An Ecuadorian Mission Experience

Hey there folks,

Well, yesterday was our last full day. It is pretty crazy how an adventure like this is just over all of a sudden. It just feels strange. This begins the hard process of phasing ourselves back into our normal lives. They say it is pretty difficult to convey to others what we may have experienced, and it can be so very true. So, our hope and prayer is that we will be able to successfully communicate our experiences to our family and friends.

Unfortunately, today I can't upload photos. I don't know why. I have internet. It is slow today, but every time I go to upload photos, I get an error message. So very sorry. I will upload photos from today and yesterday once we are back home.

Yesterday was a fun day that wasn't too intense. Most of our days have been busy from sun up to sun down. Ministry has been pretty intense most days! In the morning yesterday, we went to a ministry site called Casa G. It is a ministry that helps take street kids off the street, give them intentional Christian community, and raise them up as Christian leaders. They house up to 12-14 youth at a time, ages 14-20. A family from the US lives in the house, and they also have an Ecuadorian "Dad" that lives with them 3-4 days a week as well. They get put in school, they get a room with a bed and other amenities they have never had, and they instantly have a bunch of new brothers. They cook meals together, they study together, they play together, and they learn how to incorporate themselves into a normal life. It is a pretty incredible ministry.

Once we arrived at Nueva Jerusalen, we started helping them paint the walls of a courtyard. The courtyard and building attached will be used for youth ministry and other church functions, I think. So we spent a couple hours before lunch painting. For us, it was a fairly frustrating process because they paint very differently here. The paint is diluted and watered down to the point it looks like white water. Even thinner than milk. And you put on layer after layer after layer. Sometimes you can't tell that you painted! But we have been learning that it isn't right, it isn't wrong, it's just different!

Lunch was delicious! We had soup with pop corn in it, Coca-Cola Chicken, rice and a mix of fruit and vegetables. And then we got a siesta! I don't think that is necessarily a normal part of life here, but we took a 30 min rest period. Oh it was awesome.

In the afternoon, we went with the Nueva Jerusalen teenagers to a park nearby. They are trying to reach out to the community by being a constant positive presence. They want to reach out to children and families and invite them to church, so they go to the nearby park, play games and talk with people about their church. We had a blast with the folks from Nueva Jerusalen, but it was a bit anticlimactic because there weren't too many people out in the park yesterday. We said goodbye to our new friends and headed to dinner at an incredible Chinese restaurant. Chinese food is a little bit different here than it is back home, so it was very neat to have that experience.

Today, we will go to the market, visit Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the Earth...the Equator) and then spend some reflection time at Youth World's retreat center, El Refugio. After all that we will zip to the airport to depart at 11:30pm (12:30am back home). We land in Atlanta a little after 6am, and then finally land in Charlotte a little after 9am. Sooooo....we will see you all very soon! Much love to you and thank you for your support and prayers.

blessings,
dorian