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Merry Belated Christmas/New Year!!

 

Christmas and New years has come and gone just as quickly as my month in Ecuador! It has been an awesome month with the squad. We are all staying at a place that is very homey. Our hosts are amazing, and make us feel so welcome, we have a large family room and even a fireplace! It was a perfect place to spend christmas and new years!

As a squad we cooked enough food for an army, and since I love cooking(and food!) I helped out in the kitchen all day preparing for our dinner feast. It was an amazing time of games, food, fun and laughter…everything christmas should be.  While I was not at home to spend christmas with family in the states it was wonderful to be with my World Race family for the holidays.

 
This month I spent my time with 2 teams. The first part of the month me and the team spent out time at a ministry called Ecuasol. Ecuasol does a before/after school program for kids in the area, helping them with HW, tutoring them, giving them a meal as well as doing extracurricular activities. 

We started the month helping with the kids with HW and playing with them, but we realized that the team’s skill set and Ecuasol’s needs outside of helping the kids were greater. So the team ended up making the soccer field level for the kids, building a new chicken coop to replace the run down shack the chickens were living in, clean up around the property, put in some fences as well as paint the inside of the building.

It was an amazing month and Ecuasol was so incredibly grateful for our help in finishing all those project!

 
The original Chicken Coop. As you can see it needed help. Besides it being run down there were too many chicken for a coop this small.
Old chicken coop and fence torn down, poles for new fence and coop put in the ground!
New chicken coop and fence! Housing fit for a King!
 
The second part of my month was spent with another team who was working at an orphanage that had kids age 1 month – 4 years old, some with special needs. We spent out time early in the mornings stripping beds from the night previous, helping feed the kids at meal times and play with and love on the kids. Unfortunately we are not allowed to post pics of kids faces because of privacy policies but I can tell you they are absolutely adorable and it was great to be able to love on these kids. I think my favorite time was right before mealtime hearing the kids who were so young pray before their meals. It was Adorable!

 

 Playing with one of the kids on their playground!
I can’t believe that I only have one more month with these crazy people! I leave for Malawi, Africa on Jan 6th. This upcoming month is going to involve a lot of travel as well as training and equipping for the new leaders that we will be raising up to take our place when we leave. 

In the next couple days we will be announcing the new Squad Leaders who will be taking our place at the end of next month as well as announcing everyone’s new teams for the remainder of the World Race! It has taken a lot of prayer, long talks and a lot of discernment to make new teams and raise up new leadership, but all that work will finally pay off in the next few days.

While I am so excited for this squad and everything that is going to come with a fresh start(new teams and leadership) I realized over christmas that it is going to be incredibly hard to leave J-squad in a month. I have grown to love them so much these past 4 months. I have prayed over them and for their race for countless hours, served alongside them, prayed with them, let them struggle through some things for their own benefit, and now count them as part of my family.

Spending christmas with J-squad revealed to me the depth of my love for them that has grown each day since I first met them all back in Sept 2014. I am not looking forward to leaving them at the end of Jan, but I know that me and my fellow squad leaders must leave so that they can stand on their own feet as a sqaud, struggle as a squad and overcome obstacles as a squad. They need to learn how to more fully trust each other, rely on each other and most of all rely on the Lord both individually and as a group. So while I do not want to leave them I know that it is what is best for them and the Lord will take care of them after I am gone.

Please keep this next month of transition in prayer. Prayer for the changes in teams, in leadership and for favor upon the new squad leaders for the squad as well as wisdom and discernment for them as they step into this new role!