An important part of our ministry is the development of relationships with the Indigenous communities from which the children immigrate; working together with village leaders to found economic projects that will benefit the entire family and community, thus turning the tide on child labor.

Some of these communities are as far as 5 hours away from Quito.   Here we travel monthly, doing workshops on hygiene, nutrition, child care, family planning and more, always educating against the dangers of child labor and encouraging the families to bring their children home to live together and study in nearby high schools. In these outlying areas, the local evangelical church may only get a visit from a pastor once a month.  So we provide workshops, helping them in the much needy area of Christian education and children’s ministry.

Each month Teresa travels to our targeted Indian Communities, getting to know the families of the FACES kids who have stayed behind in the Quichua villages while their children emigrate to the city to work.   They have graciously allowed her to lead workshops on many topics ranging from “A Scriptural Approach to Family Planning”  to how to set up a Sunday School.  Thanks to generous donations from Elaine and friends, we were able to distribute small gifts at each conference, such as baby bath products, blankets and tee shirts.   In October we awarded certificates to over a hundred women who had completed the series “The Woman of Purpose I.”  They were enthralled by the documentary “The Nine Months of Pregnancy” and were educated about prenatal care.  Other lessons in the series taught the women hygiene and nutrition for newborns and young babies.  But by far the most popular workshop was a simple overview of all the birth control methods that are available here.  Each conference is filled with scriptures that relate to the practical topics. 

“We don’t want to keep having so many babies,” said the male villagers.  “But we are afraid to tell our wives to use birth control.  We have heard that women die from taking pills and that the birth control shot causes cancer.” We had to give this workshop twice, once for the moms and again for the husbands. Hopefully at least in these three Quichua communities, the couples now have the information to make an informed decision about how many children God wants them to have.