Date: Fri 25-Sep-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

Holton-Smith-Walnut-Hill

Full Text:

Reaching Out To Children In Costa Rica

(with photos)

BY JAN HOWARD

Residents interested in reaching out to children who are in need of help are

invited to make donations of goods or services or to attend an auction to

benefit the Walnut Hill Community Church's Costa Rica Mission.

The auction and desserts fund-raiser will be held October 10 from 6:30 to 9 pm

at Walnut Hill Community Church, 156 Walnut Hill Road, in Bethel. Admission is

free.

Debbie Holton-Smith of Newtown, a member of the church and its Tent Maker

Ministry, said the church needs donations of gifts or services from businesses

and individuals for the auction as well as people to attend the fund-raiser.

"The auction will include items from Beanie Babies to antiques as well as

services, such as carpentry or plumbing," Ms Holton-Smith said.

For more information on how to help with the auction, call Ms Holton-Smith at

203/270-8686 or Walnut Hill Community Church at 203/796-7373.

The auction will benefit the Roblealto Child Care Bible Home in Costa Rica.

Its proceeds will be used to pay for supplies needed by 12 members of the Tent

Maker Ministry, a short term missionary group of local residents led by Ted

Huizinga of Danbury, which is planning a trip from November 30 to December 9

to reach out to children at the Bible Home located in the mountains of Costa

Rica.

The group plans to purchase and install a much needed walk-in cooler/freezer,

make repairs to buildings and share hope via hugs with the love-starved

children.

"The home has very little refrigeration," Ms Holton-Smith said. "One hundred

people live in the home. When we asked them what they needed, the

cooler/freezer was what they needed most."

Twelve members of the church will make the trip, including Ms Holton-Smith,

Mike Bos, and Bob Denzel from Newtown.

The trip to Costa Rica is the first the short-term mission group has made out

of the country, Ms Holton-Smith said.

"It is the first time the 12 of us have been on a mission together," she said.

To aid in team building, the members helped pull down an old building in

Danbury and are helping to paint the Dorothy Day soup kitchen in Danbury.

"It's all part of team building, but it helps everybody here," Ms Holton-Smith

said.

Worldwide Outreach

Walnut Hill Community Church sponsors missionaries all over the world, she

said. Tent Maker is a new division of the church's Missions Committee.

"We have a saying that the sun never sets on Walnut Hill missionaries," Ms

Holton-Smith said. "We also support people here in the US," she added, noting

that members of the youth ministry went to Mississippi this year to help

repair homes there.

"We have many missionary approaches," she said.

Ms Holton-Smith said members of the mission are raising their own money for

the trip. They are asking for donations and doing fund raisers.

"It costs about $800 for each of us to go," she said.

She is especially looking forward to the trip because she will be meeting for

the first time a child she sponsors. Delroy is a six-year-old kindergarten

student, whose mother is separated from his father because of aggression. His

mother, who must care for her three sons on her own, recently lost her job,

and is looking for work. According to information from the Roblealto Child

Care Association, her boys eat only what they get to the center, as there is

no money for food at home. What money Delroy's mother has is spent on bus fare

for the boys to reach the center while she looks for a job.

In addition to trying to help her find a job while helping her children, the

home is providing her with food to take home.

The Roblealto Child Care Bible Home houses 70 plus children in seven

buildings. They are schooled and fed from the main center.

All the buildings are in bad repair, Ms Holton-Smith said.

"We will be painting and doing carpentry and sewing and a lot of hugging," she

said.

She said Mr Huizinga is "searching Costa Rica to get all the parts for the

cooler."

Ms Holton-Smith said the children at the home are starving for male attention.

If one of them receives a hug from a man, it is not very long before many

children are jumping all over him, seeking his attention, she said.

"We're bringing along some burly guys," she said, laughing.

"The children have found a place where they feel safe, and their love really

shows through," she said.

Each child lives as a family unit with house parents who "serve as role models

and to get their trust back," Ms Holton-Smith said.

Some of the children are orphans, but most of them have been beaten and abused

or are from broken homes. Some come from homes so destructive that they need

to be separated from their families in order to thrive.

When a child enters Roblealto, his or her parents must commit him or herself

to specific vocational or counseling programs. Generally it is an abandoned

mother who releases her child to its care.

Role Models

The Bible Home works almost as hard with the parents as it does with the

children. The goal is to get the children back to a stronger home as soon as

possible. Because of this family rehabilitation process, approximately 95

percent of the children eventually return to their biological homes, Ms

Holton-Smith said.

"These children become role models for their families," she said. "It breaks

the repetition of abuse. They have a background of how to have a successful

family. They break the cycle."

Latin America Mission, an organization in the US, helps fund the home and has

directors there. It sponsors fund-raisers to help run the home.

The Roblealto ministry was founded in 1932 by Susan Strachan, the co-founder

of the Latin America Mission. She founded the Bible Home, which has been

helping needy children ever since.

Beginning in 1970, Roblealto has also sponsored three large day care centers,

which serve about 600 children of working mothers. The ministry also works

with teenagers, who have "graduated" from its institutions. Altogether, it

serves approximately 700 children at any given time.

To donate to the Roblealto Child Care Bible Home, send checks made out to

Walnut Hill Community Church to Debbie Holton-Smith, 19 Tunnel Road, Newtown,

Conn. 06470.