An Ecuadorian Mission Experience

Good morning! It may be an assumption that you are reading this in the morning, but I am definitely writing it at an early morning hour!

We arrived for the Eucharist at Emaus probably a little late, but thank goodness we are living in Flexidor. Starting times are only important at school and at doctor visits. Otherwise, starting times and stuff like that are fairly flexible. Church was to start at 9am, but I don't think it really started until around 9:15. And even then, people flowed in and out of the service throughout. Overall, it was a nearly identical service to ours...except in Spanish.

They use the Revised Lectionary, did the confessional, the passing of the peace, and everything else. It was pretty cool to know what was going on throughout the service even though we didn't understand the language. The music was played by a cd player. I think during the last year, a youth world intern, Danny, played music on guitar. But he was out of town with another mission team. The music was actually really cool! The Spanish language has a great cadence to it when put with music.

Lordes is the priest at Emaus, and she gave a great sermon. At the peace, you have to pass the peace to everyone in the room, and the greeting at the peace is, "La Paz." The younger girls in the congregation brought the elements up to the altar after the offertory, and they performed a short indigenous dance. The Eucharist was very neat in Spanish, and then Lordes invited me up to be the chalice bearer. That was really cool of her.

After the service, a bunch of the girls in the parish performed an indigenous dance for us. It was so way cool, and it was a lot of fun. Cameron, Lordes, and Beaumont all got invited into the action as well. It was a lot of fun.

After that, we broke into three teams. The construction didn't do much at all because it started to rain. The guy who was head of work told them they would be working the rest of the day. Huh. A second group took all the young people (11-?) to Lordes' house to play games and discuss their faith. Acoording to Cameron, it went really well. The third group did the children's program. They did skits, lessons, readings, crafts, music, bubbles, and more. It was a blast.

Check out the pics below and let us know what you think. My eyes are heavy and I am worn out. See you soon!

blessings,
dorian