A team from Kensington Community Church of Troy, Michigan is currently on the coast of Ecuador, building a security wall around the Montanita Verde Orphanage.  They’re doing a great job with not only the construction, but also with building relationships with the children of the orphanage.  Thanks for all your hard work, team!

After months of planning and paperwork, fundraising and collecting of donated items, it seemed so surreal to finally be in Manta, Ecuador. I was part of a team of 11 Canadians from the Simcoe, Ontario area that flew to Manta to help put on the Christmas Outreach Events for 2008. We went loaded down with 22 suitcases, all weighing in at the 49.9 allowable pounds, ready to bring joy and encouragement to the poor people in the coastal area of Manta. We had brought with us toys, hygiene items, and school supplies to make up gift bags, for the approximate 600 children that we were to bring Christmas greetings to. We brought cash to purchase food supplies to make lunches for the folks at the parties and food baskets to take home with them as well. What a grocery shopping trip that was! Games were assembled for the parties. Simple things like plywood painted with cut out circles to allow bean bags to be tossed through. Stick fishing poles to play “Go Fish” were constructed. Plastic pop bottles filled with beach sand to toss rings onto. Laughter and love filled the room as the gift bags were put together. We were there in our minds, to bring encouragement to these forgotten folks. We just were not really ready for the 180 turn around that was about to happen to us as we set out for the locations of the Christmas parties. The big longing eyes, the smiles, the grateful hugs, the emotional out spring of thankfulness to us for coming. We saw children and adults together play our games, colour our crafts, and receive our gifts with enthusiasm as if we had taken them to Disney for the day. We thought we were to be the bearers of great joy, but I think we recieved just as much in return. I will never forget the encounter I had with one little guy and his mother. He had just received his gift bag, besides the toothbrush, toothpaste, face cloth, bar of soap, the bag also contained a little teddy bear and the “treasure of his eye” a shiny red Corvette Hot Wheel car. He turned to his mother so excited, she looked at him and then up at me. I asked our translator to have a quick conversation. The mother got up gave me a hug and told our translator…”thank you for coming far away from your home to bring us these gifts, I could never have enough money to be able to buy my son such a nice toy” To think that a hot wheel car that cost our team 64 cents a piece could bring so much joy. We all went back to Canada, lives a little changed…we live in the land of plenty, help us to be more generous to those who have nothing.

An Extreme Response team of 12 from Sunrise Church in Sacramento, California arrived in Manilla on December 1st - with suitcases full of beanie babies, hotwheel cars, crayons, coloring books, toothbrussh, toothpaste, bars of soap, kids sunglasses and Disney toys. They had enough to make 1400 kids’ gift bags. The first party was held at the Smokey Mountain dump site. The party was held outside in the street for about 500 energetic kids. There was a carnival with 10 different games, ice cream, sodas, cotton candy, the gift bags and food bags for the parents. It was a wild and crazy event.

Over 600 children attended the Olangapo party in a big covered arena. The kids were so beautiful, respectful and smiling from ear to ear the entire time. When the gifts were passed out there were children all around the arena hugging & caressing beanie babies, holding up their crayons & coloring books and pushing, zooming and, of course, crashing their hotwheel cars. This went on for nearly an hour. Later that night the team slept on the floor of a local church, underneath colorful mosquito netting.

An hour drive and a 45 minute hike up a mountain trail is where the final party took place with the 200 kids of the the Kanawan Tribe (plus their parents). The team had an amazing experience being in such a remote place with such appreciative people.

Thank you 2008 Philippines team and all of you who gave to make all this possible!