Psalm 103

Chuck Rush reading Psalm 103.

From Chuck Rush Psalm 103

CadaNino Missions 2010 Octubre

Calling all Missionaries!! Missions Vision Cadanino's mission is: To provide a meaningful and spiritually enriching experience for international missionaries that have a passion for Jesus Christ   and a commitment to meet  the needs of profoundly challenged children.   What is CadaNino?  CadaNiño is a ministry that serves the profoundly mentally and neurologically challenged orphans  in a government owned  and operated facility in the capital Guatemala City.  The Center is home for 70 children and young adults that are wards of the State. The CadaNino ministry works as a small focussed team within the support of the much larger government staff. We currently provide physical and play therapies for the 15 smallest and most vulnerable children. We have one physical therapist and four Nannies (play therapists).   In explaining what CadaNino is and by implication what we are not, we sometimes refer to our tiny ministry as glorified Candy Stripers (auxiliary hospital volunteers); lots of joy and laughter, but limited line production inside of a complex hospital orphanage. Our  Our primary focus has been on los Niños iniciales*, the four children who are completely disabled and that live in the infirmary and eleven other young children with limited independence.  Current Open Missionary Positions   1)   Physical Therapists -Three month   Interns should have experience working with profoundly disabled children. No actual experience or education is required, but strongly recommended that participants have experience working with this profile. Spanish helpful: if no Spanish language skills, participant would take intensive 2 week language course.  Room and board provided at discount rate. Partial Scholarships available. 2) Short term missionary position available for passionate believers who want to serve the neediest of the needy. Room and Board are available at discounted costs and partial scholarships available.  3) Social worker/Psychologist or Physical Therapist Internship. Our center works closely with the local University of San Carlos and has had success with local interns receiving academic credit for their internship at the center. Footnotes: 1) Room and Board: Guatemala City is a dangerous city. The neighborhood where we work is relatively safe, but still extreme caution is required. We choose to strongly advise people of the potential risks rather than gloss over them. We believe that our procedures and policies  dramatically reduce local on ground risks, but it is important that we all work together to insure safety and positive experiences.  2) Language : Spanish is the only language spoken in the center. Our director is the only english speaking person present most days. Many of the children that we work closest to are not yet verbal and of minimal traditional speaking interaction. Therefor, some Spanish is helpful, but it is not required.  3) Infrastructure of Center: CRPN (Centro Residencial Psiquiatrico y Neurologico).  The Guatemala runs this orphanage/hospital for nearly 70 residents. These are the lucky ones. Kids whose families are unable or unwilling to care for their child end up in this center with ample food, clean housing and adequate medical attention. Nearly all the children take psychiatric or anti-convulsive medicines. Almost half of the entire population wear adult diapers. Most of the residents are extremely kind and loving. Occasionally, some have episodes and exhibit anto-social behavior. Though there is no fear or physical threat from the residents, it is not a place for the timid.     Testimonials "First Rate Inc."  Misionaries Visit CadaNiño In  2010,   a group of ladies from First Rate, Inc. in Arlington Texas, had the opportunity to visit CadaNiño!  The team members included: Ann Lane, Bridgit Stone, Audrey Whitesides, and Katherine Brown. Their time was spent at the CRPN*, a special needs orphanage in Guatemala City, where CadaNiño Ministries works to support daily activities and the development of children with extreme disabilities. The group spent most of their time getting to know the four children, los Niños iniciales, that Jamie has worked with over the past year.  Those children include  Anahi (7), Angelito (14), Ingrid (10), and Suzi (11).  The primary goals were to spend "face time" with the children, discover the immediate needs of the orphanage (what can we do now?), and begin planning for creating a sustainable ministry (how can we make a lasting impact?).   (Pictured: Bridgit and Suzi)  * CRPN ( Center for Residents with Physical and Nuerological disabilities) - is the government center for orphans with mental and physical disabilities. CadaNiño currently focuses on a smaller group of children within the larger population at the government center. Ann's Lane Terrific feedback and memories from our good friend Ann... So it's been two weeks since we returned from Guatemala and the 4 of us can think of little else. What a profound experience, and as we had anticipated, life changing. That said, an anticipated experience reminds me of this: when parents are expecting a baby, they anticipate that they will love their child more than anything, but they cannot imagine how much or really what that kind of love represents until they experience it first hand. So - the experience in Guatemala was kind of like that.  We expected something, but we could not have anticipated that there were so many emotions that would change in hue and intensity. A few of those feelings for me were sadness, gratitude, compassion, despair, fear, self-evaluation, God-ness, joy and of course, love. We knew that it would be an important experience, but I'm not sure any of us could have imagined how important. We've each said it is important that we capture (or try to capture) these experiences. I've been slow to do so, but it's time I try. (Pictured below: Ann, Francisco, Anahi) Bridgit's video captured the images of what we saw and with each image is an intense memory. When we arrived, and for the 4 days we were there, it was sensory overload: smell, sights, sounds and cognitive accompaniment of wondering 'what can we possibly do to help?' It truly was overwhelming. Bars on the doors, self inflicted injuries, unusual behaviors, autism, Spanish that I couldn't understand, non-words that I couldn't understand, hands reaching through bars for a brief moment of contact, but ultimately I was overwhelmed by the universal language of love, touch and kindness. It was in a sense 'shock therapy' for us to re-calibrate our brains and try to become more aligned with what's important. I'm thankful that those children and adults can remind me how much we are all alike and how much we need each other. Again, we were and are overwhelmed with the question: 'what can we do?' Jamie for sure has answered the call and is navigating through custom and politics to help, and we are blessed enough to have stumbled (coincidence? - probably not) onto the work he is doing. We're hopeful that we can support his efforts and if you visit, I don't doubt that you will be overcome with the desire to help as well.     While I continue with my own spiritual journey which includes navigating around and through my own questions and religious conflicts, I do trust that I'm being lead to discover more about what God and what Love really mean. There are New Testament words that continue to play frequently in my mind and I believe them...they probably sum up my response to Guatemala:      Suffer the children to come unto me for such is the Kingdom of God. To him who has been given much, much is required. All things are possible for those that love God and are called according to his purpose... For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.  -Ann Lane Please send questions and resumes  to management via  email: cadaninogt@gmail.com

Bebe Bendiciones a CDL

  Ayer era servicio especial a la iglesia. El Pastor predica bien en la responsibilidades Biblicas de los padres. 

Despues invito las families individualmente subir para una bendicion. 

Lindo Dia a CDL Bendiciones a los Bebes !!

Familia es Lo Mejor!!

Baby Blessing at CDL Edwin

Que Lindo Dia

From edwin 2

Saturday morning

This is Ingrid working with Kelli. She is just getting over a cold.

So many flus and coughs.

The larger group is our morning class. Complex mix of needs and personalities.

This kids in yellow is Rolando. Fairly normal appearing child. Very low energy and everything else...

Saturday at the Center!!

A fairly typical Saturday morning with sunshine.

Beatrice listening to the radio. She is partially deaf and enjoys the earphones.

She is 34 ish... She can be difficult, but we love her

.

The expanded group of iniciales.

Great to be back!! Busy Morning.

  In order to plug back in, I arrived at the center early and went right to work with the kids. Anahi has a cold and cough, so she is a bit restless and whiney.  Ingrid seemed warm as well, but was happy to see me and go play on the swingset.  Angel was a bit perkier than usual and I even overheard him giggling to himself a could of times. Susi is her normal adorable self: working on rolling her over and continued rolling. She over relies on her legs for movement and needs to learn to use her hands more. So many kids and so much need. Thank you Lord.

Can't wait to get back home to Cadanino

  Great few days in Orange County with my children and some friends. Lovely place and the Pacific is beautiful.
  I fly home tomorrow and can't wait to learn more about the State Department experiments in Guatemala during the 1940's. Also, the adoption information is expanding and the meeting at the Government Adoption Agency is meeting shortly with new guidelines.

  Do I think Adoption process will effect my kids at CRPN & CDNN ?  Not really. We have some cute kids that are adoptable in terms of paperwork eligibility and desirableness of their disabilities, but we don't have the more mainstream children that most parents are looking for. My hope is that aid agencies makes more resources generally available for the Orphan Populations.

 

Off to Orange County

 To spend time with family and friends. My son Jamie Jr. is coming and will soon be deployed to Afghanistan. Great to see him and my daughter Lizzie.

 Seeing old and new friends at the conference and are prayerfully discussing important issues. Many friends are strongly encouraging our ministry and excited to hear an update.

I have not heard how "Kids Day" went today at the center. There were rumors of senior politicians coming for a foto op. Hope it is successful.

Paz

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............."