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.

painting and playing and praying...o my!!!!

Hey guys back in California
Heres an update about yesterday

Yesterday we had a very restful night and woke up at about 6:30 and got ready for the day. We had our 20 min and then we went upstairs to have a delightful breakfast. After that we made about 25 sandwiches for ourselves and for the workers at the church we were going to visit. When we boarded the bus we went on a 45 min excursion to the church. When we arrived at the church which is called Remanso de Amor, which means "haven of love," we first entered the gates where the kids ran up to greet us and play with us right away. They were so welcoming and loving. After we had done our greetings we were given the grand tour. The church has three stories used for classrooms for the grade levels from pre-k to grade school and soon to be middle school and high school. The first thing we did that day was paint the future upper-classmen rooms. We painted a primer white color all over the walls and ceiling. Then we took a break from that and ate lunch down stairs in the church. When we were done eating we served the kids their lunch. Lauren took charge and helped communicate with the cooks and the people in charge of the kids. Then we went down into the church with all of the kids and taught them a bible verse. After that we went upstairs to color pictures with the children. The kids went home soon after that and we went back to painting our rooms. It ended up being a great day, and all in all it was amazing.

Love,
Laurel and Quincey

Day 1 in Quito...

Hey Everyone!!!

Well its actually 6:30 in the morning on day 2, but since we just woke up nothing has really happened today so i will talk about yesterday. We arrived at the airport around 10:30, everything went through so smoothly.

The youthworld staff met us at the airport. We walked out of the airport to the site of huge green mountains, a busy city and all sites and smells that go along with it. After waiting for the charter bus for a little bit, i know it seems like roughing it, we headed off to the hostel.

We are staying at the hostel Jireh. I would tell you what it means but i dont know and i dont have time to wikepedia it...

Its a fairly nice place to call home for the next few days. The guys are each sharing a room, and the girls have four to a room...oh its nice to be a guy:-)

After getting checked in we went to the cafe for lunch. We hadn't eaten much and so on top on being ridiculously tired, a bunch of us were pretty stinkin hungry. We got to experience our first traditional Ecuadorian meal together, There was chicken, marinated in some fantastic sauce, some steamed veggies, and some rice. All that was chased down with a fresh cup of lime ade! We had some fruit salad mixed with yogurt for dessert and needless to say our bellies were full and or hearts satisfied...

After lunch it was off to old quito...which was, well, old. But it was amazing! Because of the way that quito has developed, it is not as though they had torn down many of oldest building, instead they just keep packing in new ones... That being said, there is a whole area of quito rich in history and well aged. The architecture is amazing to say the least!

A lot of old town we stayed in the bus for, but we did get to go and visit the basilica. I will try to upload some pics later on... It was fabulous, an ancient catholic cathedral complete with gargoyles, clock towers, stained glass windows, and everything beautiful and old to accompany it.

After old town, we headed back to the youth world offices for an orientation, and then back to the hostel for dinner(chicken, beef, and cheese empanadas, think deep fried pastry taco thing filled with one of those fillings, very tasty, maybe not so nutritious, but in the words of steve dewitt, "we are feeling missionary")

Ok well it is time to go for quiet times and then breakfast. We hope that you have a wonderful day! Today we start ministry at the Argelia Alta site. Continue to keep us in your prayers!

We love you all!

Some more photos...