Precious Legacies-Open Doors

When I was 12 years old, I had an epiphany of sorts and decided to write a song about it. The chorus was the summation of that epiphany and the entire song pointed to the chorus as songs tend to do. The hook in the chorus was “life is a hallway where the only doors are exits. Once you’ve gone through them, you can never go back again.”

I wrote it because at a very young age, I realized that you couldn’t get back even a moment of time that had passed. And more importantly, that it matters what you do in a moment because it could be anything from just time lost and wasted time, to a terrible mistake that you made, both of which cannot be undone… at least not by us.

If you think about it, all of life is like that. It is a constant series of decisions; or invitations to open doors. And opening doors and then choosing whether to go through them are two different things. God opens doors for us quite often, but is still up to us whether we choose to go though them or not. He doesn’t drag us through those doors and quite often it takes a good amount of faith to step across the threshold into the unknown.

Sometimes it is not God who opens doors for us and presents us with less wholesome opportunities, but in either case, once you have stepped through that door, the act itself is done and cannot be undone. The doors truly are exit-only and in a physical sense, the ramifications or repercussions of the decision can be immediate, intermediate, or even not forthcoming for many years. That’s why it is so important to make a prayerful determination as to the source of any door before you step through it! If there is a stone or  serpent (Matthew 7:7) on the other side, one might want to reconsider the value and the consequences.

I say all of this because events over the last several years have been a series of such opportunities. A series of some doors closing and other doors opening that have required a lot of prayerful consideration.

A few years ago, a door was seemingly closed when a landlord decided to sell the building of our CCIM Children’s Home in India. There were no buildings for rent in the area and it seemed as though these innocent children were going to be sent back to a life of suffering and hopelessness. Before this happened, we did not build structures. It simply wasn’t a part of our programs. When this happened, it became a part of our programs as Christians worshipping at The Church of Christ in South Dakota gave us the necessary funds to make it happen. Door closing. Doors opening.

When COVID hit, some doors were partially closed as governments temporarily shut down some of our children’s homes and orphans and social-orphans had to go back to households of relatives who couldn’t care for them in the first place. That’s when God opened the door for us to improvise and care for them temporarily in those homes until we could open our children’s homes again. This resulted in the opportunity for a whole new program to “keep families together” and allow us to also care for widows in dire need as well as their children.

That led to more doors opening as we saw what many of those widows lived in with their children! Mud huts with no windows or doors and dirt floors, oftentimes nothing more than old shelters for animals. Filthy, dark and depressing places fit for no human. That in turn led to us building homes for these families in Kenya, more than 15 to date with more under construction, which shed light on the fact that they had no bathrooms. So, we built bathrooms and are still building bathrooms every day.

In India, also during COVID, we learned that the government was not going to allow us to have girls in the same children’s home as the boys. Once the girls aged out, no more would be allowed in. A closing door. But God opened the door for us to care for them in their current homes, supporting not just the child, but the caregiver as well. We are in the planning stages of building a new home just for girls as well.

For many years we were able to provide a quality primary education for the fatherless children, but didn’t have the funding for college and trade schools. God opened that door for us when many of the children we were caring for reached that age and we stepped through it not knowing where the funding would come from. Dozens have graduated from college with dozens more currently in college or trade schools.

Then again, the opportunity came this year to build a vocational training center for children who didn’t qualify for college. The Dave Board Memorial Training Center will provide young adults the opportunity to gain skills that will allow them to care for their families instead of creating more orphans. Sometimes prevention is half the cure. The list goes on and on. Doors opening.

As I said, the caveat to doors opening is that they do require prayerful consideration and ultimately, faith.

I was raised in a family of entrepreneurs. From a very young age I worked in family businesses; for-profit businesses. So did my brother. By the time we were eighteen, we were managing those businesses. That also means that we grew up knowing that it was hard work to make a profit. Hard work to be sure you could pay your employees; pay your bills and taxes and still have enough to pay yourselves. If you didn’t produce a quality product, you didn’t get paid.

So, the transition to working in this mission was hard for my mind to grasp. Suddenly, we were asking for financial gifts in order to do this good work. It took me years to realize that it really wasn’t all that different. We were producing, are producing, healthy young adults who love Jesus and love and care for their own children. Collectively, we are all working together to provide a service that not only helps these children and their families, but also changes the world… one child at a time. And to God’s glory and in His name.

And it does require faith. A good amount of it. Oftentimes, most times we start these new programs quite literally on a wing and a prayer. We don’t assume, but rather simply believe that if we step out in prayer and faith that God’s people will see the value and help us continue to expand the scope and scale of our work to care for His precious children, and now widows as well.

And you have. There were times when it was tough, but you have always come through in the end and we are eternally thankful to all of you and to God for orchestrating this collaboration of His people to do this work. Thank you for trusting us with your financial gifts to provide this service in God’s name. We strive very hard to be worthy of that trust.

As fall approaches and the end of another year is in sight, we stand ready to continue moving forward in faith as God continues providing us with new opportunities to help orphans and widows in His name. Open Doors. Precious legacies.