This month we feature Life of Promise Ministries, established by Tom and Arlene Richmond. This is their story. Aside from the first question, Arlene gave the answers.

Q. Tell us a little about each of your backgrounds, how you met, and your interest in missions.

Arlene: I was adopted at birth and grew up on Staten Island, New York. My parents gave me a lot of love and many opportunities for success. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools all the way through college. I have a BA in communications from Seton Hall. I married right out of college and had my daughter in 1987 and my son in 1989. My husband and I divorced in 1990 and that began a painful time for our family. A friend invited me to a Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania where we were living, and I accepted because I wanted to give my children a foundation in faith.

Tom: My brother and I were raised in the Christian faith. As a teenager, I became leader of our church youth group. After high school, I attended Indiana University for three semesters before I was drafted into the army during the Vietnam war. I was stationed in “Nam” for one year of my two-year duty. I drifted away from my faith and lost direction for my life, filling my time partying and playing basketball. When I returned to the States in 1972, I went back to college. Eventually I got my degree in psychology and I married, but my marriage ended in 1990. In 1991, I became traffic supervisor in Dover, NJ and later that year, I met Arlene. Arlene accepted Jesus as her Savior in 1992, but I was a bit more stubborn in returning to the Lord. We were married in 1994 and together we began raising her two children. God used Arlene and the kids in returning me to faith in Jesus and I’m so grateful for all the “second chances” He gave me.

Arlene: Our involvement in missions began in 2002 when our kids expressed an interest in a trip to Haiti to meet the children they were sponsoring. We thought it would be life-changing for them to see the poverty and how the missionaries were living out the gospel. All four of us had an amazing experience, and we made two more trips to Haiti in 2003 and 2004.

We also wanted to adopt a child. I was grateful for what my parents had done for me and I felt a calling from God to give back by adopting. Tom agreed. After my dad passed away in 2005, we decided to use some of our inheritance money to adopt. We prayed about this decision and decided to apply to adopt a child from China. We signed up in 2005 and were told that the China program was very stable and predictable. We were supposed to have our little girl in six to 12 months; but soon after that, China slowed down their adoption program to a snail’s pace without explanation.

Q. When and why did you first travel to Guatemala? What happened during your third trip that changed your life plans?

In January of 2006, our church (Light of the World Church in Stroudsburg, PA) scheduled a short-term mission trip to Guatemala. We wanted to sign up, but were hesitant since we needed to be available to possibly travel to China for the adoption. However, a week before the trip, the leader of the trip called to say that one of the team members had not received his passport yet and she asked if I wanted to take his place. As it turned out, he did receive his passport two days before the trip, but I was included on the team anyway. I had a marvelous time on that trip to the mountains of Zacapa, where we ministered to the indigenous Mayan people. 

Tom accepted an early retirement offer in 2007 at the takeover of his company by another, and so we were able to plan still another short-term mission trip (my third) in November 2008. Tom was designated the leader of this trip by our church mission board. We began with a team of eight people, but one by one they began to drop out for personal reasons. When it came down to a team of three—Tom, myself, and a friend of ours—we hesitated about going. Our friend was determined to go even if there were only three of us. That encouraged Tom to go but I still wasn’t sure. Tom told me the airline tickets were going up by the minute, so begrudgingly, I decided that we were needed and said I would go. The next eleven years would have been very different if we had not made that trip!

After arriving in Guatemala, we were met by missionary friends and spent the first night at a hotel in Zacapa on our drive to the mission. Their daughter and her cousin were waiting for us at the hotel and as they opened the door to greet us, my eyes zoomed in on a baby lying behind them in a playpen. The baby’s mother had died just after childbirth. Her family was from the mountain village of Pinalito, and the two missionary girls had brought her down the mountain that day for medical care in Zacapa. 

Justina was six months old, weighed nine pounds, and was suffering from malnutrition and lung ailments. Her father was often away working in coffee fields, so she was cared for by her three older sisters and her brother. The oldest was only 11 and she had no idea how to care for a baby. When the missionaries found Justina, she was lying in a hammock, and the nipple on her baby bottle was full of black mold. We offered to take care of her during our ten-day stay, and of course it wasn’t long before we fell in love with her and began calling her Gabby. We were told that Gabby might also be available for adoption. We were interested. In fact, that became our goal.

Q. Tell us about how your plans to adopt Gabby evolved into the beginning of Life of Promise Ministries? What was/is the main goal of your ministry?

From 1999 to 2008, international adoptions of Guatemalan children by American families was going strong. But two months before we met Gabby, the Guatemalan program came to a screeching halt. It was shut down by the United Nations Hague Convention, which oversees human trafficking violations. Corruption was found in many aspects of the program, from payoffs to judges and lawyers, to babies stolen from their mothers’ arms and adopted without parental consent. But the day before we left Guatemala in 2008, we spoke with a lawyer who assured us that the program would re-open soon and with his connections, the adoption for Gabby would be completed in less than six months. These promises were starting to be a reoccurring theme in our desire to adopt that seemed to result in nothing but endless waiting.

Yet from the moment we met Gabby, I never doubted that she would someday be our daughter legally. During those first days of caring for her, the words to the song, “God will make a way, where there seems to be no way,” played over and over again in my mind and throughout the long adoption journey. We made frequent trips of four to six weeks at a time to meet with lawyers and prepare for promised meetings with the CNA that never materialized. We rented a room in a mission dormitory in Zacapa which housed high school and trade school students from the poor mountain villages.  On each trip, we met a different pregnant mother who had been abused or abandoned by her boyfriend/husband.  Many had escaped death threats, and had basically become homeless in our town. We were able to get to know each one personally and assist them with food, medical help, and even housing at times.  

This is the way in which God placed the plight of these mothers on our hearts.  In June of 2009, some American missionaries were leaving their ministry at the dorm to move back to the States.  They were selling their pickup truck, and Tom felt strongly that the Lord was telling us to buy it. That truck has been our only vehicle for the past ten years, and it’s still running. In July 2010, we heard of two adjacent lots for sale in the community where we were renting a bedroom.  We knew that God was calling us to buy property and build a mission, but we had no idea what type of mission it would be. We used some of Tom’s lump-sum pension to purchase the property.

We were blessed to be able to help Everilda and her new baby this month with clothes, diapers and visits to the medical clinic.

In January 2011 back at our home church in Pennsylvania, the director of our local pregnancy center was speaking on the tragedy of abortion worldwide. She gave shocking statistics and stories of “back woods” abortions performed by mothers themselves.  Tom and I turned to each other and said “a crisis pregnancy center in Zacapa!” In May of 2011, we filed documents to receive 501(c)3 non-profit status from the IRS.  A process that should have taken four months, wound up taking a year and a half due to the IRS scandal in which conservative non-profits were targeted.   Thus, Life of Promise Ministries was approved for non-profit status in September of 2012.   

(In the meantime, we continued to renew our USCIS paperwork and FBI fingerprints each year, hoping that our adoption from China would eventually come through. Finally, in November 2011 we received a photo of Long Chuwan, age 22 months. We traveled to China in March 2012 to finalize the adoption, change her name to Mae Joanna Richmond, and bring our new daughter home.)

Q. How has the building project progressed and what still needs to be accomplished before it can be used for housing pregnant women? 

We broke ground in March of 2011, and the first floor of the mission house was completed in October of 2012, largely with the help of a team from our home church. We got just enough work done during their stay to allow us to move into the mission house. In April of 2014, we were able to complete the roof on the second floor.  All buildings in Guatemala are cement block construction with poured concrete ceilings and roofs. In 2015, we built a playground with high security walls on our adjacent lot, which allows us to bring small groups of children over for Bible studies, games, and lunch. The second floor remains unfinished due to lack of funding, but our intention is to use that space to provide temporary housing for single pregnant mothers in crisis.  

Life of Promise Ministries Mission

Q. Even though the building aspect isn’t completed, your ministry has been expanding. Briefly, how has God opened doors and provided the means to accomplish your desires to minister to these women and children?

God has allowed us to minister to the women in the three most poverty-stricken villages in Zacapa Department: Conevisa, Puente Blanco, and La Linea, all of which are basically settlements for the homeless. About 20 years ago, local politicians designated areas of land for people to set up makeshift homes and shelters. Of course, the land was less than desirable—located next to the city garbage dump and along the railroad tracks. Many of these people pick through the garbage to make some type of living.

Q. Describe the situations and living conditions of the majority of the people you are ministering to.

Most families have erected makeshift homes and huts with combinations of plastic sheeting, small trees, metal lamina, and adobe clay.  Dirt floors, no indoor plumbing, and lack of clean drinking water make the conditions unsanitary and the people riddled with disease and chronic conditions.  Socialized medicine has created a health care crisis throughout Guatemala, with national hospitals unable to provide adequate care.  

The rise of drug gangs has kept the people in the villages oppressed and in poverty.  With young men and husbands joining gangs in increasing numbers, many women and children are abandoned and left without resources.  Public education up to sixth grade is “free,” but most families cannot afford the books and uniforms necessary. Less than one third of the kids in each of the villages attend school. There’s a severe lack of job opportunities in Zacapa. All of these factors have caused the villages to become stagnated in poverty and corruption. 

Tom Richmond greeting children who are lining up to receive new shoes from Life of Promise Ministries.

Q. I know that you help get medical care to many. Could you tell us a little about that?

Four years ago, we felt we could serve the Lord more effectively by moving to a local church instead of the one in Zacapa that we had been attending. So we joined a congregation in Conevisa called Iglesia Shalom Jireh. We now minister to the physical and spiritual needs of single mothers and their children in Conevisa and the other two villages I mentioned earlier. We provide food, prenatal vitamins, financial assistance with ultrasounds and OB/GYN visits, clothing, diapers, and medications for mothers and children.

Aly and Arlene Richmond with pastor’s wife and other church friends.

God has also allowed us to disciple women in several ways.  We have a mothers’ sewing class each Wednesday afternoon, which includes a Bible study.  We also have a women’s Bible study at the church on Saturday afternoons. In addition, we give financial help and planning assistance to single moms who wish to begin businesses in their homes (such as small convenience stores, selling hot meals, and tailoring services). It is so miraculous to see their confidence grow and their demeanors change as they’re taught to lean on the Lord for all their needs.  It’s a blessing for their children to witness the value and dignity of their mom’s hard work, rather than receiving hand-outs year after year.  

Kids like these in the poorest villages are often working by age eight in the city garbage dumps, or peddling fruit and fire wood in the street market.  

Q. You have come up with a unique ministry involving “Blessing Bags.”  What are those?

We visit homes to give out what we call Blessing Bags twice a year—at Christmas and Mother’s Day. Each bag contains about two weeks’ worth of food for each family and we have the opportunity to share the Gospel with the families as we visit them. Many have experienced and accepted God’s love for them through these gifts and home visits. Each bag costs us $40 to prepare, so we ask for our supporters in the U.S. to provide the money we need for these. It is a great way for families back home to give to a needy Guatemalan family at Christmas or Mother’s Day. 

Q. Tell us about how you are using the projects made during the sewing class.

In addition to selling the items made by the women at local markets, we also take orders from folks back home. We now have a Facebook page, Madres Valientes (Courageous Mothers based on Joshua 1:9) where items made by these women are sold. Soon we also hope to open an Etsy shop and perhaps some other online gift stores as well. 

Q. In the past year you have begun distributing water filters. Tell us about that.

Yes. We call this project “Clean Water Zacapa.” We have seen in our villages that the poor have an urgent need for clean drinking water. This is the "corredor seco" (dry corridor) of desert in the Zacapa valley where droughts are a continual problem.  As a result, the water table has dropped, so wells that were drilled in the impoverished villages are no longer deep enough. Wells in two of our villages have gone dry, and the third village never had a well.  The poor have resorted to unclean drinking water from the contaminated Zacapa River because they cannot afford to buy clean water. 

There are many diseases caused by water pollution. These include gastrointestinal diseases, rotovirus, reproductive problems, neurological disorders, and even cancer. Anyone can be affected—but babies, young children, elderly people, and pregnant women are more susceptible to illnesses from various water contaminants. Those with weakened immune systems can be over-run with bacterial infections that can lead to death. We have seen many illnesses and deaths in our villages over the years due to these serious problems. 

This is why we have been raising funds this year to purchase 5-gallon water purifying filters for families.  Ecofiltros are made in Guatemala, and their ceramic inserts filter out all microbial bacteria, contamination from parasites, and chemicals. A gift of $50 allows us to purchase one of these systems. These gifts provide another great way for us to share the gospel.  

Giving out EcoFiltro water filters in the village of La Linea.

Q. Is there anything in closing that you would like to add? 

This past May, after years of broken promises from lawyers and government officials, Gabby’s adoption came through! In the end, God led us to two excellent lawyers who played an integral role in finalizing the adoption. Gabby is now 11 years old and we have always had her with us whenever we are in Guatemala; but she has never been able to visit the United States. Lord willing, in the next couple months we will make that trip home with her. 

We give all the glory to God for our journeys through adoption and mission work. So many times we felt like giving up. At times we operated out of ignorance, discouragement, fatigue, and just plain stubbornness. But God always put us back on the right path. Often we could only be willing to do “the next thing,” even though we had no idea how anything would work out. Yet we know that God had us the whole time and gently picked us up each time we tumbled. To Him be all the glory!

The Richmond Family--Back row from left to right: Aly, Tom, Arlene, Mike. Front row: Mae Mae and Gabby.

How you can partner with Life of Promise Ministries:

• Pray daily for this ministry and for the women and children they minister to
• Pray for Tom as he has hip replacement surgery scheduled during their next trip to the States in early 2020
• Get on their mailing list for newsletters, updates, and needs by emailing or mailing your contact information to them
• Invite Tom and Arlene to speak at your church, Bible study, or small group during their time in the States
• Tom and Arlene have self-funded a lot of this ministry, but because they aren’t connected with a mission board, they rely on churches, groups, and individuals for financial support. Here are ways you can help them:
• A one-time gift to complete the second floor of the mission house so that pregnant women and babies will have a safe place to stay. Approximately $15,000 is still needed.
• Become monthly partners with a gift of any amount every month
• Support the Clean Water Zacapa project with a gift of $50 (provides for one water filter)
• For a gift of $40 purchase a “Blessing Bag” for a Guatemalan family this Christmas
• Purchase gift items made by the Life of Promise Sewing Class at Madres Valientes Facebook page.

Donations can be made on their website or by mail. Please let them know by email or mail what you wish your donation to be used for. 

Please know that whenever I suggest in my blog to buy items or financially support a ministry, I do so because I am familiar with the people/organization and have supported it as well. I have known Tom and Arlene for eight years and have worked with their ministry for the past four. They did not ask me to make any appeal; I offered, even insisted, because I know how much help is needed and how much their work means to the people they are ministering to. I know their mission to be sincere, their motives to be pure, and Tom and Arlene to be people of integrity. Best of all, they unashamedly love the Lord and strive to follow Him only. –Susan Perez