Loving the Least of These

For a little over a month now David and I have been taking all the boys living with us to a church called Los Pinos Church of Christ. Its in one of the poor communities here in the city. The Grand Central group worshipped there two years ago. And this specific church is one that is doing quite well for a little community church that mostly desperately poor people attend. The services are great and you can definitely tell that the church is doing something right by the way they continue to grow. The members are so sweet, and our boys LOVE their bible classes. Every Saturday they start asking if we are going to church on sunday. They are really enjoying it and so are we! We can't wait to see what ways God will use us in this church. :)    The picture is of Eduardo, David and I at one of the sunday morning services.

This is the same little girl that I asked you all to pray for a few weeks ago. We took Janet to Hospital Escuela the other day because she had never been. We just went to visit with the kids and pray over each one that we visited. [ many of the children are left in the hospital alone because their parents have to continue working while they are in the hospital, so they love to have visitors! ] Anyways, she is looking a little bit better. Her face is fuller and she was supposed to be released from the hospital on Sunday. So please continue praying as she goes back to living in the mountains. Pray that her family is able to provide food for her.

Five of our boys started school today. We have enrolled them in a private Bilingual school that's here on the mountain. They will spend the next six months catching up to their grade level in their English. Most of these boys understand a lot of English already, so it shouldn't be too hard for them. :) So this morning we were up at 5 getting them up and ready, breakfast, and getting ourselves showered to have them at the school by 7:30. They were done at 11:30 today because they are all in the kinder class learning that level english. Once they finish that level they will move to first then second grade, etc. Then by the fall they will be ready to start on their grade level with all their classes. They absolutely LOVED it today! As soon as they got in the car they couldn't wait to show us everything they had done. It was cute. And they all look absolutely adorable in their little uniforms. But, we need your help! For each child to attend this school its about $125 per child per month, which isn't bad considering its a private bilingual school. So if we can get 5 people per child to commit to sponsoring them for a year we will have their schooling paid for. That's the equivalent of filling your M&M tube up twice a month. ;)  This is a HUGE opportunity for these boys. If they graduate from this school they will have much higher chances of ever getting to attend college and the education is on a much higher standard than the public schools many kids attend on the mountains where the teachers might show up 2 or 3 days a week. The education they will receive at this school will give them a brighter future. Being bilingual is a huge deal here, it provides for more job opportunities that allow you to support your family. We all want the best for these sweet little guys and they are so excited about this opportunity! We keep reminding them to work hard on their studies because God is blessing them with such a great opportunity with this. So if any of you are able and willing, we need your help to continue sending these little ones to school. Let me know if you are able to help, or if you know of anyone who might be able to! And thank you in advance for all your help, and thank you from some little guys who will be forever grateful.

Mario 

Yovani

Marvin

Fransisco

Saul

Early morning breakfast...

Yovani and Marvin 

Yovani

Fransisco 

For those of you who haven't had the chance to meet these guys, I want to introduce you to our little 'tribe'. These are all the kids that are currently living with us. The first three Carlos, Eduardo and Saul live with us because their mom can't care for them. She is letting them live with us because she wants a better life for them. They are good boys, and we are really enjoying getting to spend time with them. They are constantly making us laugh. 

This is Carlos, he's 18 and loves music and really enjoys drawing, and he's very good at it. 

This is the only picture I have of Eduardo. He's the one on the right side in the hat and pink shirt. He's 16, and loves music. 

This little guy is Saul. He's 10 and loves to watch TV and play games on the computer. He's absolutely adorable.

The next 6 little guys and their mom are living with us while their dad is in an alcoholic treatment center getting help. They certainly keep us on our toes, but are SO much fun to have around.

This is Johnny [ he didn't want to have his picture taken ;)] He is 12.

This is Yovani and he's 11. He LOVES cars and is so goofy. He is constantly making us laugh.

This is marvin and he's 9. 

Mario, age 7. He is picking up a lot of english. 

This is Fransisco and he is 5 years old.  He's absolutely adorable. 

This is Antonio, the baby of the house. He's 3 and is one of the cutest kids on this earth. 

So that's our little tribe. Please keep them in your prayers! 

Blessings on your week!

Today David and his friend Lindsay and I headed out around noon and went to Sector Ocho to visit a family again that we had visited a few days ago. They have 5 children and the youngest is 11 months old but is very malnourished so she doesn't look much more than 4 months old. When we were visiting the other day as we walked up to the house I saw her laying outside all alone on a little mattress in the sun. We went over and picked her up and played with her for a few minutes. And somewhere in the midst of it I fell in love with this sweet baby. She is absolutely adorable. So we went back today with more milk for the baby and some food for the whole family as well. They are all pretty malnourished and sick. We couldn't stay long because we were also going to hospital escuela and needed to get going and their sweet momma was upset that we couldn't stay longer to visit with them. It was sweet, and we assured her that we'd be coming back soon. :) As we were leaving one of my girls named Yulisa came up to me and told me that Jimmy was at the pulperia nearby so we drove down to see him. He was one of the boys Erica fell in love with two years ago while the group was here and this year while the group was here he hung out with me all day while we built a house in the village. He was always right by my side helping us build, and honestly working a lot harder than any of the rest of us. ;) He is a sweet kid and it was great being able to see him again.

Here she is..

Jimmy

David with a little guy in the hospital

This baby is six months old and was fighting for every breath. As we visited with the mom I stood by her bed praying over her as I watched her fight for her life right before my eyes.

This sweet girl I had the opportunity to visit while the group was here a couple weeks ago. We had been walking down the hallway visiting kids on her floor and we could hear her cries. It's a cry that you don't easily forget. The sound of it echoes through my mind often. As we entered her room that day we saw her fragile little body lying in a bed all alone. As she struggled to find even enough strength to cry we began to sing over her and pray. She is severely malnourished and is fighting for her life. Well, today we were in a different section of the hospital and as we walked down the hallway I heard her cries once again, and knew it was her. I stopped and told david that we had to go find her. I couldn't remember exactly where she was but we just followed the sound of her cry and we finally found her. So we visited with her for a while and gave her a little stuffed animal. Please be praying for her. She is so sick.