Spring 2008

Action packed, only begins to describe our spring in Cuenca. The last week in March, a Taylor University freshman, here on a short mission trip, tried to impress his classmates with his “Survivor” savvy and was lost for a day and a night at a 13,000 foot elevation in the Cajas National Park above Cuenca. After an grueling search and rescue effort, the young man was located and brought to safety.

In keeping with their heritage of excellence, Dr. Skip Trudeau, dean of students and Dr. Chris Bennett, associate provost and dean of international programs at Taylor University, abandoned their busy schedules and flew to Ecuador to offer apologies to the mayor, the city officials, the search and rescue leaders and to our church family. This gesture of humility, once again, solidified our confidence in Taylor’s high standards of academic integrity, one of North America’s finest higher educational institutions.

On the heels of this event we received a 32 member graduating team from the Bethel Church School of Ministry, from Redding California. This group, who moved in the true Spirit of Jesus, ministered in Riobamba, Cuenca and Guayaquil. The above photo shows a ministry time in Cuenca- below, some team members doing some prophetic art during worship time. The pastor of the Riobamba church confirmed that a woman in his fellowship was healed of leukemia in response to prayer from the Bethel students. PTL!

In early April, while the Redding team was still here, we received a GHO gynecology team led by Dr. Ross Rumph and Mary, his lovely wife. Ross stayed on a second week and spearheaded the efforts of the 1st Women in Medicine & Dentistry team from Global Health Outreach.

Simultaneously, we were also enjoying the company of Rachel and Ricky Guido, our niece and nephew from North Carolina, who were translating for the various medical and ministry teams and visiting their friends in Cuenca. They did a fantastic job, and we love having them in our empty nest.

A New Ministry

In mid April we decided to investigate the need or an orphanage in Cuenca. In spite of being told for years that there was no pressing need for children at risk in Cuenca and southern Ecuador, what we discovered was startling and sad. Every facility we visited in Cuenca, was under-staffed, over-worked and under-funded. In 2007,only 31 children in all of Ecuador were adopted in spite of the 230,000 'orphans' who live here!

Paola Hermoza's entire family followed Marilyn and I here from Lima, Peru 11 years ago. A young woman with a burden for orphans and abused children, Paola set out interviewing orphanage directors, social service administrators, doctors, lawyers, social workers and even interviewed the director of the women’s prison here in Azuay province. To a person, everyone she interviewed pleaded for assistance and concurred that, because of the strength of the Family Health Foundation and the decades of stability of the Verbo church, a children’s home founded by us could rescue many precious lives of children at risk. We also believe that this thrust toward mercy and social justice could impact our entire city and province with the gospel in action. (Mt.25:40)
We presented a proposal to the executive board of the foundation. Our orphanage proposal was enthusiastically received and unanimously approved. Preliminary government approval came rapidly, due both to the solid history of the Family Health Foundation and the diligent efforts of Paola. We then presented the vision to the church and six couples immediately volunteered to work as house parents or assist in any way they could. The time table we projected had us receiving our first children in September, but it seems God had another idea!
On June 1, the Lord dropped 8 children on our door step. Suffering unmentionable abuse at the hands of their demonized father, these eight siblings were filled with fear and anxiety. Their mother fled in terror, when their father repeatedly raped one of the children in front of the others, and then threatened to sell them into child prostitution.

So now, our well articulated plan could not wait for our carefully scheduled timetable. We kicked it into high gear, believing God for provision. The Verbo church family rallied with clothing and temporary housing. Family Health Foundation, treated the two youngest for pneumonia, provided medicine to treat all 8 children for lice and scabies and pregnancy tested one of the older siblings.

Temporary housing was found to meet the immediate need, but we needed a home closer to town where our psychologist, social worker, and other care givers could begin the long-term healing we had originally envisioned. In the beginning of this quest, we made a commitment to Jesus to care for these children as HE wanted them cared for.

Paola’s contacts quickly found us a couple who were willing to rent their large house for $800 per month. That amount seemed beyond our reach, but in faith we looked at the house and offered them $500, the amount we had originally budgeted for our first home. Raul and his wife, Etelvina, who attends a Verbo women’s bible study, were moved by our heart for orphans, and agreed to rent to us for our $500 budget amount. On July 1 we are the new tenants of a beautiful house in Cuenca, near the church building and a big market - God is faithful!
After we interviewed the potential house parents on Saturday, June 14, we found the perfect couple to care for these 8 precious children. Yuri and Maria del Carmen have a two year old daughter, Rebekah, and because of a health condition will not have other children of their own. Yuri has always wanted lots of children and Maria feels called by God to be a mother of many.I had the privilege of leading Maria del Carmen to the Lord a number of years ago. Since that time, this couple has been an integral part of the Verbo church family. Maria del Carmen has helped Marilyn with the medical brigades, and then went on to work in the Physical Therapy department at our clinic. We are confident this couple can help foster the wholeness and healing these battered siblings need and deserve.

On Sunday, June 15, Maria del Carmen brought all the children to church, and the oldest sister, Daniela, gave her heart to the Lord. We know this is the first fruits of our obedience to the Lord’s command to care for the orphans and fatherless. (James 1:27)

-Please pray for God’s provision of furniture, bedding, appliances, dishes and the plethora of items we will need to make this house a home.
-Pray the authorities will take the father’s crimes seriously and detain him accordingly.
-If God moves you to participate financially please send your tax deductible checks to AIM- and note "for the orphanage", the address is at the bottom of the page. Or you can give by clicking on the donate button on this page as well. By all means, if you would like to help us in a hands on way, we would appreciate your help on a short term mission.

On mission with you - John

Micah Daniel

Our new little boy is here! He was born after a longish 9 hour labor on June 4th - we were all expecting a quick one like the last time, but Lisa hung in there, working hard and he weighed in at 8 lbs 10 ozs and is a little sweetheart. He loves to sleep and eat and hasn't been fussy at all. This is lovely, but not much need for Grandma to walk and cuddle. However, we do have the big sisters who need to eat, go to the playground, and snack and swim. So, never fear- I have been busy. God has blessed us and we are very thankful.

We are always interested in learning the names of our grandchildren. Our son-in-law firmly believes that information should be shared on a need to know basis, and nobody needs to know the name of the child until the child is born. :o) So, his name is the same as our third son, Joel's two middle names. That was a pleasant surprise- we have loved those names for 21 years now!

Here he is looking like a little peanut, sleeping like a baby.

Internet Issues

Well, this has been crazy- I notified Google about an issue with Google reader, and they canceled my account . . . which meant I couldn't get into our blog- so that meant days trying to figure out how to get that fixed. Thankfully, I found a "forum" that someone in the empire of Google pays attention to! So, we're back. YAY !!

2008 !!!

Well, doing this little review of last year really brings home how bad I am at carrying around my camera and rarely taking a picture! I have been waiting for people to help me out with some pictures of events, and have decided, boring as it may be without a picture, it is time to move on before I lose even more time.

I think I'll update categories for the time being, because this has started out as one of our busiest years ever. Up to April 26 we had 5 different medical teams down from the US- those 4 months were a whirlwind of organizing, emailing, and working long hours. After we arrived from our Christmas with the kids, we received our first team within the week. We started with a small group of pre-med students from Taylor University students accompanied by two orthopedic surgeons and ended with the first ever Women in Medicine and Dentistry team from GHO. We were honored to be selected as the site to host this team, and were so blessed to get to know and work along side these wonderful people.