Our Children

One of our miracle children came to Noah's Ark at the age of 2 having been sexually abused.  His mother was a prostitute and addict.  She used her innocent child in her profession and tried to pass him off as a little girl.   When he was placed with us, we had to get a court order to cut his hair.  At age 3, he was still in diapers and was very violent.  At age 4, he was diagnosed as autistic; however through prayers of church and family, he now shows no signs.  One of our foster parents took to him and eventually adopted him at age 5.  He now lives with his adopted parents out of state and has come a long way.  Where once he was intimidated around men and stayed away from strangers, just the other day he walked out to the UPS man and struck up a conversation.  Although he is still academically behind, his parents are working with him through home school.

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The Double Rainbow

On a cool November 7, 2000 at 5:20 p.m. a fire was started in our wetlands.  It seemed that despite how hard we tried to build Noah’s Ark that there was always unforeseeable problems.  To many observers it was “just a boardwalk” but to us it represented hours of hard work not only in getting the money and designing it but what it was meant to be for the children that would live on our Ark.  The wetlands were suppose to be a place of beauty, tranquility, and a place for respite from the every day pain that the children had suffered before they came to live at Noah’s Ark. Now it was a place of turmoil and destruction.  Noah’s Ark and all that it represented was to be good and it seemed that so many obstacles and so much hatred had been shown toward the project and to the children.  Many times we asked God “why” and daily prayed for His direction and the strength to go on.  How could something that was to be so good be so bad?

Although the insurance company felt it would not be covered, they wanted to send an adjuster out to access the damage and take pictures.  Joan accompanied the gentleman back to the site of the fire and he took a number of shots of the burned out area and as they walked out of the wetlands on the remaining boardwalk they looked up and there was a perfect “double rainbow” over our homes.  The rainbow began and ended on our property and was centered directly over our homes.

How Noah struggled for years to build the Ark and how the community criticized him and his family.  Yet Noah’s faith kept him going and he fulfilled his promise to God and God sent him a rainbow to fulfill His promise.  The more Joan thought, the more she asked is this a coincidence?  God had sent a sign that He was watching over our village and simply trust Him.

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Home of Miracle

Our first home is called the “Home of Miracles” for many reasons--one of which is that it is a miracle that we ever got it built.  Since the beginning it has been our goal to have each home or building named for the person or group that provided the majority of the money for that home or building.

With the incorporation of Noah’s Ark in March of 1997 and the award of $500,000 from the Indiana Department of Commerce for the installation of the infrastructure we were ready to go.  What we had not anticipated was the negative attitude of the neighbors towards the project and the ensuing lawsuits to stop the project, as well as the Department of Commerce deciding to pull our grant unless we took Christ out of our Mission Statement and promised not to build our chapel.

Since Christ is at the core of what are doing and the center of our belief, Joan's immediate reaction to IDOC was that they could keep the $500,000.  Holistic means spiritual as well as physical, emotional, intellectual. If the children that we are going to help do not find a belief in Christ then they will continue to be lost as so many of the foster children are today.

It was obvious that the lawsuit that was brought against us to stop the project would be ongoing since the attorneys stated that they would stop the project by causing us to go broke paying attorney and court fees or simply by wearing us out. What they didn’t realize is that faith is stronger than money.  Eight months and over $10,000 later, we won.  Our building plan for Noah’s Ark (the first Planned United Development ever done by the City of Jeffersonville) was presented to the Planning and Zoning Board and approved as presented on March 1, 1997. 

In the meantime we felt that it was necessary to move forward and to show the community that we were serious about our desire for Noah’s Ark and the children.  Putting money into the infrastructure, (sewers, water, electric etc.)  which amounted to everything underground was nothing exciting.  What we needed was for the community to be able to see something. So as we raised the dollars to put the infrastructure in, about 50 feet of pipe at a time.  We begged for heavy equipment, gravel, pipe and engineering work and the money to pay for the materials.  In addition, we also started contacting builders and suppliers for the first home.  Thus, construction on our first home was started in October of 1998 and the family was able to move in November of 1999 and our first child entered into 201 Rainbow Way in January 2000.

Because the homes are located in the middle of our property we had not been able to bring our infrastructure that far.  Thus no electricity, so the entire home was built with gas-powered generators.  Daily we brought 5-gallon cans of gasoline to the site in the trunks of our cars.  Now we have the home built and are ready to hang the wallpaper and provide the finishing touches.  Still no water.  We then brought 5-gallon buckets of water in our trunks so the house could be completed.   

It is now November 1999 and our first foster family is licensed and ready to move in. The infrastructure has now caught up with the house and the utilities are turned on.  We pass all of our inspections; the house is now ready to become a home.

We cannot begin to name all of the people that gave of themselves to turn the dream of Noah’s Ark into reality.  There were hundreds that donated money, provided equipment and supplies, put in hours of sweat equity, and turned the house into a home.  All of this was accomplished through unending prayer and the belief that God was blessing the mission.

With Christmas approaching and an adjustment period allotted to our family before the foster children arrived we set our target date for the first children to come into our program in January of 2000.  We prayed and asked others to pray that we would be ready when God decided to send us His first little angels.

That call came on a cold January night about 6:00 p.m. from Clark County Child Protective Services.  They told us that they were removing two children from a bad situation--an 11-month-old girl and a two-year-old boy.  When the CPS worker arrived and knocked on the door she was holding a little bundle in her arms and said that the older child was in the car.  As I gently unwrapped the little package I saw this little fragile body that was filthy dirty, reeked of cigarette smoke.  The caseworker went to the car and brought in the little boy and as his hat was removed, it revealed a huge swollen abrasion above his right eye.  Apparently this had been inflicted by a relative prior to his leaving.  The home of miracles was completed and Noah's Ark was under way.

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A long-time friend of Joan Smith's, Mitzi Lyon ran into Joan in 1998.  Mitzi was now working with the youth of Grace

Lutheran in New Albany.  Joan shared with Mitzi the vision of Noah's Ark Children's Village and Mitzi felt it would be a great opportunity for her youth group to participate and enlisted a co-worker, Debbie Mildenberger.  The youth worked at the Make a Difference Day in 2001 and wanted to make a difference in a big way...they would enlist other youth groups to help build the chapel thus began the "Picture This-Quarter Campaign".  After many quarters, car washes and other fund raising opportunities, there is over $8,000 raised toward the completion of the chapel.  We are excited to announce that the youth met with Luckett & Farley Architects in Louisville in early May 2003 to begin the design stage.  You too can make a difference and add to the
"Picture This-Quarter Campaign".

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