Pan American Health Service's News

The Rocky Mountain Conference organized a mission team; many of them were students and faculty of Campion Academy in Colorado. Several of the large team had been here before. Read the rest of this entry »

A group of our missionary friends from New Mexico spent a week helping to make the Casita Feliz safer and brighter.  They repaired windows and placed electrical outlets farther out of reach of the little ones – some of whom get mischievous before they return home!  Our children are very pleased with the attention they gave them, and we thank them for their work on behalf of our children. Thanks!

A group led by Nick Guyach worked on the interior walls of what will be an activity area for the Children’s Home. The upper level room will be an area for the children to interact and to play musical instruments and games.

The youth group of the Oakhurst California Seventh-day Adventist Church got right to work on the children’s Dining Hall and making bunk beds for the Boys Dorm.  They smoothed out the floor between the dining and serving area, and they built steps and a ramp to roll the little ones from the Casita Feliz. Happily the Dining Hall is now functional thanks to Campion Academy for working the jack-hammers and digging the holes for the supports of the new roof; to the ladies of the Rivermont Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee for the walls; and to the Oakhurst group who made tables and benches!

With gratitude to AMPAC and their parent company Breakstone Mining Company, we received the word that the company would provide labor and funds to finish the Children’s Home central parlor and the house-parents apartment behind it.  Now the boys will be able move into their wing which is functionally complete.

Led by Stephan Gray, a group of 32 volunteers from Richardson Seventh-Day Adventist Church was welcomed back for the second time.  In 2006 they poured the walls on the boy’s wing, and now they inaugurated that same wing by being the first to stay there after our Canadian friends plumbed it. They put in many sunny hours and a lot of muscle work lifting concrete all the way up to the 9 ft. level for the walls of what will be our new Children’s Hospital Ward. They even left us the funds to get the roof up. How exciting to see a new profile rising in the place where we were accustomed to see the old Children’s Hospital for 4 decades!  They held a Vacation Bible School for neighborhood children and a devotional for our family in the evenings.

Our dear friends from California, who in the past 4 years built the lovely Casita Feliz where the little malnourished ones are housed at present, now have taken the initiative to begin rebuilding the new Children’s Nutritional Rehab Hospital ward. Another 28 volunteers, led by Dr. Tom and Calle Wieg, joined Gary and LeRoy (who had arrived in January) to do the heavy, though largely unseen, job of breaking through and then reinforcing the old foundation so they could anchor I-beam uprights ready for walls and a roof. Then they hauled wheel-borrow loads of concrete to pour a new slab. Through the Mend A Child Foundation they continue to help provide a monthly educational funds for our children, for which we are all most grateful! Dr. Tom Wieg, a talented photographer as well as a dentist, has made up beautiful sets of cards for the sponsors of each of our school children. More sponsors are needed. See www.mendachild.org

Mel was a plumber in Alberta, Canada, who learned about the difficult situation we had with the plumbing in the boy’s wing of the Children’s Home at a family reunion.  He immediately expressed a desire to come down and help us.  Two weeks later he was killed in a tragic accident.  Twelve of his plumbing colleagues, friends, and family members got together to make his dream of service come true. Our new friends from Alberta, Canada departed today having accomplished their mission and more – for they had installed all the remaining plumbing in the center apartments for Mami Verlene and the Home Parents, as well as beautifully finishing off the bathrooms in the Boy’s Wing complete with tiling the shower stalls and floors. During their stay they brought a wonderful sense of camaraderie with nightly hymn-sings accompanied by guitars.

Mel’s Dream Team a mission team from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada lead by Todd Lien and Diane Ward arrived ready to roll up their sleeves and finish the plumbing in the Boys’ Wing of the New Children’s Home. We are honored to have this dedicated group of friends and family come on a trip that honor the memory of Uncle Mel who had a vision to come visit our children and work to make their lives better, but whose life was cut short too soon to see his vision realized.

Gary Shipp and Leroy Corson were welcomed to our campus ready to start our next major building project The new and improved Nutritional Rehabilitation Hospital Facility. We are grateful to have this project get underway at last!