There is a ministry called Casa
Viva that began working in Costa Rica in 2005.
Their goal was to change the way the country cared for orphans. At that time, Costa Rica functioned similarly
to the way Mexico currently works in regards to abandoned children. Children whose parents are unable to care for
them usually end up on the street or in an orphanage. Casa Viva went to Costa Rica with the goal of
placing children in families, rather than in institutions. They do this by using the social network of Christian
churches to identify and train families to bring abandoned children into their
families. In 8 short years, Casa Viva
has closed almost all of the orphanages in Costa Rica. Their model doesn’t rely on ongoing American
funding and is nationally based-- making it a sustainable success.
Let me repeat that. In 8 years,
Casa Viva has closed almost all of the orphanages in Costa Rica.
That is incredible. Back2Back is hoping to learn from their
model, and implement some of the same systems in Mexico. As a ministry we have been meeting and
talking with Casa Viva to learn how we can do this.
The first step has been to
educate and engage the local church in Mexico.
For the next two days Back2Back is hosting a Summit of the Orphan in Monterrey for
church leaders from all over Mexico. Our goal is to educate local Mexican churches
on the orphan crisis occurring in their country, and to invite them to be part
of the solution. Currently we have over
350 people expected to come, and keynote speakers include Jedd Medefind, the
president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, Steve Biondo, Vice President
for Family Christian Bookstores, Marlene LeFever, author of the Children at
Risk curriculum, Rob Mitchell, author of Castaway Kid, and Philip Aspegren,
Executive Director of Casa Viva Costa Rica. As a staff, we have been crying out to God in prayer to use this event by placing a
burden on the hearts of Christians to get involved in the orphan crisis.
Another barrier we have come up
against is that currently Mexico does not have a foster care system in
place. The only option for abandoned
children is an institution. Back2Back
has been meeting with national officials to try and change this. Just last month, the Back2Back campus homes
became the first official houses in Mexico to legally take in children as a
form of foster care. Incredible!
God is faithful to keep His
promises. Sometimes it is difficult for
us to understand God’s faithfulness because we tend to be so unfaithful by
nature. Scripture even says “if we are
unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is” (2 Timothy
2:13).
Today I am claiming God’s
promise to place the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6). It’s an exciting week for Back2Back and the
entire country of Mexico. Not everyone
hopes to work themselves out of a job, but that is exactly what we are working to do.
