Beinvenidos a Ecuador!!
If I had to pick 2 words to describe this month so far (which I know it has only been a week…) and what I foresee for this month, it would be favor and blessings.
fa·vor
/’fav?r/: grace, kindness, preference
bless·ing
/’blesiNG/: God’s favor and protection
We have been so blessed in every aspect thus far and I am so so thankful!! I wanted to give ya’ll a quick run-down of how everything has been going and the small and large ways we’ve seen God provide!
Our travel day from DC to Quito, Ecuador went without a hitch…we took a 6 hour flight to Panama, only had a 30 minute layover in which we had to fast walk/run to the next terminal, then a 2 hour flight to Quito, Ecuador. Somehow despite the super short layover every single pack made it to Ecuador…thank you Jesus 🙂
We were greeted at the Quito airport at midnight last Friday by our main contact, Gustavo, as well as Fabian (who also works for the ministry) and 2 ministry interns (American and Canadian), Jenna and Kayla. It was such an experience traveling with 60 people with sooo much stuff, but it was such a blessing to be greeted so warmly by these wonderful people!!
We were blessed even more as we arrived at our site and found that we are staying at a beautiful ministry house overlooking one of the valleys of Quito and that we would have beds, hot showers, towels, pillows and blankets, internet and hot meals all provided! ….I know this doesn’t sound like much, sounds like the bare minimum comforts of home, right? But on the World Race this is LUXURY!! I haven’t had to even touch my sleeping bag, sleeping pad or tent so far…yay blessings!! 
The first 2 days in Quito were weekend days, so we had some time to get settled, get acquainted with our contacts and even explore the city some! It is SO beautiful here! The views are amazing, the people are very sweet and very relational…it has just been so wonderful to get to know and love this place this week 🙂
The beautiful place where we live! I sleep in the house on the right
We started our ministry Monday at an organization called COVi (Centro Opcion de Vida). COVi is a Christian-based youth program that is focused on prevention of school-aged children getting into trouble before and after school. The children that come to COVi come from very underprivileged families and would otherwise be on the streets, hanging out in the local parks or at home alone during the hours they are with us. In Ecuador, children in primary school (elementary aged) go to school from 1pm-5pm, so they come to us from 10am-1pm. The secondary school children (middle-high school aged) go to school in the mornings and then come to COVi from 1pm-5pm. We will be serving at COVi from 10am-5pm Monday through Friday.
COVi serves about 100 children each day, with only 2 older women on staff. They are very understaffed and have been SO grateful for the help of the 7 of us! Each day they provide a hot meal to each of the children, which may be the only meal that day for many of the children, as well as providing them with a safe place to play, do their homework, have computer access, and learn about the love of our God. It is such a wonderful organization, and we are so excited and blessed to be a part of serving these precious children and this wonderful organization!
So far, we have planted a vegetable garden (their goal is to be self-sustaining), painted the whole inside of their school room, organized and cleaned out their storage closet, assisted with making and serving lunch each day, and fervently loving on these children.
It was a surprise to us when we got here, but we are staying with 2 other World Race teams from our squad this month! We are each doing separate ministries with our teams, but it has been such a blessing to come together at night for fellowship, worship, game/movie nights and just processing time 🙂
We have been showered with joy, laughter, love, favor and blessings…thank you for your prayers and love, I will continue to keep you posted on all the Lord is doing in Ecuador!!
…oh, and today we got to go ziplining through the jungle for $5…blessed?? I think so 🙂
“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16
