Hey everyone!
Tiffany, Jeff, and I took a two and a half hour ranchera
ride out of the rainforest back to the city of El Carmen today to use the bank
and the Internet, so I thought I would take a minute to give you an update. We
are safely settled into the village of El Reten, which is in the coastal
rainforest region of Ecuador. To get here, we took a three and a half hour bus
ride from Quito to Santo Domingo, then an hour and a half bus ride to El
Carmen, and then we rode in a ranchera (which closely resembles those
open-sided vehicles that Disney World uses for tours) for two and a half hours
to El Reten. Gustavo, our contact in Quito, told us before we left that El
Reten is, in his opinion, the most beautiful place in Ecuador, and we are
inclined to agree. Everything here is so green, every plant and fruit
imaginable grows here, and we get to play in the rainforest for an entire
month!
The people here are incredibly warm and welcoming, and one
family has even given their house over to us for the month. We were talking
about how unimaginable that would be in America. We might invite someone to
stay in our guest room for a month if we really liked them or if they really
needed help, but hardly anyone at home would give up their entire house to
seven strangers from another country for a month. Having this house is great
because it means we can all stay together and do our nightly team time without
having to plan around our lodging situation.
The people we spend most of our time with are from a few
different families. The family whose house we are using has three incredible
daughters, Damaris, Kaela, and Eunice, who we love to spend time with. Brent
has already taught them all to play the dart game (see blog here). There is
also an adorable two-month-old baby two doors down who I am determined to
become best friends with. The family on the other side of us has five children,
and their cousins also live next door. The one we have spent the most time with
is named Nestor. He is sixteen years old, is learning English, and plays the
guitar very well. We are teaching him all the Hillsong songs in English, and he
is going to teach the rest of our team some praise songs in Spanish. I’m really
enjoying the music here because I have mainly attended Spanish speaking churches
for the past few years, and I love and miss Spanish worship music.
We are being fed wonderfully, and we will all probably gain
weight this month (except Brent and Jeff who can eat as much as they want and
never gain a pound…insert resentment against female metabolisms here). The
women of the church set up a cooking schedule, and they cook all of our meals
for us. It is like being on a college meal plan again, except better because
it’s all Latin American food. We eat A LOT OF RICE, plantains (which we have
learned can be prepared in more than 30 different ways here), some chicken,
some sausage, corn fritters, eggs, coffee, tea, local fruits, and empanadas.
Our wish to explore the rainforest has already come true.
The first full day that we were here included a long drive to an incredible
waterfall and swimming in a natural watering hole. Yesterday we returned with
the rest of our team members, several of the kids, and a few adults. They
bought us empanadas and corn fritters full of chicken, took us to the
waterfall, and hung out for the afternoon. The waterfall looks like a miniature
version of Niagara Falls, and we can swim at the bottom of it as long as we
stay out of the current. It’s a place of such incredible natural beauty, and
they have promised to take us there often because we loved it so much.
We are still not completely settled into our routine as far
as ministry goes, but here is what we know now. We will be attending and
helping with the church services, which meet every Tuesday, Thursday, and
Saturday night, and every Sunday morning. We have been and will continue to
work on some construction projects for the church and Christian school that is
attached. So far we have sanded, cleaned, and painted the bars that surround
the school and part of the fence outside the church. We plan to finish the
fence, paint the cinderblock wall under it, and then extend the fence until it
reaches around the church. We are also supposed to be putting on a vacation
Bible school for the children because they are on winter break until April.
Today the rest of our team is meeting with a woman to plan what that will look
like. We know it will involve going door to door throughout the village to
invite all the children, hosting a week of VBS in El Reten, and then hiking out
into the rainforest to put on a second week in a more remote place.
As far as things to pray for go, there are many hurting
people in this town. As part of a plan to awaken the Ecuadorian church in 2011,
the New Jerusalem Alliance Church here in El Reten participated in a nationwide
day of prayer and fasting on Tuesday, and they invited the gringos to join
them. We got to hear many testimonies from the women in the church, and there
is a lot of pain and illness here. I will write more about specific women later
after I learn more about their stories, but please be praying for healing in El
Reten. These women are so kind and loving, and they have young children who
really need their mothers to be healthy. Also, please be praying for the other days of prayer vigils and fasting that the church is planning during our stay with them.
Other things to pray for include:
Our growing relationship with the pastor, and that we can
understand his heart and help him realize his vision for the church here
Continued improvement of the Spanish of the five members of
Kaleo who don’t speak it fluently
Continued translation abilities for Rosa and me
That we can have real impact among the children with the VBS
For our skin and health in this strong, Ecuadorian sun
(Those of us who are extremely melanin challenged-Jeff and me-are burning to a
crisp every time we step outside, even with sunscreen, because we are on the
Equator and the sun is intense.)
Patience for all of us with the quantity of bugs in our
house and bug bites on our bodies…being itchy has a unique power to drive you
completely insane!
And that our team would continue to grow closer and stronger
in our unity so that we can have a greater impact with the people we meet
Thank you so much for your prayers and love! We have been
making some fun videos that will be posted someday when we find fast Internet,
but until then pictures will have to do. Also, except for the occasional trip
into town, we will be out of all contact until at least March 3rd so
don’t worry if you don’t hear from us!
