Jonathan's Testimony

Jonathan is the oldest son of three.  At 8 years of age, Jonathan had to assume a large responsiblity over his younger siblings.  His mom and step-dad, both alcoholics, would often leave Jonathan and his siblings for days - usually without food.  Not knowing where his parents were, nor when they would return, Jonathan was forced to sell candy in the streets as a way to provide food for his siblings and himself.

Selling candy on the streets of Quito is a dangerous job.  You get robbed, ridiculed, and sometimes assaulted.  At times, Jonathan would have to hide under cars from other kids who wanted to rob them of the few dollars they made.  Once he was resting on a car when the owner came up and hit him saying he damanged his car by leaning on it!  This is far more than anyone should have to experience, let alone an 8 year old boy.

His family found out about Pan de Vida way back when we first started our ministry 10 years ago. While they confess that they really just came for the free meals in those early years - the Lord uses every opportunity to reveal Himself to us and for little Jonathan, the word of God took root in his heart.  About five years later, Jonathan's mom became very ill and needed an urgent operation to save her life.  Even as a just a boy, Jonathan urged her to pray and seek the Lord.  Something happened through that experience that we can only give credit to God for - they put their faith in God!

Today, neither his step dad or his mom are alcoholics.  They have both been able to find work, get on the Ecuadorian social security plan, his mother has been a student in our microbusiness sewing project.  They have gotten out of debt.  Jonathan wakes up every day at 5:30 a.m. to do devotions!   

Please continue to pray for this family and the many other families we work with who have yet to give their lives to the Lord. 

In Memory of Juan

Many of you know the story of Juan Alpapucho.  He was the young boy who asked Oscar if he could shine his shoes 10 years ago.  It was through Juan that the Lord led Oscar to begin Pan de Vida.  It is with our deepest sympathy that we share with you that Juan passed away very unexpectantly on July 8th.  He was working as a cab driver when three passengers got in and tried to rob Juan's car.  In an attempt to resist them, he was shot and passed away later the next day. 

Juan leaves behind a young wife and two small children.  He was a good, honest man who knew the Lord and shared the Lord with his family.  Please pray for Juan's wife and children.  We pray that God will always watch over them, that they will grow to know the Lord, and that God's provision will always be over them.

We are asking for prayer and financial support for one of our employee's, Maria.  Maria and her family first came to Pan de Vida several years ago as beneficiaries and through the ministry became christians.  She went on and started working full time for us as a cleaning lady for Pan de Vida and has seen the provision of the Lord for her family in so many ways.  Just this week, we learned that her 4 year old daughter has been diagnosed with Leukemia.  At this point we understand that she is pretty far advanced and are praying for the Lord's healing hand in her life.  We do know that Maria is facing some very difficult times and likely will not be able to work as she must care for Monica.  This is a family with very limited resources and has a true need for financial support and prayer support.  If you are interested in giving a special donation towards the needs of this family, please contact us or send a check with a note designating this donation towards Monica Piedad to:  Pan de Vida, PO Box 66808  Falmouth, ME  04105.  All donations are tax deductible.

Summer Happenings at Pan de Vida

Pan de Vida has flourished these past months.   We had several teams come down to work with us this summer.  These teams helped lead Vacation Bible School and took the children on a field trip to the park.  We built two new bathrooms and thanks to a few generous donations we are currently working on enlarging our kitchen and making it a functional industrial kitchen to be able to provide the thousands of meals we serve every year to our beneficiaries.  The new kitchen should be ready to go in October.    

We gave out school supplies to the children of our beneficiaries.  While the government will provide the textbooks to the children, they do not cover their pencils, papers, etc.  This year we distributed 124 $25 vouchers to the school aged children of our beneficiaries.  Thanks to one of our partner ministries, HCJB's Clinica La Y, we were also able to provide school physicals, blood work, vision screening and dental exams to the children.  We able to provide funding for several children who needed dental work for caries done as well as glasses.  

Lastly, our social worker, Carmen, has been working hard doing home visits to all of our qualified beneficiares. We do these as a way to understand better what the true needs of our beneficiaries are.

 

 

Below is a picture of one of our summer teams and church partners, Fountain of Life, from Winston-Salem North Carolina.

 

 

Quarterly Stats - (Spring/Summer 2011)

• 5039 people heard the word of God being preached and received a hot meal through our weekly feeding programs 
• 81 individuals were helped with medical vouchers for a total of $846
• 131 Food bags were provided to families in need
• 468 People attended the Kids and Adult Saturday Education program