Hugo Alberto and Samuel

We'd like to introduce you to some of the residents at the Hogar Betania (Bethany Home for the Elderly). All of the residents have such incredible stories and so much to share. Whenever we ask them about themselves, it seems like they want to talk forever. It is probably because they hardly ever have any one spend time just talking with them and they are so glad when someone takes an interest in them.

HUGO ALBERTO
Dr. Hugo Alberto was born in 1926. He just turned 88 years old on August 10 (which happens to be a national holiday here in Ecuador, so it's difficult to forget his birthday). He graduated from dental school in 1956 and spent over 26 years working in the Ecuadorian Air Force as a dentist. A year ago, he was baptized (there on the home's property) as a profession of his faith in Jesus and says that he's ready to go to heaven. Santi and he have become good buddies and he's always asking if Santi can help him walk in and out of the meeting room where we hold our services (he uses a walker/wheelchair combination most of the time). He has a brother who is still living but rarely comes to visit him.

SAMUEL

And Samuel is also a special person at the Hogar. We tried to ask various things about himself, but about the only thing he wanted to share with us is that he has been at the Hogar Betania from the time it was founded - the Hogar recently celebrated it's 25th anniversary so Samuel has been there for a long time . . . we aren't quite sure why he has been there so long nor what all his difficulties are, but we do know that he comes to the service very faithfully every Sunday and usually has a hug and a smile for all of us! He also arrives all dressed up in a suit and tie.

Today, Ennie and Tommy helped us out with both the music and preaching - it has been great to have their help over the summer months! THANK YOU, TOMMY & ENNIE!

Cruisin' Nathan

Nathan has reached the "cruising stage" - it wasn't enough for him to be crawling . . . he's now standing up, pulling himself up on things, trying to walk and basically getting into everything. He's also managed to climb up the stairs a couple of times! His new favorite thing is to stand up in his crib. . . which can be a bit distracting during nap time. He loves bath time too.

He had his 8 month checkup yesterday with Dr. Fernando - his doctors continue to be amazed at his progress - he is above average on the growth chart - weighing in at 19 lbs. 8 oz. And he's now 72 cm tall. The doctors can no longer hear the heart murmur that he had - so they are pretty sure that the small hole he had in his heart has now closed up and they are no longer concerned about his left lung. We continue to be very grateful for all the blessings that God has given us and for the miracle that God worked in Nathan's life and for so many of you who prayed and are praying for Nathan.

Here are a few photos of Nathan's recent activities -

Family Get Together In Colonial Quito

Last Saturday, we enjoyed a family "get-together" with Santi's family - all of his uncles and aunts were there. It was fun to see everyone and catch up with his cousins. We took a couple of photos of our dessert because it was so unique - we were just expecting a basic bowl of ice cream - imagine our surprise when it came out served on dry ice! Everyone enjoyed it!

The restaurant was located in Colonial Quito - right on the plaza where the Presidential Palace is along with a church and the municipal building. The President of Ecuador typically eats his lunch in the same restaurant. I didn't take any photos outside that night (as it was raining), but I have included a couple of photos of Colonial Quito from another occasion to give you an idea of the beauty of downtown Quito.

Photo of the church on the plaza

One of the streets that is just off the plaza


Our dessert! YUM!

Santi's uncle and aunt enjoying dessert!

Santi's mom with her ice cream!

Update for this week

I haven't been very good at keeping up with our weekly update . . . here are some items for this week.

1) Last night, Nathan and I had dinner with a team from MI - Lapeer Community Church. They are working hard with one of Extreme Response's partners called Remanso de Amor (Haven of Love), working to finish part of the church expansion project. It was great to see some familiar faces from past teams and to meet new team members.

2) the team will also be coming to our Kids Club at the dump today. . . . our last club of the summer months. I'm excited because one of the team members brought along his puppet show (thanks, Fred) and that will be exciting for the kids. I'll try to remember to take my camera to take photos today.

3) Santi is working on the next level of English class . . . he's moving along. He's in level 5 of 8. Keep praying for him as it makes for very long days and weeks for him. He goes to class every night from 6 - 8 pm after working all day at HCJB, in the Information Systems department.

4) Nathan continues to grow, learn and develop. He's now 8 months old. He has his 2 -month checkup on Friday with his pediatricians. He loves going and seeing Dr. Fernando and Dr. Jijon. Nathan is now crawling like crazy, pulling himself up on things, climbing stairs (can't figure out how to come back down) and basically getting into anything he can find, keeping mommy very busy.

5) We will soon be starting up our new CSO (Christian Service Outreach) group from Alliance Academy. This is the group of students who will be doing the Kids Club at the dump for the school year. Pray that our leadership will have wisdom as they read through the students' applications for the group. We are so glad to take on the mentorship of a new group of students this year, plus continue our ministry at the dump. The Bible stories that we will be presenting this year will come from the book of Acts.

6) Pray for preparations for the Hogar Betania (Bethany Home for the Elderly) service this 5th Sunday of the month. Tommy and Ennie Bowen will be helping us out with the service - THANKS GUYS! There are new residents at the Hogar and we aren't sure if they know Jesus as their Saviour. Additionally, the above mentioned team will be visiting the Hogar next week on Thursday - a chance to do something special for the residents. Pray for us as plan this activity with the team.

Thank you so much for praying and being a part of our support team . . . we appreciate you all so much!

Here are a few more photos from our time in Papallacta!

More photos of Papallacta

For more photos of our time in Papallacta, visit our on-line album on Facebook. Click HERE.

Weekend in Papallacta

I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed by the beauty of the country of Ecuador - living here in the mountains is probably my favorite place in the world.

Last weekend, we took some time to relax and hang out with some friends (Paul & Susan) and go to a town called Papallacta. We stayed at one of HCJB's guest houses up at their hydroelectric plant that "hangs" over the town. It's such a peaceful, restful place to go for a get-away!

We enjoyed the rain, the sunshine, the mountains, the flowers, scenery all around us, playing games, a fire in the fireplace, and great food and wonderful fellowship!

Here are some photos from the trip . . .

The view outside our window was spectacular!


Here's a little black bird who was enjoying these flowers right outside our door. . .


We decided to take a walk one morning and here's our group at the top of the hill over-looking the HCJB hydroelectric plant with the town of Papallacta in the background.


Here's a view of the plant from the bottom side with the penstocks coming down the hill.


Here's a shot of Nathan and Santi in front of the control panel inside the plant! We had to keep Nathan away from all the buttons!



And here are two photos of the two generators - can you guess which one is really old? Both of them run during the rainy season - the power produced by the generators is enough to keep HCJB's transmitter site in Pifo going, as well as provide some power for our hospital in Quito and to sell some power to the Ecuadorian electric company (providing funds to put back into HCJB's radio ministry).

a special phone call

About a week ago, our phone rang for about what seemed like the 20th time! I think I almost sighed as I reached out to pick up the phone.

On the other end of the line, a young girl shyly asked if she was speaking to Ruth Arteaga. I said yes and asked who she was. Turns out that our pediatricians (Dr. Jijon and Dr. Fernando) had given her our phone number so that she could call me and talk to me about our experience with Nathan and the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) that he was born with.

Fatima (the name of the young girl) has 3 weeks to go in her pregnancy and two months ago she found out that her little boy will be born with CDH. In his case, both his intestines and stomach have moved up into the lung cavity and he will need surgery shortly after birth just like Nathan did. She is worried about many of the same things that we faced when Nathan was born.

However, she faces many more challenges than we did - she is just 21 years old and alone. The father of her baby has abandoned her. She lives with her parents in a town called Ambato about 3 hours south of Quito and they have had to find a foundation who will help with the birth of her baby and the expenses that will come along with a baby born with CDH.

We talked for more than a half hour - she had many questions about what to expect after her baby was born . . . it turns out that the foundation is going to help her with the expenses of a c-section delivery in the same hospital that Nathan was born in as well as the surgery and the time that her baby will need in NICU. So it was easy for me to explain to her what our experience was with the doctors, nurses and staff at Hospital Metropolitano (wonderful people!).

Then we talked about the importance of putting our faith in God and that only He can give us a peace that passes human understanding in situations like this. She agreed with me and told me that even though she grew up a Catholic, she realizes that she can't get this peace from the church, but rather from our Almighty God. She had recently been to some evangelical meetings and felt such a peace there.

We said good bye . . .my heart burdened for this young girl of 21 years, who already knows that her baby will be born with difficulties. But also encouraged knowing that God is still using the circumstances of Nathan's birth (and the miracle of his life) to be a blessing and encouragement to others. I told her that I would plan to come and visit her when she has her c-section sometime the first week of September.

Please pray for Fatima as she faces this difficult time and pray for her unborn baby - that God will use the doctors and nurses at Metropolitano Hospital to help him be healthy. And pray for us that we would be an enouragement and help to her.

7 1/2 months and on the go . . .

Nathan is now 7 1/2 months old and has hit several milestones . . .

1) he is eating Gerber baby food along with his rice and oat cereal (he won't eat anything I make for him - mmmm, I'm not sure why).


2) he has tried the favorite of all babies - Cheerios! (he doesn't seem too sure about them yet)


3) he's sitting by himself


4) he started with the "military crawl" and is now truly crawling


5) he has two bottom teeth (with more on the way)


AND . . .

6) he likes peeled grapes but doesn't like bananas

7) he is starting to say "papa" and "mama" (or at least that's what WE think he's saying!)

8) he's figured out how to open doors

9) he knows what the light switch is for and likes to turn off lights when we walk out of a room

10) and he's learning what the word "no" means!

Nathan and friends

I know it's been ages since I've posted anything new. I'm not sure I can tell you what we've been busy doing, but would it help to say that Nathan has started crawling? Seems like my "free time" has almost completely vanished now!

I can already list some of things he's gotten into - he's figured out how to open drawers, he's gotten to extension cords and phone chargers (I guess I should baby-proof our floors better), he's figured out where our shoes are in our closet, he's found bits of papers and random things on the floor, he's found a couple of our door stops, he has found the buttons on our stereo system for our TV, he moved a flower pot . . . I'm sure I can list more things, but you get the idea . . . anything besides his toys seems to be interesting to him these days!

So . . . that's what I've been doing - chasing around after Nathan!

We have also been catching up with friends over the summer months. One of the things about being on the mission field is that change is a constant for us. And it seems the past year or so, that has been true for us as we have said goodbye to many of our good friends. It has left a big hole in our hearts - but we know it's time to also reach out to others and new people arriving to the field. We have enjoyed seeing Kelly again - she was a Summer Missionary who stayed with me a couple of summers ago. And our dear friend, Inez from CA who has been to Ecuador on HCJB tours now for a number of years! She was so excited to meet Nathan! We loved spending time with Roger and Lois - our good friends and co-volunteers at the Hogar Betania and great babysitters for Nathan.

Here are some photos of Nathan with our friends - it's been a joy to see all of you!

Nathan and Inez from California - we're so glad that she came on an HCJB Tour again - so much fun to see her!

With Roger & Lois - who are now living in the US - we miss you guys!

With Kelly - it's been great having you back for a summer!

And I threw in this photo with Mike - who is a missionary with his wife at Extreme Response. He just left for the states and will be gone for a month - we miss him and Carol too!

And then below are a couple of photos of Nathan and Roger hanging out near Santi's office - in one of the engineer's storage closets - could this be a sign of Nathan's future? He seems to be fascinated with the boxes and cables and wires and who knows what else they had in there!