Seems like we're always walking fine lines at CSC. We want to protect our children from the negative influences of the world, but not shelter them from the realities. We want to give them nice things but not spoil them. We want them to like CSC and learn to love those who are caring for them, but we also want them to be excited about leaving us when the time comes for adoption. In the area of fund raising and promotion, we want to work hard to communicate with our donors and find new people to support the ministry. But we also desire to have faith in God to provide and recognize that all good things come from Him.
In my role as a "senior missionary" here in Cebu (I've probably been here as long or longer than any missionary I know), I often get asked for advise from those who would like to start a ministry like ours. I have probably had at least 50 conversations over the years with people who felt a leading of God to work with homeless children. Most of these ideas never got off the ground, or started and fizzled out. To summarize, these failures, if I can use that term, resulted from one of two reasons. Either the people in mind didn't want to work within the priorities and parameters of the government system here in the Philippines, or they did not give proper attention to their support. By failing to do the former, they were always at odds with the department of social welfare concerning requirements for licensing or for the type and quality of services that they will offer. The government has requirements for agencies having a board of directors, proper funding, well thought out ideas about programs and services and area of coverage, and proper staffing including one or more licensed social workers. In the area of support, some prospective ministries never got off the ground because they couldn't come up with the funding, or they withered and died because of insufficient resources.
These two areas, conformity and funding, are "fine lines" that we have to walk. We have our sense of calling to a certain type of ministry, and we have principles and core values that are non-negotiable. But we live and work in another country, and this country has different ways of setting priorities and allocating resources. They have different ways of looking at child caring work, and they represent the legal authority and maintain the ultimate custody of the children under our care and set the rules for adoptive placement. We must work within their system and be transparent about how we care for the children. We need to cooperate, make some compromises in certain areas, and show that we are willing to work within the basic system.
In fund raising, we walk the line between faith and work. We ask God to provide for the children He loves. We take prayer and faith seriously at CSC, both for the ministry in Cebu and for the funds needed to support it. Sometimes the rub for some organizations has to do with the nature of faith. I remember a guy here in Cebu years ago who believed that any fund raising effort exposed a lack of faith. Either you're going to believe that God will provide or you aren't. He cited the writings of George Mueller, who believed that God could be trusted to provide for the thousands of orphans under his care in England in the 1830s.
My goal is not to criticize those who believe this way or run their organizations according to these kind of principles. They are certainly often strong, idealistic, brave and faithful people whose primary purpose in ministry is to glorify God. And their beliefs about faith help us understand the dangers of relying on ourselves and forgetting God in the financial provision and management of our programs. At CSC, we believe that God is the ultimate provider, that He chooses to provide through his people, and that he is honored by the compassion and faithfulness of people who give to ministries like CSC. We work hard to inform people of needs and opportunities and to give the glory to God.
Yes, we walk the line at CSC. We work and we wait.
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