Journal

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Back in Lima after a mission to serve the poor in the Valle del Colca, Arequipa, Peru.

May 5th, 2010
Hola amigos,
I am back in my apt in Lima now after our MMI mission to serve the people of the Valle del Colca in Arequipa. It was a great mission though one of the hardest ones I have served on. We had many challenges but we were blessed to serve about 1,400 people in 5 days. General medicine, Dental, Optometry, Integrated health and many spiritual counseling sessions and about 50 salvations.
I did get to visit one of our nutritional programs but missed visiting 2 more because of timing conflicts. This is a very good example of my hope to have my own transportation and I can balance my ministry and my service with MMI.
I will not be doing the MMI jungle mission to Puerto Maldonado in the Madre de Dios this month. I need to focus my time and resources on completing my ONG here in Lima so I can release and receive our next shipment of children’s products by around the first of June or so.
This is pretty critical for me. My ONG The Potters Hand- Sirviendo a Niños y Ancianos del Perú is a reality but I need to get my RUC and APSI numbers so I can receive our products from our Potters Hand Foundation via the Reliv Kalogris Foundation and also raise partnerships with Peruvian folks here to fund this part of my efforts here.
I need also to travel throughout June and visit all 14 of our programs now in four different states of Peru;  Lima, Ayacucho, Apurimac and Arequipa. This is so I can evaluate our programs and make my quarterly report to the Kalogris Foundation. Very close to 400 children now praise God. So I am praying mightily that I will have a vehicle to use to make this three week trip in June, finishing in early July. Either an MMI vehicle or something else as God my Father might provide. This would include participating in our MMI mission in Ayacucho at least in part.
In July I will be doing the MMI eye mission and will be back in Lima just 4 days before I come home again for my R&R, to visit and share with all my friends and church family and to go to conference in St Louis to share with folks there.
I am praying that soon I will have been blessed with sufficient partners who would bless this ministry with a good budget so we might grow to serve more children here in Peru. With wonderful partnerships I am about 1/3 of the way to meeting my $1,200.00 monthly budget needs. Soon I pray that I might use some of my own funds to better equip my own needs here and also to help my Aleli with her educational and other needs. Blessed to have family here.
The foto attached is of a full moon setting over the Mountains in the Valle del Colca at 6:30 in the morning. Beautiful!!
Have a very blessed day amigos,
Taylor
PS: I am also blessed that I will be purchasing a rough terrain wheelchair for little Carolay next week. She is one of our kids who was born with spinal bifida. I have sent out her story and fotos before. She is 4 now. She will never walk but she is very bright and has a beautiful spirit. I had put her story out with friends and a woman who heard about it has been communicating with me and she has donated funds for Carolay. The wheelchair is $170.00 so I will also get Carolay some other needs. I want to get her some educational toys for example. Her future is in her mind and her spirit, not in her disabilities.
I hope to help her for years to come as she grows and develops into the young person God the Father has planned for her. I will have many fotos of this blessing and I will share them soon.
Posted in Journal

Casting a net of faith, hope and love as we seek to grow and are searching for partners who would be blessed to help us minister to and serve the children of Peru!

April 17th, 2010
Casting a net of faith, hope and love as we seek to grow and are searching for partners who would be blessed to help us minister to and serve the children of Peru!

I would like to take this opportunity, first to Praise our Lord God who has given me this calling that I have to serve the children of Peru with The Potter’s Hand Foundation, which allows me to be His hands and feet as I represent The Reliv Kalogris Foundation as International Area Coordinator for Peru. I serve as the Founder/Director and Servant of The Potters Hand Foundation, a project of the Congressional District Programs, a 501(c)3 – a Public Charity Foundation in Falls Church, VA.

I wish to thank The Reliv Kalogris Foundation and all our Reliv distributors around our Reliv world who make our mission to Nourish Our World possible. And who totally understand what it is that we have been blessed with and our mission to share our four pillars of hope with people, the 4 pillars of mission, company, products and opportunity.

I want to also recognize my wonderful church family back home, Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where my journey of faith and my wonderful relationship with God my Father, My Lord Jesus Christ, savior, teacher and friend and His Holy Spirit, counselor and friend, all began back in 1999.

Another family group I wish to honor is Medical Ministry International, serving the spiritual and physical needs of the poor here in Peru and around the world. I have been blessed to serve on many missions these last two years with some wonderful folks from the USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia and with some terrific young Peruvian professionals.

I have been answering this call and walking in faith with the Lord here in Peru for three years now. And we have ongoing now 10 programs in diverse areas of Peru, where we are presently serving and providing 307 poor children in need and at risk our wonderful daily, yet long term, nutritional products and programs. We pray to have reached up to 450 or more children by the end of April, early May.

Some of the children that we started these programs with in 2008 are in their third year of daily nutritional care with great results. Some of these first children are children with HIV Aids, special children with disabilities, and orphaned and abandoned children. We are focusing now on going out into more remote areas of the Amazon jungles and into remote villages in the high Andes Mountains where children are at greatest risk and where there is typically no health care or medical aid for the poor.

I have been blessed to begin and maintain our present programs and ministry with my own personal resources which means my retirement benefits from Social Security in the USA. I have been very blessed too that some of my friends and family who know me and understand my God given dream have helped as they could, and continue to do so. I wish to acknowledge here the men of my church who meet regularly every Friday morning for fellowship and prayer, which I have been a part of for 7 years now. These men have known me since the beginning of my time in the wilderness as my Father brought me to Himself and through my present journey as servant to His children here in Peru. They have regularly made love gifts to me personally and some to the Potters Hand Foundation.

I would like to thank my friends Tom & Debbie Geary, who have taken me into their home when I make my return visits to Florida. More than that, they consider me as part of their family which is so like them as they are blessed with His spirit of Love.

I like to thank also my friend Wolf Espenhahn, who is hands and feet for this ministry back home and  is helping me in so many ways.

I like to thank especially Dr. Scott Hearing, who has been a friend and spiritual mentor since our first mission together to Peru in 2004 with our church. Scott also introduced me to Medical Ministry International here in Peru which began another phase of my service here.

A Big “Thank you” also to my friends and mentors David & Eileen Leeds, Dr. Larry and Jeannie Deutschman, Bill and Patty Perrin, all Ambassadors with Reliv International, Inc. and my very dear friend Reggie Ament, Director of our Reliv Kalogris Foundation in St Louis, Mo., who, when I appealed to her with my hope to serve the children of Peru with our wonderful products said YES!

A big Thank you to the Bible study groups, the men of 1st Presbyterian Church in North Palm Beach, Florida, all my Facebook friends around the world, and my friends here in Peru without whom I could do nothing. Thank you!

That brings me to today where I have realized that to grow and to serve many, many more children here in Peru and perhaps someday in other areas of need here in South America, I completely understand that I cannot do this on my own personal resources alone. I never could. It is time that I share this dream and ministry with others who might pray for us, and perhaps answer His call to help financially in partnership either once, or on a regular, monthly basis. I must acknowledge here again those who have already made this choice to partner with us on a regular basis. I praise our Lord and thank you.

I am including with this letter of Hope a presentation which I pray will show our mission, our purpose, our goals and our needs as we strive to serve our Lord and to feed His lambs. I have answered His calling and I trust in Him, His guidance and His provision as I cast this net in Faith; as I share with you our calling.

Potters Hand Foundation2010 Please click on this link, scroll through and enjoy.

If you would like to learn more about our ministry and journey here in Peru feel free to contact me! I love hearing from friends around the world!

I also encourage you to visit our website where you see our story, our journey and many fotos of the children and the people we serve here in Peru and beyond.

Website: www.pottershandfoundation.org

Reliv Kalogris Foundation website: www.relivkalogrisfoundation.org

US phone number which rings here in Peru: 561-200-9754

Email: taylorb1@quixnet.net

Peru cell: 011-9110-2994

God Bless you and may His Peace be with you as you contemplate our ministry.

Blessed to serve,

Taylor J Benson

Founder/Director/ Servant

The Potters Hand Foundation

4521 PGA Boulevard #129

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33418

Posted in Journal

Great news about a sister ONG to the Potters Hand Foundation. The Potters Hand- Sirviendo a Ninos y Ancianos del Perú!

March 22nd, 2010

I am very happy to announce the finalization of a brand new ONG I have been blessed to establish here in Peru. The Potters Hand- Sirviendo a Ninos y Ancianos del Perú. This is a sister organization I established to act as a receiving ONG here in Peru for the long term nutritional products that The Potters Hand Foundation is bringing to Peru. The Potters Hand Foundation is the vehicle that allows me to serve the children of Peru with the nutritional supplemental products provided by The Reliv Kalogris Foundation, which is the foundational arm of Reliv International, Inc.,  a food science, research and development and manufacturing company based in St Louis, Mo.

At present we have 10 programs here in Peru serving 295 poor and disadvantaged children with daily, long term nutritional supplemental products. With hopes to develop many more programs, reaching many more children as funding and provision permits.

Our ministry is for providing our powerful, long term nutritional supplemental programs and the love of Jesus to sick and disabled orphans in Lima and children in extreme poverty in the Amazon jungle and the Andean mountains of Peru, the children nearest to God’s heart.

God’s call to use my skills in business and my adventurous spirit led to opportunities to serve as a BRIDGE between International ministries and local indigenous care givers, bringing them together for greater impact and healing for children.

Primarily, this came to mean sharing God’s love in word and deed and serving as International Area Coordinator for Peru with The Reliv Kalogris Foundation which supplies these vital nutritional products to improve children’s lives around the world.

Fundamental to our programs is partnership with already existing indigenously- lead programs where caregivers are given ownership and responsibility. They are taught and trained in the daily and long term administration of our supplemental nutritional products and sharing the good news of God’s love for every child.

We believe in empowerment and that indigenous peoples are best equipped to minister to children’s physical and spiritual needs. We simply serve as a bridge to resources, teachers and friends.

We are defined and characterized by our relationship with God and the love and message of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our affiliations of faith are with our home church of Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA and with the Union Church of Lima here in Peru.

I thank everyone for your prayers and your support as I am blessed to serve the children in need and at risk here in Peru.

Love- Without counting the cost!

Posted in Journal

Moving forward with my God given dream to serve the children of Peru!

March 10th, 2010

Little Cynthia, one of the children we are serving with our nutritional feeding programs in a remote village in the Andes.

Hi everyone,
Now that I am back in Peru after my R & R visit back home in Florida, Arizona and Colorado I am working and moving forward with my service to the children here.

We are preparing to receive our next annual shipment of nutritional products for our growing feeding programs for children in need and at risk here in Peru. Also I will be joining my friends with Medical Ministry International to serve on a one week mission in the poor areas around Lima in the Pomplona communities.

I am very pleased and happy with our progress here and with the prayers and support we are receiving from friends back home. As always I am very grateful to our Reliv Kalogris Foundation in St Louis for the nutritional products for children that they are providing now going into our third year. We have seen many wonderful life changing, and sometimes life saving results with these programs.

We are praying to grow and to reach out to more communities of children, especially in the remote villages in the high Andean mountains and into the jungles of the Amazon to reach indigenous tribal children there. These are typically where the people and their children have the least amount of health care available and are living a subsistent life with basic, poor nutritional food supplies.
Ever onward in our God given, God directed and God provisioned dream of service to these wonderful people and their children. More to come and thank you all again for your prayers and support.
Please feel free to send me messages, etc as it is always good and encouraging to hear from folks back home and from friends around the world.
God Bless,
Taylor

Posted in Journal

Going Home to the USA for some R&R and to visit my son!

March 5th, 2010

Behind me is one of my favorite places here in Peru. The canon del Colca where I have one of my nutritional supplemental feeding programs for children and where I have served on many missions with Medical Ministry International. On the other side of the canyon I can see the spot where I was bucked off of my mule on one of these missions.

I am soon going home to Florida for some rest and relaxation after my latest 5 month ministry stint here in Peru.

It has been a great 5 months though I am ready for a rest and to visit all my friends and family back home. I am flying out of Lima this Thursday the 28th and will be in Miami around 2:45PM. One full month to catch up on things back home and also to attend a conference with Reliv International and our Reliv Kalogris Foundation. This 3 day conference is in Phoenix and when it is finished I am flying into Colorado to spend three days with my son, Taylor Scott. Flying into Telluride and the regional airport should be a great time. I am looking forward to all of this very much.

It has been a slow start for me in this blogging experience so I am going to start again. Short and sweet, si!! Consider this a practice event and a discipline effort for me.

A mention of a young girl, Abby Sunderland here. She is the 16 year young girl who has begun her solo, around the world, non stop sailing adventure. I think that is a grand adventure for any one to accomplish and I will be following her journey every day for the next 6 months or so. Check out this Link. to her site. Go Abby!!!

PS: Just sat through some minor but quite long earth tremors here in Lima.

Posted in Journal
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