Joint Heirs With Jesus

Our 1st week in Leticia was a busy one. Lucy took us around so we could learn the way banking is done, the layout of Leticia and the stores in order to buy our necessities. At the end of the week, 3 architects from Place Alliance in Orlando, Florida came. They focus on urban development and came to see the site of the new home and meet with the La Aljaba board, staff members, children and parents of the community. They held an all day meeting with them to learn the needs and their ‘wish list.’ Now they have taken all that information back to do their magic and develop plans for the new La Aljaba.

   

That same weekend, a team of four, Pastor Chris, Ronald, Marie and Jen, from McKinney Memorial Bible Church of Fort Worth, Texas came. Joining them was Donnis, an Orphanos missionary that serves through the home office and Caleb, a young man interested in doing an internship here in Leticia. The team worked hard in the extreme humidity of the 3rd floor of the rental house to make storage shelves for the children’s bedrooms. They also groomed the garden areas that had become a jungle itself. This definitely increased the curb appeal. We are thankful they were such good sports in working with us as we are just learning the ropes here. They blogged while they were here on their mission and you can read about it Team Aljaba
   

      

After they left, Ira and I have now started weaning ourselves into the daily life at La Aljaba. In addition to repairing things, Ira is learning to be a gardener. The foliage here is absolutely incredible and the most beautiful plants grow wild. If they are not maintained, they can quickly overtake the whole property. I am involved with administration on the La Aljaba sponsorship program for Orphanos. I also work with Lexie, one of the tutors, in her English classes and every other Sunday, I make lunch and care for the children so that Carmen, one of the staff team members, can have a day off. As soon as the construction of the new site starts, we will both be working with the short term teams that come.

       

We are both struggling with the humidity and have resolved to the fact that during the day we will just have to let the sweat roll. However, at night, we do get some relief. There is no such thing as a hot water valve, so after a refreshing shower, we sit near a fan and are usually in bed by 8 or 8:30. The sun rises here at 5:00am bringing a flock of parakeets to a tree outside our bedroom window. We call them God’s alarm clock. Surprisingly, the mosquitoes are not bad for which we are thankful. However, rainy season has not arrived full swing. Many people asked us about snakes. I have not seen one, yet. Another volunteer said she didn’t see one the whole 6 months she was here. I’m fine with keeping it that way.

As always, stay tuned and please remember us in prayer. We know God is going to do some exciting things.

I want to start this month’s update with some trivia for you that will help you to understand the ministry. La Aljaba is the name of the Children’s Home that Ira and I are serving at. ‘La Aljaba’ is Spanish for ‘the quiver.’  It comes from the scripture Psalms 127:3-5 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

Leticia is a port town in the jungle directly on the Amazon River.  It is part of the ‘Three Frontiers’ because it is the point of Colombia that borders Peru and Brazil. We actually had breakfast in Colombia, lunch in Peru and supper in Brazil in the same day, for the fun of it.  Peru was a 10 minute boat ride across the Amazon River and Brazil was a 5 minute walk.  There is also a time change so we lost an hour.

La Aljaba has been in ministry for 9 years serving children at risk and Lucy Palma is the Director.  While some of the children are permanent residents of La Aljaba and receive 24/7 care, some are not.  Due to the lack of work in the area, some parents would leave and find jobs in other towns for the week and the children would be left to fend for themselves, as young as 2-3 yrs old.  Or some parents work in the area but are not able to provide for their children.   Both of these cases left the children without proper daycare or meals. Seeing this as an opportunity to extend the Gospel of Christ, Lucy opened the home to serve these families.  Some of the children come on Monday and leave Friday and others come each morning and leave that afternoon.  Lucy works very closely with the local governmental child welfare system and all children that come are registered to receive the care through La Aljaba.  She has earned a lot of respect and built much credibility with them from the fruit she bears through her dedication.

All of the children attend public schools for their academic education and social development.  According to their age, some go in the morning, while the others go to afternoon classes.  While the ‘morning students’ are in public school, the ‘afternoon students’ are at La Aljaba being taught by the staff of Christian Tutors and then vice versa after lunch.  The children are ministered to emotionally, spiritually, intellectually in structured classes and lesson planning.  They also receive physical care by meals and snacks that are prepared by another Christian Staff member.

In the summer of 2012, La Aljaba was given eviction notice after having lived at the current property for 7 yrs.   The owners have decided they would like to do something different with the property.   Of course this stirred up great concern for the future of the children.   It is very difficult to find a place to live in Leticia.  Immediately Orphanos and La Aljaba Board members came together in prayer and communication for a solution.  It was decided to purchase a piece of property and construct a Children’s Home that would be their own.    Knowing that the construction will take a while to get it to the point that the children can move in, La ALjaba has found a temporary rental property.

The temporary home was built by the Swedish government to serve the indigenous tribes of the jungle.  Their vision was that the people would be ministered to when they come to eat, shower and sleep.  Throughout the house are hammock hinges to accommodate their ‘beds.’  However, the tribes didn’t respond to it well and the ministry folded in less than a year.  The house was sold and remained empty the last few years.  The Board of La Aljaba approached the owners about the possibility to rent the home and a lease was signed.  While it is not ideal for classes and doesn’t provide much of an area for the children to play outdoors, it is a huge house and will work and provide them a safe place for their daily care.

The second floor of the house has 2 apartments.  Ira and I are renting one and will be looking for a place of our own when the time comes for the children to move in.  In the meantime, projects are being done to get the house ready for the children.  None of the changes are permanent renovations.  They will be things that can then be moved to the new property once construction starts.

I think that wraps up the trivia and will help you understand what our purpose is in being here.  Once the construction is started, we are hoping to have many teams come to partner with the development and sponsorship of La Aljaba!

During our time at Mission Training International (MTI), we learned how our lives will often be a paradox that we endearingly refer to as a 'pair o'ducks.' We have the yeah duck and the yuck duck. That is just what our life has been this last month.

It started out with preparations to enter the transition phase in ministry from Pan de Vida Orphanage in Queretaro, Mexico to La Aljaba Children's Home in Leticia, Colombia, South America. The first yuck duck was packing and selling most of our belongings. We were okay with letting go of the stuff, it was the timing of getting it sold and still needing it that added work. The yeah duck was that we were able to sell most of it and many people were blessed to also get good deals and free odds and ends that we couldn't take with us.

The next yuck duck was saying 'so long' to so many that have been our family over the last 5 years. There were a few going away parties with different fellowships we had made over the years. We were expecting that to be extra yucky but there was absolutely a peace beyond understanding that we know only comes from Jesus. It was still hard, but definitely smoother because each and every person covered us with prayer in this new journey. The yeah duck was seeing the evidence of God in their lives as they blessed us to move on. Also, we had a yeah through safe travel and uneventful crossing at the border.

Another yuck duck was facing the reality that we are officially homeless for now and living out of suitcases. But, Yeah to the fact we were going to see family and friends in Canada that we have not seen in 2 years. The most anticipated being our granddaughter, Sophie and her parents Justin and April. Our hearts burst when she greeted us as if we had never been away. The last time we saw her, she couldn't talk and now, she is fluent! I cannot tell you how much FUN and what a joy she is. I guess there is a yuck duck here as it was really hard to leave her this time. However, an added yeah duck was that Wayne, from Orphanos, was able to join us in Nova Scotia to do a presentation on the ministry of La Aljaba and educate them on the roles and vision we will be a part of when we go. It was also nice that he could meet our friends and family and get a better understanding of our culture in the small fishing village on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. We have received nothing but positive feedback and already have a few people starting the process to build a team to bring to Leticia.

 

As always our time in Canada sizzled by and we returned to TN. The yeah duck here is that we were entering wedding week of our youngest daughter, Nicki. Last year she got engaged and has spent the last several months planning her wedding. Since we were not able to be a part of the initial phase, it was nice to come in on the end to help her with some work they were doing on the house they had just bought and other last minute things. Sept. 29th was the big event and it really was majestic. How great it was to be able to bring friends and family together to celebrate the marriage of two people that now unifies us all.

 

The yuck duck here is that as we celebrated the joining of Ben and Nicki, Ira's grandson, Olsson, remains in critical condition at the IWK Children's hospital in Halifax, NS and faces uncertainty in several areas of health. Last month, Olsson was born premature weighing 1lb 11oz. At first he remained stable with a bad day here and there. Recently he has had major set backs. He has needed to have a PDA ligation which is a procedure to fix the patent ductus arteriosus. This is a duct that usually closes after birth but being premature it is putting pressure on his undeveloped lungs. While waiting for him to be stable enough for the surgery, he developed thrombosis in an artery to his hand. The clot was so bad it cut the circulation off to his hand and his fingers turned black. The tissues are very thin right now and they aren't sure what or if long term damage has been done to his fingers. To top it off, now he is on blood thinners for the clots and can't have the heart surgery. A true reminder to how fragile he is and that we do have to take this part of the journey one day at a time. The only thing that brings any peace to this is knowing and trusting that Jesus already has a plan for his life.

So that sums up our month with a 'pair-o-ducks.' We ask that you please keep Olsson and his parents, Mitchell and Kayla in your prayers. We would also appreciate your prayers as we continue preparations to move. We will keep you posted as plans come together and dates get finalized. Again, Thank you all or should I say all y'all for your continued partnership in this service that God allows us to be a part of!

There has been a lot going on in our lives, this year.   For a while, we have been feeling like God has been trying to get our attention in our ministry but we couldn't pinpoint what it really was.  We resisted these tugs for so long and of course questioned everything until we started feeling frustrated and discouraged.  I guess we really weren't ready to face the truth that things were about to change. 

Over the course, God has presented us with a need at La Aljaba Children's Home in Leticia, Colombia, South America.  The Children's Home has received notice that they until the end of Dec. to move from the home that they have called theirs for the last  7 yrs.  We were able to go there in February with one of the Founders and CEO of Orphanos to meet with the Director and other team members of La Aljaba and see the ministry 1st hand.  While we were there, a piece of land was purchased to start on the vision of a new home. In the meantime, they have found temporary housing until the major construction of the new place can be done.

Ira and I have now made a decision and committed ourselves to go Leticia Colombia, serve in ministry, assist with the construction and work with teams.  Now that we have done that, things have started moving pretty quickly.  As part of our preparation, we are making plans to come to Canada Sept 5-18. Wayne, from Orphanos, will join us Sept 12 so that we can have a "Meet and Greet" on Fri. Sept 14th at the South Side United Baptist Church.  At that time, we will do a presentation on the new ministry and share more details with you.

Don't think we didn't challenge God on what we felt He was doing.  We have 5 years at Pan de Vida. We have fallen in love with the kids here, we have friends, we are actively involved in Bible Study and we are comfortable in our little apartment among many other things.  But the reality is that Pan de Vida is built, the major projects are done and God has grown local Mexicans to serve Him within the Orphanage.  With the awareness that another home is needed to grow children in Christ, we realized that God has used this time to teach us and prepare us for the challenge.

Please Keep us in your Prayers!  We truly feel lifted up by them!!

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Romans 1:8-10  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.  For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.