Blessed By The Kids of FHC

For the past 10 days, we have had the wonderful opportunity to interact with the kids of FHC. Here, the pictures tell the story of how we have all been touched by these wonderful children:

Pouring Concrete in Latacunga

This past March, FHC opened their new home in Latacunga, which is about 2 hours south of Quito. Currently home to about 20 kids, this new facility is still very much under construction. The upper level has yet to be completed, and there are lots of work projects around the property.

During our 3 days in Latacunga, we were tasked with helping to pour a large concrete slab under a recently constructed carport. On the first day, we dug trenches and prepped the site for concrete.
On our second day of work, we laid rebar, gathered rocks, and helped by shoveling gravel and sand to be mixed with concrete. By the end of the day, the slab was a little over half poured.
The slab was completed on our third day of work and we returned to Quito with a sense of pride and accomplishment for our participation in such a worthy project!

Comments from Lorraine

Therapy for Children with Special Needs

Many of the children at FHC have Special Needs. A big part of the program is evaluating the children to determine if developmental delays exist and providing them with the help they need to function at the highest level possible. The Tia's work with the children in small groups on a daily basis. Each baby receives a full series of exercises to stimulate vision, hearing speech and physical development. If delays are noted they children are often referred to a local doctor who has donated his services without charge for to FHC for nineteen years.The child is evaluated and provided services by the FHC staff Psychologist or Physical Therapist.

Many opportunities exist for formal and informal therapies. FHS has a heated indoor therapy pool. Several members of our team had experiences with groups of children in the therapy pool. One group of teen age girls had very limited motor abilities and communicated with just sounds and body language. We learned to watch their expressions for signs of enjoyment or possibly fear. It was a new situation for us as adults. We felt as if God was working with us us as we tried to figure out what would work best. Sometimes they just wanted to be held and rocked. It was a joy to watch the girls move and laugh and splash with a freedom they cannot experience outside the pool.

A community group provided horse back riding therapy for children weekly at about half their usual rate. The large size and rhythm of the horse provides a secure sense of movement for children with a variety on special needs.

One day we saw the Physical Therapist teaching a group of toddlers how to walk. She had lined up the adult sized dining room chairs and had the children "cruising" from chair to chair.

The picture at the top of this section is of Clarita who is seven months old. She missed some of the milestones that are typical of a six month old so she receives individual physical therapy. The therapist is supporting Clarita in learning how to roll over and sit independently. She also does activities to stimulate her speech, hearing and vision. Look at the pictures with the blue exercise ball and you will see Clarita and the therapist working together. clarita does not need any help with her ability to smile!

The current economy has resulted in difficult budget conditions for FHC. They do not receive any government assistance for the children. One of the current concerns is the cost of the many hours of therapy needed to help the children function as capably and happily as possible.

Lorraine

Pouring Cement

In case you needed a laugh today, here's a video of Don's highly refined technique for emptying wheelbarrows full of sand and gravel.

You also might want to check our Latacunga posts-we've added pictures.

Weary

We are weary, but PA felt it was important to update those of you who are following this blog.

We finished the slab for the carport in Latacunga yesterday. I'm sure Cesar Augustus will miss his indentured servants.

Guess whose dirty knees these are. :)

We had arranged to have a traditional Ecuadoran dinner with the neighbors, who are long-time missionaries when we got home. We plan, God laughs.

Early Thursday morning, Claudia left our work team because she said she wasn't feeling well. For those of you who don't know Claudia well, she is a WORKER, so we knew it was probably bad. It was. She had the stomach flu, which she probably caught from one of the Quito babies who threw up on her on Tuesday. She spent the rest of the day hiding in Clark's room, trying to keep herself isolated and sleeping it off. We made a bed for her in the back of the bus and headed for Quito around 4:00.

The two-hour bus trip took over four hours because we were caught behind a terrible car accident on the two-lane highway back to Quito. We sat without moving for about an hour and then were diverted to a very scary side road where we scraped past other buses and semis for several miles before merging back onto the highway. We then had to change buses because the brakes were bad on ours. Fortunately, God was with us and we made it back to Quito without anymore incidents.

When we got back, Claudia and Jennifer (who was feeling queasy from fumes-both from the lacquer she used all day and the bus) went to bed, but the rest of us enjoyed a traditional Ecuadoran dinner of pork, llapingachos, mote (hominy), and a tasty flan with candied figs and cheese with the neighbors. They had some wonderful stories to share, and I hope somebody will share them on a future post.

This morning was spent working with the kids in the various houses. Claudia was feeling like a new woman and was able to join us. Kathy and Lorraine got back into the pool and did water therapy with three girls from Casa Fe. Unfortunately, Barbara was feeling under the weather and wasn't able to join them, but they had a great time with the girls. Lorraine has some great pictures to share with you.

We were surprised to find out that today was a holiday (the independence of Guayaquil?), so there was no school for the kids who normally attend. We took advantage of the opportunity to spend some extra time with the kids who are normally gone during school hours. Nancy has some great pictures of the toddlers playing today.

When the kids went down for a nap, we all loaded in the van (Barbara was doing better by then) and headed for Mitad del Mundo, or the equator!

They found guinea pigs there, as well as a poster advertising them. In case you're not aware of this, guinea pig or "cuy" is a typical dish in Ecuador.

When we got back, Melinda came down to show us how El Dia de los Disfuntos (The Day of the Dead) is traditionally celebrated in Quito. She made us Colada Morada (purple drink) and Guaguas de Pan (Baby Bread).


we lost Don and Nancy to the flu. They're both resting now and we're hoping that the rest of the group stays healthy for the flights approaching tomorrow (Barbara and I) and Sunday (the other ten).

Since it's my last night here, I just want to say what an amazing experience this has been. I had the opportunity to sit and talk with Lesly, who has cerebral palsy, today and get to know her better. I also got to take Carlos and Juan Jose for a walk around the property, so that they got to walk through leaves and branches and just be boys. It was wonderful. What a blessing to have had the opportunity to see the work the Vaughns are doing on behalf of these children, and to see the children thrive under the care of their "tias."

So while we are weary, and some of us are feeling downright horrible, we are also grateful. We shared communion with Clark tonight and had the opportunity to share the ways in which God has exceeded our expectations while we have here. I'm hopeful that the other members of the team will get on here and share their experiences. In the meantime, blessings to all of you who have prayed for us during this amazing experience. I look forward to seeing you all soon and ask you to pray for a safe and healthy trip to Peru for those who remain.

-Cindy

Unskilled Labor

We're still working on the cement slab for the carport. Cesar, or as Russ likes to call him, Cesar Augustus, is the head worker and doesn't like to give us breaks. We joke that we are his slaves. Yesterday we mixed and poured about 100 square feet of cement. MacGyver and MacGruber got called away from their skilled labor jobs because they were the only ones able to get the baskets of gravel and sand into the cement mixer.

Lorraine spent her day with the kids and was impressed by the level of care they are receiving at the Latacunga house. Barbara joined her for awhile and then came out to shovel sand.

Today we will return to finish the slab. Then we've decided to head back to Quito so we can maximize our time with the children. We'll upload pictures of Latacunga when we get better Internet access. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

-Pastor Andy with a little help from Cindy

First day in Latacunga

We began this morning in Quito, awaking at 6 in order to eat breakfast and have devotions. Jennifer Mohedano based the devotions on 1 Corinthian 12, where Paul describes the church as the body of Christ. Look below for Jennifer's take on who we are and what roles we fulfill as the body of Christ.

At 8 am we boarded a bus for Latacunga. Latacunga is 2 hours south of Quito, and is the second site of For His Children. In Latacunga, FHC cares for 19 children, mostly infants and toddlers, though 5 of the children are old enough to attend school. Clark Vaughn, one of the two CEOs of FHC - the other is his wife, Melinda - told us that they were asked by the judge and social workers who work on cases of abandoned children in the Latacunga area to begin a second site in this city. By housing the children here, the chances of reunifying families, reuniting children with their parents, is greater than if they were housed two hours away in Quito.

We arrived at 11 am, checked into the hotel - there is no guest house in Latacunga - and changed into work clothes. When we arrived, we ate a quick lunch and went to work. The house in Latacunga is well designed for the work of FHC, with a downstairs area with rooms for the children to sleep in, each with a private bathroom, a kitchen with industrial appliances, and wide hallways. The hallways provide plenty of room for two or more Tias - Spanish for Aunt, but meaning the workers who care for the children - to hold babies and pass each other. Vaughn house in Quito, which houses the infants, has narrow hallways - the Vaughns made sure this house was better designed.

After a tour of the house and lunch, we were put to work. Al Batterman and Russ Mohedano, our two skilled workers whom we call McGyver and McGruber (guess which is which) went to work setting up a brand new flat screen TV and DVD player for the children. The rest of us, known as unskilled workers, grabbed shovels and pick axes. We dug a long, 1 foot deep trench. I have to tell you, I thought I was in good shape, as I have no trouble exercising in San Diego by riding a stationary bike or using the elliptical runner for a good 30 minutes with no trouble. But in this altitude - Don's altimeter in his watch said that we were at more than 8000 feet - I was huffing and puffing in no time. Luckily, Cindy, Don, Craig, Nancy, Claudia, Jennifer and Kathy were hardier than I. With the help of Lorraine and Barbara, who were working with the children for the first half hour until they came out to join us, we got the trench dug by 230. Then, we were asked to run the soil compacter to make room, we think, for concrete to be poured near the house. We worked at this until 5. By this time, the children were up from their naps and eating dinner. After washing our hands, we introduced ourselves to 19 new children, helped feed them, then sat with them in the living room as they watched their new TV.

Our thanks to those of you who donated money to our mission trip. Your donations helped purchase DVDs that Melinda Vaughn requested. We sat and watched Dora the Explorer - who knew she spoke Spanish! - with the children seated on our laps and all around us on couches, chairs and the floor. Finally, exhausted by the manual labor, we returned to the hotel for showers, dinner and bed.

Thank you for following the blog. We hope you have enjoyed experiencing a bit of this incredible country and the great work of FHC through us. We are thrilled to be here, and find ourselves being served by the children as much as they serve us.

This time this post is truly written, and not at all ghost written, by Pastor Andy.

P.S. We are unable to post pictures for the next few days due to our limited internet access while in Latacunga.

P.P.S. Tim is corect. The four with their faces in the picture from a few days back are Barbara D'Aversa (the little girl), Jennifer Mohedano (the mom), Craig Waters (the dad) and Russ Mohedano (the little boy with the beard).