Hello and Merry Christmas from Ecuador!
The holidays are here before I am ready to greet them and the last three and a half weeks in Ecuador have flown by! December began with our second debrief which lasted for five days. It was so wonderful to be reunited as a squad after a month apart and to see our newly engaged squad mentor, Erin, and our two squad coaches, Jeff and Mary Ellen, for the second time on the field. Debrief provided a refreshing time of rest and spiritual reflection, along with challenging sessions about quiet time, finding our identity in Christ, and preferring one another in love.
For the past two and a half week, four of the six J Squad teams have enjoyed living at Casablanca, a home provided by the missions organization IncaLink. It’s truly a Christmas Blessing to live at Casablanca, which has graciously provided us with warm bunk beds, delicious meals, and a cozy living room with a warm fireplace. Now that it is Christmas, the living room is decorated with paper snowflakes, stockings on the mantel, and a sparkling Christmas tree. All six teams are currently together to enjoy the holidays before team ROAR returns to traveling around Ecuador for Unsung Hero work, and at the end of the month we will be altogether again for a leadership development weekend. New squad and team leaders will be assigned along with potential team changes and we are all very anxious to know how these changes will affect our squad as we travel to Africa in January.
This month, Team Kenosis has been jumping on buses all over the city in order to serve at our many ministries. Throughout the week we work at a church teaching English, joining the youth program, attending the girls’ bible study, painting or doing other work projects at a local seminary, and serving as baby-sitters and helping to develop community at Casa Adalia and Casa Elizabeth. Casa Adalia is a home for young women who have been trafficked or abused and it runs a jewelry making program in which young girls are provided discipline, spiritual and emotional guidance, and community all the while earning money to support themselves and their young children. Casa Elizabeth is a home which provides protection, counsel, community, and life-skills for teen mothers. We have enjoyed getting to know these young women and care for their adorable children.
Other teams on J Squad are doing a wide variety of ministry, ranging from caring for children at an orphanage to building a chicken coop with a group of French volunteers. We are all loving our time together in Casablanca and are so grateful that the Lord has provided such a beautiful and homey place for us to stay during the holidays.
The Race has been quite the journey thus far and I am learning so much about my identity in Christ, living in community, missions abroad, serving within the Church body, and leadership. God has been showing up in beautiful ways and I look forward to sharing in his presence while in Africa for the next three months. While it’s painful to be absent from my family during the Christmas season, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else besides the eleven countries God has called me to this year.
I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and thank you from the depths of my heart for all the support and prayers you’ve given on my behalf. May God bless you during the Holidays and may you draw near to him and experience his presence in a special way during the celebration of his birth.
I am currently 72% supported for the World Race! I have until March 1 to raise close to $5,000 and would be incredibly grateful for any financial support you are willing and able to give. In the upcoming weeks I will be collecting orders for a fundraising shirt that I designed, so keep posted if you’re interested in buying one! 🙂
To everyone who hasn’t heard, our squad is flying into D.C. in January before heading to Africa. We have a twenty hour layover in which I have the incredible blessing of seeing my beautiful family, and meeting for the very first time Nathan Phillip, my three month old nephew. I will also get to see Melanie Grace, who will be four months on January 1, and whom I have not seen since she was four days old. My family is extremely excited for the time that we have together, however short it may be.
