Greetings friends!!!! Here is an update since our last blog!!! A lot is happening!!
2 weeks ago Peru celebrated Dia de Nino-”Kid’s day”! The church opened their doors to the first in person event since 2019! The church had a special program for kids in all of their morning services. There was music, a show, and even a small gift along with cotton candy and popcorn when they left! It was officially the launch of our kids Sunday school program returning to in person after 2 years and 5 months. The attendance for that Sunday in both of our campuses was 1331 kids and their families!!! Can you believe that!!!!! Wow!!! A lot of people attend who are invited to the church for the first time. For our special needs volunteer team, it was an opportunity to make a first connection in person with some of the families who came to CDV during the pandemic! Many of these families AND volunteers never experienced an in person service for Kids day since they arrived at CDV during the pandemic and participated in virtual Sunday school/church. It was a really wonderful way to launch our re-opening.
This past Sunday-August 28th was the church’s first official Sunday where kids were checked into their classes and parents were able to attend the service. It was a VERY EXCITING day! Approximately 500 kids attended the 2 campuses! That is A LOT of kids!! Before the pandemic we averaged 800 kids over 6 campuses on a regular Sunday! We are excited by these statistics and the church is now evaluating if we need to open more services at another campus sooner than later!!!.
For the special needs area-there were a few kids who attended before the pandemic and connected online. It was really wonderful to see them in person, see how much they have grown, and hug them and their families. The surprise was that there were a lot of NEW families who brought their kids with special needs! And were very open about needing help. This is a huge shift from before the pandemic. This past weekend we received 12 children in the 2 in person campuses and 3 children online. We know that there are also a few children who will begin attending in September that were not in attendance this past Sunday. So, we are excited to see that there is a need!
We want to share a little more about the structure of the 2 campuses and our setup to receive children with special needs.
First of all our desire and goal is that each child is able to participate in the regular classroom with/without support. However, we also realized that there are some children who need extra support, an adapted curriculum, and a different environment to learn. In one of our locations we were given a room for the first time in 7 years! As many of you may know this room will serve as the special needs area on Sundays and then during the week as a therapy room. The other campus does not have a designated space due to lack of rooms, so the special needs team needs to share with another classroom group which can be both positive and challenging depending on the needs of the child. We are praying that this will change as the need grows.
I want to share a story about the success of this room in just this first Sunday and how needed this room is for our kiddos. A new family contacted us through the families ministry. The parents have been attending all the small group marriage classes with other families with special needs. They were told there was a space for their children in the children’s ministry. They were shocked and skeptical based on previous experiences in other places but they were desperate to try again. This family has 2 boys with autism. The mom explained that she was unsure about bringing her older son (who is over 5 feet tall and pretty strong) because he had regressed during the pandemic and new behaviors have gotten worse. The biggest one being running away….We encouraged her to bring him. We explained that we have an incredible team of volunteers, a room with a door that will help keep him safe along with many multi-sensory equipment to help him stay calm and engaged with the volunteers. She and her husband were very nervous. But they brought their kids. They dropped them off to our volunteers after seeing the space. She texted the lead volunteer many times through the 1 hour service to be sure that they were ok, expecting us to ask her to come get the boys because they were too much. The truth is that the boys WERE A LOT of work but we are so very happy to get to be a part of their lives. The older one DID try to escape through the window and the door many times. But because we had a safe space, he was able to calm down and participate with the volunteers in the space especially designed for him. After the service was over, the boys were safely returned to their family. The look of amazement and words of gratitude was evident in both parents. They explained they have never experienced this before in a church here and are beyond grateful. As we get to know these boys and the other kids that need this space we will be able to tailor the adapted curriculum for them to learn more about God’s love for them. We are excited and encouraged by this story. We know there are many more families who need to experience this type of unconditional love. We are grateful for this opportunity.
PRAYERS & NEEDS
Other than needing a similar space at the second location (please join us in praying for this), we also have determined that we need a private entrance/exit that is also wheelchair accessible for the special needs room at the main campus as we mentioned in our last blog update. Currently, this room has a shared entrance with the area of babies ages 3 months-2 years old. So, every child with special needs and their volunteer needs to pass through the baby room to enter and exit the special needs area. For the short term, we will make this work, however we feel that there needs to be a private entrance/exit specifically for quick and direct access for the parents and for the overall safety of everyone sharing the space.
The cost of this project is 10,900 soles. In USD that averages out to be $2809.00. We currently have received $600.00 for this special project thanks to the generosity of all of you!!! Those of you who have not yet donated but are thinking about it, would you please prayerfully consider helping us reach this goal so we can begin the work on this door as soon as possible?
Ways to Give:
Donate to CDV Life Missions at https://caminodevida.com/lifemissions/ select Give, make a donation, and chose offering- KIDS HD-Lisa Alfonsi/Clever Sobrino
Donate to TAP (The Antioch Partners) our mission agency who sent us to Peru. Please put Alfonsi-Sobrino support special needs room project in memo. line.https://secure.qgiv.com/for/TheAntiochPartners/restriction/PartnerSupport/AlfonsiLisaandSobrinoClever
Please feel free to contact us if you have questions. If you decide to donate please can you let us know how much you are donating so we can let the people who receive donations know that it is coming.
Please feel free to contact us at lalfonsi@caminodevida.com Thank you SO much!
God Bless,
Clever, Lisa, Kaleb and CDV!!!
* pictures above are of the kiddos from this past weekend both in the special needs room and also 1 in the location without the room in a shared space.