Hello from the AMAZON! We have now been in Ecuador for just over a week. We made it here to Ecuador last Friday(1/11) about midnight after short layover in Panama City. We stayed the night in Quito and headed out about 1:00pm for our ministry site on the 12th. We have limited access to the internet this month, which is okay with me, because it means I can focus on what is happening around me and not worry as much about what is going on elsewhere.
So far I am loving Ecuador, I am slowly getting my Spanish back, I still have a long way to go, but it is coming back and I am excited to use it more in the coming months. I love being able to understand what people are saying (Usually) without the use of a translator. Now to just get my speaking abilities up with my understanding.
This month we are in Huaticocha, which is a 6-hour bus ride east of Quito, in Northeastern Ecuador. The bus ride was spectacular, I loved looking out the window and watching as we drove through the Andes, and as the terrain slowly turned more and more tropical as we entered the Amazon Basin. While we are in the Amazon, the area has been changed quite a bit overtime to create farmlands, so we haven’t seen any crazy wildlife yet (we did see a tarantula on the second night). However our contact did inform us we are less than 5 miles away from untouched rainforest. It is quite something to look out over the hills and see all that God created here.
My team and I are staying with Pastor Ivan and his wife Nanci and their son Isaac, who is an adorable handful! They are so great; it has been fun getting to know them and spending time with them. The other day I was really blessed to be upfront with Ivan as we hiked through the Jungle on the way to visit families, where he told me things about the plants and just joked around about everything (The hike was largely a trek through the mud on a mule trail, the bridge photo below was the bottom of the hike).
Our ministry this month is a combination of things, we usually spend the mornings working at the Mission School (Where team Luminous is at), doing some sort of manual labor to help with the schools construction. Or doing some sort of activity around the house/church, unless it is raining in the morning then our mornings are more laid back. (Except for Wednesday when it rained and we got to kill chickens to sell at the store!…. didn’t expect to do that so early in the race) We then spend the afternoons doing children’s ministry here in Huaticoca, or the small community of Pasohurco, which is about a fifteen-minute drive up the mountain. We play games with the kids, like jump rope and soccer, then do a short lesson and activity before playing with the kids more. We have also been spending time visiting local families to encourage them and pray for them, which I just love.
I really look forward to seeing what God has in store for the rest of our time here.
Here are a few photos of the area…
