Health Fair and Partnership

A young boy is happy with his vitamins provided to him through a partnership with Extreme Response, Be His Witness and Pan de Vida.

Volunteers Tempe and Dorian, explain the vitamin packs to a lady who attended the Health Fair.

A much-needed pack of Calcium vitamins.

A whole family goes away with vitamins for two months!

Learning about vaccines

Coloring station at the entrace

Taking a break at the blood testing station

Medical students helping with blood pressure screening.



Nutritional counseling was also available


And it was nice to just sit down and enjoy a free snack.

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of seeing one a wonderful example of PARTNERSHIP. I stopped by one of Extreme Response's partners - Pan de Vida. I wanted to check out the first Health Fair that they have ever held for the people they minister to on a regularly basis! I was so impressed by the whole thing that I want to share it with you.

I have mentioned Pan de Vida before on my blog - their name means Bread of Life in Spanish. They are an organization that was established several years ago to help street people. It started with a hot lunch and gospel message on Sundays and has now grown into a full-blown ministry with a meal program on Wednesday as well. They also do training, children's ministries, tutoring on Saturdays (with a pancake breakfast thanks to our friends Richard and Howard) and many, many other ways in which the Pan de Vida staff reach out to some of the poorest people in Quito.

Sometimes it's just a hug for someone or a word of prayer or a listening ear. Or going to the pharmacy to purchase some much needed medicine. Or school supplies for the children. Or just the gift of a hot meal that includes meat (perhaps the only meat they eat all week long).

I never cease to be amazed by the professionalism and love shown by the VOLUNTEER staff who help there. Yes, this entire ministry is kept going by volunteers and donations from people like you.

So . . . Lori & Oscar Aguirre, the directors of Pan de Vida, told me that I could stop by anytime on Saturday between 8 am - 4 pm to check out the Health Fair. They expected approx. 220 people to show up (70 adults and the rest kids) and already had 70 volunteers lined up to help.

One of my goals in stopping by was to get some photos of vitamins being handed out to those who attended. Extreme Response organized a "Vitamin Program" this year for our partners such as Pan de Vida. This was made possible by huge donations by people in the US and the help of yet another non-for-profit in Florida called Be His Witness. (they help communities in third world countries with vitamins and clean drinking water. . . .click HERE to read more about them).

Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see way more than just vitamins at the Health Fair. They had about 9 stations set up for people to visit. They did glucose blood testing at the first station - finding out that a lot of the people were border-line diabetic (or already diabetic). Some people were sent to HCJB's community clinic across the street - La Clinica La Y - for further consultation and testing.

Then there was station for the children to sit and color and do activities while waiting for their parents.

There was a snack station where a yummy sandwich and drink was being handed out.

Another station included information on vaccines for the family. Two medical students were taking blood pressure at the next station. Several nurses were available for counseling on nutrition at another station.

As people left the Pan de Vida property, they received two-months worth of vitamins, which included children's vitamins for the children and calcium for the women.

As I left, my heart was uplifted as I saw a huge partnership happening to reach the poorest of the poor in Quito. What I saw - missionaries, Ecuadorians and volunteers from several organizations coming together to serve together for a day. Four organizations involved together - HCJB Healthcare (La Clinica La Y), Pan de Vida, Extreme Response, and Be His Witness. I am probably not aware of other organizations helping to make this day possible. And most importantly, I saw people being blessed . . . families going away with smiles on their faces, knowing that someone cares about them.

To see more photos from the events, visit my on-line album - click HERE.

6 months old!

Today, Nathan is 6 months old. It's hard to believe it's already been 6 months since he came into our lives on Christmas day! We can't imagine our lives without him. And our love for him grows every day. Everyone comments on how he's such a smiley and happy baby. And it's true - he is always ready with a smile and is a good-natured baby. We are blessed. And we are amazed by God's love in giving him to us and miraculously healing him the first few weeks of his life.

And he's growing by leaps and bounds. It seems he grows out of his clothes before he has a chance to wear them much - he's into size 9 month clothing (and still wearing 6 months). He has started eating cereal (as you can see from the photos). He seems to like it and got the hang of it pretty quickly. He loves to jump and bounce while being held (he is full of some serious energy most of the time). He is turning over and is almost sitting by himself. We haven't been able to get a "mama" or "papa" out of him yet, but we're confident that we will soon. No teeth yet, but he sure likes to drool and put everything in his mouth. He loves to be with his daddy.

Happy 6th Month Birthday, Nathan! For more photos, click HERE!

Weekly Prayer and Praises

I'm going to try to start a weekly update that includes prayer requests and praises for the week. We really appreciate all our friends and family who uphold us in prayer. Without your participation in this way, Satan would certainly get a stronghold in our lives and ministry. THANK YOU for being a part of our lives!

1) Pray for the team from GA who is here this week doing a Vacation Bible School for the children at the dump and also for another Extreme Response partner ministry, Nuevos Amigos.

2) HCJB has asked Santi and another co-worker, Brent Weeks, to go to Australia in September for special training on a unique software program to help our radio staff around the world. Santi is sending his passport through the mail today to the Australian embassy in Chile. Please pray that a) his passport wouldn't get lost! and b) that the visa would be granted for their 10 day stay in Australia. Also, pray for FUNDING for the trip.

3) Pray for the Extreme Response short-term team from MI who has been serving at an orphanage in Manta (on the coast of Ecuador). They will be returning to Quito this week and then back to MI. Pray for traveling safety and also that God would continue working in their lives as they return home.

4) Pray for this Sunday's ministry at the Hogar Betania (Bethany Home for the Elderly) as we will be ministering there with another family. Every time we go, we see so many needs and we need God's guidance in knowing how to help the dear people there.

5) Ruth has just one more month to go with her English class at HCJB's Christian Center of Communications. Pray that we will all finish well (she has a huge stack of papers to grade, but a little guy named Nathan keeps distracting her!).

Kids Club June 18

(click here for more June 18 Kids Club photos)

We began our Summer Program for the Kids Club at the Zambiza dump this past Wednesday. It was a little unorganized as we are no longer meeting in the old, nasty room down by where some of the garbage was being sorted by some of the "miners." Ever since the government came and razed down the shacks along the street a few months ago, we have been worried that they will also tear down the run-down building where the Kids Club has been meeting the past several years.

So . . .

. . . We are now meeting in the new room built by Extreme Response at the Day Center there at the dump. We are grateful for having a cleaner, larger space. However, this first week was a little crazy trying to figure out how to do things a bit differently and organizing the day center children (ages 4 - 6) along with our regular Kids Club kids who are ages 1 - 13+ (plus the various moms who come). But it all worked out fine and pretty soon we'll have a system figured out for future Kids Clubs on Wednesday afternoon.

And to add to the craziness, a major rain storm passed through right when Teresa was telling the Bible story. The rain and hail on the tin roof made it almost impossible to be heard! But she just kept on going as if nothing was happening and the children miraculously paid attention!

But we are glad to say that since Wednesday, a couple of guys from ER worked hard to put in flourescent lighting and a drop ceiling, which will help tremendously to lower the noise level and provide better lighting! Thanks, Bill and Mike! We appreciate your hard work!

Back to Wednesday - it was also a special day as we handed out Samaritan's Purse boxes. To all of you out there who have participated in the Samaritan's Purse program of filling shoe boxes with gifts for children in third world countries, we THANK YOU! We wish that you could join us on this end - handing out the boxes and seeing how happy all the children - it's really wonderful time and the boxes really are special for them. THANK YOU again!

I've included a couple of photos from Wednesday. If you'd like to see more, please click HERE and you will go to an on-line album to see more photos.

AND PLEASE PRAY for the Vacation Bible School which will be held there at the dump NEXT WEEK Tuesday to Friday. A team from a church near Atlanta, GA, will be coming to provide a four-day VBS for the children. It's always a wonderful time and a great way to reach out to the children and their families. A hearty "Thank You" to the team from Crabapple for coming.

The "Cedula"

Today we spent most of the afternoon working on the piece of paperwork for Nathan that I was dreading the most - his "cedula" - an identification card and number that all Ecuadorians are required to have for anything he might want to do - including having a bank account, travel or purchase anything like a car or house. At this point, we mostly need the cedula so that we can get Nathan's Ecuadorian passport so that we can travel with him. So this was really important, but we also knew that it would be a long drawn-out process that neither one of us really wanted to do.

We can say that all went smoothly - without a hitch. However, it took a long time - we arrived at the civil registry at 12:30 pm. We knew that the window to get a ticket didn't open until 1 pm, but we thought we should get there "early" - we were almost the last in line! And they only accept and process a certain number of applicants at a time (I think I counted around 50 people when the man stopped taking any more applicants for the afternoon).

From there we had to go stand in another room to have someone look at Nathan's fingers (for fingerprints later in the process). And then it was the LONG wait while someone typed all of the applicant's information (parents, date of birth, location of birth, etc.) into the computer. Mind you there was only one person doing this and one computer for this to be done. And supposedly Nathan's information was already in the computer system somewhere since we had already been to the civil registry shortly after his birth to get a birth certificate. But I guess they still need to type it all in again.

Then once the man typed everyone's data into the computer, we had to then wait to have our name called (in the order that we had stood in line outside) and wait to have Nathan fingerprinted (they only did his index finger thankfully) and then wait again to have his photo taken for his id. And then wait once again until the id was laminated and then wait again until they called out people's name in the order we had stood in line (the original one). Have I said "wait" enough? We finally walked out of there at 3:30 pm.

And we can also say that Nathan behaved himself very well! He was thrilled because there were people all around and he could watch, observe and smile at anyone who gave him the time of day. He even made friends with another little girl there and tons of fun laughing with her. She was a little more serious and wasn't sure how to respond, but Nathan sure enjoyed it. He even took a nap in the midst of all the people around him.

We are glad that this task is done! Santi assures me that getting his Ecuadorian passport won't be nearly as long and drawn-out! We will see! Once we get his passport, we will be basically done with all of Nathan's paperwork! YEA! And able to travel with him.

Below are some photos - to see more photos, click here (you will go into an on-line album)

Here we have the line of people outside the civil registry when we arrived. We thought we were arriving early!


For those of you who can figure out Spanish, here is the instruction sheet posted on the wall on what paperwork you need for the process of getting your "cedula" (you can click on the photo to make it larger)



I couldn't resist snapping a photo of this school-girl standing in line in front of us . . .


Nathan entertained himself by trying to take his socks off


And then he got really excited when he found a friend who was just his size!



She wasn't sure what to think!


Nathan is checking out his hard-earned identification card! I promised Santi that I will guard this card with my life because we don't want to go through that process again anytime soon!

Link to more Father's Day photos

If you would like to see more photos from our Father's Day weekend, I have posted them in an on-line album on our Facebook page. Please click here.

Let the games begin!

HCJB has a intramural tournament every year between the various departments at their radio station and the hospital in Quito. The games include basketball and soccer. Santi is playing again this year on the ISD (Information Systems Department) team and the tournament started this past Saturday.

Nathan and I went to see daddy play and enjoy some time with our friends Paul & Susan. As you can see from the photos, we also found another interesting friend, while watching the game - a llama! The place we were at had two of them wandering around. Even though llamas are prevalent here, it's not like we see them every day. Nathan wasn't sure what to think of the llama!

In the midst of everything, we did manage to see Santi score the only goal for his team (they tied with the other team).

And I was just happy to take Santi home all in one piece with only a little scratch on his knee (its not unusual for him to sprain an ankle or need a run to the ER for an x-ray! He does like to play hard).

We enjoyed the beautiful weather and some time together with the beautiful views of Quito and the mountains around us. And any time Santi gets to play sports, he's a happy camper!

Wishing . . .

. . . my wonderful husband the best first Father's Day!

Computer Workshop

It's sometimes hard to find a computer guy in action - but I had the perfect opportunity on Monday. Santi was asked to provide a "computer maintenance" workshop for a group of radio station managers from around Ecuador (and one guy came from Peru).

This week HCJB is providing various radio training for our radio partners in Latin America. These are small little radio stations reaching out to their communities. Most of them have very little resources and HCJB is devoted to helping them through training, giving technical support and providing programming through the ALAS satellite network.

So I was able to catch Santi in action as he was explaining the various hardware that a computer has (don't ask me to explain it here as I probably couldn't!). He also gave information on various software available as well as ways to keep your computer clean from viruses.

I was invited to have lunch with the group and it was interesting to hear where all these people were from - one man came all the way from Peru - traveling days just to get here. Another young man, from the Saraguro indians way south in Ecuador, had traveled 12 hours by bus all night in order to attend the week-long seminars. Two people from HCJB's station in Guayaquil (the costal city of Ecuador) came to participate. And one man, from a radio station reaching into Ecuador's jungles, arrived, celebrating 25 years of being on the air!

Check this out!

To read a great article written by Teri Newburn, about the kids club at the dump - please click here.

Teri and I have worked together for years with the Kids Club at the dump - she is a high school math teacher at Alliance Academy International here in Quito. We have had so much fun working together, both with the high school students and also seeing all the little kids grow up in the club.

She has gone the extra mile this year, taking on extra work in organizing things and being there faithfully every week, while I have been out with my pregnancy and then with Nathan. I'm gradually getting back into the swing of things but I'm so grateful to Teri for all her hard work and keeping things going.

Please pray for us as we're working to get the club organized and started up again for the summer months. . . .our first club will be June 18, followed by a VBS with a team from GA the next week. We don't have many of the high school students here for the summer, so sometimes it's a challenge to have enough volunteers to help. Additionally, we have higher attendance (70 children or more) because they are out of school and are more available to come.

But we are thrilled to be able to keep the club going through the summer months and also to provide a VBS for the children - mother's also come with their children and participate. We find that the week with the children helps us to get to know them better and also that it's a great evangelistic tool as they invite friends and family too!

PRAY FOR US AS WE PLAN!

You can easily see . . .

. . . what Nathan's new favorite hobby is!

Family Gathering

This past Saturday we joined Santi's extended family during a special lunch held at his uncle Hernan's house. We enjoyed a great meal and lots of fellowship and Nathan enjoyed being passed around by all his second cousins!

In fact, we hardly even got to see Nathan, but as you can see he enjoyed all the attention - especially when being held by his cousins.

Everyone spent a lot of time trying to figure out who Nathan looks like - me or Santi . . . the verdict is that it's hard to tell!