Last month in Ecuador was amazing. My team was stationed in the capital of Ecuador, in the city of Quito. Team Tonka along with three other teams stayed at ‘Casa Blanca.’ It was home away from home. We were fed three organic meals a day, had couches, beds, and wifi.
Every morning I would wake up and make hot, delicious tea for myself and have some quiet time with God. I had some of the best quiet times of my life last month. We would all gather to eat breakfast at 8am then go our separate ways for ministry. Team Tonka’s ministry for the month was at a place called COVi, or “Operations Center of life”. At 9am Tonka would head out and catch a bus for 45min to a huge park where COVi is located. COVi is basically a before/after school center for kids at risk. The ages range from 6-18 years old. The kids that come to COVi are kids that might be on the streets if they didn’t come and/or come from abusive home situations.
In the morning around 14 younger kids would come. We would play futbol and other games, exercise, color and then feed them lunch after a short devotional. Then those kids would go to school. In the afternoon older kids would come after their schooling. We would feed this second group lunch, help them with homework, color, and play games with them also.
Other duties we had included sweeping and moping the dining room, sweeping and raking leaves, and cleaning the bathrooms every day. The city of Quito also gave COVi a garden to look after. We helped plant vegetables and water them. A garden engineer came out and told us how to do everything. He also gave us a lesson about when and how to plant vegetables based off the moon cycle. It was really interesting.
We also had the opportunity to do a lot of fun things in Ecuador. I went to the center of the world, a place called Mindo where I went ziplining and went to a chocolate factory, explored the older parts of the city of Quito and looked at beautiful architecture, rented a party bus with almost the whole squad (thanks to our host), went to the biggest artisan market in all of Ecuador, and camped near a beautiful mountain lake.
In Ecuador I made my 3rd deadline for fundraising. It was a large part of my month considering I stayed back from ministry some days to message people and raise the funds. I’m just over $4000 short of being FULLY FUNDED! I would appreciate if you considered giving today towards my race.
Thanks for your prayers and support!
Leesh
