A piece of good news is that 2 of the girls have got back children whom
they had been without for some time. Darlin has a 5 year old son Alex
who she hadn’t lived with since he was one. He had been living with
his grandmother in the north of Bolivia. A few weeks ago his grandmother
brought him down to Santa Cruz and stayed for a few days
whilst he got used to his Mum again. He is a sweet, happy little boy and
he seems to have fitted in well into El Alfarero life and with being back
with his Mum.
Ninoska also had her 2 year old son Franco returned recently. He had
been living in a children’s home since he was small, but for a while
now she has been visiting him and doing the paperwork necessary for
getting him back. He is a lovely little boy too. Sadly just a few weeks
after she got him back her other child, a baby boy
of 3 months died in the night probably from suffocation.
Ninoska was obviously very, very sad for
a while, but she appears to have coped very well.
Please pray for these young girls learning to be
mothers.
If anyone feels moved to make a donation for El
Alfarero. Please let us know.
Family
Earlier this year we spent a couple of months in England.
This visit was mostly spent with family and was a
very relaxed and enjoyable time for us. Highlights include
a holiday with Sarah's family on a cruise round
the Mediterranean (the ship had 15 decks, an ice-rink,
cinema, swimming pools and a rock-climbing wall!),
and a long weekend with all of my family at Centre
Parcs in the Lake District. It was great to spend time
with our parents, brothers and sisters, in-laws, and for
the girls to spend time with their cousins.
Sadly we saw very little of some of our friends and
weren't able to see a number of people at all as we
tried to prioritize our time and not spend too much
time traveling. I really missed not getting to Stoke'-on-Trent and seeing friends there, but please remember
that we welcome visitors here if you ever fancy a
trip to South America...
And now we'll be able to put you up in style as we
started having a house built at the beginning of the
year and we are now very close to having it finished.
Having lived as tenants for the last 4 years we are very
much looking forward to having our own house again
with plenty of room for visitors!
One of things we find really hard living as we do is not only missing
family and old friends from back home, but the constant
change as different missionary families come and go. This year it
seems like a lot of people we have been close to over recent years
have either left or are in the process of leaving. Both Gaby and
Jasmine have lost friends and classmates and one family with
whom we have all been particularly close is leaving in December.
Church
In general church continues to go well. However, since arriving back from England we have been faced with a number of difficult situations. The hardest thing has been the death by leukaemia of a 13yr old boy.Pablo regularly came to church, with his aunt who lived next door, up until about a year ago, when he went to live with his Dad. He was diagnosed with leukaemia while we were in England and by the time we got back here, the disease was well advanced and he died a couple of weeks ago. He was the cousin of one of the girls who used to be in El Alfarero and obviously for the whole family, a number of whom are part of the church, this is a sad and difficult time.
Other than that we also have Heidy (another ex-Alfarero girl) in hospital at the moment with Tuberculosis. She is has lost a lot of weight with it and the doctors recommend that she puts on at least 6 kilos (about 12 pounds) and has told her that she needs 3 months of rest in order to recover. Heidy was in the girls' home for about 2 years and has no known family. I had the privilege of baptising her in February this year and she had since completed a 3 month discipleship evening course with YWAM. We have been very pleased with the growth in God that she has shown this year and ask you to pray for her as she struggles to recover from this illness. It's at times like this that you appreciate the NHS and the welfare system, because Heidy has no means to pay any hospital bills, nor to cover the cost of living for her 3 months rest.
While we were in England we met up with a couple from a New Frontiers church in Exeter who have been feeling a call from God to South America for a long time. They are Ben and Roz Powell,
and together with their 1 yr old daughter, they are planning to come and visit us in October with a view to possibly moving out here to be involved with the church. Ben is looking for work and has arranged an interview with an international school here in Santa Cruz to coincide with their visit.
Please pray for them that God continues to clearly guide them and give them the assurance they would need to move out here as a young family.
Also coming out to visit us soon, is Choong Sil, a Korean girl who has been living in Mexico and whom we met at the New Frontiers Fiesta conference. We are really looking forward to having her here with us for a month, although we have been warned by the guys in Mexico that we're not allowed to keep her!
Thank you so much for your support, encouragement and
prayers. We really appreciate it.
With all our love,
David, Sarah,
Jasmine, Gaby & Lily xxx
Again it's been a long time since we last wrote. The work with the
street kids has been through a very difficult season. God has been gracious and things are going well now, but radical changes have had to be made in the Alfarero girls' home with the family who were running it leaving very suddenly. There has had to be a process of healing and restoration for the girls and a new staff team has been put in place. Although it has been an extremely difficult few months for all concerned the atmosphere in the home is once again relaxed and full of fun.
