The week has flown by, and as I sit to think about this past day in the airport, I find myself thinking about the entire week, as well.
We began the day with leftovers for breakfast - egg casserole and sweet granola crumble, among others. Leftovers never tasted so good!
We then packed up all of our donated supplies - more than an entire suitcase full! - to leave with our family at Buen Pastor for their use in Sunday School and other programming and loaded up the bus for the last time.
Arriving at Buen Pastor, after reading Matthew 5:13-14 Maggie and Melissa shared about a time when they each felt the light of God during our morning devotion. It took courage to be vulnerable in front of our group and our Ecuadorian friends, and they did a wonderful job sharing their stories!
We then worked for about an hour on various projects - scrubbing drips of paint off of the tile floor, finishing two beautiful murals, and generally tidying up the grounds we had all worked to beautify throughout the week.
Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. It included zero rice! We couldn't believe it. We shared one last meal with our brothers and sisters, yelling translations across the room and laughing through the corn, potatoes, and meat.
Afterwards, we were herded like sheep into one area below the church, and we were not allowed to move from that spot. Minutes later, we were permitted to enter the sanctuary space - greeted with balloons, confetti, and of course, dancing! Our new friends made us feel so loved and celebrated.
Our "despedida," or goodbye party, also included a traditional dance in costume performed by some of the youth of the church, salsa, merengue, and macarena lessons, and some very meaningful prayer and words of gratitude.
Juan Carlos, or "Daddy" as the youth call him, led the youth in praying for us while one of them was touching each of our feet. He prayed fervently to God - it is an honor to be in the presence of this man as he prays and a Godly experience in itself - asking for a blessing. He prayed for every place these feet will touch, every place we will come to know, and everyone that fills those places. He asked that the blessings we have each experienced this week may multiply and continue to impact lives beyond those present. Finally, he prayed that these wary feet would lead us back to our Buen Pastor family and home again. To that we could only say, "Amen!"
After a quick trip to the market to find llama sweaters, blankets, hammocks, tablecloths, and many other trinkets, we quickly finished packing, showered, and headed into our final debrief (processing time) of the week. Dinner was a typical Ecuadorian meal - menestra, which is beans, rice, and meat. It filled our bellies after this week had filled our hearts to overflowing. And now, here we are, waiting to board our plane back to the US. Back home. But for some of us, home is not so simple a concept anymore.
I am thankful for moments when God reveals himself to us - in giving roses to a stranger, in the smiles amid the smell of true poverty, in the lights of an ambulance that saves an 88 year old life, in the eyes of a blind woman, in the joy of children as they plant seeds (literally and figuratively), in the wonder of our youth as they look out over God's beautiful creation, in the breaking of the bread, in the singing of one chorus in two languages, and in countless other moments.
I am thankful for a week that leads to deepened relationships, new friendships, thought-provoking conversations, and hopefully, to fruit.
Please pray for our team of 12 as we return on our two flights tonight, and as we begin to transition our of this literally mountain-top experience and re-examine what our lives look like .
Que Dios les bendiga,
Caroline Williams
Friday, July 15, 2016
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Day 6 (2016)
The second to last day was filled with much joy and much sadness. As we hurried to see what our morning breakfast consisted of, we were delighted to smell the delicious egg and sausage casserole!!! After I had my necessary morning cup of coffee, we were off to start the day!! We picked up extra help from another parish in Quito. We then continued our daily journey to Buen pastor. After we said our "buenos Dias's", we quickly sat with our Ecuadorean family inside the church. The morning devotion consisted with a parishioner's point of view on our reading about Gods love and families love. Her story touched us all and brought us closer to the various ways God works in our lives. After our great start to the day in song and prayer, we started our work projects around the church! Maggie, Collins and I (along with our friend Alexis) were in charge of "trying" to paint the outside of the church with our very much diluted paint!! After a bit of painting, Father Juan Carlos asked me if I could draw and paint a mural with Jorge (a parishioner) to liven up the white walls. This happened to be the highlight of my day :) Jorge and I designed and outlined our plan for the wall- one family in the hands of God. Working with him, using our Spanglish, we were able to make a beautiful drawing on the wall (tomorrow we will add the color).
Holly, Neil, and Jorge started off their work in the classroom we had previously started painting on Monday. They painted the tops and bottoms of the room and applied a second coat to make it perfect!! After that, they painted the outside of the room with the lovely diluted paint.
Mother Abi and Sarah spent their work fine being plaster masters and filling in the holes in one of the outside walls. Mother Abi wants to note that it is not as easy as it seems! I can attest to that for I had to be a plaster master on Monday and putting it on the wall without it glooping off is quite a task!!
Marian along with some parishioners spent their work cleaning the inside of the church. They worked hard scraping gunk and old pain off the walls to reveal a revitalized look.
After we finished our work projects, we hurried into the dining room to scarf down our lunch. Today's meal consisted of pork, beans, rice, and a plantain (along with some soda that tasted like medicine.) After lunch, Maggie, holly, Neil and I had some good bonding time with Alexis and learned more about his story!! We were then interrupted to begin VBS, which didn't quite go as planned. Today was a bit crazy due to the fact that a lot of the group split up to do various tasks. We had spent hard work planning out the games and crafts and story, however things always look better on paper...... The Buen Pastor youth had quite the hard time understanding the directions for the "ships and sailors" game, my stressor #1. Then, we tried to play Marco Polo and the children just really didn't understand that they were supposed to run away from "polo"...... Stressor #2!! So we decided to begin the dramatized reading of The Prodigal Son, which didn't go too bad however the kids attention span was almost gone by then!! Our craft was drawing a heart and writing inside what was meaningful to them along with making bracelets using 4 colored beads that represented faith, family, forgiveness, and love. The bracelets actually turned out nice and we all worked together to help the children out! I was finally relaxed until I was walking upstairs and banged my head onto the ceiling.... Ecuadoreans are very small!!!
On a more positive note, while the youth and Sara were leading VBS, Mother Abi and Marian led a marriage workshop. 25-30 people gathered in the church to learn about Gods role in marriage and how to strengthen his importance. The workshop went beautifully ended in a lovely prayer.
Simultaneously, Julia and Tracie continued their "patient" rounds in the mountains with Buen Pastor parishioners. I had the privilege of going with them on Tuesday, which was an amazing experience. To offer my help to those that have so little and can't access many things necessary for their bodies was amazing. To our surprise, they shared that they had to actually call an ambulance for one of the women they were seeing. She had been living for at least a week with pneumonia and maybe worse.
My overall thoughts and lessons learned from the day was that God works in many unexpected ways. I had a vision of the way things were supposed to exactly go in VBS, and when they didn't go perfectly, I stressed. I should've just left it in the hands of God and trusted that he would take care of the children and the plan for the day. I also saw God while Jorge and I were drawing the mural together, displaying Gods love in our own way despite our language barrier. As the trip comes to a close, I can't help but smile at all the many amigos I have at Buen Pastor and how thankful I am for all the unexpected yet lovely moments.
Con Amo,
Fra!!!
Fraleigh Krause
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Day 5 (2016) - Recreation Day!
Today was with out a doubt a "break-day." We've spent the past two days working and interacting with the congregation at Buen Pastor and today was quite different.
We started the day off by visiting Casa Gabriel, a home for boys which had been rescued off of the streets. There, we were shown a video about the boys who had stayed and are currently staying in the house and the process they undergo to change their lives for the better. Also at the house, we were told about and given an opportunity to buy the jewelry, which was made by people in association with the house.
Next, we headed to the equator. There, we learned about native tribes to the land and there culture such as the "Headshrinkers." After our lesson, we experienced the full effect of the equator. For example, the neutral forces in the earth's center allowed for us to balance eggs on tiny nails and thus be proclaimed "Egg Masters." Experiences such as these can only be described as wizardry.
After our trip to the Equator, we ate empanadas for lunch at a Chilean restaurant and then enjoyed some delicious gelato.
We then traveled to El Refugio, a nature reserve, where we were given a relaxing 3 hours to spend in the midst of nature. However, some of the group decided not to necessarily 'relax'. Neil and I for example decided to hike to the top of a mountain, which took an exhausting 1500 feet and 2 hours to climb (not to mention the hour long trip down).
After the 3 hours was up, we enjoyed a delicious American dinner around a campfire which consisted of hotdogs, chips, and s'mores and then headed back to the hostal.
So after a nice day of rest, I hope the final two days will be just as great as the others.
- Collins Proctor
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Day 4 (2016)
I don't think I've ever had such an eventful Tuesday.
Starting today, we had an amazing breakfast at 8:00 (woo! sleeping in!!). We then made our way to Buen Pastor as I gave my morning devotion quoting John 13:15. Arriving at the church, second home by now, we had our opening morning devotion lead by Mother Abi and Caroline. We sang, prayed, and said good morning to all our friends before getting on the bus, leaving Holly and Abi behind to watch over Juan Carlos' family and help out.
As we traveled up the mountain, the Ecuadorian youth from the church all joined us and made the trip quite entertaining. Our first stop was at a compound that looked similar to a small farm in a rural village. The lady that Group 1 stayed to help was a blind woman living on her own in the compound, with others to help, of course. Though, with her condition, her apartment had become a lot for her to keep track of. So, Neil, Marian, Jen, and 2 Ecuadorians helped clear out her entire apartment except for the bed frame and a bookcase and repainted all the walls. They left her with some food, clothes, and cleaned things up before heading out.
Group 2 traveled to an apartment where they met an older woman who had problems breathing. She lived in a 2 room apartment with her son who had ligament issues and needed crutches to walk. Maggie, Caroline, and a few of the Ecuadorians helped clean her apartment and make her feel more comfortable.
Group 3 went to an open building with many rooms to help a woman clean up her surroundings. She was not very old, but had leg issues and had half of one missing and a crippled hand on one side. She lived there with her landlord, who helped us clean and made us ice pops from local fruit juices, and her son/grandson (not sure which he was). Her house was open and had many rooms, but most either didn't have doors, or had locked doors. Jacob, Collins, Sarah, a group of Ecuadorians, and I cleared out her kitchen, re-dressed her entire bedroom, washed clothes, and cleaned the roof-top space. There were so many stray dogs hanging around, one with a litter of 6 puppies, and a family of chickens and a rooster. The whole time we were there, the woman could only crawl around on the ground, until we put her in a wheel chair where she brushed her hair. The fact that that was what she wanted to brush her hair and look her best, even though we were basically the cleaning crew, and wanted to give us her best, showed a lot for me and the members of our team.
Group 3, consisting of Tracie, Julia (said with Spanish accent), and Fraleigh, traveled around helping people, looking into their medical issues, and doing as much as they can to help without prescriptions. The group came back after VBS and Fraleigh had the biggest smile on her face I had seen all week.
As we all arrived back to the church for VBS, we ate lunch and group 4 departed again for outreach work. The theme of VBS for today was the sower and the seed, so the games were all based around that like 4 corners, bean bag toss, and such. During that time I got to know one of the church leaders, Cesar, and he told me his story. It was just so personal about how he found god in his life and somewhat funny because his english isn't perfect.
After VBS, and when group 4 joined us, we began the Youth Service where Abi gave a talk about the important things in life and made us write down things on rocks we love or hate and want to give back to god and made an alter with them in the front of the church.
In the second part of the service, Jeffery, the guitar player/singer, gave us his life story, where I cried a little. We then all got into prayer circles in the church and the adults prayed around the youth. Julia, Fraleigh, Maggie, Holly and I all cried and prayed for Juan Carlos and made him cry, too.
When the service came to a beautiful, musical end, we ate dinner at the 'longest table in the world' inside the church, where I, again, ate people's food they didn't want and in return they would drink my soda's.
Afterwards, we all took pictures, and I personally thanked Jefferson for his time and story. I see him every day with a smile on his face, and that alone is an example of God's wonderful mystery in this world.
On the ride home from the church, I wrote a draft of this blog post.
I experienced love and harsh reality all in one today, and if I could do anything differently today, I wouldn't. Seeing the smiles of the youth and the people we helped is such a stunning moment.
Peace,
Melissa Sims
Starting today, we had an amazing breakfast at 8:00 (woo! sleeping in!!). We then made our way to Buen Pastor as I gave my morning devotion quoting John 13:15. Arriving at the church, second home by now, we had our opening morning devotion lead by Mother Abi and Caroline. We sang, prayed, and said good morning to all our friends before getting on the bus, leaving Holly and Abi behind to watch over Juan Carlos' family and help out.
As we traveled up the mountain, the Ecuadorian youth from the church all joined us and made the trip quite entertaining. Our first stop was at a compound that looked similar to a small farm in a rural village. The lady that Group 1 stayed to help was a blind woman living on her own in the compound, with others to help, of course. Though, with her condition, her apartment had become a lot for her to keep track of. So, Neil, Marian, Jen, and 2 Ecuadorians helped clear out her entire apartment except for the bed frame and a bookcase and repainted all the walls. They left her with some food, clothes, and cleaned things up before heading out.
Group 2 traveled to an apartment where they met an older woman who had problems breathing. She lived in a 2 room apartment with her son who had ligament issues and needed crutches to walk. Maggie, Caroline, and a few of the Ecuadorians helped clean her apartment and make her feel more comfortable.
Group 3 went to an open building with many rooms to help a woman clean up her surroundings. She was not very old, but had leg issues and had half of one missing and a crippled hand on one side. She lived there with her landlord, who helped us clean and made us ice pops from local fruit juices, and her son/grandson (not sure which he was). Her house was open and had many rooms, but most either didn't have doors, or had locked doors. Jacob, Collins, Sarah, a group of Ecuadorians, and I cleared out her kitchen, re-dressed her entire bedroom, washed clothes, and cleaned the roof-top space. There were so many stray dogs hanging around, one with a litter of 6 puppies, and a family of chickens and a rooster. The whole time we were there, the woman could only crawl around on the ground, until we put her in a wheel chair where she brushed her hair. The fact that that was what she wanted to brush her hair and look her best, even though we were basically the cleaning crew, and wanted to give us her best, showed a lot for me and the members of our team.
Group 3, consisting of Tracie, Julia (said with Spanish accent), and Fraleigh, traveled around helping people, looking into their medical issues, and doing as much as they can to help without prescriptions. The group came back after VBS and Fraleigh had the biggest smile on her face I had seen all week.
As we all arrived back to the church for VBS, we ate lunch and group 4 departed again for outreach work. The theme of VBS for today was the sower and the seed, so the games were all based around that like 4 corners, bean bag toss, and such. During that time I got to know one of the church leaders, Cesar, and he told me his story. It was just so personal about how he found god in his life and somewhat funny because his english isn't perfect.
After VBS, and when group 4 joined us, we began the Youth Service where Abi gave a talk about the important things in life and made us write down things on rocks we love or hate and want to give back to god and made an alter with them in the front of the church.
In the second part of the service, Jeffery, the guitar player/singer, gave us his life story, where I cried a little. We then all got into prayer circles in the church and the adults prayed around the youth. Julia, Fraleigh, Maggie, Holly and I all cried and prayed for Juan Carlos and made him cry, too.
When the service came to a beautiful, musical end, we ate dinner at the 'longest table in the world' inside the church, where I, again, ate people's food they didn't want and in return they would drink my soda's.
Afterwards, we all took pictures, and I personally thanked Jefferson for his time and story. I see him every day with a smile on his face, and that alone is an example of God's wonderful mystery in this world.
On the ride home from the church, I wrote a draft of this blog post.
I experienced love and harsh reality all in one today, and if I could do anything differently today, I wouldn't. Seeing the smiles of the youth and the people we helped is such a stunning moment.
Peace,
Melissa Sims
Monday, July 11, 2016
Day 3 (2016)
As day 2 came to a close and day 3 came upon us bright and early, we were pleasantly greeted with a large and delicious breakfast consisting of pancakes, bacon, fruit, and a variety of unique juices. Immediately following was a lovely orientation presented by Amanda accompanied by her adorable baby Stella! Then on to the bus we loaded to travel back to Buen Pastor only to be greeted graciously once again by the congregation of the church. From there a beautiful devotion was held following with an arrangement of work tasks to freshen up the church. We did everything from painting to sorting wood and then some more painting. Though these tasks were tiring the partly finished results were something to be proud of.
Just as we were beginning to fade it was time for lunch! Once again i struggled to finish all the food given to me so i dispersed my food around the table to fellow missionaries. Fraleigh received my chicken and Melissa my beets (along with 5 other servings of beats). After lunch it was straight to Vacation Bible School and today's lesson was The Good Samaritan. We played two fun games and even put on a play where i traveled from Jericho to Jerusalem and proceeded to be beaten by three robbers (Tracie, Sarah, and Marian) and then rescued by The Good Samaritan (Julia). Shortly following we made warm fuzzys (yarn balls made into necklaces) which the youth was able to take home.
As the day came to a close we rode the bus together to an amazing kabob restaurant and then finally retired back to the hostel. All in all i would say that today was an amazing day where we were able to learn about and get to know the parish even more. The day was tiring but sleeping at this altitude is getting easier each night.
Another day of wonderful eye opening experiences done and i'm so excited for more to come. I miss home but love I love it here!
Peace and love,
Maggie Watson
Just as we were beginning to fade it was time for lunch! Once again i struggled to finish all the food given to me so i dispersed my food around the table to fellow missionaries. Fraleigh received my chicken and Melissa my beets (along with 5 other servings of beats). After lunch it was straight to Vacation Bible School and today's lesson was The Good Samaritan. We played two fun games and even put on a play where i traveled from Jericho to Jerusalem and proceeded to be beaten by three robbers (Tracie, Sarah, and Marian) and then rescued by The Good Samaritan (Julia). Shortly following we made warm fuzzys (yarn balls made into necklaces) which the youth was able to take home.
As the day came to a close we rode the bus together to an amazing kabob restaurant and then finally retired back to the hostel. All in all i would say that today was an amazing day where we were able to learn about and get to know the parish even more. The day was tiring but sleeping at this altitude is getting easier each night.
Another day of wonderful eye opening experiences done and i'm so excited for more to come. I miss home but love I love it here!
Peace and love,
Maggie Watson
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