Disagreement over a change in the wording of the mission statement of the Love in Action Children’s Center (LiA) in Chapala has prompted six of its primary supporters to withdraw from the project.
The rift began when the current board of directors decided to put the words “Christ centered” back in the mission statement.
These words had been part of the statement for several years but were removed for a year on the advice of LiA Advisory Council members, who felt they might offend some supporters and diminish financial aid. Instead, the words “Christian ethics” were employed in the values statement, but not as the primary mission.
Several meetings were held to try and resolve the differences and another was planned when Kari Romey, a relative newcomer to Lakeside and a missionary from Indiana, placed a request for prayer on the Deeper Water Ministries website. The prayer called for their followers to pray that the current LiA board of directors would win “the spiritual battle,” adding that “we refuse to allow the enemy to steal, kill or destroy what God has orchestrated.”
The posting prompted members of the Advisory Council, who now perceived themselves as the “enemy,” to break with the Chapala organization.
Those who have officially separated themselves from LiA are Weezie Burgess, Bonnie Newman, Delayane Giardini, Barbara Coffman, Barbara Hildt and Jon Seaborg. All worked hard as volunteers at the center that shelters nearly 60 abandoned or abused children.A new board of directors has been formed out of administrators at the shelter. They are LiA founder Anabel Frutos, Salvador Muñiz Garcia and Romey.
Romey removed the call for prayer from the Indiana-based website within a couple of days and wrote letters of apology to the Council members. She said the word “enemy” really didn’t refer to them; that it was an enemy in the spiritual sense, the ball was rolling too fast to stop.
As one council member said: “Almost from the beginning of Love in Action, people of all faiths and lifestyles have devoted time and treasure to it. The move from a tiny house in the upper reaches of Chapala to a beautiful and secure property in Chapala proper was funded by a Jew. Atheists, agnostics, Jews, Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Buddhists and, yes, even a Muslim, have worked hard for this Center. We felt like the new staff and board of directors was making it clear that we weren’t fit to help with the kids.”
Although shelter founder Frutos, a devout Christian, said she has always worked happily side by side with people of all faiths, some incidents have made her rethink her position on the mission statement.
“An atheist recently came to visit the shelter and was very upset to see children praying,” Frutos said. “We feel if the words ‘Christ centered’ had been included in the statement and maybe on the gate, he or someone like him would have not been surprised and so upset.”
Others in the community who have helped individual children in the center through its “Godparents” program have expressed their concern about Deeper Water Ministries’ stands on social issues and whether they will be welcomed at LiA in the future.
In a letter to members of the Advisory Council, Summer Phillips, director of operations for LiA, said: “As always, LiA’s doors are open to all people regardless of any differences as long as they are not divisive to ‘who’ Love in Action is, as is now clearly stated in our mission, vision and values. We honor you, respect you, and accept you just as you are ... please do the same for us.”
Explained former Advisory Council President Weezie Burgess: “Many of us felt that putting the words ‘Christ centered’ into the mission statement was a way of saying that non-Christians could not be part of LiA’s mission which had been ‘to provide a safe and caring home for abused, abandoned and neglected children.’ We were hopeful that the three-person board would decide not to insist on changing the mission statement. Unfortunately, we never heard that decision. Instead we read some disturbing words publicly posted on one of the board member’s website that spoke about the situation in very adversarial terms. A trust was broken.”