A nice piece on Fundaninos by some recent missionaries

Fundaninos and the Forbes Family 

""SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

16 goodbyes coming up

Posted by Nathan at 8:06 PM

After being here a few weeks, Enrique told me how difficult it would be to have to say goodbye to kids at Fundaninos. Most kids have only been here for about a year, and so you can imagine that there must be a frequent round of goodbyes and hellos. After being here two months, I can specifically give three reasons why these goodbyes are so sad.

1. We love these kids. We love spending time with them, laughing with them, and seeing them grow. As language barriers slowly come down, we love the conversations we have about the gospel as we labor and long to see the Lord call many of these cute, sinful kids out of darkness and into fellowship with the Son.

2. We pray for them and really do desire to see them walk with Jesus. We get excited about building relationships, because we know that quality time affords opportunities for these kids to see our joy in Christ and for us to share the good news about our Savior. We've looked ahead with excitement as we think about growing with these kids and sharing our lives with them. Unless the Lord wills differently, 16 of these dreams are about to become quiet prayer requests. It's so hard to let Him be in control when we forget that if he wasn't in control we would all get our way of continuing in bondage to sin.

3. God glorifies himself through wonderful families that point to the family of God. It's so beautiful to see glimpses of families operating the way that God intends with Mom's helping Dad's lead the family and children encouraging one another while submitting to parents. God created the family to be a beautiful, God-honoring institution. Unfortunately, the kids at Fundaninos are here because of abandonment or abuse. It's hard to see these kids fearfully preparing to return home. One of the six year old boys was recently at his court trial with his siblings. He spoke to the unmoved judge about his father who was present at the trial, "Mr. Judge, he used to beat me every day. I don't want to go be with him. I want to stay at Fundaninos." He's leaving Fundaninos for this scary home in about two weeks.

For those of you who know and love the kids at Fundaninos...here's a list of those that should be leaving in the next month.

-Isabella (already gone)
-Heidi
-Yadira
-Isaac
-Daniel
-Edgar
-Jorge
-Victor
-Jasmine
-Ivan
-Andrea
-Vanessa
-Evelyn
-Joselyn
-Leticia
-Kimberly

Of these kids there are physical scars and burns, memories of sexual abuse, and even a doctor who claimed that he had never seen someone beaten so severely. For a lot of these kids/moms, the dad or boyfriend is out of the picture or has mellowed h............."

Found this fairly interesting article on Adoptions down here..

Article on Adoption


Many Americans and other hopeful parents are following the situation in Guatemala.Currently, there are no International Adoption options available in Guatemala.

Nonetheless, many people are hopeful that Guatemala will institute procedures and a legal infrastructure that will allow for measured international adoption in compliance with the Hague Treaty on International Adoption. Within Guatemala, international adoption remains a hotly debated topic. It is an emotional issue for many because of the past abuses of some organizations as well as the immediate humanitarian need to adequately provide for orphans.

On October 7th, 2010, The organization charged with mending and administering to all aspects of adoption plans to hold an informational meeting. This will be the first in a series of Three meetings on the topic. It is unclear at this point if the topic will be local (National within Guatemala) or the broader topic of International Adoption. In addition to the October 7th meeting, they are scheduling two additional meetings: November 4th and December 2nd of 2010. We will continue to look for the agenda, but it appears to be a fairly preliminary and broad agenda. Please send us an email if you have access to more specific information.

Mariana`s World

Mariana’s World

One of my favorite new kids is Mariana. She is about 12 and very thin, but not gaunt.  She is extremely shy and timid. She plugs her ears almost all the time. Perhaps a self protective move or as the psychiatrist suggests she may be trying to block out auditory hallucinations. She does not like to walk and often the older children carry her. I certainly do.
Video Therapies. I have been trying to get inside of her world. I often take her to my office and seat her in a big comfy chair. I keep music and noise to a minimum. She smiles at me.  Look you... look me? Is there an other? A cookie stimulates her to move. She smiles. Then she goes back to face caste down and ears plugged.  She groans a bit when nervous. Continuously when scared. She sits quietly in the office with the video camera reflecting her image back to her.

I poked around just now and found out a bit more about her. Her parents are both drunks. The Dad died and the Mom remarried (another Drunk of course). The neglect and abuse caused the municipality to intervene on her behalf and they took her to a private orphanage. After a year or so, the orphanage felt they could not meet her needs as a special child, so she was transferred to a government facility. They tried their best, but after six months they sent her to us (about two months ago). So an usual, we are the last house on the right at the end of the Street. That`s a-okay with us!  Thank you God.

The Milk Cartoon - Have you seen this child or their PARENT?

  In the USA we have a custom of posting photos of missing children on the back of Milk Carton's. Without debate to the efficacy of that activity, I am attempting to launch a similar project here in Guatemala. The name of the page and blog/website will likely change, but for now I will refer to it as the Milk Carton and attempt to publish in English and Spanish.

Currently, we have two children that are lacking full documentation and they may have families looking for them. The first kid is Marie Ines. She is the sweetest thing in the world. Though she does not speak she understands much. She has a wonderful smile and sunny disposition. She has horrific burn scars on her front stomach, chest and neck. Looks like a pan of boiling water landed on her in infancy.

The other kid is Oscar Martinez. Another cool kid. In Oscar's case he is a fully grown man with an unfortunate hunchback. He probably weighs the same as I do and is only barely able to walk. He also has fairly pronounced Down syndrome characteristics.

 I am thinking about creating a different blog or website with the Milk Carton theme. We also have a beautiful nine year old girl who is available for adoption. She has down syndrome and has enormous potential. Her name is Heidi and I will be writing more about her soon. If you have any suggestions about how to locate these kids parents or potentially new parents (adoptive), please let me know.

Oscar

 

As always, I ask you to keep these children and their situations in your Prayers-

Hermano en Cristo-

Jaime 

Most Medals Won Special Olympics!! CRPN !

Yes. Centro Residencial Psiquiatrico y Neurologico dominated the Special Olympic events here in Guatemala. With 11 Gold, 17 Silver and 15 Bronze medals, we were the winningest team.
What a great day for Guatemala and our athletes! The morning blazing heat gave way to cooler late morning gray skies. We finished and left before the torrential downpour.
With 13 students we all had a great time and renewed friendships and rivalries. Not clear exactly which competitors will represent us in the International Special Olympics in Greece in February.

Please continue to support the Special Olympics wherever you are. It is truly an amazing organization. I hear that Rahm will continue to increase his pledge as well.

My small contribution to coaching was to suggest that we get a quick start. Karrina took my words to heart and had false starts in two races. Fortunately they are not penalized for that, so she was fine. She went on to win one of those races. Unfortunately, a couple of our boys did not hear the instructions to start fast. They were still looking around when the other kids were already 5 yards down the lane.

Centro Residencial Psiquiatrico y Neurologico Gana Todo en los Olimpicos Especiales de Guatemala.
Mas Oro, Plata y Bronze que otro equipo. Unos van a Grecia por los Olimpicos Internacional.

I don't really think that we won more medals than all the other teams. In fact, we have not been working out much and may have slipped a bit from the mid-year competition. The point of the Special Olympics is that each kid feels like a winner. And our kids definitely had a great time and cam away feeling good about themselves and their ability to compete.

BTW- I was chatting with this older guy who competed. He lives in a State run mental asylum. He had all kinds of scars on his head from recent surgeries. He was pretty scary to look at, but very nice and quite normal to chat with. It reminded me that we should not judge a book by it's cover. I really felt that he could have been me or one of you. Maybe a tumor or some type of brain trauma had impaired him to where he needed to be hospitalized the last year and a half.

The mysteries of life.

A relaxed morning here at the center. I spent some time on the carpet staring into the eyes of Ingrid and Suzi. What do they see and what are they thinking? They express happiness with their eyes and mouths. Occasionally, they attempt a cooing sound that I think they are trying to signal friendship and camraderie.
Trying to get Suzi to sit up more. We have a seat where she can be comfortable for progressively longer periods of time. I try to get her to think about keeping her head up instead of flopped over on her shoulder. How long Lord will this take? Is this how you feel about me most days??

Thanks Julie and Mother Teresa!!

/meta>

Following Your Dreams, Even in Darkness:

• September 19th, 2010 4:58 pm ET
• By Dr. Paulette Ko..., NY Love Examiner

I just finished reading Mother Teresa’s letters in a book called, ‘Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light’ I am spiritual (but not religious) and when I think of a handful of people who spread a global message of love, Mother Teresa is one of them. With few financial resources or education of her own Mother Teresa made huge improvements in the world. Her light continues to shine on us even after her death, inspiring us by her example. She started off a nun with a calling, all on her own. In the beginning, she had 13 members on her mission in Calcutta and this grew to 4,000 nuns and 610 missions in over 123 countries. For 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned and dying. So it was interesting to me to learn a bit about how she accomplished all this and how that journey was for her.

As the ‘NY Love Examiner’ there’s no one better to examine as a ‘giver of love’ than her. You may think, ‘Well how can I compare myself to Mother Teresa when my dreams are so small by comparison?’ I often hear people wish that they could write a book, form a school, found a charity, sing in public etc. but their reasons not to try include a lack of education, feelings of self-doubt, alienation, lack of money and support, doubt of their personal talent etc. and all these ideas seem to stop them before they even begin! We all have many obstacles to creation and there may be many uncomfortable sacrifices to be made with mixed successes along the way, but does that mean that we should not try? And, what are some tips we could learn from luminaries who have paved the way?

I took away 12 tips from what I read of Mother Teresa’s experience and I wondered whether they might be applicable to those of us with much smaller dreams. You decide:

1. PERSISTENCE THROUGH MUCH REJECTION: After her calling, Mother Teresa wanted to start her mission right away but she was met with much waiting and questioning. Even though she was determined to start immediately she chose to continuously write letters to key people in the church until they finally agreed to her mission. Sometimes she knew she was annoying them by her persistence. They even repeatedly told her to pray and to let them consider it for awhile but she continued to write to them nonetheless. She was willing to keep taking action in the face of rejection and disapproval.
2. BLIND FAITH EVEN THROUGH LONG PERIODS OF DARKNESS: In the beginning Mother Teresa heard the voice of Jesus and felt close to him but her writings reveal that in many later periods of suffering, she did not. She knew what her mission was so she continued to do it even when her faith or feelings seemed to falter. She believed that if she kept on doing what she committed to do, her purpose would be served.
3. HIGHER PURPOSE: Mother Teresa felt that her global mission was to help the unwanted, suffering and poor to feel a sense of love and belonging. Anything that did not reflect that purpose was not of interest to her. She had a laser

rest of the article 

Full Article The NY Examiner

Gracias Romulo Gallegos Freire! Fiesta Independencia

  Un grupo de jovenes venieren a nuestro centro como payasos, cantantes y bailadores. Disfruta mucho los patojos.  Tambien gracias a Pastor Angel de Iglesia Bautista El Camino de vida.

Yes..... I was there..... Part 2 the evacuation

  Shortly before the second plane hit someone suggested that we call our families. Only 15 of the 150 plus people on our floor were still present. The smart ones and the people who had been there in `93 had already left. After calling and leaving a message at the house, I picked up my binolculars and headed back to the conference room. I remember thinking about the irony of having just taken my binoculars to my new job just as the world appeared to be coming apart.  Next to the conference room I stopped to try my binoculars.

  The binoculars were strong and I could see the facial features and gestures of the people preparing to jump to their deaths. I could see people frantically gesturing inside the tightly sealed strong windows. One woman was like in the play of Evita: gesturing from a busted balcony that never excited before or after. The result of a plane crashing into the sleek steel and glass walls had created an opening. Was it a balcony or a platform for a messenger?  I thought (naively) that I hope the helicopters would arrive soon and they would all be rescued through the roof top.   How very naive of me because even if the building had not collapsed the heat from the fires would have precluded a rooftop rescue. Also, naively I continued to pray for this Evita and think I would try to follow here story as she was rescued. BOOM!  Plane number two hit the South Tower.

  I may be dumb, but I am not stupid. After the second plane it we knew we had to leave. We could here the television blaring about another plane, but from our vantage point on the 42nd floor (Building 7)  we thought it was a bomb. The windows exploded in our disrection and we saw nothing of the plane. Someone coarsely yelled that perhaps the government was not telling the truth because of the bomb vs. plane.  We all started wondering about bombs and planes.

  The handful of us left planed evacuation. I asked Darren if we should wait for Peter our boss. I said that I would not want him to be alone in the event that he returned and felt he had to go down with the ship alone.  "Expletive   Peter.. let`s go"   Darren said. We swept the floor with the Systems Administrative guy who had that morning finally delivered my beatiful new laptop computer which remained (remains) locked in the my desk.  He decided to take the elevator as Darren and I chose the stairs. No way was I going to travel in an a  electronic mausoleum to the next home. I l^ ooked aorund the now vacant floor and throught,  "Hmm what`s next?"
  As we descended we found our colleague Mary struggling down the stairs. Late 50`s and seriously overweight.  Darren steadied her and I carried bit their stuff. They had far more to carry than I. Turns out they were the smart ones.....   Laboriously we descnded the 42 stairwells, praying for safety and wondering what was going on outside...

911 World Trade Center Yes, I was there...

           ¨Yes, I was there¨           911    

In a conference room on the 42nd floor we were in a morning management meeting discussing competitive products. With my face turned away from the large windows, I heard the roar of a jet  flying much to close to our building. As I turned to see the explosion I saw the back half of the plane breaking off and descending to the ground. It was eerily similar to a Hollywood extravaganza sitting too close to the front of the theater.  My colleagues and I were in shock and awe.
As we shouted and cursed, I prayed the the Lord be there with each of us. The back half of the plane broke off and tumbled to the patio we shared with the North Tower. The flames and quantity of debris was staggering.  Much like a ticker tape parade office papers started fluttering in the wind to the ground almost immediately. As we started to see the people falling and jumping to their deaths there were few atheists in our office. My prayers were for each of them and their families. I prayed they had come to know the Lord and could find some peace. My friends and I were all yelling, crying and guessing what the heck was happening.
The we saw dead people. Lot´s of dead people. Splattered on the ground in front of us like raw hamburger splattered on your driveway thrown from the third floor of your house. I was 42 years old and consciously thought I was glad my eyesight was starting to fade and I was unable to see the corpses as well as others. John shouted, ¨That guys head just popped off like a pumpkin.¨ My heart still aches when I repeat that audio  in my mind.
Like popcorn popping people jumped. Sometimes alone and sometimes in pairs or more. Wondering silently and still years later which was better  facing the end alone or holding the hand of an office mate.  At times, people appeared to be continuously jumping and other other times it appeared to slow.  I had been no stranger to death, but the quantity of people dying quickly was mind boggling.  
I was so very glad that I knew Jesus and prayed that those dying also knew him. I strongly believe many of those passing recommitted to their faith in a profound and sincere way. They now sit with Him and watch us with love.  Dear reader, I love you and do not wish in any way to preach the exclusivity of my faith or any others.   Many of my friends and readers are not Christian and I love you.

What happened next ??  (more to come.....) 

We celebrated Independence day on Friday Sept 10th

Heidi was the Reina de Independencia

zoo pics

hhh

.Not the fifteen minutes of fame that we would choose

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GALERIA DE FOTOS HAGA CLICK EN IMAGEN PARA AGRANDAR

http://www.congreso.gob.gt/gt/ver_noticia.asp?id=11304

inopsis: NIÑOS DEL CENTRO NEUROLOGICO PSIQUIATRICO INFANTIL RECIBEN DULCES Y OTROS REGALOS POR PARTE DE LA DIPUTADA ANABELLA DE LEON.(Autor: Gladys Anabella De León Ruiz , 1/Septiembre/2010, 16:32 ) LA DIPUTADA ANABELLA DE LEON COMO PRESIDENTA DE LA COMISION DEL MENOR Y LA FAMILIA, REALIZO UNA VISITA AL CENTRO NEUROLOGICO PSIQUIATRICO INFANTIL DE LA COLONIA AURORA I, ZONA 13, CON EL OBJETO DE ATENDER VARIAS DENUNCIAS DE MALTRATO A LOS NIÑOS DE ESTA INSTITUTION Y SUPERVISAR EL FUNCIONAMIENTO DE LA MISMA.  EN DICHA VISITA LA DIPUTADA DE LEON PUDO OBSERVAR A LOS 69 NIÑOS QUE ESTAN SIENDO ATENDIDOS EN DICHA INSTITUCION, PERO ESTAN EN UN MODULO CON REJAS Y ES PREOCUPANTE YA QUE ESTAN JUNTOS NIÑOS Y NIÑAS LO CUAL NO ES CONVENIENTE Y RESULTA PELIGROSO DESDE TODO PUNTO DE VISTA.  TAMBIEN SUPERVISO EL ESTADO DE LAS CAMAS, SANITARIOS, CUARTOS DE TERAPIA, LOS CUALES SE ENCUENTRAN EN BUENAS CONDICIONES, ASI COMO TAMBIEN LA COCINA Y COMEDOR DONDE SE PREPARAN LOS ALIMENTOS DE LOS NIÑOS.  LA DIPUTADA ANABELLA DE LEON ASEGURO QUE CITARA A LA SECRETARIA DE BIENESTAR SOCIAL, LICENCIADA SILVIA PALOMO Y AL DIRECTOR DE FONAPAZ, INGENIERO JAYRO FLORES PARA SOLICITAR LA CONSTRUCCION DE UNO O DOS MODULOS MAS, PARA QUE SEAN SEPARADOS LOS NIÑOS Y LAS NIÑAS Y EVITAR SITUACIONES INCONVENIENTES, Y TAMBIEN SOLICITARA QUE EN ESTOS NUEVOS MODULOS NO PONGAN REJAS PORQUE ESTO ES UNA VIOLACION A LOS DERECHOS DE LOS NIÑOS, Y QUE EN LUGAR DE REJAS SEA COLOCADO VIDRIO ACRILICO, EL CUAL ES MAS RESISTENTE NO SE ASTILLA Y ASI EVITAR QUE SE LASTIMEN LOS NIÑOS.

GALERIA DE FOTOS

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Family Day at Fundaninos.... and a good time was had by all

From Funadaninos Family Day May 10 2010

Church Retreat Casa De Libertad and The Village

  Just back from a great few days with my Church and the Praise Leaders from The Village in Dallas.
We went to a coffee plantation house on Lake Amatitlan.