The Lord is working hard in Ecuador, but His helpers only haveto go as far as Summit to lend Him a hand.

The mission team of Brookhaven’s First United Methodist Church ishosting a Christian rock concert Friday night at SouthwestMississippi Community College in an effort to raise the last bundleof money needed to pay for a new orphanage in Quito, Ecuador. The$150,000 Mama Yoli’s House orphanage is completed and serving 180abandoned and rescued children in that country, and FUMC needs toraise about $4,000 to make the last payment on the note.

“Either these kids are without homes or they have no education,”said concert organizer Vince Woodcock. “We’re trying to bring theminto the orphanage to get them educated, make sure they have threemeals a day and share with them the love of God.”

To make the payments, FUMC is bringing in the Inside Out Tour,featuring Grammy-nominated DecembeRadio, which features NewHebron’s Boone Daughdrill, and Dove Award-winning Christian hardrock group Seventh Day Slumber.

The concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the SMCC auditorium. Ticketsare $13 per person or $10 for groups of 10 or more. Concessionswill be sold at the show.

If the show generates the needed $4,000, FUMC’s $15,000 commitmentto Mama Yoli’s House will be complete.

Construction on the orphanage began in 2004 and is now complete,spurred all the way by FUMC and SIFAT – Servants in Faith andTechnology – a Christian non-profit group that works in SouthAmerica. The third party in the agreement, Christian child advocacyministry Compassion International, runs the orphanageday-to-day.

Mama Yoli’s House has a big responsibility in Quito, said FUMCmission team member Jennifer Calhoun, who visited the site lastsummer and plans to again in 2010.

“It’s going to get these kids off the streets and give them aChristian school background,” she said. “(SIFAT) goes into theseorphanages, teaches them how to build things and deal with whatthey have to survive.”

The alternatives to the orphanage are bleak.

“It’s kind of depressing – kids living in what we would consider adump,” she said. “You know they’ve had a really hard life.”

Without an orphanage to take care of them, the poor children inQuito have to pull their own weight, regardless of age, Calhounsaid. They report street-side before dawn for a day of sellingfruit, newspapers and other miscellaneous items, and if they can’tmeet their daily quota, the work continues.

“We did a Bible camp, and if these kids couldn’t meet the quota,they couldn’t come to Bible camp,” Calhoun said. “I’ve seen 5- and6-year-olds on the square shining shoes at 11 o’clock atnight.”