Friends and Family,
Merry Christmas! I have an important update I want to share with you. Due to your generosity and support, I am now fully funded for the remainder of my World Race mission trip! This is a huge milestone; thank you for believing in me and in our God who is so faithful. With this hurdle behind us, I feel a renewed focus on the months ahead.
The last time I shared with you, the team of guys and I were doing what we call Unsung Hero work in Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil. Adventures in Missions (our organization) doesn’t have ministry contacts in those countries, so our task while there was to establish relationships with unknown or overlooked evangelical organizations and encourage them through service, prayer, and fellowship. It was a fruitful time, as God lead us to several churches and organizations with whom we were able to serve. Several expressed a strong desire to have future World Race teams return to them in the future; exactly the type of contacts we were hoping to make while we were there.
The squad (our full team of 30) and I are now in Baños, Ecuador. We have new coed teams, and are preparing to begin serving with prearranged ministry contacts again for the next three weeks. My team will be doing door to door evangelism, children’s ministry, and teaching English classes in Baños and two nearby mountain towns.
The journey here was eventful. We traveled from Peru into Ecuador by riverboat, and had a few unplanned interruptions along the way. At one point we ran aground on a shallow sandbar and had to get out and push the boat off the sandbar. Another time one of the engines broke down, cutting our speed in half. After hours of putting along, the captain pulled over on the bank of the jungle and said we would spend the night there. Within minutes, he was slumped over the steering wheel and snoring. We did our best to do the same in our seats. The next day, he flagged down a boat passing by and made a deal for one of their engines. With some rudimentary mechanic-ing on the sandbar, he mounted one of their engines on our boat and we were making up lost time. After 3 days on the small river boat, we made it to a town where we could finally catch a bus over the mountains to Baños.
Pushing the Boat 
Baños is a neat little town situated in a valley in the Andean Mountains. It’s known as the adventure capital of Ecuador and offers hiking, whitewater rafting, mountain climbing, bicycling, and bungee jumping adventures, as well as hot bath swimming pools. You probably know that baño means bathroom in Spanish, but it also means bath, and the abundance of waterfalls spilling into this town lead to the creation of hot baths that gave the town its name. Tourists flock here from all over the world, making it a perfect destination for us to encounter people with whom we could share the Gospel. We’ve met people from Europe, Russia, Australia, Colombia, Venezuela, United States, and of course locals from Ecuador. Through evangelism in the streets, sharing hostels with other travelers, and intentionality in our daily activities, the Lord has prompted some awesome conversations. When tourists encounter one another, the question about where you’re from and why you’re here is generally part of every greeting. And that’s our segway into spiritual conversations. We’ve met numerous young travelers searching for fulfillment, which has given us that many opportunities to point them to The Source of fulfillment.
We took four days this week to hike a beautiful section of the Quilotoa Loop trail, ending at the Quilotoa crater lake. We hiked 6-8 miles per day, with elevation gains of 1,200-3,300 feet each day. It was a great time of pressing in to difficulty, encouraging one another, and soaking in some of Ecuador’s beautiful landscapes. The grand finale of the hike was the Quilotoa crater lake.
Quilotoa Crater Lake
On Saturday, we will break into our teams and begin serving with our ministry hosts throughout Ecuador.
Thank you again for supporting me financially and being part of God’s work through me and my squad. Through your generosity, He is touching the lives of many we encounter as well as growing us in His truth as we walk this out together. As the holidays approach, I hope His Spirit fills you with the joy only He can give.
Merry Christmas,
-Neal
Note: Several of my teammates are still fundraising to meet the goal. Two in particular are Susan Bealor and Vandella Jasso. If you feel lead, you can donate through their blogs at:
https://www.susanbealor.theworldrace.org
https://www.vandellajasso.theworldrace.org
