We have a friend, (No one who reads this will know him and no one who knows him will read this), who is a self-proclaimed follower of Jesus, participating in church activities and talking about God. He is a widower who, after several years alone, really wanted to marry again. He met up with a young maiden and had a fling for a season, but it didn’t work out. After a couple more years, he chose to marry another lady who was well respected in the community. But after just a few months, he really didn’t like her much and went back to his previous girlfriend. When the girlfriend became pregnant the community was in an uproar and he was subject to village disci-pline. The community elders took him out to the center of the village and flogged him. He survived the beating sore and humiliated, but determined. He left his wife and with the passing of a few years has gone back to live with his girlfriend, even though he is still married to the other woman. He is not ashamed of his actions and he still talks about God as if nothing happened.

But that response is not uncommon anywhere in the world. We saw many similar situations while we were in Canada this year. People tend to forget that God doesn’t like sin. He died to set us free from it. All of us are meant for something more than lackadaisical humdrum self-centered life. Living for Jesus is the fulfillment of that need. We find comfort when we are wounded, joy in the midst of trials, patience when we are pushed to the limit, and excitement when we obey. Sin blocks all that good stuff. Compromise cuts off the source.

Our decision to follow Jesus must be more than words. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Mt. 16:25) Our son Isaac showed me this link. Dan Baumann testimony. When this man laid down his life, he found it. A decision to follow Jesus doesn’t mean that we simply join a religion and continue to live the same as we always have. Instead it is a whole-hearted choice to find God’s will and walk in it, come what may.

Ron and Glenda Allan Email: allans@arkchildrenshomes.com 0601-168 Riobamba Telephone: (011 593) 3 260-2559 Ecuador, S. America Web: http://www.arkchildrenshomes.com

Calls are free from Kelowna, BC (or the cost of a call to Kelowna) which calls direct to us in Ecuador. 1-250-448-1922

September News 2011

I love the statement this drawing makes. It comes from an album cover for musician Keith Green many years ago and is an encouragement to stop worrying about our own wellbeing, and obey God.

Scriptures we don’t often apply to ourselves:

Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure … You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowl-ful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of …(Amos 6;1-6)

At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’ (Zep:1:12)

Our hard-working beloved son has disap-peared from the Ark for a season. He’s gone to Canada to work in the oil fields so he’ll have money to do the ministry he needs to do here in Ecuador.

Our family is blessed to have good friends who’re look-ing out for him, although we did catch some news on Facebook of some of their mischief. They were asking him questions and finally he got curious and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Signing you up for eHarmony,” they answered.

“What?!” Isaac exclaimed in shock.

So instead they just posted on Facebook: “tried to sign Isaac up to E Harmony, but I already forgot his pass-word and couldn't quite finish the quiz :( --- 26 years old male who is fluent in Spanish and loves Jesus! inbox me about the Jungle man”

We really miss Isaac here, but love the technology that helps us stay in touch. He hopes to back in Ecuador before Christmas.

We were preparing to take a quick trip to one of the neighbouring villages to talk to a pastor friend so I talked to our two volunteers who were going withus, about culture and eating etiquette. I explained that especially in the villages, you must eat what’s put in front of you and if you can’t eat it all, you take the food home in a bag. “Campo” food served to guests usually consists of 3 or more courses and most often includes guinea pig. But I reassured them that because we were going there in the mid-afternoon and only staying a short time, our friends wouldn’t have time to prepare for us and they wouldn’t have to eat strange food. When we arrived the pastors daughter sent us off to find the pastor at another house, because there was a big wedding going on and, surprise to us, the groom was someone we knew well. We crashed the wedding celebration and as usual we were treated like guests of honour. They cleaned up a room, set up a table for us and began to serve us the many courses of food. We had already eaten before we arrived and it was going to be impossible to say no to food without insulting our friends, so we excused ourselves before the third plate arrived, gave the young couple a small gift and parted ways. Our volunteers did well, especially our Korean friend Sung, who took me very seriously and ate every bite. But then we all know he really likes to eat!

Isaac sits with Daniel, one of his handicapped kids from the jun-gle home.

Isaac with 12 year old Anaela. Isaac took her and her brother and sisters about 4 years ago into his jungle home, our second branch of the Ark. When we closed that home due to lack of finances, the kids came up here to Riobamba and joined the family here.

Volunteers Sung and Jessica enjoy the wed-ding meal.

We had to do a lot of clean-up when we got back with staff who sat on their duffs while we were gone. We’ve fired 7 of our staff and one quit. But we are so thankful to have a happy healthy environment in our home once again. It wasn’t fun letting people go, in fact it was some-what difficult. But we have to do what is best for the kids and so we did. The community we live in is working on our narrow dusty roads every now and then, so they’ve been continuously cutting off our water sup-ply. For two weeks we were forced to pay tank trucks to come twice a day to fill our cistern and many days we were unable to wash clothes. We bought our drinking water as well and that adds up when there are a hundred people to satisfy. The power has been out often. Apart from the regular inconveniences of third world life we were slapped with another very frustrating trial this week. A woman applied for the supervisor position and told me that she was recommended by our one very good supervisor who’s worked well for us for several years. I just assumed the applicant was okay and never checked out her story. She carried a certificate from a local pastor and we thought she was a good option. We didn’t know then that she was lying and that the certificate was made up at a local internet café. She did her three days training and although I was uncomfortable with her presence, I thought she should have a chance to prove herself. She worked one 6 hour shift and it was a night-mare. We asked her to leave and she flipped out. She had a friend make a phone call falsely claiming to be the work inspector saying they were going to investigate us for abusing the chil-dren. Our lawyer later went to the inspector’s office and found out that they knew nothing about it. Then later that same night, she called in to the local TV station and went on the air to tell everyone in the province that we were abusing children and that she had been fired for being kind to them. Not very good press.

We called the TV station and they offered apologies for letting that message go out, told us they were totally behind our good ministry, and said they were willing to do a program explaining to the public the ministry that we actually do here. When the woman came to the door for her pay, she told us she wanted to be paid for the days she didn’t work, swore at our staff and said she was going to find other disgruntled fired employees and de-nounce us for abusing children. Mind you, she could be lying. We love God, we love the kids, we enjoy our present staff and we’ll just keep pressing on. Persecution is part of the package, and we accept it. But it isn’t a whole lot of fun.

Silas was in Ecuador for Jennifer’s big formal “quinceañera.” Everyone put on their very best clothes for her 15th birthday celebra-tion. Friends sang for her and we took turns taking the mike to tell her what a blessing she is!

Ron fixes another broken-down washing machine.

Paola, Naomi and Chavah play for Jennifer.

We are delighted with a couple of donations we received in the past 6 months that have allowed us to continue construction. Since we’ve been back from Canada we’re working on finishing one building that was started 3 years ago. We have built a therapy table for our spe-cial needs kids and we have designs sent in to finish our kitchen counters. We will be extending our living room, and may even have enough money left to put railings on our wheelchair ramp.

We’ve always had difficulty with hot water on the property. It often takes up to 10 minutes for the hot water to travel through the pipes to where we need it. It will cost us $2000 to make the changes. Any takers?

The kids really did fine while we were away. In spite of a few bad workers, the kids still had our family, some of our qual-ity workers, and the older kids all looking out for them. Two of our little darlings have left in adoption and there are more who will be leaving.

We’ve taken in two kids this month, a brother and sister from the jungle. When their dad died a year ago, the mom dropped them off here in Riobamba with an aunt and never came back. The aunt went to the court because she didn’t want the re-sponsibility, so we get them. They are great kids; Lisandro is 11 years old and Mery is 7. They say they have older brothers and sisters down in the jungle so maybe when Isaac comes back he will see if he can find them.

One family of children we care for have alcoholic parents so we often have them staying with us. Two of the oldest group have left home because the dad beat them when he was drunk. One is with an aunt and the other is with us. He refuses to go back. The little ones come to our school so we get a play-by-play of life at home and know when they need protection and when they don’t.

Sometimes when things are hard, the thought crosses my mind that we could do better in another type of missions, yet each time I see these children, talk with them, and kiss their bruises like mothers do, I’m con-vinced that we are where Jesus is, with “the least of these.”

As believers in Jesus our first priority is his will. But we tend to get absorbed in our own lives and forget to “use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them.” (1 Co 7:31) We think of our faith as a hobby instead of realizing that our life purpose has much more meaning than what we give it.

Paul the apostle once said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!“ (1 Co 9:17) He under-stood what many don’t, that we are privileged to be able to “spend ourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the op-pressed.” (Is 58:10)

That’s what our new book is all about. To get your copy, go to our website to place your order. www.arkchildrenshomes.com

For Tax Receipts in Canada: The Ark Kids Ministries 964 Arbor View Drive

Kelowna, BC. Canada, V1W 5A1

Phone 250-764-0472

On our website we have Paypal which allows online donations

with your credit card. Website is

www.arkchildrenshomes.com

DONATIONS For Tax Receipts in the States send cheques to:

The Ark Children’s Homes P.O Box 2352, Abingdon,

Virginia, 24212 USA

The second floor is finally going up!