The Jensen's Journal: The Group from Grace Chapel in Lancaster, Ca

Grace Chapel from Lancaster, CA brought a team to Ecuador from the 31st of March to the 10th of April. What an incredible time we had with them! They were such a joy to get to know and I am so excited to have even more familiar faces the next time we visit Lancaster. We had the opportunity to go to Shandia with them to work and build relationships with the people (especially the children) of Shandia. On Friday we played some games with the kids and then went down to the river to swim. On Saturday we spent most of the day shoveling dirt. On Sunday we worshiped the Lord together singing in English, Spanish and Kichwa and Eric delivered a sermon. Some of the group also went and did Sunday School with the children. Monday we went on a little river trip and then headed back to Quito.

I was encouraged to see many familiar faces in Shandia and actually be able to communicate a little better this time. I also had the opportunity to taste my first chicha... can't say I enjoyed it much. But, I did love the sugar cane.

When we returned to Quito, we spent the remaining time at El Refugio. The team did a lot of hard work and also participated in some team building activities.

We sure had a wonderful time with Grace Chapel, Lancaster and we can't wait for them to come back!

At El Refugio, the team also did the ropes course and some team building activities. Mikala and Nick participated in both and enjoyed it tremendously.

Nick and many others were painted with a dye derived from plants. The red only lasted a day, but the black stayed on for a week!

We celebrated my 39th birthday in Tena, near Shandia. We had an incredible downpour and thunder and lightning show. The electricity went out. It was a lot of fun.

Shoveling sand from one side of the river and carrying it over to the other to load in wheel-barrows to be taken down the road about a 1/4 mile to the church.