La familia de Dios

Hey, all! Sorry for the delay...I decided against posting last week in favor of video chatting with my crazy family. So this will be a whirlwind tour of the past couple of weeks in awesome Ecuador. Are you excited? You should be.

I spent my first week in Ecuador in the south of Quito, at Santiago Covenant Church. It was a really fulfilling week, and I loved being a part of strengthening the bonds between this church and a Covenant church in Colorado. The Santiago church was so open, warm, and giving, and it was truly a blessing to me, as well as the team members, to be so strongly loved and welcomed. I was able to spend some quality time with the members of the team as well as with the youth and families of the church, and it was a great time of bonding and learning hospitality from each other and better coming to grips with what the family of God is really about. One of the highlights of my week was waking up early with Liz to assist the youth from the church in their breakfast-making for the team. Some of the menu items included mote with eggs, Ecuadorian-style tamales, plantains, crepes, and a variety of coladas....nummm. :)

On the construction front, we were helping the church build a newer, structurally sound roof so that they can expand upwards in the future. It required a lot of climbing scaffolding, moving materials, and some pretty skilled labor. The team was fairly large, and the projects were not always as plentiful as we might have wished. On the last day of construction, we did a fair bit of sitting around, waiting for materials to arrive so that we could participate in some way. But toward the end of the day, we were bombarded with seemingly impossible tasks to accomplish. We needed to move giant metal roof pieces and what I like to call "rebar-mesh" over the 10-foot gate of an absent neighbor, carefully lower it down to the other side, and then somehow lift it up into the open ceiling of the second story of the church. Although we had to stay late and rearrange our schedule for the day, we managed to get all of the materials into the second-floor sanctuary with only a few minor injuries and near-death experiences.

This past week went by incredibly quickly. We were in the Amazon, in and around a town called Lumbaqui, with a team from Orlando, FL. It was a beautiful place, and adventures abounded. We were in three different communities - Lumbaqui, Cabeno, and Sinangue (a Kofan village). The team did kids' programs, held services in the Covenant churches of the area, and participated in some construction projects. There was also a woman on the team who gave fantastic haircuts to around 100 people throughout the course of the week. It was encouraging to see their enthusiasm for the gospel and for the people with whom they came into contact. It was also good for me to do a bunch of translating for haircuts, sermons, and kids' programs...I think that so much practice is increasing my confidence and making translation a little more automatic for me.

The main construction project this week was to move a church up a mountain. Literally.

Over the span of 2 days, we moved a thousand cement bricks from where they were placed to the shore of a river, across the river (on foot, in knee deep water with a current) to the bank of a small island, across the island, onto a boat, off the boat on the other side of the river, up a high, steep hill, and across the village to the church. I don't think my clothes have been this dirty the entire summer. It was exhausting, but so wonderful to be a part of.

There were so many times in the past couple of weeks when I felt God working through me, giving me the strength I needed to translate, or to help move hundreds of bricks, or to just have a positive attitude in general. I have felt encouraged by team members, by fellow Mergers, and by local communities. I am beginning to get a clearer picture of the family of God and the potential for learning and service through cross-cultural partnerships, and I so greatly appreciate all of the people who are helping me to see this!

Next week I will be in La Magdalena, in the highlands of Ecuador. I'll keep you posted on my happenings! Happy almost-August!

See-ya-laters and hey-theres

Que onda, lectores?!

I'm updating you from the home of Chris, Jenny, and Breck Hoskins in Quito, Ecuador. It is such a strange feeling to be back in this place where I spent my high school years, but I am loving it so far and can't wait to see what the next month holds!

My past two weeks were spent at the children's home Pilar de Esperanza in Reynosa. The two times I have transitioned to living there have been a bit rough at first, as the living conditions are a bit more rustic than other places we have been staying. The first day at Pilar this time, we as Merge staff subsisted mainly on powdered soy milk (which I wouldn't recommend) and granola bars....it was a good bonding experience for our team. After being there for a day or two, however, my love for the kids far surpassed any discomfort I might be feeling from the heat, the bugs, or the living situation. Despite my excitement about traveling to Ecuador, I was actually quite sad to leave the kids early Thursday morning.

The two teams we were working with in Pilar were from Lexington and Attleboro, Massachusetts. The Lexington team has been coming down for years to this orphanage, and has really developed a great relationship with that place and the children. They made some awesome crafts with the kids, including carving wooden spoons and creating Jacob's ladders, did a lot of work on the new cafeteria, and taught an English class, which I helped out with.

Partway through that week, some of my Merge buddies left to meet other teams in other lands. It was hard to say goodbye to Rachel, Nathan, and Stephanie, when I had been with them for almost a month and a half straight. I have so many fond memories of our time together and I am so grateful that I was able to make these fantastic new friends. We have already begun plans for a reunion in the near future. It was neat to be able to spend the next week at Pilar with trip facilitators, Oscar and Ellen, and their adorable daughter Anna, as well as with Gama, who coordinated work projects.

This trip for Attleboro was the first mission trip that many of the team members had ever been on. It was so neat to see how willing they were to serve and how excited and energized they were to be there. By the time we left halfway through the week, they were already making plans to come back next year. I LOVE that, because I think these kids need some stable presences in their lives more than they need people to come down for a week and do a work project.

By the time I had to leave I, too, decided that I definitely need to return to Pilar in the near future. I didn't realize that I would become so connected to the kids at this place. They are just such sweet kids and it is impossible not to love them. Many asked me when I was coming back and asked with concern who was going to translate the skits and English class. It was hard to hear them tell me how much they would miss me and tell me not to leave. But I am determined to make that goodbye more of a "see you later."

After one crazy long day of traveling to Quito with my Merge buddy Liz and a day of resting at the Hoskins' house/walking around my high school (so much has changed!), I am packing up to meet the team from Colorado who will be working at a Covenant church in the south of Quito. I think it is going to be really weird to be in Quito in this role, as it is so different from what I was doing when I lived here before, but I am excited to meet new people, see how ministry goes and discover new things along with the team. I hope and pray that the relationship with the Santiago church and the Colorado group is able to grow and thrive this week!

The next month is going to be a whirlwind tour of the country, with 4 teams in 4 different places. I hope to be able to update at some point in that time, but until then, I bid you adieu!

Thanks for all your prayers, and I hope you have a peaceful rest of July! :)

Present-ness

I am learning what it means to be present.

Last Friday, we finished up VBS at the People's Covenant Church in San Juan. Although we had done some planning before it actually began, much of the program for each day was organized the day before or that very morning. As a self-proclaimed "checker" and list maker, it was challenging for me to be so flexible. It was good to be challenged to operate in a way outside of my comfort zone...and the week was a success! We had a far greater turnout than anticipated and some of the kids said it was the best VBS they had ever attended.

This week we have been able to rest. We didn't make plans or have places to be, but I have been incredibly blessed by just living in the present this week. One awesome example of this was last Friday. After having packed up all of our stuff and moved out of the San Juan church, we headed toward the apartment of a Merge full-time staff member who is out of town. Upon arriving, we discovered that the lights were out. We tried for awhile to determine the root of the problem, eventually giving up and going to sleep on the cool tile of the otherwise oppressively hot apartment. We woke up exceedingly uncomfortable, and got in the car to seek out air conditioning. We joked about our homelessness, as we didn't know where we would stay that night. Thankfully, we were welcomed in by a couple from Dale's (Ex. Dir. of Merge) church in Mission, even though they weren't expecting us for another couple of days. I have felt so much hospitality and kindness from this couple, and being in their home this week has been an encouragement to us all.

Hurricane Alex made our lives a little more interesting yesterday, but thankfully, passed through Mexico without doing too much damage. We got some nice wind and rain, though, and secured furniture just in case. It was kind of cool to feel this sense of peace, despite the chaos of the storm. I got really excited at one point when the windshield wipers were swishing exactly in time with the music on the radio....I've never had that happen before. :P It seemed like the world was in harmony, somehow, and I just loved that moment.

I'm not sure when we're crossing the border and moving back to Pilar Esperanza. It could be any time in the next three days. But I am growing to be at peace with this feeling of not knowing...I have space to trust when I stop fretting and micro-managing.

My next update may be a while from now, so I'll give y'all a brief run-down for the weeks ahead. I'll be at Pilar for the next week and a half, then I take a bus and three planes to Ecuador with one of my fellow staff members. On the 16th, I will be with a group in South Quito, helping them minister through work projects, worship, and cell group time at a church. On the 25th, we travel to Lumbaqui (which includes a 3-hour boat ride!), in the Amazon. We'll be helping the team with some sort of work and evangelism projects. The next team arrives on August 1st, and will be doing work projects and a children's program in La Magdalena. My final team gets to Ecuador on August 10th and will be doing some work projects, a school program, and a youth program.

That's about it for now! It's going to be a crazy, busy rest of the summer, but I'm taking it one day at a time and I look forward to all the adventures still to come! :)

Peace.