An Ecuadorian Mission Experience

(Make sure you check out the posts from the last few days. Pictures have been added to each.)

Today was a great day, but for me, it was fairly difficult. I got really sick in the middle of the night, and continued to be sick through lunch and into the afternoon. By mid afternoon I began to feel a good bit better. The lens to my camera decided to come apart as well. I rented a way cool lens for the trip, and something came apart on the inside, and it is jammed. Luckily, there are lots of cameras around, so we will still have great pictures.

Emaus is a mission church. It is located in southern Quito, and the space that the church meets in has been donated by a church member. It is actually attached to their family business (construction), and is currently under construction. We are helping put a concrete roof on the second floor!

We started the day out with Morning Prayer from the Prayer Book...I know, who would have thunk it?!? It was cool to realize that we were doing the same prayers that we do at home in Spanish. We also sang a song, Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord, and mixed Spanish and English together throughout. It was really cool. We had a Gospel reading and took time to reflect and discuss what God was speaking to us through the scripture.

After morning prayer, we broke into three teams. One team started construction on the roof, one discussed the childrens' program for the next day, and the third group prepared the church for the afternoon youth program. Most of the childrens' team ended up helping with construction, and a couple people helped set up for lunch. Lunch was so good. We had a potato soup, rice, a beef stew type stuff, and vegetables. We also had soda for dessert.

The afternoon consisted of cleaning up lunch, more preparation for the youth event, and more construction. They washed their dishes on the sidewalk and dumped the water down a drain. The construction crew ripped off the roof and lowered another section of roof. It was a pretty busy day.

The youth event was way cool. It was a talent show and concert. The talent show had a few different categories: music, dance, poetry, and acting. There were other churches present, and the little church was absolutely packed. The dancing was amazing: breakdancing, indigenous dance, and choreographed dance. The Casa G boys threw down with some of the most amazing hip hop and breakdancing. They did back flips, spins, and all sorts of stuff. Amazing. Their were a couple different bands that came and played. One from Casa G, one from another church, and then our group. We got third place! The event culminated in a concert by Gedeon.

Gedeon is an Ecuadorian praise, worship, and rock band that is was started by Cameron's husband Roberto. Miguel is the lead singer. Miguel was one of our missionary interns last year, and he came to Gravatt for Happening 60 in our Diocese. Way cool dudes. The conert was off the chain...Loud, rocking, inspiring, worshipful, and more. Many of us bought CDs, too.

One of the best stories from the day involved Katie Clarkson. She had been playing with Gema, a younger girl at Emaus. She is actually the younger sister of Omar, one of the Ecuadorian youth that hung out with us last year. When the Christ Church School pulled up in their bus, Gema pulled Katie with her to go greet them. As the Christ School youth got off the bus, they greeted Katie as if she were Ecuadorian (she does resemble Ecuadorians quite a bit). A bit later, she went to grab her water bottle and it was sitting next to a few of the Christ School youth. When she asked them to hand it to her, they freaked out! They totally thought she was Ecuadorian! It was pretty funny!

We are pretty worn out. It was a long day, and we left Emaus 3 hours later than originally planned. Ecuador is also known as Flexidor! We have to be willing to be flexible and change with flow. So far, we have been really good at that. The team is amazing. They work hard, rarely complain, and help each other out really well. They see the beauty around them, and, most importantly, they are focused on being Christ to all they encounter. I am really proud of this team. Thanks for allowing them all to go on this experience, and thank you all so much for your support.

blessings,
dorian