Last Week's Kids Club at the Dump

I have been staying in touch with Michelle and Violeta - the two girls in our high school group who help with the Kids Club at the dump each week. Last week was spring break week at Alliance Academy so we didn't have a Kids Club planned.

Nevertheless, Michelle and Violeta decided to go ahead and go out there with the high school's chaplains and some other students for a "Ministry Day" - we are so proud of these girls for taking this initiative to spend their holiday time out at the dump and to give time to the children there.

Here is what they had to say:

Ministry Day! This week it was spring break vacation and most of the students were not able to join us. There was a ministry day which included a visit to the dump in the afternoon. About ten newcomers were able to join in with our fun and we had a small kids club this week. We played awesome games with the kids and then had time for singing. After the singing the story was told, it had to do with the parable of the lost coin. Then the kids did a craft which was a frog origami, and after that we sang the frog song. As we finished up, we decided to play some soccer and more games. While some of us stayed up and swept the kids club room, we took so much trash out of there, the floor can actually be seen now. The afternoon finally finished up with us handing out the bread and taking them home. Thank you All for your prayers.!

Bottle Brush Tree

Several people mentioned that the tree in my previous post is probably a bottle brush tree - I guess they are seen in the US too. Today on our walk, I thought I'd take a close-up photo of the blooms for your enjoyment.

And at the end, I have also included a photo of the huge eucalyptus trees outside of our condo community. Eucalyptus trees are very prevalent here in the Andes mountains and grow to be very tall. They also grow very quickly. You can trim them down and within months it is growing back again. These trees are my view outside my kitchen window and they make me feel like I'm in a woods - especially with the wind blowing. The trees also smell wonderfully.

Walking . . .

. . . with Nathan seems to be quite an adventure! Since the weather has gotten much better and Nathan has been off of oxygen during the day, we have been able to get out almost daily to take a walk which has been good for both of us.

Nathan loves his stroller and usually falls asleep. And I have decided to start bringing my camera along because it seems that we see so many interesting things during the walk in our neighborhood. Here are a few photos from this week!

Here we have Nathan in his stroller, all set to go!


GOATS - Yes, there is a family who brings their herd of goats through our neighborhood every day! Today, the lady was telling me that she had three baby goats at home that were just four days old. Did you know that the mama goat always has 3 baby goats at a time and that they have babies every 6 months? That was something I learned while talking and walking with the goat herder lady today.



MOUNTAINS - it seems that no matter where you go in the city of Quito, you are surrounded by the beautiful Andes mountains. Don't forget that Quito is at 9,300 ft. altitude, so the mountains you see are even higher than that!



TREES - this tree is rather unique. I have no idea what it is called. Maybe someone out there knows what kind of tree it is?


CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS - it seems that there is constant construction going on near our house. I thought this door was really unique - I had never seen one like it before. And the stack of pavers out front is interesting - I wonder how they will design their sidewalk when it's all done?


DRIVER'S ED - in the past year or two, Ecuador finally started a driver's education program. We are all very much relieved as it was very needed . . . any of you who have been here to Quito know how crazy the traffic is. I can't necessarily say that the required driver's education course is improving things, but we hope it is! This fleet of cars (there were actually six cars in all but I couldn't catch them all in one photo) descended upon us on Monday when we were taking our walk! For some reason, they like to use our neighborhood to practice.


AND FLOWERS - I couldn't resist taking photos of these pretty flowers! With a year round growing season here in Ecuador, we are very blessed to see flowers all the time! With all the rain we have had, they are out in abundance!

Three Months Old

Nathan turned 3 months on Tuesday and he also had his monthly appointment with the pediatrician. Thanks for all your prayers. All went well. The doctor is just thrilled with his progress.

Nathan now weighs 13 lbs. 8 oz. and is 62 cm long (when he was born he was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 52 cm long to give you an idea of how much he has grown).

And he did well with his vaccine even though he did scream for a while afterward - the doctor teasingly said that this is about the age of children he becomes increasingly unpopular with the children! I can see why!

Nathan can continue to be off of oxygen during the day. We try to put him on it during the night, but he now knows what it's like to NOT have the tube in his nose and more often than not, he manages to take it off while he's sleeping.

Otherwise, we are just waiting for our appointment with the cardiologist later on in April and for the ultrasound he will do which will indicate to us whether the duct in Nathan's lung has closed and if the pressure in his lungs has improved.

And we just love being his parents - we enjoy seeing Nathan's personality come out almost daily and it brings us so much joy to see him smile, giggle, coo, talk, slobber and do all the fun little things that 3 month olds do!

Kids Club at the dump

I so much appreciated reading this article written by two of the girls in our high school group who do the Kids Club every week on Weds. What a blessing to have read this report.

First of all, to see how our high schoolers have done such a great job this year - they have learned so much and grown so much - now they are able to practically do the Kids Club on their own and do a great job of it!

And secondly, to see the impact that they are having on the children's lives! To us as leaders, this is a special moment . . . something that we have been working towards, mentoring them into ministry!

Read on to hear what Michele and Violeta had to say about last week's Kids Club at the dump.

The Fantastic Five!

This week we were a little bit short handed, due to illnesses, homework and difficult circumstances some of the usual students/volunteers were not able to accompany us this week. Our all time sponsor had fallen weakly ill with the terrible flu that has been affecting our entire community for the past two months.

So, this wednesday it was only a group of five: The Fantastic Five. Surprisingly more dump kids decided to show up, all of the tables were filled with little boys and girls wanting to sing and play and color.

Realizing that we were a bit short handed, we all stepped right in to do the songs, the story and the crafts. With no guitar and increasingly loud voices we sang of Jesus's majesty.

The story came up next and it told of the grandeous courage Jesus had when he was viciously tempted by Satan after a fast of forty days. Wouldn't we all be so hungry that we would immediately turn the rocks into bread? As we told the kids, Jesus resisted the devil and he immediately fleed from him.

Then the fantastic five joined in with the kids in the memorization of Psalm 121:1-2. After a continuous repeating, most of the kids had memorized the hand motions along with the verse.

The craft then was passed out, it was a world map with a heart and cross that was to be pasted on the side of south america were Ecuador stands today. It is to be a reminder of the love Jesus has for this country and for these kids.

Finally, the kids gathered up to pray and lined up outside to receive a deliciously nutritious snack. Each of the five took many of the kids home, and some of took them back to the site where the homes used to stand.

We slowly began approaching the destroyed bricks, the torn down walls, were their memories and lives used to stand for at least the past 2 years. The girl who was walking with us showed us her new home, a 4 foot shack made of wood boards and cardboard were now a family of six lives.
A room the size of a bathroom that holds all that they now have. I couldn't help but imagine the cold at night they had to endure and the rain penetrating their home. But that is the reality of it. These people must stand in the midst of the fog and drizzling rain because thats all which envelops their home.

Please continue to pray for these families!!
They are so grateful for the warm clothes they received, but they still have a long road ahead in rebuilding their homes.
Please pray that they wont be bitter at God because of their circumstances but that they will understand that HE takes care of them!
Please pray that we will become a true example of Jesus's love in all of their lives.
Also please pray for the well being of the students/volunteers and our sponsor.

THANKYOU for your prayers!!

Happy Easter!

We want to wish everyone a wonderful Easter - a very special time of the year to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour.

We will be going to the Hogar Betania (the Bethany Home for the elderly) tomorrow. Or rather, I probably will go and Santi will stay home with Nathan. We'll share the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus, by using a dozen Easter eggs filled with various things to represent the story. Some of you may have seen this before - the set I have is done by Family Life - and a good friend of ours gave it to us to use with the Kids Club (Thanks, Sam & Karen!). And yes, normally you would use this with children, but I figure that the elderly at the Hogar Betania will enjoy it too!

some of the items/object lessons in the eggs include:

a donkey - Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem
coins - the betrayal of Jesus
cup - the Last Supper
praying hands - the Garden of Gethsemani
crown - the "King of the Jews"
nails - the crucifixion
stone - the stone moved away from the tomb

AND . . .the last egg is EMPTY! what a fun way to represent the empty tomb!

We'll hand out the dozen eggs and give them an opportunity to open them and tell us what is in them. They do so much better when they can actively participate in the service (i.e. they at least stay awake! smiles).

We wish you a blessed time together with friends and family tomorrow as you celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour!

and here is another photo of our own little Easter bunny

Good News!

We stopped by the doctor's office this week so that we could weigh Nathan. We needed to find out how much he weighs so that we know how much of the Synergis vaccine to buy for this month's injection. This will be the third month for the injection which is to prevent respiratory infections in premature babies and babies like Nathan with pulmonary problems. The plan is to give him a fourth and final injection next month.

Nathan now weighs 13 lbs. 4 oz.! The doctor was very pleased with this. It also means that we now need to buy two full vials of the vaccine (at $861 per vial! hard to believe).

And they also checked Nathan's saturation level in his blood among other things. I have been disconnecting him from the oxygen tank for about 2 - 3 hours at a time during the day. Well, his levels were so good that they told us that we can now keep him off of oxygen during the day. We only need to keep him connected while he is sleeping during the night! We are so excited about this news! And Nathan is too, I'm sure, because it means he doesn't have to have that tube around his head and stuck in his nose and the messy tape trying to keep it all in place!

So we are glad about this good news, knowing that things are progressing for the better! Thank you all for praying! We have so felt the love of God's people during this time. We are truly blessed.

We will still have the ultrasound scheduled for the end of April to find out if the duct in Nathan's lung is closing or not. Please continue to pray about that.