In the US

I will be in the US for the next two weeks, come see me.

The following sets of pictures are from the Christmas party in Caraballo

presentation for a full house of kids and their parents

Happy kids

Motivation to keep growing

These kids are standing outside the fence of the school, watching the festivities taking place inside. If we had enough space, they would be in school too, but for now, they are stuck on the outside looking in.

yellow

Valentin with his parents

Valentin seeing the outside of his house for maybe the first time (Yep, that's his house, he's at the front door)

Amazing story

This is a story from a cozy mountain town called Constanza, where a Kids Alive care center is located. Pastor Angel, who serves as director of our program in this town got word from a member of his church that there was an extreme situation involving a child in town that he should go check out. That situation he found was beyond extreme. He went to the location of the house, which is located in a very poor area in the middle of town, and found a man and his wife along with their 10-year-old son. The problem was, the boy had never left his house. He had spent his entire life inside a home made of other people's trash. Neighbors claimed that they didn't even know a boy lived in the house, they'd never seen him. Upon encountering this situation, Angel told the dad that he had to let the child out and the father, who is a practicing witch doctor, knowing that he was obviously outside the law, agreed to let him come to our center.

Amazingly, the boy, Valentin, has normal mental and muscle development, he doesn't seem to have been hindered by his life-long imprisonment. He has no concept of basic ideas, but is intellegent and as would be expected, very curious. His first day out in the real world, he had to be taught how to climb up and down stairs as there were none in his house, shake hands, and open car doors. He asked the name of a odd-looking object he saw in a field, it was a cow. He tried to dial a calculator like it was a telephone. I met him on his second day of freedom and he was a joy to behold. By this time he had been cleaned up, given new clothes and a fresh hair cut. He looked like a normal boy, but his actions proved different. He had mostly mastered the staircase, which he proved by enthusiastically sprinting up and down the stairs for a good part of the afternoon. He would run from one end of the room to another, because it was the most space to move he'd ever had in his life. His handshaking abilities still needed some work, he couldn't quite figure out which hand to stick out to be shaken.

Pastor Angel and the rest of the staff at the care center couldn't imagine sending this kid home to go back to the same dysfunctional family that had kept him inside for 10 years, fortunately, Kids Alive has recently opened an children's home in this town. So, with possibility of legal action being taken against them, the parents agreed to let their child move into the home.

What a great reminder for me of why we're here doing this work. Valentin now has hope, he will grow up with loving parents, get a good education, be able to run and play, learn about his Creator.


See above for photos.