We arrived in Argentina after a 9 hour and a 10 hour flight back to back. As we settled for take off on the second flight the captain announced there would be a slightly longer detour to avoid the path of Hurricane Ike which was moving over South America - not the most comforting news for a reluctant flyer-but after 9 hours, and 10 hours more, it all feels the same after a while.
We were met at the airport in Buenos Airies by my brother-in-law Raul, known to our children as Tio Raulie and our niece Ruth and her daughter Bianca. Raulie and his wife Mirtha run a christian orphanage just outside the capital with very little funds and do an amazing job. I was humbled and honoured to stay there with them for our first week to see what a fantastic job they do with the children. Some children are there for a few months while adjustments can be made to home situations, some remain longer. I was honoured to meet two of the lads who are brothers and have been there most of their lives. My husband tells me when they went to school as children, they would call themselves Lampan as they considered themselves part of my brother-in- laws family, they still do. When I stayed there for a week, living with them all together, I saw just how much of a family and how much all the children who live there are loved and love my in laws.
One of the brothers' Tadeo' I saw on my husbands website in 2001 when he was about 6 and I began to pray for him and prayed that one day if possible I would meet him. I was not even married to my husband then and had no connections to Argentina. That prayer was answered on this trip and I told Tadeo I had prayed for him many years before, and it was an answer to prayer to meet him.
Both boys are lovely caring lads as you will see from some of the photos with our daughter, as were all the children. Each day the younger children would knock my door when they got in from school and then come in to give me a hug and say Hola Tia Claire. Academically both Tadeo and Freddie have done well too; the younger brother - 'freddy' was in college while we were there training to be a PE teacher. The brothers are long term care children, yet have been brought up as part of The Lampan family. This was not an orphanage that I saw, it their home. This same home is the home where Rauli and Mirtha raised there own three children too, a place where they all learned together about love, discipline, but most of all Jesus.
Every Sunday all the family go to their local pentecostal church, freddie also plays his guitar in the worship team. Beginning at the Children Home shaped my whole trip - to see how two people can live out a God given vision with such selfless love and compassion, was a gem I will always treasure. Now here are the photos.
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| Tio Raulie teaching the children wood work |
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| Esther sitting with Tadeo getting to know him and Tia Mirtha |
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| Tony and Eric from The Highway Church in Wales, UK practicing their skipping skills |
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| Emma, one of the childrens birthday party - a mountain of crisps to start! |
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| Esther getting to know the children playing a game of table football |
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| Claire turn to get a family photo |
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| The home from outside - strange but all the houses have bars or shutters on them in Argentina |
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| Sunday - the children at their local church |
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| Freddie - tuning up ready for the worship |
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The extention
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