The Potter's Hand Foundation

Hola friends,

I am doing well and looking forward to returning to Peru at the end of March. Return flight tickets are purchased and I am ready to go. Though I am happy to have a few more weeks here in Florida with friends & family.

It seems I live in two worlds now and I move back and forth between them. Praying to keep things balanced and in perspective.

I have a new video of some of my programs for children that a friend has helped me put together. More like John did all the creating here and I am blessed to provide the story and the fotos. It is my first one and I hope to do much more “story telling” about this ministry I am called to and more about the lives of the children.

I hope you enjoy it. Click on the link below and it will open in a new window.

Children of Peru!

Blessed to serve,

Taylor

Hello friends,

It has been a wonderful visit back home in the USA and here in my home state of Florida. I am certainly enjoying the weather here these last few days. Sorry for friends up north but it is 82 degrees here today with mucho sol (a lot of sunshine). So one more month for me here and then I return to Peru where summer will be ending and another winter begins. Seems I have not seen much of summer for a year and a half, since August of 09 as my travels keep me where winter is!! Maybe when I plan to return here to the colonies this coming  August I will be blessed to get in some sailing, something I have missed for over 4 years now.

But I am blessed that my ministry in Peru serving poor children in need is doing well. I am blessed to be able to share this God ordained and directed story with friends here in Florida, in Atlanta when I attended our winter conference for Reliv International and our Reliv Kalogris Foundation and I was very blessed to visit with some friends in South Carolina and speak to their church congregation there. A wonderful church family and they received me very well as I shared my ministry with them

Click on foto to enlarge

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Now it is near the end of February and I am making plans to speak to other groups as I look to God my Father for continued support for The Potters Hand Foundation and our purpose of providing our supplemental nutritional products, simple and portable water purification systems, health education and parasite prevention programs to the poor.

Click on foto to enlarge

Ours is a ministry of empowerment and helping the poor help themselves. I truly believe in the analogy that as we teach a man to fish he can feed his family; going further he then can teach his children how to fish; meaning how to live more fulfilled and complete lives.

I will be preparing soon to receive our 4th annual shipment of the Reliv Kalogris Foundation nutritional products in Lima. It is my hope this will be accomplished by the end of April.

But for the moment I am truly enjoying my church family here in Florida and many other friends around the country by phone and other electronic means. I also hope to visit with my son in Colorado but we think that may have to wait until next August or so.

Now to get back outside to enjoy this wonderful weather. Maybe a walk on the beach and gazing at the sailboats on the horizon.

Blessed to serve,

Taylor

Wishing everyone a blessed and Happy New Year!

Wishing all my friends and family a very blessed and prosperous New Year.

It has been a great year for the ministry and purpose of The Potters Hand Foundation and I want to thank all those who helped make our service to the children of Peru prosper and grow.

To recap as of the end of year we are providing our Reliv Kalogris Foundation’s daily, long term nutritional supplemental products to about 450 children in 16 programs in 5 states of Peru.  Some of these programs are for special needs children, children with HIV Aids and poor children in remote Andean mountain villages and also for the children of the Ashaninka native peoples in the high Amazon jungles.

In addition to these wonderful programs we are now able to be providing simple, portable water purification systems for each program, health educational programs and other educational opportunities for children.

We are also very blessed in that in the coming year we will receive a 25% increase in our annual product shipment and this will mean we can develop more programs focusing on more remote areas in the Andes mountains and deeper into the jungle where the need is ever greater.

Another blessing for me is that our sister ONG or Peruvian foundation The Potters Hand- Sirviendo los Ninos y Ancianos del Peru, is finally complete- complete and will be the receiving organization for our product shipment in 2011 and beyond. The final papers were signed just last week before I left Peru to come to the USA.

I also wish to mention my friends of Medical Ministry International and to acknowledge all those who came to Peru this year to serve the spiritual and physical needs of the poor. Folks came from the USA and Canada to serve and it was my blessing as well to serve them and to serve with them.  My thanks and acknowledgement to the in country team whose leadership and dedication made all of these missions possible. Thank you friends.

But for now I am very happy to be back home in Florida for some rest and recuperation. It has been a wonderful ten months down in Peru though I am sure ready to come home to visit my family here, including my Reliv International family, my Christ Fellowship family and others.

May the New Year bring you hope and promise as we walk with each New Day that comes.

Taylor J Benson

Founder/Director/Servant

Hello friends,

I am preparing this week to share my 7th Christmas with the children of the Posada de Amor which is an orphanage in Cieneguilla, about one hour outside of Lima, Peru.

My first visit to this orphanage was with a short term mission team from my home church back in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida- Christ Fellowship. This visit changed my life as I am now blessed to serve children in need and at risk here in Peru. More about the changes this has brought to my life can be found in the pages of this website. Please feel to browse them.

The Posada de Amor is supported in part by Places of Hope International (click here!), a 501(c)(3) organization that serves children living in poverty around the world.

I will be joined on this adventure by friends here in Lima. My Princess Aleli who lives in Cieneguilla, Yasmin and Jackie, two young senoritas from Lima who are studying at university here, my friend Pastor Asdrubal Amador and his wife Kerin.

Aleli, Yasmin and Jackie were with me last Christmas at the Posada.

Aleli, Jackie & Yasmin

We have been blessed that friends from back home have provided funds so that Cesar, the Director and the house moms can buy the gifts for each child, 54 in number at this time. On the way out to Cieneguilla we will buy spaghetti fixings, ice cream, chocolate syrup and cakes for our fiesta meal. Spaghetti seems to have become the traditional meal for this celebration.

It is amazing to me that I have this very special opportunity to be with these kids again for Christmas. I have known most of them since my first visit here in 2003.

The little ones have grown a lot like Carolay Nelly Navarro Soto, the young nina in this foto who was just three when I met her and is now ten years young.

And there are new little ones like the twin boys Mario Vicente and Isaiah King Agreda Ponte who are now 4 years young.  Plus all the children who are from 3 to 18 years and some becoming young adults. These children are all living in this place as a family and are growing up together with their tutoras( house moms) and more. They are living here with the love that comes from their relationship with God, their true Father and with Jesus, who is their Lord, Teacher and Friend.

So I am happy to be visiting them and sharing a wonderful day of fun, food, gifts and our celebration of Christmas- remembering the true reason for this season, the birth of Jesus Christ.

Until the next adventure- Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Hello friends,
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, a Blessed New Year and a New decade.
I visited one of my nutritional supplemental feeding programs in Huachipa, outside of Lima today with some of my fellow Rotarian’s from our Rotary Club Lima Sunrise. We had a Navidad or Christmas fiesta with the children. They range in age from 2 to 5 years young. There are a total of 103 little ones and I  have 30 of them on our Reliv Kalogris Foundation nutritional program. Started this program earlier in the year for the neediest ones, which are usually the newest arrivals from this very poor area. After a very short time with our products and with the wonderful care of the staff of ALECRIM they are thriving. Our Rotary club is also providing simple, natural and portable water purification systems for this center plus for a number of the families of the children affiliated with the center.

It was a fun day for the kids and also for us older kids!!!   Here is a short video

I am now preparing to leave again tomorrow evening, Tuesday the 12th on a 9+ hour night time bus ride up over the top of the Andes mountains going to Ayacucho, Ayacucho. I will be visiting 4 nutritional supplemental feeding programs there. Two in the city of Ayacucho and two up in a remote Quechuan village- Yanamilla. I also will be sharing a Christmas fiesta with the children in Yanamilla. This is possible because some friends here in Lima had a “tea” where the ladies all provided gifts for the children. I am carrying two water purifacation systems for the school and a church in this village which were donated by our Rotary Club..  This is a blessing also as we can now provide good, safe water to use with our nutritional products.

I hope to be back in Lima on Friday morning of the 17th, after another long night time bus ride. Then I will be preparing to share my 7th Christmas with the children of the Posada de Amor in Cieneguilla, outside of Lima. More on this another time. It is time to pack for my journey.

God Bless and Merry Christmas!