Beany’s restaurant owner and BocaRaton.com business partner Milena Meier is heading to Peru to continue her task of helping impoverished children and families in Lima this month. She has been working with Operation Rescue the Children in Peru since 2006.

During a vacation to her birthplace in Lima, Peru, Milena realized that some of the children of her city and country were living in conditions that she found unacceptable. The poverty, hunger, and poor health she saw were in stark contrast to the Peru that she remembers growing up in.

For a long time, SonCoast Christian Church in Boca Raton has worked through Operation Rescue the Children, a non-profit organization that it founded in 1999, to provide aide to children living in abject poverty within the nation of Honduras. In January of 2006, after her sister died, Milena encouraged her church to expand its mission to Peru. Her sister had made great progress helping the children of Peru through her church in Lima, and Milena hoped to be able to follow in her footsteps.

Between January and August of 2006, Milena and her husband Jack Meier traveled to Peru three times. They worked with their church’s organization to set up feeding kitchens in the Rimac District north of downtown Lima. Along with their organization, they have established learning centers, living space, and religious services for children and families living in poverty in the province of Lima.

Milena said that she never recognized the desperation of the people living in the slums of Lima when she lived there. “When you’re born there and you live there, things like that just seem normal,” said Milena. She says that she has been blessed to live here in America, and she feels that it is her duty as a Christian to help people in need in Peru. This month, Milena is going to Peru to help with a feeding center at a church in Rimac.

If you are interested in helping the children and families of Peru and Honduras through Milena’s church, the Son Coast Community Church, please call them at (561) 997-6109. The feeding center in Rimac is currently located in the basement of the church there, but your contribution may mean that they will be able to build a new center soon. You may also consider enrolling in Operation Rescue the Children’s “Sponsor a Child” program. For 30 dollars a month, you can enable a child to receive food, water, an education, a chance to hear the gospel of Christianity, and health care. Operation Rescue the Children will enable you to send letters and gifts to the child you sponsor, and you will receive photographs and a biography of the child. For more information, please visit www.rescuechild.org, or contact Rick King, vice president and director of partner relations of Operation Rescue the Children, at (561) 852 6189.

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