Mary Jane Klope - "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:1-3) This beautiful plea of Paul has quickly become a reality for our amazing team in Ecuador! At this very moment, I'm sitting in the living room of Casablanca, watching a team diverse in age, interests, personality, race, and gender work with one mind and one heart to serve God to His glory. We spent the morning hard at work digging ditches, cutting up trees, and accesorizing a new guest room ceiling. We will soon be returning to the Maria Yoder de Campi orphanage where we'll fall even more in love with 28 children from <1 year to 10 years old. We'll continue our "VBS" style ministry and support the staff in any way possible to care for and love the children. A number of these children are slow to trust newcomers, but the students approached them with such compassion and gentleness that it didn't take long for them to warm up. Parents - You can be so proud of each of your students. I am SO proud of every one of them! Our four-fold challenge for this week, given to us by our IncaLink staff member, is: Choose Joy, Give 110%, Be Here Now, and Be Challenged by Choice. Every team member has taken this challenge to heart. The resulting mutual love, unity, heartfelt service and hard work has been beyond miraculous. We have truly come to love each other - without exception - and the sense of unity is felt deeply and palpably by all. Thank you for taking part in this ministry by sending your child to the middle of the world to serve God in the beautiful country of Ecuador. I assure you: They will never be the same. Nor will I.
Eugenia Phan - Howdy y'all! Mrs. Klope didn't let me start my own post, but I suppose the title of this post can relate to whatever I'm about to write.
Our stay in Ecuador has been a pretty gosh darn amaingly delightful buttload of fun. I really do not know what to write except that I love everything (except for this spider we found while cleaning the other day) & everyone here.
I love trying to talk to people in Spanish because I speak it well enough for people to kind of understand what I'm trying to say, but bad enough for them to laugh at me. It's kind of a nice icebreaker-type of thing. Also, everyone greets eachother with a hug & a kiss on the cheek in Ecuador. I like hugs.
Emily Ha - Hello, it's Tuesday night here in Ecuador and we just finished one epic day! Our work around Casablanca today was digging holes...3 by 3 feet holes. Plus, there were all sort of roots, tree stumps, and even barbed wire at the bottom of our dirt holes. In our group's hole, we even saw a scorpion!! I was digging in the hole, and when I came out, I looked down and saw something moving...it turned out to be a scorpion, and it was right where I had been standing! But, God protected me from the scorpion and I didn't get stung or anything! Then during break time, half of our team got the chance to go to the market, so we all went to a store a few minutes away...then we decided to take a bus to a supermarket that was 15 min away. So that all was an experience on its own! We had to walk back, so we got to see Quito for what it was. It was really cool. We got to buy some ice cream and snacks so it was good. Then we bought back some native fruit - called Granadea, or something. It has a shell, and when you open it up, it looks like frog eggs in snot or something. But it tasted so delicious! Then at the orphanage, we played with the kids a ton more. I got attached to one of the little girls and she pretty much hung onto me for the rest of the day. She cried when I had to go do the puppet show, so I took her behind the stage and she sat on my lap while I held my puppet. And later, she gave me little kisses on the lips and she always had a cute little smile on her face. She was the most adorable thing ever! I got the chance to give her my book I had made in Spanish class and when I finished reading it to her, she hugged it and ran off reading it. And we had to leave, everyone was so sad to be leaving all the kids. They clumb on to the gate and they kept waving to us as we pulled away. I almost cried...but instead, I felt a calm peace, knowing that they have a very good home with all the food that they were eating and all those toys they had. I also knew that some of these kids would be adopted into very good homes. Even though we may never see them again, we had brought a lot of joy into their lives. And for us, we will never forget their faces and the experience that we had here. I am looking foward to going to Camp Hope and working with the kids with special needs. It's gonna be a good week!
Sydney Sanchez- DUDE. I'm having so much fun. There have definitely been obstacles for our group as a whole, as well as for me personally. But in the short 3 days we've been here, I've grown tremendously. I had some serious trepidations about this trip even though I've been to Ecuador before, but God has really come through for me and while things are still tough, He's still with me so I'm okay. While we've been here, we've done some serious hard labor and played with beautiful children from an orphanage. Tonight, I had the blessing of hanging out with a 15 month year old girl who changed my perspective on everything. To see her smile made my heart smile in a way it hasn't in a very long time. Overall, I'm having a great time and I'm looking forward to the opprotunities and challenges to come. Please keep the whole team in your prayers, we love you all! (PS..I probably made a bunch of spelling mistakes but I got like...45 minutes of sleep last night...so I hope it makes sense anyway!)
Rebecca Schulenburg-hey hey people! We have been having an absolute blast here in Ecuador!! I have loved every minute of it, and I feel that we have grown so close as a group already. I have also decided that I wanted to live this trip by a mantra from a past missions trip: "Just Say Yes!" Translation: Say yes to everything (within reason) because you might not ever get a chance to do it again. So far i have said yes to sweeping leaves off of a roof, digging three feet holes and prying out tree trunks, and playing with babies at the orphanage for hours even when it seems that my mental and physical abilities have given out. Today, my joy was definitely found in the quality time I spent with a 1 1/2 yr old boy, Juan-Pablo. At first he absolutely refused to be taken out of his crib, but after about 45 minutes and lots of pick-a-boo games he finally trusted to me to take him outside where we spent most of our time together until dinner. I hope I will never forget his surprising laughter or beautiful smile, even as we move onto another orphanage tomorrow where more kids await! Thank you for all of your prayers and support, we have faced a few challenges but it has truly grown us as individuals and as a team. Love and Blessings from Ecuador!
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