Welcome Ari!
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We are thrilled to announce that the Lord provided a new team member: Ari Herrera. She is perfectly bilingual, studying for a degree in child psychology, and worked at Malambo with the orphans this past year. She loves Jesus and is a God-send to the ministry. We are able to work so much faster with her along-side us. There is nothing like have a local friend on the team!! Praise God for her and for the donor, who committed the amount needed for her monthly salary. 
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Needed:
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Below please find a list of specific items needed by HCCM to benefit the orphans of Panama:
- Financial donations for our overall operating budget. We are short on monthly financial commitments and we need your support to continue this ministry.
- Veggie Tales in spanish (and other similar DVDs)
- Funding to purchase nebulizers and other medical equipment for orphanages.
- Funding for a vehicle with 3rd row for transporting orphans and social workers
- Donation of $500 for back window of orphanage van at Ofrece un Hogar
Contact us today! We want to work with you on ways to get involved.
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Greetings from Panama! We need your prayer and support, so stay in touch with us on how to stay involved. Log on to: www.heartscrychildren.com today!!!! |
Orphanage Home: METRO AMIGO
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Every Thursday, HCCM works alongside Casa Metro Amigo, driving their social workers to perform the family investigations for the orphans in their care. If we do not show up, this does not happen. If these investigations are not performed, the orphans case files are never furthered along in the process and they sit in orphanages for years. Our goal: to help these children return quickly to safe homes OR to be placed in "Adoptability Status," thus allowing them to be adopted in the future. Praise God for a vehicle to do these trips. This entails driving into the interior and often dangerous neighborhoods. Please pray for continued protection; for continued donations to pay for Gasoline for these important visits.
In February, we are planning a beach day with the teenagers from Metro Amigo, in coordination with the local chapter of Christian Surfers. Please pray for guidance as to all the details, for safety, and that the Lord will come alive in these children's lives like never before. Most have never been to the beach, much less surfed. We are planning a fun day of activities like volleyball, surfing lessons, and a time of worship and sharing the Gospel. These are some of the most disturbed children, as they have been abandoned multiple times and are extremely disconnected. Many bear visible scars of past wounds inflicted by their caretakers or themselves. These children will never likely be adopted, yet these are the very one's that need to feel love and hear of the hope that is found only in Jesus. We cannot wait to see how the Lord is going to move in their lives.
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GOVERNMENT UPDATE
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Meetings with MIDES: We are continuing to meet with the Central Authority in Panama approximately every other week for status conferences. Please pray for our next meeting, where we plan to sign an agreement between HCCM and the Central Authority for our further work. They have already given us a schedule for visiting the 43 orphanages in Panama with them, after which we follow up with individual orphanages and perform an assessment of the facilities. We also plan to begin working with MIDES on the individual files (i.e., children), so as to get them further along in their Adoptability Status. Pray for continued favor.
Presidential Candidate News: There will be a new president elected in Panama in May of 2009. PLEASE PRAY for the Lord's will to be done. We have had excellent meetings with the associates of one candidate, Ricardo Martinelli. His sister-in-law runs one of the orphanages here and their family has a heart for the orphans. One of his top advisors has adopted 5 children. God seems to be making it clear that this is the next President, and He has allowed us to form a unique relationship with their family. God is opening amazing doors, yet again. We are trusting Him and moving forward, knowing that His heart is for these little one's. We know, regardless of the outcome in the government, that He will provide a way.
Special Needs List: HCCM received the list from the Central Authority of children who have the Adoptability Status and who also have Special Needs. After having it translated, we are disbursing this list to adoption agencies and local churches, so as to get the word out. These children need families that will be able to care for their specific needs. Please pray and feel free to contact us with any questions.
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The story of "Miracles"
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This is just one story of the hundreds we hear. Milagros (Miracles in English) is a little girl that was abandoned at an orphanage when only a few months of age. She has had no direct contact with her family since then. Social workers visited her biological grandmother on multiple occasions. Each time, her grandmother stated she would eventually come and get Miracles to provide a home. Time passed. A nice family came along and wanted to adopt her. Because her grandmother kept insisting that she wanted Miracles, this family could not adopt. Her grandmother never came for her. Miracles is now 6 years old and the family has given up trying to adopt her, because of the disastrous situation in the Central Authority.
See, the new law states that every family member has the opportunity to take their abandoned relative. In practice, they are given years of opportunity to do so. Most never come. Now the government is enacting a new initiative to encourage these wayward family members to take in their own, so that the country does not look poorly in their orphan statistics. They are literally paying them to come and get their abandoned relatives. Many are doing so for the wrong reasons.
Please pray for these children to be protected from family members with wrong motives. Pray for them to be freed to be placed in loving homes. Please pray for Miracles and for a miracle in all these children's lives!
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Orphanage Update
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OFRECE UN HOGAR: HCCM is excited to be working with this orphanage in their Early Stimulation programs. We have met with and approved an Infant Massage Therapist, who was trained and accredited from the States, and who committed to a year long program with the babies in Ofrece. She started the therapy on Friday and it is awesome to see the Lord use this volunteer's skills to help these babies. Also, we are in the process of approving a teacher for 2 English classes for the children at Ofrece. Praise God for these volunteers and their heart for the orphans. Pray for them as they begin their weekly work with these precious kids.
MALAMBO: We met with the team of social workers, psychologists and the Director. HCCM will assist them in similar ways as Metro Amigo, by providing transportation to the social workers and consulting services on how to perform adequate case and family evaluations, thus working the children through the system at a faster pace. We hope to begin financial assistance to their HIV/AIDS home in the future as well. This week we are also working with them on their godparent program, where we will provide training to couple's who feel led to spend every other weekend with an orphan from Malambo. We hope this program will be a model for future godparent programs approved by the government.
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We praise God for your desire to minister to and to be ministered by these abandoned children of Panama. God is working miracles in our lives through these children and reminding us that we were all orphans before our adoption into God's family through His Son. Thank you for being involved in God's mandate to care for orphans.
Matt and Misty Hedspeth
Heart's Cry Children's Ministry
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