An Ecuadorian Mission Experience

First, thank you so much for coming to check out our Ecuador Mission blog. We really appreciate it, and we are honored that you would take the time to find out what we are doing down in Ecuador.

So, here's the story of the beginning of our mission. It seem kinda weird that I am lumping nearly 3 days into one story as a beginning, but that really is the case. Our team gathered together on Sunday evening. We met for dinner and families were welcome. After dinner, we sorted ministry supplies, prepared VBS supplies, put it all in our luggage, and weighed luggage. It was pretty tedious work that took a couple hours. After that we had formation and prayer time to focus ourselves on the mission. Our scripture was the Matthew account of the baptism of Jesus. We especially focused on God's words, "This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." We came to learn that this phrase can have many meanings. First, this is at the beginning of Jesus' ministry...he hadn't really done anything yet, but still, God was pleased. It is an assurance of God's love and approval. Also, it is a blessing and recognition of authority. So, we go out, answering God's call, knowing that we have his approval and authority to love and serve as the hands and feet of Christ. Pretty powerful stuff to start out a mission with.

Monday morning had us packing up and driving to the Charlotte airport. We breezed through security, grabbed some lunch, and hopped a quick flight over to ATL. We bounced into ATL, worked our way awkwardly to another concourse, and prepared for our flight to Quito. The flight to Quito (from ATL) is just over 5 hours. Not too bad. We had some inflight entertainment, good discussions, naps, and an interesting meal. When arriving at the Quito airport, you go straight to Immigration, wait in a long line, grab the luggage, and then go through customs (I don't think they were paying attention at all). When you burst through the double doors into the lobby area for arrivals, it is like an old movie with a crowd of people waving signs and hollering. It is wild! Cameron and Roberto met us there with our missionary hosts, Christine and D'ario. Becca Horvath, from our Diocese, was also there (she's an intern at Youth World this summer). We got settled into our way cool hostel to get rest for our first day on the ground.

We started out the day (Tuesday) with a breakfast of pancakes! There was also some fruit, one of which was quite strange. Some of the missionaries and interns call it the snot fruit. It looks like an orange, but you crack it open. Inside it looks like snot with seeds, but it tastes a bit like a mandarin orange (there's a picture below). We walked down to the Youth World office for an orientation on all their ministries. Then we went to lunch at the wonderful Fruteria...empanadas do moracho con pollo (corn batter shell with chicken and rice), bolon de verde con queso (plantains batter with cheese), and fruit. Delish!!! We then toured the Baslicia in all it's spendor. It is the Catholic Cathedral. It is way cool and you can climb all over it. There are a few pics of it, but I will need to gather others to post later as well. We visit the plaza in front of the President's house, and a Catholic church a block away. We then ventured over to the Plaza de San Franciso where we were entertained by a magician. Very cool stuff.

We closed the day with dinner, debrief, and packing/preparing for tomorrow. We hope to have internet in Atacames, but we aren't sure yet. We will have to wait and see, but please feel free to follow me at twitter or facebook (3G access is more likely in some places). Check out the pics up until now: