You may want to know what they have to do with us. A lot, in many ways. Let me explain.

My wife, Mary, and I will spend the last hour and a half of our night together watching programs centered around rural living. We really enjoy the ones focusing on Alaska as we and our children lived up in that beautiful State for a short while. For our children, it was a great disappointment when we had to move back due to losing my job up there. Mary and I would have preferred to stay also.

The Yukon Men show has to do with what it takes to be able to live and survive in the harsh and cold climate and environmental conditions in the town of Tanana (250 people) located West – Northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. Tanana, located on the Yukon River was originally accessible only by boat or plane.

In order to survive through the harsh and long winter season, the citizens of this small native village had to not only be able to live in those rugged conditions but also work long and hard to bring in sufficient catches of salmon, eel, other fish, plus have successful hunts for moose, caribou, bear, and whatever other type of “palatable” meat they could hunt.

The great thrust of their efforts to store enough food is carried out once the “Break-up” begins to take place. This is when the snow and ice begin to thaw and the river ice breaks up. This gives them a period of only several months to make sure that their storage areas have enough food for their families. Not only their families but also for the elders (the elderly) of their community that are no longer able to gather food for themselves. Here, everyone looks out for each other. During the winter season, when the cold snow has blanketed their very rural environment, Tanana’s residents would head out to their designated (claimed) hunting grounds. Each family has its own fur trapping and fishing grounds. This is done so that everyone respects each other’s efforts for hunting and gathering without taking from others what belongs to them and their families. This is their life, handed down to them through many generations.

This lifestyle is one that does not let you rest and take ease in life. The residents of Tanana must work proactively to keep their eyes always on the horizon of the upcoming seasons of adverse weather. Additionally, they constantly face changing migratory paths of the different animals they hope to successfully hunt. They face dwindling salmon runs. They faced a devastating forest fire that destroyed their hunting grounds. They constantly face adversity. And, yet, they find a way to survive and to continue on in life.

While there is so much to say, what caught my attention to this program, found on the Discovery Channel, is how very much their story correlates to my story.

Our organization, Restoring Children International, has a home full of children down in Arequipa, Peru, as you already know. Ours is a family comprised of children who have faced way too much adversity in their young lives. Ours is a family where our children have found refuge, good nutrition, safety, warmth, love – all that they did not have before. But, humanly speaking, our children – just like those who live in Tanana, are still very vulnerable and at-risk if we, as an organization, are not successful in finding the needed funding and other resources needed to keep their home in operation well into the future. So for us, simply having money in the bank, is not a reason to sit back and relax. We don’t have much anyway – but only enough to get by for a short season. Funding, just like stored salmon, caribou, moose, and other meats, is consumed and quickly gone – as is the case in Tanana. Unless the heads of families in that village work proactively, with determination, focus, and purpose, their lives and futures in Tanana will quickly come to an end. Then what? What about their children, their futures, their hopes?

So it is with us as we work with much dedication, purpose, focus, and determination on behalf of our family of rescued girls in Peru. Just as in Tanana, whose residents have faced changes in climate, changes of migratory paths of the animals they need to hunt and trap, ruined salmon runs, etc…, so we, too, are in the midst of some serious challenges in an ever-changing world. These changes are brought on by COVID. And we can only guess whatever else is affecting our ability to find sufficient resources that we need to have stored up for the continuance of our home for rescued female children.

So, is our ship sinking? No! Not at all. Above all, I wish to declare that God has always been faithful to us over the many years that we have been caring for rescued children. He always will be! But, the changing climates of national and international economies and health are still very concerning to us. This is because we must always seek to store up enough resources for our family’s future. This is because we love our children, the spiritual family that God has entrusted into our hands. Just like the families in Tanana, we also want to be able to provide for our children in Peru.

In writing all the above, I would like to ask if you would help us bring in the stores of resources that we need for our kids in the city of Arequipa. Perhaps you have been blessed by God with some extra financial resources. If so, would you be willing to share some of them with our family in Peru? Perhaps you have access to other types of resources, such as networking. This will help us to get in contact with people who not only can, but who will actually help us – such as a foundation, a trust, a church or synagogue, a civic organization, or a business or???

What would you say if Child Protective Services calls you and asks you if you would be willing to receive an 11-year-old girl along with her month and a half infant baby? This baby is not her little sister. It is her own baby. We received that call just recently. We said “Yes”. But, assuring the rescue of these two “Babies” in addition to all the other children and teens in our home means that we must continue to fill our storerooms. Thank you for considering helping our family!

Please tell others about us. Please consider sending this newsletter to family and friends who you know may be interested in helping our children in one way or another. Above all, please pray to our kid’s Heavenly Father that He will continue to open avenues of help and provision for these special girls.

For more information about us, you may find us at  Non Profit Organization to Save Children in Peru (rhintl.org) 

If you would like to make a donation, you may make it at Donate | Restoring Hope International Foundation – Restoring Children (rhintl.org) 

Thank you very much for your thoughtful consideration of what are some very neat kids in Peru!