The Family of Casa Victoria

Today we visited Casa Victoria, a 100 year old house purchased by one of the mayor's daughters to be used as a community center in one of the rougher parts of Quito. Bill gave us an orientation which included a very relaxed version of the work for the day. We appreciated his laid back attitude and focus on the principles of Jesus as he welcomed us into the family. Six of us helped organize library books by gluing in the checkout cards and writing in the donor's name. This library will be the FIRST library in all of Ecuador that will allow books to be removed from the building! The other team members broke into teams to paint the terrace and the children's jungle room, wash windows, and paper mache' bookshelves for the classrooms.

We worked alongside a group from Santa Barbara and had a chance to worship and pray with about 30 people who were involved in rennovating the house. It's amazing how small the world seems when we speak in one voice to Jesus through song!

Steve, Necia, Randi, and Ryan walked up to SuperMaxi, the local grocery store while the rest of us sang songs to each other (Laurel and Lauren), played Speed, and hung out. It was a great day!
Terri

We are here... to pump you up!

We went to church at Remanso de Amor, for their sunday morning service. Once we arrived there one of the ladies from the church got us together and thanked us for all the work we had done. Later during the service Ramiro, the pastor, presented us with paintings and also thanked and prayed for the work that we were doing in the children and the church. We began with some familiar songs that we sung in Spanish and then in return we sang some worship songs for them in English. A few of us gave our testimonies and Zach gave the message while one of the workers from Youth World, Pablo, translated for us.

After the service ended Ramiro took our team out to lunch, which was delicious. Then we went on another glorious bus ride back to the church and did a mini vbs shin dig. The kid's favorite part was definitely getting prizes for memorizing John 3:16 (which I'm pretty sure most of them already knew...but whateva...they got some cool little toy piggies) Then we went back to Pastor Ramiro's house and had some good old (north) American pizza.

After dinner, Pastor Ramiro gave us these cool ecuador soccer jersey thingy mabobbers that were a tad too small...but an amazing gift nonetheless. We sat around and had some awesome conversations. Alot of laughing was involved for sure. Then we had to bid our farewells. Oh boy was that a sad one. But that was counteracted by the show that the male species of our team contributed to our festivities of the evening. They donned on their brand spanking new soccer attire and performed for Steve's video device. He proceeded to replay the little skit for all of us. It just happened to be an old Saturday night skit in which two males stated this.

"I'm Hanz. and I'm Franz. and we are here to pump you up!"

And the direct result of that was us all laughing until we were crying on the floor until...Steve and Zach returned to do the exact same thing that Ryan and Harrison had performed. At that point, our laughing turned into inaudible hysteria. All in all...we would say it was a delightful day.

Peace and Love. Laurel and Lauren.

The Middle of the World

We got to "sleep in" today and woke up at 7:45. In Terri's words, "I've never seen this many high schoolers so excited to wake up at 7:45." We were off to El Ciudad Mitad Del Mundo, pretty much The Middle Of The World! The equator line is red, by the way. After a million pictures straddling the equator, we shopped and had Ecuadorian ice cream. A las doce, we were off to El Refugio - a retreat center in the middle of the mountains. It was one of thee most beautiful places most of us have ever seen. We had our millionth orientation to learn about the purpose of El Refugio and then headed out to the field for some team bonding games. We played a live version of rock, paper, scissors; we ran through a jump rope of fire, made a human pretzel, and fell off a baptismal into each other's arms to practice trust. Then we had some solo time to take hikes into the mountains on various trails. I took the blue trail that overlooked the whole valley and its splendor. It was beautiful despite the lack of breathing air, a blessing from the altitude. With the cue of the bus honk, we met back up to hike BACK up to the zip line. Ask Steve sometime to see the view from his video camera or from our designated camera girl, Quincey. At six, we traveled down to the campfire to roast hot dogs and CUYYYYY!!!! (a.k.a. guinea pig) Everyone except our animal loving friend Katie tried a piece. Our talented bus driver, Fernando, roasted a nasty chunk on his ridiculously long skewer. It was an experience. After dinner and s'mores, we talked around the campfire about our day. Brian, our host with a big smile, suggested an encouragement game. In it, someone would hold a staff and pass it on to a friend with a word of encouragement. Brian had to stop us because we had so much thanks and encouragement to share. Fernando flew us home and Zach did not have to tell us twice to head to bed.
Written by Jenna or Chayna (as the little kids call it)






The ever infamous guinea

Pictures from the basilica way back on day one....

Where's Steve!?!??

So today started off kinda rough when we woke up at six in the freakin' morning but it was worth it. After a quick breakfast of pan (bread) from the local panaderia (bakery) we made our way back to Argelia Alta to meet about 70 mothers and their children. Don't panic yet, it has a happy ending.

After they were loaded into three separate buses, our caravan started on a journey to the pool. First, we sang some worship songs in Spanish, followed by a rousing game of "red light, green light". While we continued to play with the ninos Zach and our translator, Pablo, talked to the Mothers and Lauren was the Lucky one who was chosen to share her testimony with them.

At about this time, it started to get a little warm (a scorching 62 degrees Fahrenheit) everyone decided to go for a dip in the unheated pool. So after everybody was done having fun and freezing off assorted body parts, we served lunch to the mothers and their kids and consumed our own. We then said our goodbyes and headed back to the hostel where we were able to recharge our batteries before heading to the mall for dinner.

We hung around the mall, wreaking havoc on innocent Ecuadorians, for about two hours. We then proceeded to walk home. We had a debriefing time which quickly deteriorated into a game of extreme apples to apples (that's a story for another time). After Zach forced us to calm down, he, Lauren, Terry and I proceeded to participate in the ancient ritual of orange eating (another story for later). Well I am going to stop now just because i am laughing to hard to concentrate anymore.

Peace out,
Frankliin

some pics...

The team that eats together...

Well, they eat together...

The place we ate our first day
Rough view, eh?

Steve is feeling missionary

Waiting for our transportation

Still waiting...

Tag I'm it!

Hey everyone! My name is Lauren Hanna and if you are reading this you probably know who I am already. Zach tagged me to write about our adventures today, so...here goes.

In the morning we woke up at a sunny, bright 6:30 AM. After breakfast, we went to a home for former street boys called Casa Gabriel. We were introduced to the ministry there and a short story about each of the boys who live and study there. The boys' stories were so inspiring and their drive to become servants and leaders for Christ was simply amazing. After a short orientations there, the boys accompanied us to our ministry site in Argelia Alta on the bus. They were so fun to hang out with! They taught us how to rap about Jesus, Salsa dance, and we all laughed until we cried.

At the church, we painted the front gate a beautiful bright pink and finished up painting the 3rd floor rooms white. With the help of the Casa G boys, we successfully left the church covered from head to toe in white paint...as Steve says "We sacrificed our clothes for Jesus." (He just seems to be full of those insightful one-liners)

We also got the oppurtunity to host the VBS again for the kids of the church. The kids were so excited to sing and memorize verses written on balloons and their joy was contagious. Although a few of our team members weren't feeling 100% physically, we all are super-charged spititually through our experiences today.

Sadly, we had to leave and come back "home", but we got to eat this amazing Ecuadorian lasagna and made us feel a little bit better. Then, we had debriefing time and had some great discussions and sharing of testimonies. We are just so excited to keep doing ministry down here and we love each and every one of you! Peace and Love. Lauren.