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I still remember the day at Wheaton College
when I saw a beautiful brunette standing on
the chapel platform at a "welcoming new
students" gathering. I turned and said to my
room mate, Jim, "That's the girl I'm going
to marry!" I was right. However, my simple
and direct approach, hit a few bumps before
Dottie Richter became my wife over 52 years
ago. What's more, we could never have
imagined, as two young people, what our
journey ahead would be like and where it
would take us. |
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ARRIVAL IN KOREA |
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| Three weeks
after we were
married in St.
Louis, Missouri we
were looking out a
small window in an
airplane landing in
Seoul, Korea. We had
both been raised in
devout
Christian homes.
Dottie and I shared
the same standards
and we were
committed to
reaching a world of
spiritually and
physically hungry
people for Jesus. We
especially carried a
burden to work with
children and our
dream was fulfilled
upon our arrival in
Korea where we were
challenged with
setting up
orphanages and a
child sponsor
program for World
Vision. |
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| My father, Dr. Frank C.
Phillips, was one of the three founders of
World Vision and was our mentor for the work
we undertook in Korea. In less than five
months we were able to establish over 140
orphanages, build a five story building to
house the World Vision programs in Korea,
hire and train 100 interpreters who spoke
and wrote both Korean and English, and
organize a city wide evangelistic crusade in
the heart of Seoul that was attended by over
100,000 people. During those five months
we learned to work and communicate with the
Korean people and their culture. We observed
over 50% of the population in South Korea
praying at 6 A.M. in churches across the
country. This witness encouraged us to grow
and mature in our own Christian experience.
While in Korea we began to better
understand the importance of training as we
served as instructors for interpreters who
worked with sponsors and orphans. We quickly
learned how to better manage our own time.
As we worked among these precious people who
we came to love, we found ourselves putting
into practice the very lessons our parents
taught us, lessons we would later
incorporate into the training of our own
children.
OUR DARKEST YEAR
It was Friday afternoon, January, 1959
when we received a call. Just as we thought
our lives were going so well, devastating
news up-ended our world. My father, who was
only 46-years-old, died suddenly. This was
the beginning of unexpected change in our
lives. We faced a crisis. We had lost our
father, our mentor and our sense of
security. Our world was turned upside down
and we were living without clear direction
as to what God wanted us to do. |
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| Soon we found
ourselves back in
America with no job,
no car, no house and
less than $1,000.00
to our name. Now we
really had to
practice what we had
learned. The value
of prayer became
critical. What did
God have for us to
do? We had to learn,
in a very practical
way, to live by
faith. Sadly, we
also had to live
without a beloved
parent. We began to
reevaluate the
direction of our
lifestyle and
ministry. A few
months later, Dottie
almost died during
the birth of our
first son. These
experiences were
life-changing in the
darkest year of our
life. |
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But this was a learning year
when God wanted to make certain we were
ready for what He had planned for our
future. Through these tough times our burden
for hurting, lonely and hungry children
never left us. We have never forgotten 1958,
and today, looking back, we rejoice that God
used that year to mold our lives so we were
better prepared to serve Him.
GROWING OUR FAMILY
Beginning in October 1958 we began
raising a family of our own. One by one six
children came into our world. With each
child's birth, our priorities changed.
Training became an essential part of our
daily routine. We spent time with our
children. We loved each child for whom they
were. We learned how to administer kind
discipline. And we worked to make our house
a home.
We did not have much money, but Dottie
stretched our budget by making every meal
exciting. Each of our children grew up not
having a lot in material possessions, but
they had all they needed, most of all –
love. And what they did have, they
appreciated. Beginning at an early age, our
children were taught to have concern for the
poor and hurting. This concern has never
left them. Today they share the same values
we have held through the years and have
their own venues through which they
minister.
RAISING TEENAGERS
Another lesson we gained through the
years was the importance of setting
applicable Bible honoring standards for our
teenagers and then setting boundaries which
were firm and fair. We recognized the
importance of giving encouragement and did
our best to avoid direct criticism. We found
through experience that one of the most
important qualities in raising teenagers was
to listen. These same standards and
boundaries are necessary today for children
all over the world.
GROWING A CAREER
God blessed us as we developed our career
working with hurting and hungry children. We
learned that when God opens a door we need
to be ready to walk through the door to
accomplish what He wants. Many times this
meant we needed to adjust our time and
efforts. We learned to take direction from
mentors with vision who recognized
opportunities of need. Most of all, we asked
for God's direction in all that we did.
Seeking God's will was crucial for us to be
used effectively by Him.
Evaluating our time and talents was also
important as we strived to accomplish what
we believed God wanted. Years of experience
taught us that God has given various talents
to each person and we found our niche and
God blessed us as we followed His leading.
MINISTRY BLESSINGS
During the over 52 years of our ministry,
it is difficult to identify only a few of
the hundreds of blessings which have flowed
our way. But we'll share just three:
First was our ministry in Kenya. We
assisted with the establishment of over 75
churches in some of the poorest regions of
Kenya, East Africa. One of the spiritual
highlights of our lives was when we attended
an annual church conference about two hours
by car from Nairobi. More then 2000 pastors,
church leaders, choirs and lay people were
in attendance and they worshipped God with
fervor like we have never seen before or
since. They gave their tithes weekly -- even
though it may have been a chicken or a piece
of fruit. These people loved God with all
their hearts. And although they had little
in the way of earthly possessions, God
supplied all their needs and they were
satisfied. |
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| Second was our ministry in Honduras. We
saw hundreds of children dying from cancer
and no one or no place to care for them.
What a thrill it was to quickly respond to a
need that God clearly put in our path. A
home was built to house children and their
mothers so they could receive cancer
treatment. A hospital wing was developed in
the established children's hospital to serve
children with cancer. We were able to find
equipment in America and ship it to Honduras
so the physicians could treat the children.
Thousands of children's lives have been
saved because people responded to this need.
Christians gave dollars, drug companies gave
chemotherapy drugs, hospitals gave equipment
and shippers donated the transportation
costs so children would have a chance to
live. |
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Third was our ministry in the
Philippines. When we arrived, we were taken
to a place where we walked up on the top of
a mountain of garbage. There a young girl
was introduced to us. She was sitting in her
home with one lone box in the center of the
family's "lean-to" house. Her family lived
on food scraps they collected daily from the
garbage dump. Over 100,000 children and
their parents lived on this dump. On the
box, we saw a little picture story book. The
little girl told us it was her only toy and
book. She read through it and looked at
every picture day after day. We recognized
the book as one of the Daily Vacation Bible
School quarterlies we had sent a year before
as a gift to the children in the
Philippines.
It has been ministry opportunities such
as these which have filled our lives to
overflowing with heaven's bounty of
goodness.
GRAND CHILDREN
One of the great joys in our life now is
having 20 grandchildren. It is rewarding to
watch our children train their own children
using many of the same principles we did. We
have an important role in the lives of our
grandchildren. We pray for them daily. Our
grandchildren are living in a different time
than our children did. Culture changes. But
the commandments and precepts God gave us
for raising our families do not change. And
even though the pressures of the world are
enormous, our GOD IS THE SAME.
NOT "RETIRED" BUT
"RETOOLED"
Because of all the varied experiences we
have encountered throughout our lives, at a
time when most people decide to "retire,"
God has "retooled" us for a new ministry for
Him. One of the
largest challenges
facing our world is
still physical and
spiritual hunger. We
believe God has now
led us to work in a
new program that is
impacting thousands
of lives. This
program is called:
THE HUNGER
SOLUTION.
Everything that has
happened in our
lives so far, has
led us to this
day…to this
challenge…and to
forming THE
HUNGER SOLUTION.
THE HUNGER SOLUTION
provides local assistance for local problems
right here in the United States of America.
While a great deal of our personal ministry
in the past focused on work in Third World
Countries, we have witnessed an increasingly
painful need for food, both physical and
spiritual, here in our country. So now we
are taking what we learned around the world
and putting it into practice in some of the
most devastated neighborhoods and needy
cities in this country. Through a network of
churches combined with access to food, we
are able to distribute, in one of the most
cost-effective ways, a Hunger Solution food
box that not only contains essential food
and hygiene products, but also provides
spiritual food as we share God's Word -- the
Bible.
What's more, through this ministry,
we have created a free website which gives
families practical advice on how to infuse
their own family-life with heavenly values
that will build strong, God-fearing
families. God's blessings have come
full-circle as the wonderful family heritage
our parents left as their legacy are passed
on and as the Bible so beautifully promises,
the blessings continue to flow "from
generation to generation." |
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Dr. Ken Phillips
Executive Director
The Hunger
Solution |
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