An Ecuadorian Mission Experience

Grace and peace!

Day one on the ground was our day of orientation, sightseeing, and learning about Ecuador, Quito, and the cultures here. We started the day of with a great breakfast from Chef Rob, and a brief cultural orientation from Rachel and Jose Louis. Then we walked (a long way) over to the Youth World's offices where we got an orientation on the many ministries of Youth World. If you are interested, go visit their website:

www.youthworld.org.ec

Make sure you ask your youth (or one of the youth) about Youth World's many ministries. I don't want to steal all of their thunder.

After our orientation, we drove over to Fruteria Monserrata. We ate empanada de morocho con pollo, empanada de morocho con carne, bolon de verde con queso, and fruit salad. We also had some incredible juices, many of the fruits are only found here in Ecuador. Empanadas are kinda like a corn batter hot pocket filled with rice and chicken or beef. The bolon has a outside shell made from a batter of plantains and then it is filled with cheese. Amazing stuff!

After lunch we visited the Catholic Basilica (Cathedral). It is an amazing piece of architecture. It is unfinished, though, for two reasons: if it is finished they would have to pay taxes to the Vatican, and they also believe that if they finish it, it could bring about the end of the world. I'm okay if they don't finish it if that is the case. We were able to climb all over the Basilica: up the spires and bell towers, inside the roof line, ontop of the sanctuary dome...it was a workout! We then walked down to the Plaza Grande. The president's house and the mayor's house sit on opposite sides of this Plaza, and it has a really cool statue in the middle. This is a place that we do have to be careful of pickpockets, though, because of the number of tourists who visit this area. We had no troubles!

We then walked over to the Plaza de San Francisco, which is a town square in front of a famous Catholic Church. The bus picked us up and took us over to the Panecillo. The Panecillo is a statue of a winged virgin ontop of a man-made hill. The hill was made by indigenous indians, and it was used for human sacrifices. Pretty intense stuff. The statue is known as the world's largest aluminum statue.

We traveled back to the hostel to rest and chill out for a while, and then Cameron came over to talk with us about missions and missiology. Make sure to ask your youth about the 5 F's. Basically, we learned that this isn't a glorified vacation of sorts. We want to be a blessing, partner with God in His work in Ecuador, learn about our own faith, and produce fruit after the experience. We can discuss missiology further later. My brain is too tired to flush out the details! After dinner (roast chicken and potatoes), we debriefed the day and received our Ecuadorian names. The Quechua in Riobamba don't understand our language at all, so it helps if our names are more Ecuadorian. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow, we rise at 5am and travel to Riobamba. It is a 4 hour bus drive. The village we are serving at is Columbo de Grande (I think), and it is 45 min from Riobamba. They are a Quechua Indian village, and they are part of the Episcopal Church. Their priest is Eulogio, and he serves 35 villages...over 1,000 parishioners. It is really cold there all the time apparently. They are farmers who live off the land completely. They eat potatoes, yuccas, corn, and a type of bean found here in Ecuador. We will do construction, Vacation Bible School, visit the children's school, and do church with them. On the way home on Friday, we will visit a volcano, walk on a glacier, and maybe play in some snow...in June. Wow.

We don't know what our access to the internet will be like over the next few days, so it is possible that you may not hear from us again until Friday night. Don't be alarmed if that is the case! Thanks for your support and prayers, and we'll be in touch!

blessings,
dorian