a typical life for someone just 10 years old, but quite normal for him and the thousands of other street kids in Lima, Peru who have a poor family life or have become too much of an economic burden for their parents.

Not only was it a hard life, but a lonely one as well, and Ronald missed his family. By chance, he stumbled into the town center one day where ADRA staff were meeting with kids. They had come to extend friendship, let them draw and talk. Ronald soon found the family he had been missing.

ADRA quickly put its arms around him. They found his mother and enrolled mother and child in workshops that help restore family values and teach skills to help families live together peacefully. Then, when Ronald was about to be reintegrated back into his home, ADRA also provided his mother with a loan for a small business to help ease the economic burden of having another child back in the home.

ADRA Peru staff have worked long, hard, and compassionately with Ronald and his family and the love, respect and appreciation the family feels for ADRA is apparent in the warmth of their eyes and embrace.

As the mother, child, and ADRA staff shared Ronald’s story there was much thanksgiving for what ADRA had done in their lives. Ronald’s mother has used the ADRA loan to open a tamale shop and his brother sells paintings to help support this newly-reunited family.

As my visit came to an end, I bought one of his brother’s painting, to support the family, and to remember my visit. I hope to frame it and put it in my office someday so that all the ADRA staff and visitors can read the words, “Thanks for working with my family” penned to ADRA at the bottom of the painting by his brother.

As I sat in their home, listening to their giving of thanks to ADRA, I was reminded that their thanks is meant to be extended to a much larger circle of people than just me. For instance, all the ADRA staff who had worked so hard to plan, coordinate and implement the street kid program in Peru. And you. However you support ADRA—either through prayers or financial gifts—you should knows those words were penned to you as well. And most importantly, God. For the leadership, guidance and blessings he bestows on ADRA’s ministry in Peru and around the globe.

So as this holiday of Thanksgiving is celebrated by our nation, I share the story of the painting with penned thanks from Ronald’s family. Thanks for being a reason there is thanks giving in ADRA’s world.

"Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my body'" Matthew 26:26 (NIV)

The restless, whining youngsters had runny noses, discharge flowing from eyes, sores on little legs, skinny arms, and protruding bellies. Their mother, Marta, was pregnant and nursed a little one. She seemed irritable and frustrated, unable to control the children.

Marta’s husband Jacinto worked far away and was gone for many days at a time. The family lived in a one-room shanty on a piece of land belonging to someone else, in return for guarding the owner’s land. They could eat leftover produce such as cooking bananas, yucca, and some citrus fruit. Clearly their diet was inadequate.

The community in general distrusted outsiders so I gently tried to befriend Marta. I knew better than to offer vitamins or medications. Finally, I began sending beans and vegetables to her via others. After several weeks, a neighbor told me that Marta let the food spoil. I was shocked.

Marta accepted my greetings and my stories, but she would not accept my food. She could not understand that I meant her well, hoping to improve her family's life, that I had nothing "up my sleeve."

Time passed. My husband and I moved when he became Director for ADRA Peru. I often thought of the community we'd left behind and prayed for our former neighbors.

Then ADRA started soup kitchens to feed needy children, including one in Marta's neighborhood. I wondered how many in the community were responding to this service.

On a brief visit to the jungle, I observed Marta and her family. In place of tears and whimpers, I saw smiles. Every eye was bright and clear. Arms, though small, were fuller and not a draining sore on any of them. The youngsters’ abdomens showed they’d been deparasitized.

The difference? Marta was working at the soup kitchen, so she and the children were eating nutritious meals. In addition, ADRA gave them bags of food.

What she would not take from me, she would gladly accept from ADRA.

"For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat." 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NIV)

In the heart of La Paz, Bolivia, women in bowler hats crowd the streets, wearing up to 12 colorful skirts for warmth and carrying great bundles on their backs, often including a baby. Many school-aged children stand by the road, hawking a variety of trinkets and snacks, helping their parents earn enough money to feed the family.

On a tour of ADRA projects, we visited the Ackokalla Road food-for-work program. Using only picks and shovels, it took 100 men 100,000 hours to construct. Although only 3.6 miles (almost 6 kilometers) long, the road is tremendously important because it connects an isolated area with a market where local farmers sell their produce.

At a mother-child health clinic, almost 40 Aymara Indian women, many with babies, crowd into a tiny one-room house. The women come twice a week to learn cooking, childcare, and entrepreneurial skills.

In another section of La Paz, Dr. Gabrielle Castro uses only the most basic dental equipment and supplies to care for the people who crowd her tiny office. These people, who live on the Altiplano, are unbelievably poor even by Bolivia’s standards. Their small houses rest on the windswept plain or cling to the mountainside. No one has electricity; and people must carry their water, sometimes from great distances. Almost nothing grows on the Altiplano during much of the year. There are few trees, fewer flowers, and little grass.

At the bottom of a mountain we walked across a footbridge ADRA had built across the Undwavi, a big river that boils along the valley floor. Not far away is a school ADRA built. At the mountain’s foot, the climate was totally different than in the city. Seemingly in the middle of a vast uninhabited jungle, we were surprised to see about 60 students. One group of kids played soccer while another practiced their drums and panpipes.

It was good to see them in school, doing what all kids should do, but many here cannot. In Bolivia people assume responsibility for their own hunger early. Thanks to ADRA, at least some have the chance to be children a little longer.

-- Jeannette Johnson as told to Celeste Perrino Walker