Handful of Hope in Haiti

Packed with prayer and care at the HCJB Global Technology Center, 100 small solar-powered, fixed-tuned radios are now in Haitians’ hands, thanks to members of a medical emergency response team from Ecuador now seeing patients in the Caribbean nation.

The SonSet® radios, pre-tuned to local Christian radio outlets, are working well, said Hermann Schirmacher, a German engineer who is leading the nine-person team from HCJB Global Hands in Ecuador. “At least two of the four pre-tuned frequencies usually come in very well,” he explained.

The sets were brought from the U.S. by fellow engineer, New Zealander Alex Weir, even as the medical professionals had arrived with Schirmacher from Ecuador on Saturday, March 20.

To read the rest of the story, please click HERE.

And to see MANY MORE PHOTOS, please click HERE.

Field Trip

A little while ago, Nathan went his first field trip with the kids from the little day care that he attends about 9 hours a week. The day care is called House of Dreams (in English, no less) and is a great place for Nathan to play, learn and develop his social skills while I try to get a few things done at the Extreme Response office or run errands or just do whatever else needs to be done!

Anyways, the kids all went to a "finca" (little farm), located very near to the actual equator line - about 15 minutes north of the city. Because of where our house is located, it was easier for me to take Nathan directly to the finca rather than meet the group at the day care. And I was glad that I went as it was so much fun to see the little kids running around, looking at ducks, turtles, rabbits and birds and just having a great time. Here are a few photos from the outing . . .

This is Nathan and Bettina - the daughter of one of our missionary friends from Switzerland - they were checking out the ducks!

I just love this photos of all the kids climbing the fence so that they can see - I'll let you all guess at who was the first to climb up!?!?!

Nathan was really fascinated with the turtle and talked about it for days.



Getting a group photo with lots of little kids is not the easiest thing!


Then, climbing the trees became the next fun thing to do!

Family Yard Day

On Sunday, we worked outside as a family - trying to clean up our yard some and just do all those odds and ends that need to be done. We've tried to do this before, but it always seems like Nathan gets bored really quickly and starts getting in the way, or wants to go inside or just wants to play.

But this time, we really enjoyed a couple of hours outside as a family, with Nathan helping to rake and pick up the cut grass. He later got distracted with all the seeds from the eucalyptus trees we have around and started collecting those (which was totally fine as it kept him "busy" for quite a while). In the meantime, Isabella just hung out in her infant seat in the stroller, happily staring at the trees and the skies (which Nathan ever would have done at her age).

It was fun to be together as a family and also get some work done! The yard looks extra nice today after a nice rain last night.

More info on the HCJB Team in Haiti

A second team of HCJB Global healthcare workers plans to travel from Ecuador to Haiti on March 20 to assist victims of the Jan. 12 devastating earthquake, even as team leader Hermann Schirmacher is exploring mission training possibilities there. The first team of physicians worked alongside Samaritan’s Purse Jan. 15-24 at the Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM) Hospital in Port-au Prince.

“When the first team came, there was a lot of chaos and trauma, especially during the first few days,” said Melissa Strickland, communications liaison at Samaritan’s Purse. “What we’re seeing now is mostly infections, diseases and things like that.”

Flying north from Quito, the nine-member team will again work with Samaritan’s Purse and BHM for two weeks. Team members include five medical doctors, two nurses and two engineers.

To read more . . . please click HERE.

Isabella is 6 months old today!

It's hard to believe that 6 months have gone by since Isabella joined our family. . . . and she's hit several milestones: rolling over, scooting around (not quite crawling), almost sitting up, cooing and laughing and most recently, eating solids (rice and oat cereal and bananas - this week we're going to start on avocados). She truly is so much more calm than Nathan ever was . . . .yesterday we spent the afternoon as a family working out in the yard and she happily played in her stroller, looking at the trees and the sky and never cried once! Nathan would never have been content to do that. We are grateful for the gift of little Isabella in our lives!

And here's a little reminder of our sweet Isabella when she was born!

Haiti Relief

HCJB Global is sending a 2nd team of doctors, nurses and other staff to Haiti today. They will be there until April 3, doing relief work at the Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital (where the 1st team went). Please pray for this team as they travel today and for God to use them while in Haiti.

Click here for more information on the Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital.

As I have more updates, I will post them here.

Changing lives for the Kingdom . . .

Angel Tapia tells of seeing God work in big ways and small since he decided to follow Christ while a patient at Hospital Vozandes, HCJB Global's hospital in Quito.

There was the day he needed bus fare for the trip into Quito for a checkup. But Angel’s wife, Patricia, wanted to buy a chicken for lunch. Seemingly a small matter … and even smaller when you consider that Angel was near death when he came under the care of missionaries Dr. Dick Douce and nurse Rita Whaley.

Please click here to read the entire story.

Wednesday is Kids Club day at the Dump . . .

. . . . and that was where you would have found me this afternoon - hanging out with a great group of high school students who do almost the entire club by themselves . . . . we start with lining the kids up outside the dump, walking into the Extreme Response day care center together (which is where we hold our Kids Club now - a huge improvement from years past when we held it in a run-down, rat-infested building). The children work on "activity sheets" once they are seated at the tables - these sheets are anything from practicing the English word green, to matching things or whatever. It gives them a chance to settle down a bit while we get things going for the club.

Then the students jump right in with songs, a Bible story (we just finished up the series on how Jesus healed the paralytic with the high school students acting out the story), memory verses (the children just finished memorizing Psalms 23 - today we started Mark 10:38), and a craft and coloring page.

As the children leave the club, they receive a cheese sandwich!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that our high school comes from Alliance Academy here in Quito. And we have quite a mix of nationalities - students from the US, Korea and Ecuador. It's fun to watch them all interact! We are also seeing the students grow in leading the songs, memory verses, etc. . . . a great thing to see!

Every Wednesday is definitely a pick-me-up as it's great to get out of the house, and doing something for others. Most of the children who come to the club, live around the Quito dump and their families are somehow involved in the "recycling" process - digging through trash looking for things to be sold for recycling (they also look for food and things that they can use for their huts/homes). Today, I was enjoying watching Ana and Karla - they are sisters who have come from the very beginning (probably 5 years now) and we have known them for a while now. Ana was just a baby when she started coming and Karla (not very big herself) would bring Ana on her back. They now have a little brother that they bring with them - his name is Nixon. He's two! Last week, I asked Ana where they are living now and she said we're hiding in a place down the hill and we have no electricity or water . . . we never know the difference we are going to make in these little ones' lives.

Ana is the girl on the right, in the purple striped shirt, in the first photo above.

Thanks for praying for us on Wednesday afternoons! To see more photos of the Kids Club, please click here.

keeping up with my end of the bargain. . .

. . . . and writing another post with some photos of our lives the past few days.

Here is Isabella enjoying some play time in mommy's office at Extreme Response. We spend a couple of hours here almost every day while Nathan is playing with his friends at a small day care around the corner.

Here is what Nathan has been spending his time doing lately - this was a rare moment that he actually sat down for quite a while (like 15 minutes or so and with some success - yahoo!). And I couldn't resist a couple of photos (he will probably hate me when he's 18). He also managed to find the sticker supply and use it abundantly! I'm also very grateful for the portable DVD player and basket of books to keep him entertained during these wonderful moments (sigh - hopefully the season of our lives will be over soon!).



Last night, we enjoyed having Dwight and Susie Lind over for dinner. They are HCJB missionaries at WRN - a radio network along the US/Mexican border. Susie also used to work in the offices in Colorado Springs and she and I planned HCJB Ecuador Tours together for many years (via email and phone). We figured out that this was the first time we had actually met here in Quito. Isa was glad to have another "grandma" to spoil her a bit (Nathan was in a rare BAD mood and wanted nothing of photos).

On Sunday, we went to the Hogar Betania (Bethany Home for the Elderly) where we held the Sunday morning services with singing and a devotional. Nathan loves to help hand out the "pancitos" (little breads) at the end of the service (and he usually eats one himself - and walks around saying "pan").



This is Isa doing her favorite thing in her crib - PLAYING! She enjoys it almost too much and forgets to sleep sometimes during the night - mommy has decided to pretty much ignore her and go back to sleep when she decides to play at 3 a.m.!

trying to keep up with it all . . .

As you all can tell from the lack of new posts, our blog somehow isn't making it to my priority list these days! The funny thing is, I write posts for our blogs all the time as I go throughout my day - the only problem is that I'm not sitting at my computer and by the time I am sitting at my computer, my mind is in a fog and I can't seem to remember what I thought about all day long . . . . I think it has something to do with trying to keep up with a 2 year old and a 6 month old.

But we love hearing from so many of you and we know that you're checking the blog from time to time. . . . so I will try to keep up with my end of the bargain and be more faithful at posting.

Nathan is a busy two year old (okay, he's always been a busy boy, but something about being two has made him even busier!). He is learning new vocabulary daily and repeats words that we say all the time. I sometimes feel like there is an echo in the house. He seems to be bi-lingual so far - understanding whatever we say in either English or Spanish. He likes to count to ten (mostly in Spanish) and his favorite word lately is "banana" - said with an accent on the very first syllable - which is funny considering that this is not how you say it in either language. I guess he had to add his own twist to the word.

We are also in throes of potty training with Nathan - some days are good, others are just plain bad. I keep reminding myself that this is a process and a season and it will end some day (hopefully before I pull out all my hair).

Isabella will be 6 months old on March 22. She is the sweetest little girl you have ever seen. I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom . . . she truly is really happy and smiley most of the time and isn't very demanding at all. We are working with starting her on rice cereal and she's doing great (as you can see by the photo below). The craziest thing that she does is waking up in the middle of the night to play in her crib. . . . she just plays, coos, giggles, and chews on her thumb. She doesn't cry, she's not hungry, she doesn't want out. She's just awake. She'll do this for about 1 - 2 hours and then eventually go back to bed. It's starting to drive mom crazy and we keep praying that she will grow out of this stage real soon!

Santi and I are busy with the details and preparations for our trip to the US on May 13 to visit supporting churches, friends and family. We look forward to the time visiting and sharing about what God is doing here in Ecuador. (we don't look forward to traveling with two little kids - sorry - just have to be honest about that!). We will be in California, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, with all our weekends booked at our supporting churches - thank you everyone for allowing us to share!

It will be the first time in 14 years that Ruth has been in the US for the 4th of July! It'll be fun to see a real fireworks show! And Santi is excited about the possibility of visiting Cedar Point in OH with one of our friends (Ruth will not be joining him as she does not share his love of roller coasters!).

Here are some photos from recent days:

Nathan giving his sister a piggy-back ride


Isabella's first try at cereal! I think she likes it!


Nathan isn't always this gentle with Isabella

My silly boy with his baker's hat made at day care!



Play with cars . . . a boy's favorite past-time!