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.

Cynthia and Halley enjoying the sugar cane.

My friend Carolina!  It was so great to see her again.

Nick and Dario playing on the Napo river with the kids from Shandia.

Mikala and Kimberly (One of the girls she met when we first came down with our youth group in 2004.)

Kayaking

At the end of March, we took our interns kayaking down the Napo River!  What a blast!  Next to Megan and Chelsea, Matt and I were the ones that tipped over the most!

On the bridge in Tena

Right before I fell in!

Criste, Hannah, Me and Chelsea.  Where's Emily? 

A New House

In March we found a house to move into!  It was a bit difficult to even think of leaving our other house, being that it was a mansion and in really great condition in comparison to this new one, but we will be saving close to $400 dollars a month!  So, along with some extra help from some of our supporters and a new church partnering with us, we are now getting really close to meeting our budget!  Thank you all for your prayers and support and thank you Lord for helping us find a house! 

The outside of our new house.  The yard to the left is our neighbors and the one in the back is ours.

This goes to our front door.

The staircase.  The lawn out the window is our backyard.

Dining room and kitchen.  We removed the cabinet that is hanging to make it more open.

Our living room.  

The window to the right looks right out into our neighbors yard and house.  

Reminders of the Soveriegn Grace of God

One of the things I really appreciate about Ecuador is the fact that we are constantly given reminders that we are not really the ones in control. So many simple freedoms we take for granted in the states can be so altered here that it takes you off guard at first, but then it is a beautiful reminder of proverbs 16:9, "The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps."
Take road work for example... a couple weeks ago they were working on a road that goes up the hill to our little neighborhood. They were repaving the road, so they blocked off the section they were working on... understandable. What we didn't quite get was how anyone was suppose to get in or out of our neighborhood. There was no warning, no information given that our neighborhood would be blocked off for a couple of hours. People would leave their houses and get sent back, leaving them to walk or go find a taxi.
Then this morning we had another great example... At 8:00 a.m. Matt went out to El Refugio (our camp about 30-45 min. outside the city) to meet with some interns. Road workers were laying some pipe in the dirt road to the camp, making it a little difficult to maneuver, but manageable. What Matt didn't know, and again there was absolutely no warning, was that in the course of the time that Matt met with the interns, the road workers had completely blocked off the road (digging a giant trench across it) making it impossible to pass. When Matt went to ask how long it would be till he could pass, they told him not until 5 p.m.
It is times like these that God reminds us that we take a lot of things for granted and it is really only through His constant gracious acts pouring out on us that we get anywhere in life.

Quito Day Festival

Each class participated in a traditional dance of Ecuador. The kids were so cute. You could definitely tell who didn't have Latino blood in them.

Nicolas was very serious about his dancing.

Mikala and her 3 best friends.

Our new dog Cooper

Pictures from Banos

Storage Building for the Orphanage in Shell.

Kyle helping put on the roof to the storage building.

Jamie working on filling in pot holes on the road at the orphanage.

Nicolas and Eric also filling in holes.

Barney, Julie, Eric, Nick and MIkala at a waterfall outside of Rio Negro. It was a beautiful hike into the falls.

Mikala and I on the path to the waterfall.

Matt and Mikala on the same path.

Some of our group at another waterfall called Pilon del diablo (the devil's cauldron).
It is huge and very beautiful.

You can crawl through this path and actually touch the waterfall.

And one more falls. This one we took a ride on the tarabita below. It was pretty fun. It goes right over the falls.

On the tarabita

Sharayah taking the machete to the grass at the orphanage

Mikala working hard

Nicolas loved the machete

I woke up this morning to hearing Mikala singing Santo, Santo, Santo (Holy, Holy, Holy) in the shower. She was singing away and sounded pretty good. How fun.

The $800 New Broken Refrigerator

So we moved into our new home this last week and we had to buy a refrigerator because at the last house it was provided for us (which is really rare). At any rate, we purchased the fridge from a store called Megamaxi and they delivered it on Thursday. We plugged it in on Friday (you have to wait 24 hours) and it never cooled down. We called the store and they said they would send a techno on Monday. We asked, "Can't we just return this and get another?" "No" they replied "We have to send a techno to check it out first." Monday came and went, no techno. Tuesday... no techno. Wednesday the techno finally arrived and said that there was a hole in one of the tubes and all the freon was out. He said he could just solder it and fill it back up with freon, but he had to wait until the next day because he didn't have anything to fix it with. So, Matt called the store again, since it had been a week since we had bought it, and asked if we could just have the fridge replaced being that we didn't spend money to buy a broken refrigerator but a new one and they said, "Sorry no. But we'll give you a free DVD for all your trouble." These are good times.

Lunch

I'm sure everyone has given up on this blog by now. But for those who are still checking... We were invited to lunch after church this last week by a family in our church. It was all in Spanish! We didn't do too bad. We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed getting to know them. We were invited to bring the kids anytime to play and practice our Spanish.

Nicolas' Thoughts on Heaven

Nicolas was asked the other day if he was a Christian. Sandy proceeded to ask, "Have you asked Jesus into your heart?" Nicolas replied, "Yes I'm a Christian." Then he said, "There are three ways to get to heaven." We all turned our attention to him and said, "Really? We thought there was only one way to heaven. Please enlighted us." Nicolas confidently responded, "No there are three. Listen. First you have to confess your sins and ask for forgiveness. Second, you have to believe in Jesus, and then third.... you have to die."

So, Mikala has been throwing up for the past 3 days and it is really weird because she throws up every 12 to 24 hours. Right when I think she must be over it, she does it again. So this evening we took her to the doctor and they are going to run some tests. After the doctor we went to the mall for some food and gave Mikala some Gatorade. After some time, she felt like she was going to throw up so Matt had me run her to the bathroom. The bathroom was divided up into three different rooms which I didn't even pay attention to... one was the women's, one the men's and the other for children. Unfortunately I went straight to the empty one, which, I'm sure you guessed, was the men's. When Mikala finished puking, we walked out and there were 3 men standing at the urinal... oops.

Carnival

From February 6th (Epiphany - the celebration of the wisemen's visit to Jesus) to February 20th (Fat Tuesday - the day before Lent) is the season of Carnival (which some have said comes from the latin words carne (meat) and vale (farewell). Carnival is the Spanish version of the French Mardi Gras. Carnival is celebrated in many Latin American countries and most are similar to the New Orleans version of Mardi Gras, although more elaborate. In Ecuador however, it is very different. Here they do not have parades as much as they do water fighFrom February 6th (Epiphany - celebration of thets. They do have parades in a few towns, but water balloons and water guns and even flour throwing is very popular... especially in the warmer places. We didn't see quite as much in Quito, but every once in awhile I would see a person walking down the street with their shirt soaking wet or white in their hair from flour. I have been asking around for the reason for this tradition and no one really seems to know. I have had a couple of explanations given... a sort of purification ritual of past sins and a mix of the Catholic celebration of Carnival with the Incan celebration of the rainy season. But, for the most part, nobody knows why they do it besides the fact that it is just fun. The two days before lent are actually declared an holiday for Carnival. The kids are out of school and everyone heads to the beach.
We didn't go to the beach, we actually visited Quito Colonial with a couple of our interns. This is a picture of one of the streets in Quito Colonial. This section of the city was built in the 1500's. It is very beautiful.









We also visited the Basilica and the Plaza de Independencia. The Basilica is actually fairly
new... finished in the early 1900's.


















While we were visiting we heard a mass with an electrical guitar and a very out of tune young singer (interesting and somewhat out of place in this beautiful cathedral).









We also were able to climb all throughout the cathedral.


















One can climb up into the clock tower and actually step outside on the ledge. It is crazy!
















The gargoyels on the side of the Basilica are actually creatures found in the Gallapogos and other areas of Ecuador. Their are lizards, pelicans, qui and all sorts of interesting creatures.









When you stand at the alter in the cathedral, you can actually see the panecillo (a statue of the virgen Mary) on the hill top about 5 miles away through this heart window.















We met these boys in the square. They wanted to polish our tennis shoes so they could get some money to buy another squirt gun for Carnival.