It has been almost been a month since I left Oklahoma. Now I live in a house in Ecuador with fifty five other people. Our ministry is working with a Church in San Antonio, Ecuador which is about an hour and a half bus ride from the house in Quito. They have us reaching out to the community, we have picked up trash, painted, taught English and played with kids. This new life of living in a community with others, new foods, schedule, a new language, and so much more has all cause me to need time to process. Many on my squad have been blog posting, facebooking, and instagramming but I have honestly really struggled with this. There is a sign in the living room that says “be here now” and I have really tried to do that but it has made me slack in telling what is happening here to those of you that are still in the U.S. Maybe I will get better at updating you all but if I don’t just please be patient and know I am just very focused on the here and now and will try to post updates.
What is Casa De Debar?
My team of seven we go together to our ministry. Our ministry is Casa de Debar which is a house church in San Antonio, Ecuador. On the first floor there is the church with nursery and toddler’s room along with bathroom and a small kitchen area. Then as you go up the stairs you enter into the house of the family who lives there. The family used to live of the first floor and then three years ago they added on and made the first floor a Church and upper floors their home. They have lived there for fifteen years and the church has been there for three years. They have never worked with Inca Link which is the organization we are working through this first month in Quito. Through Inca Link all fifty five of us on my squad are sent out to different ministries. Casa de Debar welcomed us in with open hearts and minds to us. They have feed us every time we have been to ministry and other ministries do not do that. The first day was a little confusing but Carolina the young lady in charge of what we do expressed how they wanted us to work in the community. So we took a car to a community center near a ladies house named Maria there they expressed wanting us to paint and clean up the outside of the community center.
Then we went higher up to another house in San Antonio where we met Victoria and she expressed wanting us to teach English also and help with a community work day.I don’t have a picture of that. We met Carolinas sister in law Carrie who is from Washington. Following God’s plan for her she came to Ecuador and long story short married Carolina brother. Before going home this first day they took different buses with us to show us how to get to the different sites without getting lost. Although the second day we did get lost and it took us three hours to get there. Casa de Debar and the community they have introduced us to has been so loving and caring to us through the past few weeks. We have two days of the week to rest and explore or do what we need to do. Even on these days this amazing Church family has taken us to experience their amazing country and taught us to much. It is now the last week with them and I can’t believe the time went by so fast already.
Pray request:
–For God to bless Casa de Debar as they have blessed my team and I.
–Good health throughout the squad
–Safe travels in the next few weeks as we split and move to new communities throughout Ecuador. (my team will be going to Shell, Ecuador to do ministry in the Amazon.)
–An American named Danielle who married a guy named Obi and together they started an orphanage in South Sudan. Some rebels came through destroying the orphanage causing Danielle and Obi to flee to Uganda with around 70 children. In this process they are having trouble making it across the border with around 70 orphans who don’t all have papers. Please pray for their protection, safety, and for them to make it across with all of the kids.
(Below: I don’t know this little guys name but all he wanted was pictures to be taken of him and he wanted to be the center of attention. He was a sweet heart and found so much joy in getting his photo taken.)
(Below: Not the best picture of all of us but this is the team and our amazing family from Casa de Debar. They have such big hearts! This picture was taken on a night out with them filled with laughs, lights, statues, and pizza.)
