Ministry of Francisco and Juanita Vargas {Ecuador Part 2}
Missionaries Francisco and Juanita Vargas live in a poorer section of Tumbaco where their life’s work is ministry to primarily underprivileged children. Although “Nita”, an American who grew up in Paraguay, is the daughter of missionaries, she is quick to admit that working with children is a ministry she never anticipated. After she married Francisco, an Ecuadorian pastor, the Lord opened the door for their ministry.
The children’s center is located behind this gate and across the street from their home.
Behind this gate is Francisco and Nita’s home surrounded by Nita’s luscious garden. Her garden is a beautiful picture of the landscape of Ecuador.
Her entire yard is covered with flowers of which many are exotic. She has various fruit trees and six avocado trees. Imagine my delight eating there. Her landscape and the lessons she says God teaches her in gardening is a thing of beauty worthy of a blog post in itself.
Nestled within starkly contrasted pictures of poverty is the daily life and ministry of these missionaries.
On Saturdays Kids’ Club is held at the center from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. During our nearly two week trip, I witnessed firsthand the extensive labor of love invested here. In addition to their youth services held on Saturday nights {Youth to be featured in Ecuador Part 3.}, Francisco and Nita have an after school program, help sponsor numerous children in a high school sponsorship program and hold yearly summer camps for the kids and youth {Kids’ Camp also to be featured in Ecuador Part 3.}.
This rock is a beautiful representation of the Vargas’ Ministry. Jehovah Jireh is indeed their provider! This is evident in their daily lives as they seek Him not only for financial provision, but for the time and strength needed to invest into these precious lives, and most importantly for the imparting of truth.
Diane, making what she claims to be her last time down the slide while Terry, A.K.A. Terry-aki, stands by.
Although there is a sacrifice to be made in making a mission’s trip overseas, it’s easy to step on foreign soil and embrace these children with the love of God. As the supporting team, we did our share of work; but, the truth is that we spent much of our time laughing and playing with the children.
We were partakers in the fruit of hours upon hours of labor.
This picture portrays beautifully the fruit of the Vargas’ Ministry.
Worship is led with the assistance of Carlos and Germania Molina. After worship, the kids are divided into age groups. The older children {9-12} are taught by Nita and Francisco.
The younger children {6-8} are taught by Germania and Carlos. Led by the pinkie finger of one of the younger girls, I listened to Germania’s teaching on both of the Saturdays we were there.
The children of this ministry are part of a culture primarily stuck in religious practices. Because of this, Nita stressed that the importance of ensuring these children grasp the meaning of salvation is a great task. The majority of them are from single parent, low income homes. Many of them are from abusive families. Fatherlessness is commonplace.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. ~ James 1:27
Working with children on a much smaller basis as a Nanny, I can attest to fatigue that sometimes accompanies the demands of tending to their physical needs as well as the enormous responsibility of nurturing them.
The work of this ministry is a full time job. The challenges are many. Picture a church consisting of children not yet mature enough to assist in aiding the Body of Christ; a church of non-tithers, if you will.
The needs at home and abroad are increasing economically as well as spiritually. Now more than ever the Body of Christ needs to take notice that the fields are ripe with harvest. And as we pray the Lord of Harvest will send forth laborers, may we listen carefully for His leading in our own lives.
It’s time we do what He has called us to do, go where He says go, and support those He sends.
Paul and Diane have supported this ministry since 2005. They’ve watched many of these children grow over the past years. Here, they’re passing out dolls that were made by women in their local church to the girls and ball caps to the boys.
I have a greater understanding of the reason why they continue to support this ministry and make yearly trips to Ecuador. It’s easy to love these children. The love of God knows no language barrier.
And once you’ve locked pinkies with one of these kids and allowed them into your heart . . .
it’s so hard to say good-bye . . .
Paul and Neyser on our last day there
Francisco and Juanita Vargas are part of Action International Ministries. For more information on how you can help support their ministry, click here.
***Stay tuned for details of Kids’ Camp and the Vargas’ Youth Ministry in Ecuador Part 3.
Very good article. I’m experiencing a few of these
issues as well..
Your way of describing all in this paragraph is in fact fastidious,
every one be able to simply know it, Thanks a lot.
Great post. I was checking continuously this weblog
and I am inspired! Very useful info particularly the closing phase 🙂 I take care of such information much.
I was seeking this certain information for a very lengthy time.
Thank you and good luck.
I have been browsing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It is pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if
all website owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be much
more useful than ever before.
Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard
against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?
Can you tell us more about this? I’d want to find out more details.
Great post. I used to be checking constantly this weblog and I am inspired!
Extremely useful information specially the closing phase :
) I maintain such information a lot. I was looking for this certain info for a very long time.
Thank you and best of luck.
bookmarked!!, I really like your blog!
I was suggested this website by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is
written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my problem.
You’re incredible! Thanks!
Quality posts is the important to interest the users to go
to see the web page, that’s what this web page is
providing.
Hi! I know this is kinda off topic however I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest authoring a
blog article or vice-versa? My site covers a lot of the same subjects as
yours and I think we could greatly benefit from each
other. If you happen to be interested feel free to shoot me
an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you!
Wonderful blog by the way!
If some one needs to be updated with hottest technologies therefore he must be pay a
quick visit this web site and be up to date every day.
I think the admin of this site is truly working hard in support of his site,
for the reason that here every data is quality based data.
Valuable information. Lucky me I discovered your site unintentionally, and I’m stunned why
this twist of fate did not came about earlier! I bookmarked it.
Do you have a spam problem on this blog; I
also am a blogger, and I was wondering your situation; many of
us have created some nice methods and we are looking to swap methods with others, why not shoot me an e-mail if interested.
I think that what you posted was very logical.
However, think on this, suppose you added a little information? I am not
suggesting your content isn’t good, but what if you added a title to possibly grab a person’s attention?
I mean Ministry of Francisco and Juanita Vargas Ecuador Part 2 | Lines In The Sand | Insert Grace Here is kinda boring.
You could peek at Yahoo’s home page and see how they create article headlines to
grab people interested. You might add a video
or a related pic or two to get people interested about what you’ve got to say.
Just my opinion, it could make your posts a little bit more interesting.
Every weekend i used to pay a visit this web site, because i wish for enjoyment, for the reason that this this site conations actually fastidious funny information too.
I’d like to thank you for the efforts you have put
in writing this blog. I am hoping to view the same high-grade blog posts by you in the future as well.
In fact, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to
get my own, personal website now 😉
Hi there mates, nice article and pleasant arguments commented here,
I am actually enjoying by these.
hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve certainly
picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise several technical issues using this site, as I experienced to reload the website
lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly.
I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK?
Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and could damage your quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords.
Anyway I am adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for much more of your respective interesting content.
Ensure that you update this again soon.
I am regular visitor, how are you everybody? This post
posted at this site is actually pleasant.
What’s up friends, pleasant post and nice urging commented at this place, I am really enjoying by these.
I was recommended this blog by my cousin. I’m not sure whether
this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my trouble.
You’re incredible! Thanks!
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did
you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
Plz reply as I’m looking to construct my own blog and
would like to know where u got this from. cheers
Thank you, I have just been looking for information approximately this subject for
a while and yours is the best I’ve discovered so far.
However, what about the bottom line? Are you positive about the source?