530PM
We've arrived in New Orleans!! Already loaded up in the van, gassing up & picking up drinks. See you soon!
:)
Kathy
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Back in the US!
We've made it to Miami and will board flight to New Orleans in a little over an hour. We are in good spirits and ready to get HOME! I just had a slice of cheese pizza & a cold Dr. Pepper. Greg, Mike & Dana are listening to their Ipods, Richard is napping, the girls are catching up on their social lives, and everyone else is stretching their legs, getting voicemails or just people watching.
I will miss this group. I boarded the plane a week ago with near strangers; I'm coming home with amazing new friends. I feel so blessed and peaceful. I thank God for this wonderful experience and am looking forward to more.
See you soon!
Kathy
I will miss this group. I boarded the plane a week ago with near strangers; I'm coming home with amazing new friends. I feel so blessed and peaceful. I thank God for this wonderful experience and am looking forward to more.
See you soon!
Kathy
Goodbye, Quito
4:50am
We are all checked in & sitting at the gate in the Quito airport. Everyone is excited to come home! Yesterday was a great day; drove through the countryside to an ecological preservation. Visited a family farm for a wonderful lunch (homemade pizza!), a nature hike & zip lining! We learned about some of the native plants & trees from their resident "forest engineer." We also rode a series of 6 zip lines, which I personally was very apprehensive about! But it was soooo fun and not a bit scary! Ms. Nell even rode 4 of the 6! She loved it! Flying past tree tops, through narrow green corridors and over lush green fields was awesome!!! Everyone should do it at least once!
This week was an enormous blessing for me, personally, and I know it has been for the other team members. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support. I am so happy to have gotten to know my team members so well on this adventure! I know we've formed friendships that will last a lifetime.
Barring any delays, we will arrive in New Orleans at 5ish (not 6 like I previously wrote). Tack a couple more hours on for us to arrive in Brookhaven.
Have a great Sunday morning!
Kathy
We are all checked in & sitting at the gate in the Quito airport. Everyone is excited to come home! Yesterday was a great day; drove through the countryside to an ecological preservation. Visited a family farm for a wonderful lunch (homemade pizza!), a nature hike & zip lining! We learned about some of the native plants & trees from their resident "forest engineer." We also rode a series of 6 zip lines, which I personally was very apprehensive about! But it was soooo fun and not a bit scary! Ms. Nell even rode 4 of the 6! She loved it! Flying past tree tops, through narrow green corridors and over lush green fields was awesome!!! Everyone should do it at least once!
This week was an enormous blessing for me, personally, and I know it has been for the other team members. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support. I am so happy to have gotten to know my team members so well on this adventure! I know we've formed friendships that will last a lifetime.
Barring any delays, we will arrive in New Orleans at 5ish (not 6 like I previously wrote). Tack a couple more hours on for us to arrive in Brookhaven.
Have a great Sunday morning!
Kathy
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Unexpected Blessings
Yesterday, was an incredible blessing from God - and totally unexpected. (Why do not we believe that God will do this all the time? I think if we as Christians expected more out of God and showed more faith, then we would see more miracles. But, that is another story.)
Earlier in the week, due to scheduling problems, buses, interpreters, etc., we didn't even think we would be at the church yesterday. Normally these trips arrive on Saturday, have a day of worship and acclimation, then 4 work days, then Friday is a day of traveling around the country to see its culture and normally some tourist stuff. The way our trip has worked is that we had dates picked out to include an extra day. We don't fly home until Sunday and that gave us an extra day. But the interpreter was not scheduled to work on Friday, no cooking was planned. No kids were supposed to come. But God had other plans.
We told Tom earlier in the week to make something happen for us to work and stick with what we thought was the original plan. So, he had construction team lined up to work for half of the day. We were all ready to mix some more concrete. (We were mixing about one ton at a time BY HAND, and have probably mixed 10 batches this week!). But God had other plans.
Before we got off the bus, we prayed as a team. I said, or rather God literally said through me, that Great things were going to happen. I called on that during our prayer. Remember, at this time we were all mixing concrete. But as we unloaded the bus, and got ready, some of the children showed up. Anita, the pastor's wife, asked us if we could come up with a lesson for them. We said sure, and it was some of the older kids as well, so Mike and I volunteered to teach again. (Darn, I sure was going to miss mixing and hauling a ton of concrete - Ha!)
As the kids came into the room, they kept coming, and coming, and coming. We had about 45 to start with. Mike and I looked at each other and said, "Ok, God you wanted this, show us what to do." God led us to the story of the Israelites seeing, then taking the promised land based upon his promise. Characters of Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, and Rahab, were all central to the story and gave us a chance to even include crafts like a faith reminder as a necklace and actitivies like marching around and shouting "Jesus." That sure got the attention of the guards at the park around the corner as well as the shopkeepers that we marched by. But it also go the attention of other kids. We had every table full when we left to go to the park a block away, but God had other plans.
When we got back to the church, we had about another 35 to 40 kids. They were everywhere. Standing, sitting in each others laps and just singing and praising God. Some of them had been there before, and some had not. I heard from three different kids, "This is my cousin, can he come in?" Well we kept going.
I learned earlier in the week that God wants us to never forget to offer salvation through him to the students. So as we got close to finishing, we went back to Romans (I know for sure, now, why God has had our Sunday School class study Romans for the last few months.) And as the pastor came, and as we actually asked if anyone wanted to be saved, the group started moving. First one girl of about 16, Erika, that Mike and I had been praying for. Next a girl of about 15 that was carrying her little brother that Mrs. Nell had been praying for, then another boy of about 10, then I lost count. We ended up with 15 students praying and crying and asking God to be their Saviour. We were almost speechless. Well we were, but God wasn't. God had other plans.
Oh, by the way, the construction team actually got more done without us, and had the workers outside crying and praying with them!
We hugged and cried and prayed and danced and shouted and sang, and God was smiling. Without a doubt, this was his plan for the day, this was his plan for this trip, and once we got the devil out of the way, God called his children to him. What a joy and what a honor to have been a part of it!
Thanks for your prayers and your support, and God has used them to serve his purpose here in Quito this week.
Praise be to God!
Richard
Earlier in the week, due to scheduling problems, buses, interpreters, etc., we didn't even think we would be at the church yesterday. Normally these trips arrive on Saturday, have a day of worship and acclimation, then 4 work days, then Friday is a day of traveling around the country to see its culture and normally some tourist stuff. The way our trip has worked is that we had dates picked out to include an extra day. We don't fly home until Sunday and that gave us an extra day. But the interpreter was not scheduled to work on Friday, no cooking was planned. No kids were supposed to come. But God had other plans.
We told Tom earlier in the week to make something happen for us to work and stick with what we thought was the original plan. So, he had construction team lined up to work for half of the day. We were all ready to mix some more concrete. (We were mixing about one ton at a time BY HAND, and have probably mixed 10 batches this week!). But God had other plans.
Before we got off the bus, we prayed as a team. I said, or rather God literally said through me, that Great things were going to happen. I called on that during our prayer. Remember, at this time we were all mixing concrete. But as we unloaded the bus, and got ready, some of the children showed up. Anita, the pastor's wife, asked us if we could come up with a lesson for them. We said sure, and it was some of the older kids as well, so Mike and I volunteered to teach again. (Darn, I sure was going to miss mixing and hauling a ton of concrete - Ha!)
As the kids came into the room, they kept coming, and coming, and coming. We had about 45 to start with. Mike and I looked at each other and said, "Ok, God you wanted this, show us what to do." God led us to the story of the Israelites seeing, then taking the promised land based upon his promise. Characters of Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, and Rahab, were all central to the story and gave us a chance to even include crafts like a faith reminder as a necklace and actitivies like marching around and shouting "Jesus." That sure got the attention of the guards at the park around the corner as well as the shopkeepers that we marched by. But it also go the attention of other kids. We had every table full when we left to go to the park a block away, but God had other plans.
When we got back to the church, we had about another 35 to 40 kids. They were everywhere. Standing, sitting in each others laps and just singing and praising God. Some of them had been there before, and some had not. I heard from three different kids, "This is my cousin, can he come in?" Well we kept going.
I learned earlier in the week that God wants us to never forget to offer salvation through him to the students. So as we got close to finishing, we went back to Romans (I know for sure, now, why God has had our Sunday School class study Romans for the last few months.) And as the pastor came, and as we actually asked if anyone wanted to be saved, the group started moving. First one girl of about 16, Erika, that Mike and I had been praying for. Next a girl of about 15 that was carrying her little brother that Mrs. Nell had been praying for, then another boy of about 10, then I lost count. We ended up with 15 students praying and crying and asking God to be their Saviour. We were almost speechless. Well we were, but God wasn't. God had other plans.
Oh, by the way, the construction team actually got more done without us, and had the workers outside crying and praying with them!
We hugged and cried and prayed and danced and shouted and sang, and God was smiling. Without a doubt, this was his plan for the day, this was his plan for this trip, and once we got the devil out of the way, God called his children to him. What a joy and what a honor to have been a part of it!
Thanks for your prayers and your support, and God has used them to serve his purpose here in Quito this week.
Praise be to God!
Richard
Saturday morning
6:15am
Today will be a day of fun. We'll travel a couple of hours to Cloud Mountain to give us a chance to see the Equadorian countryside. This is a beautiful country and I'm definitely looking forward to the ride. I also hear talk of a zip line on Cloud Mountain....hmmmmm. Stay tuned!!
Yesterday was another amazing day! We had some scheduling snafus and weren't sure if we were going to be able to work at the center on Friday. (By the way, the name of the center is Dulce Refugio..."Sweet Refuge.") The team decided if there was a way we could work, construction and/or bible school, we wanted to do so. We went yesterday morning thinking the whole team would work construction as we didn't expect many children to be there.
6:15am
Today will be a day of fun. We'll travel a couple of hours to Cloud Mountain to give us a chance to see the Equadorian countryside. This is a beautiful country and I'm definitely looking forward to the ride. I also hear talk of a zip line on Cloud Mountain....hmmmmm. Stay tuned!!
Yesterday was another amazing day! We had some scheduling snafus and weren't sure if we were going to be able to work at the center on Friday. (By the way, the name of the center is Dulce Refugio..."Sweet Refuge.") The team decided if there was a way we could work, construction and/or bible school, we wanted to do so. We went yesterday morning thinking the whole team would work construction as we didn't expect many children to be there.
Turns out roughly 85 kids came through the center. Before lunchtime, 15 or so more children professed their faith in Christ. Read that sentence again, please.....on a day when we didn't expect to even be at the center we had a bigger than normal turnout and God moved many more children His way. I was working outside again and it's so humbling when you walk in, all
hot and dirty, to feel such a warm presence and hear what has happened.
This is my first mission trip and it's still a little daunting to take on the task of witnessing to anyone, much less young people who speak another language. I am so thankful for the members who are called to do this and who answer that call. They've done a wonderful job listening to God's direction in their hearts.
More to come! Have a wonderful day in Mississippi,
Kathy
Today will be a day of fun. We'll travel a couple of hours to Cloud Mountain to give us a chance to see the Equadorian countryside. This is a beautiful country and I'm definitely looking forward to the ride. I also hear talk of a zip line on Cloud Mountain....hmmmmm. Stay tuned!!
Yesterday was another amazing day! We had some scheduling snafus and weren't sure if we were going to be able to work at the center on Friday. (By the way, the name of the center is Dulce Refugio..."Sweet Refuge.") The team decided if there was a way we could work, construction and/or bible school, we wanted to do so. We went yesterday morning thinking the whole team would work construction as we didn't expect many children to be there.
6:15am
Today will be a day of fun. We'll travel a couple of hours to Cloud Mountain to give us a chance to see the Equadorian countryside. This is a beautiful country and I'm definitely looking forward to the ride. I also hear talk of a zip line on Cloud Mountain....hmmmmm. Stay tuned!!
Yesterday was another amazing day! We had some scheduling snafus and weren't sure if we were going to be able to work at the center on Friday. (By the way, the name of the center is Dulce Refugio..."Sweet Refuge.") The team decided if there was a way we could work, construction and/or bible school, we wanted to do so. We went yesterday morning thinking the whole team would work construction as we didn't expect many children to be there.
Turns out roughly 85 kids came through the center. Before lunchtime, 15 or so more children professed their faith in Christ. Read that sentence again, please.....on a day when we didn't expect to even be at the center we had a bigger than normal turnout and God moved many more children His way. I was working outside again and it's so humbling when you walk in, all
hot and dirty, to feel such a warm presence and hear what has happened.
This is my first mission trip and it's still a little daunting to take on the task of witnessing to anyone, much less young people who speak another language. I am so thankful for the members who are called to do this and who answer that call. They've done a wonderful job listening to God's direction in their hearts.
More to come! Have a wonderful day in Mississippi,
Kathy
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