Ephraim (pronounced "e-frame") is named after a little boy we knew in Peru. You may remember him, he was a little boy with walking problems with whom Megan worked. We have a picture of him in a therapy room at the Refuge of Hope in October of 2006 while he is being assessed by the therapist Isaac, one of Megan's future co-workers. His father and mother pastored Emanuel Church and they started the first savings group, Banquito Emanuel, which went on to grow fivefold in the second year.
Ephraim was always a joy to be around. He had an indomitable spirit and was always more determined and had higher hopes for himself than anyone else had for him. While his legs had limited movement which kept him either in a wheelchair or on a custom walker (that one of you donated through us) he was always cheery and very ambitious.
Within two months of returning from Peru in May of 2010, we heard news that he had fallen in a pool at a church picnic and drowned. He was five years old.
It turns out that in his short life God used him to bring us to Ivon and Caleb Rios as an answer to Caleb’s prayers to improve the economic condition of his church and my prayers to start a savings group. God used Megan to treat Ephraim but also to build the relationship between the economic development arm of Food for the Hungry Pucallpa and their church, which was desperately praying for help in basic business and personal money management. (Caleb actually retrieved his journal one day and went back to show where he was praying for a Christan NGO, missionary or organization who can help them manage money and their businesses more effectively.) God used this boy to direct us where the doors were open.
Ephraim was just over one year old when we met him at the Refuge of Hope on our first visit there in October of 2006 and he died the summer of 2010 just after we left Peru. While there were many ways he was used in his life we cannot miss that almost his entire life existed during our short stay in the country.
The name means "fruitful" and we think it fit him very well.
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