CONTRASTS: DEA's MODEL of hospitality towards the orphan...
1 - The government does not have its own orphan care system - similar to Roman Byzantine - and relies on NGOs to provide care to vulnerable children. There is social welfare which provides a small amount but only for Lebanese children. Occasionally, the courts might contact DEA to house a child for a short period of time while a court case is pending.
2 - DEA was founded by an American businessman (not by a church nor a bishop), then later came under the umbrella of Kids Alive International, a US based Evangelical Non Denominational, Non Governmental Organization.
3 - A missionary kid from Dar El Awlad in the mid 1950s said of her dad and director of DEA, Leonard Swenson, that, "In taking the boys in, Dad had a hard time saying NO to much. He went with the neediest. He trusted too much and was lied to. Once the boy was in, even though the lie exposed (not an orphan), he kept the boy there. Back in those days, home visits were very difficult. Poverty and age was enough."
4 - The residential care aspect of the Kids Alive Lebanon ministry (DEA Residential) typically accepts children around the age of 5. Children are usually referred word of mouth, a home visit is (should be) conducted to ascertain the true condition of a child's situation, and then the child is accepted into the program. The residential care facility is set up as a group home on a campus designated for DEA. In the same way a monastery would be arranged with community life and living in mind, so too is DEA set up. Initially, there were dorm rooms with bathrooms, a community kitchen and dining room where all would gather. Over the years this went out of vogue and residential apartments were built with 4 kids to a big bedroom and a house mother to care for up to 8 children in her unit.
5 - What are the projections for the future? "Missionary compounds" definitely went out of vogue, and that is a similar set-up to how DEA is run. The majority are local staff, but over the years foreign missionaries have come and gone. When DEA was much smaller and only a residential home, the director oversaw the rhythms of life (like a Father would at a monastery), both spiritual, educational (they were sent off site to local schools, unlike a monastic school), and community work (onsite labor - in the kitchen, site clean up, building walls, etc). TODAY, this has ebbed - things are done FOR children and life isn't as simple as it once was. MONASTIC HOSPITALITY claimed that guests had something to give, not just something to receive. In the case of children in Shenoute's monastery, children were involved in child-appropriate labors of the community, the spiritual rhythms of the community, and had expectations and standards of discipline and helpfulness.
-WHAT COULD DEA STAND TO GAIN HERE?
*DEA used to have children participate in the labors of site care and campus life, such as picking up garbage together, trimming trees and hauling brush, sweeping, etc. In the early days of DEA in Mansourieh, older children helped build the stone walls which still frame the basketball court and upper terrace. When God created the perfect world and handed it over to Adam to be its caretaker, Adam had to take care of it! This was done in monastic life and I wish it would return to DEA.
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At Kids Alive International we believe every child, even those with the most challenging needs, is a priority to God, and far too many are overlooked, unheard, exploited, and threatened.
Our mission is the call of Isaiah 1:17, to serve these children by constantly learning to do good, earnestly seeking justice, standing up to what oppresses them, and advocating for their rights.
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