Day 6 (2019) - Church and Workshops at Buen Pastor

This beautiful morning started out like any other here in Ecuador. An early wake up call followed by a yummy breakfast and loading the bus to head to our location. I managed to snag the very last banana, which was a positive start to my day!

Similar to a normal Sunday morning in Tallahassee, we all woke up, put on our church clothes, and headed to Buen Pastor for an incredible church service. Having been to Ecuador and El Buen Pastor the previous summer, I was especially excited to experience another heartwarming and special service. We arrived at the church and per usual, were greeted with warmth, love, and kisses on the cheek from our Ecuadorean friends and church members. The feeling of welcome and love at El Buen Pastor is seriously indescribable!

After greetings, everybody filed into the pews and the beautiful service began. The service consisted of joyous live music, singing, and worshipping God; as well as three raw and touching God stories shared by three courageous and special members of our St. John's team - Alexa, Mary, and MaryMac. Juan Carlos, the pastor at Buen Pastor, preached beautifully and touched my heart with his words throughout the entire service.

After the service, we all went upstairs in Juan Carlos and Wendy's house to change out of our church clothes for a day of fun. We headed to lunch, where a scrumptious meal of chicken, rice and potatoes were served. Following lunch, before we got down to business with workshops and child entertainment, Xebas/Seabass, Nahomi, and Jorge walked with us to a store just a block away from Buen Pastor. After weighing many options, we all had finally picked out some authentic Ecuadorean snacks and headed to the checkout line.

Once we got back to Buen Pastor, the adults and older members of the church headed to do four workshops, whereas the girls of St. John's went to entertain and play with the precious children while the workshops were in session. As a lover of kids, there was NOTHING I would have rather done! The games began in the living room of Juan Carlos and Wendy's house, where the children showed us all a game that honestly made no sense, but we gladly participated nonetheless.

Soon after the first game, we traveled out into the street by choo-choo train (really just all of the kids and us holding onto each other's backs and making train noises). It took a while to get there, as the train got lost and we rode all around the church. We finally made it outside, hopped off the train, and ran around for hours playing games such as musical chairs, red light green light, freeze dance, and more.

Very soon after we got outside and began playing games, one 4 year old little girl named Isabella got bored and decided to go off and do her own thing. Seeing this, Emma went to go watch and play with her and I later joined. Let me tell you. This is absolutely the most high-energy girl EVER. But her cuteness and sweetness made up for it! She was grabbing our hair, licking our faces, and even taking gum out of my mouth (ew). For over an hour, Emma and I ran around with her nonstop; carrying her on our shoulders, spinning her around, making animal noises and throwing around her new Hello Kitty toy, which was soon broken due to her kicking it to the ground. Emma and I began to converse with Isabella in Spanish, and told her "tu eres muy loco." She laughed.

It started to drizzle and all the kids went inside the dining room to decorate lanterns with Mrs. Schnittker. While all the kids were decorating their lanterns, with permanant marker may I add, Isabella (she finally calmed down) sat on my lap and colored and Zachary, the son of Juan Carlos and Wendy, sat next to us. I talked to the kids in simple Spanish while they colored, and it made for great bonding time. I even met Jorge's sister, who could speak a little English. After a while of drawing on their lanterns, the littler kids got bored and started coloring on themselves and me with the Sharpies. Zachary said to me "quieres un corazon en tu mano?" and proceeded to draw a lopsided heart on my hand before I could say yes. I have color all over my arms that won't be coming off anytime soon!

Once the lantern activity and workshops were done, everybody headed to the front of the church where crackers, coffee, and tea were set up. Everybody was talking, laughing, and smiling- until it was time to take a group photo and leave. We left Buen Pastor sad and not wanting to leave after the best day ever that had flown by so quickly.

We headed back to the hostal for a little under an hour for a little bit of rest before heading to dinner. At dinner, everybody got chicken and some people even tried some Ecuadorian soda, called "Inka Cola." Following dinner, we again went back to the hostal and had a great debrief to finish up the day.

I'm off to bed, but I cannot wait to have an amazing day tomorrow and an even more amazing day back at Buen Pastor on Tuesday!

Paz y amor,
Madeline Sgan