Mission about to be accomplished

At a time when most of their peers are thinking of retirement, adding to the nest egg and perhaps booking an exotic trip or cruise, Dave and Babs Veneman are taking the road less traveled.

Make that the rutted path that few will trod.

The Modesto couple are heading to Liberia this month to work in a Christian orphanage complex. They will be there at least two years; they may be gone for life.

Quite a change for Dave, a 57-year-old Modesto native, and Babs, born in Ripon, who share a farming background and have been married since 1976. Their three adult children, ranging from 25 to 30, are married. Besides Dave's work as a field representative for Ekert Cold Storage in Escalon and Manteca — he makes sure the product is planted, grown, picked and shipped — he also farms about 145 acres of almonds and walnuts. The Venemans' holiday tables are full, ranging from 25 to 40 friends and extended family members at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Why leave all that behind and make such a drastic change in life?

"It's a question we get a lot," said Dave, a 1969 Modesto High School graduate. "I've got a job that's just storybook-made for me. It fits my personality great. It's never boring. My employers let me shoot from the hip and back me up. Nothing's changed in my farming venture. It's just getting better.

"But God just changed our hearts and our attitudes so that it was clear this is what we should do."

Vacations and missions

The seed for their actions started when Babs, a respiratory therapist, was a leader in a nondenominational group called Bible Study Fellowship. Through the program, she heard about the Rafiki Foundation, a nonprofit organization that cares for orphans in Africa.

"Rafiki was started by Rosemary Jensen, who at that time was the director of Bible Study Fellowship," Babs, 55, said. "It originally started as girls centers in India, Madagascar, South America, other places. They would take girls from about 12 and up, giving them some kind of trade. Girls are particularly vulnerable because often all they have is their bodies.

"The vision changed, because starting with children this old wasn't making a long-term difference in the countries. They decided to go with orphans and start with younger children. Their mission is basically to save children, with the bigger goal of raising healthy, contributing members of society, who are emotionally well and with a good education. With that, they will probably rise to the top of society, and the leadership is where differences will be made in these countries."

The Venemans took a three-week mission trip to a Rafiki village in 2003. "We had been to Europe and Mexico often," Babs said, "but neither one of us did the tourist thing well. ... Dave and I are workers; we like to do stuff. There was an opportunity to go do and be immersed in a country, so we said, 'Send us where you need us.' They sent us to Uganda."

Their hearts were touched by the experience.

"You can't go without seeing all the needs," Babs said.

"There is such poverty, people who just don't have enough to take care of anything else but themselves and their immediate family," Dave added. "Orphans, for that reason, are on the bottom rung."

They also saw the impact on children when they receive food and clothing and care from groups like Rafiki. Youngsters who were withdrawn and failing in other settings became joyful and active when moved to a Rafiki complex.

For example, Dave said, "Thomas was probably 3. He was in a state-run orphanage. These kids would not respond to affection because they'd been through it so many times. They knew you were going to leave again, and that emotionally hurt them, so they would not open themselves to it."