True Religion Helping Romanian Orphans Has Become Life’s Work For Chuck Fox And His Daughter
It is a small world, after all.
Two Spokane groups working independently to improve the lives of Romania orphans are now collaborating with the same relief foundation - though on very different projects.
Chuck Fox, who has helped open several private children’s homes in Romania, has become a central figure in the efforts of Spokane-area volunteers.
Fox, of Vancouver, Wash., and his daughter, Debbie Marshall, spoke Sunday at Northview Bible Church. Church members, including former Spokane County Commissioner Skip Chilberg, are trying to establish a children’s home in Braila where they opened a medical clinic there last year.
Monday, Fox and his daughter also met with volunteers at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church on the South Hill to plan an upcoming mission. Pastor Tom Norris and other Spokane volunteers repair orphanages there with Northwest Medical Teams. Fox has become the Portland-based agency’s lead partner in Romania.
The two Spokane volunteer groups work independently and involve residents from North Idaho to the Spokane Valley to Garden Springs.
Their recent contact with Fox is an indication of this region’s growing involvement in Romania.
“Spokane is the most dynamic community involved in Romania right now,” said Fox, 57.
But it is also a sign of the shrinking number of relief agencies still in Romania. Eight years after the revolution overthrew Communist dictatorship, many European and American organizations have pulled out, discouraged by the Byzantine bureaucratic system and failing economy.
Fox has stayed. A one-time tennis-club and country-club manager, he was running an excavation company in Vancouver in 1991 when his daughter traveled to Romania to adopt a child. Marshall asked her father to accompany her when her husband could not leave work.
The family found and adopted Adriana, now 8. But en route, Fox underwent a profound spiritual journey, from a low-point of feeling cut off from his church to a real sense of purpose. All around him were Christians who, simply by having had to register as Christians during the Communist era, had sacrificed job and educational opportunities. Some were killed, many were imprisoned.
He founded Heart of Hope Ministry International, a humanitarian aid ministry with the goal of opening the doors for Bible ministry. He was inspired by Bible passages, Isaiah 1:17 and James 1:27, that true religion is helping the orphans and the widows.
By the fall of 1991, Fox cofounded a children’s home made up of Romanian staff and four children. The home, which he still oversees, now houses 43 children in such a safe, normal setting that Fox’s grandson bunks with the orphans when he visits.
The ministry also operates a dental clinic in the village of Talmaciu and financially sponsors another 45 children so they can remain with their impoverished families. Fox and his volunteers also arrange relief work in 11 state orphanages and five hospitals.
Over the years, Fox helped groups from Germany, Switzerland and Spain to open private children’s homes including one for girls who otherwise would be turned out of state facilities at age 18.
Last Christmas, Marshall helped Northwest Medical Teams deliver 2,000 gift packages to children in Romania. Many of the gifts were paid for by Spokane residents. Heart of Hope also supplies a Christian library and elderly day care.
Fox lives in Vancouver with his wife, Sandy, where they attend Glenwood Community Church. Debbie and her husband, Dan, live nearby with their two children. Fox spends eight months a year in central Romania, traveling to the children’s home that is staffed by Romanians.
Neither Fox nor his daughter draw salaries, even for travel. Fox sold his excavation firm and lives on investments. His daughter, whose husband is a salesman at Home Base, cleaned office buildings to afford her last trip.
The two say they work to reach children before they get into the state system, where hopes for a productive life are slim.
“I know if Romania is going to change it’s going to have to come from the generation growing up now. If they go into the state orphanage it isn’t going to change,” Fox said.
But he also believes he is saving children, not just for healthy lives, but for eternity. His ministry works closely with Child Evangelism Fellowship, a leading Christian group which evangelizes in orphanages and surrounding villages.
“Our primary goal is concern about their eternity. Out of 43 children (in the children’s home), we have 12 who have committed their life to the Lord.
“If only one had done that,” he said, “it would have all been worth it.”
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