These Tiny Hands in Mine

A couple adopts children and begins the process of opening an orphanage.

For 31 long years, my wife and I had no children of our own. “Lord,” we prayed one day, “please give us even just one child. We would be very happy and forever grateful.” He gave us six and we are still counting. Isn’t He a gracious God?

Not bone of our bones,
neither flesh of our flesh
But are children of our hearts
for our happiness
A gift of heaven,
a blessing from God
So special children
to care and love.

The five boys we took to our home at Mountain View College in Mindanao were orphans from the mountain tribes, Talaandig and Manobo. Sickly, skinny, dirty, restless, you name it. Boys nobody wanted.

One day a student guard came running to me and said, “Sir, your boys!”

“What about my boys?” I asked.

“They are swimming in the college reservoir.” Oh boys!

One concerned faculty neighbor came to our home one morning and said, “Why so many mouths to feed Daryl? One is enough.”

“Sir, I said calmly, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” He left.

Time flew so swiftly. Today these five boys are men. The eldest is a teacher and graduated from Adventist College of Technology. He is now supervising the Mangyan tribe mountain schools in Mindoro. He married a missionary teacher and they are expecting a baby next month. The second is a biology major, has finished his masters degree and is doing his post graduate studies in research at Central Mindanao University. The third unfortunately dropped out of school, but he is a newly installed tribal leader back in his mountain village. The fourth is in his last year majoring in medical technology at Adventist University of the Philippines. He plans to pursue medicine. The fifth is in tenth grade at Comprehensive High School for the Lumads.

Then God called us to Mindoro, to pioneer the work to the still unreached Mangyan mountain tribes. Although Mangyans are a peace-loving people and have
a very good culture, there is one thing in their culture that is cruel. They bury their unwanted children alive. Babies born out of wedlock, babies born with deformities, breach babies and unwanted babies because they cannot afford them anymore, they bury alive. Mangyans believe that if they don’t bury them, calamities will come and wipe their village out.

Today, we have our sixth adopted child – a five month old baby girl. She was born early in the morning at three o’clock and was supposed to be buried at sunrise. She was rescued by our volunteer missionary teachers and brought to us. When this baby arrived, my wife and I prayed. “Lord, what do You mean by this? What do you want us to do?” Right away we were impressed to start up an orphanage to save many more babies from the hands of this cruel culture. It’s only now that we understand why God called us to Mindoro so urgently! Little did we realize that God had been preparing us for this big ministry while our home in Mindanao was a little orphanage.

Why bother so much to care for them? Why don’t we just let them alone with their culture in the mountains? This was also the attitude of the disciples no less,
who did not have the heart for the children who came to Jesus. When they saw the mothers carrying their children to be blessed by Christ, they rebuked them and told them to stay away and not bother the already tired Jesus. “But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.’” Mark 10:14

Unlike the typical orphanage where couples come to adopt, this one will be a school to train and prepare these children to be missionary teachers to their own
people, or wherever they are needed. We hope they will be advocates for the unwanted babies in the villages.

I don’t know exactly what will become of these children in this new project, except that God will use them for a special purpose in these last days.

How do we sustain this project? Only through claiming God’s promises that He will supply all our needs. I will trust Him, just as when we started the SULADS
without money but only faith and prayer. This too will be “financed by faith, supported by prayer.” Would you join hands with us in this project?

Location: Philippines

Author: Daryl Faderogaya Famisaran is one of the directors of SULADS*-Asia, which is a ministry dedicated to reaching the unreached, especially among the tribal people of the islands. *SULADS stands for Socio-economic Uplift, Literacy, Anthropological, and Developmental Services.

How You Can Help
Pray for the people who are living in these tribes where superstition and darkness reign supreme.

Donate: Funds are needed to support the orphanage where they will educate the young people to return to their own people with the gospel of truth.

Please contact: Daryl Faderogaya Famisaran at sharylvem@gmail.com