Fountain of Life Team 2nd Week

We have just finished working with the Fountain of Life Team from Kernersville NC. Their ministry time here serving at Pan De Vida, meaning Bread of Life, was amazing. We worked alongside serving over 400 meals to the poorest of the poor, took the children to the amusement park and zoo, and started a bathroom to help accommodate all the people who come each week to hear the Word of God. We weren’t able to finish the bathroom project but the maestro and his team will finish it in a few weeks after the concrete has cured. This was a disappointment to the team because the normal for us Americans is if we start something we want to finish it. God has a plan and it is in His timing. As we ended our second week with this team, there were many whose lives have been changed forever. Again, ER is about changing lives for both the people we partner with all over the world and the people who come on a short term team. It is a step of faith for those who come on a mission trip and we want to encourage all of you who read this to have this experience of a lifetime. It might not be Ecuador but it could be with any of our other places we serve around the world. Many times you may ask God why am I here and not get an answer, other times He may answer with a clear understanding. Mike and I are so blessed to be a part of this ministry and pray we can continue to see lives changed in the future.

Macas, Shell and Banos

Between our two teams we had some time set aside to visit a partner of ER’s in Macas, near the Amazon jungle. Part of the staff drove down on Monday and the rest of us flew down Tuesday afternoon. There were 8 of us all together. We visited Emmanuel Christian School where Robin and Wendy, local missionaries, are teaching over380 students to learn English, computer skills, basic courses and most of all learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Most of these students come from Catholic backgrounds so the opportunity is abundant to reach out to them. Only 20% of the students are Christians. ER has a wonderful partnership with them and we are excited to see what God does through them in the future. We stopped over in Puyo for lunch at this quaint little restaurant called El Jardin, which means the Garden, where the scenery was magnificent, including the parrot in the photo. We then continued on our way to Shell where Nate Saint and four other guys flew into the jungle to try and evangelize a particular tribe of Indians. There was a movie titled End of the Spear made about them. The end result turned into them being martyred. Fortunately this tribe has turned to Christianity, because after many years one of the sons returned to the village and lived among the tribe and forgave and discipled the man that killed his father. We visited an orphanage/foster home, Casa De FE, where a lady felt called to help the children of this area and since then they have had rapid growth in the need for volunteers to help serve with them. ER is looking into a possible partnership with them, so it was great to visit this ministry. After Shell we headed towards Banos. In Spanish, Banos means bathrooms but this little town was very tranquil and didn’t meet up to its name at all. Thank goodness!! We spent one night here and attempted to ride quad bikes the next morning up to one of the active Volcanoes. Unfortunately, we had bike trouble all the way and had to call the company to come and get the bikes. We decided to call it a morning and pack up and head back to Quito. One of the most incredible things about this trip was the gas/diesel prices. We paid $1.03 for a gallon of diesel fuel and regular gas costs $2.00 a gallon. There is something to be said for using your own resources! On our way back we stopped by one more partnership, For His Children, but didn’t go in. We will be going back with a team this week for a couple of days before we leave to go back to the states. This was a great opportunity to get to know the ER team in Quito better and to see Ecuador and the beautiful country side.

Kitchen Duty

I have found myself on a number of different occasions serving in the kitchen on our short term mission trips, but a lot of you know this isn’t my favorite place to be. This time it has been in Quito with the Fountain of Life team at Pan De Vida. The team had planned for all of their members to be doing VBS, but didn’t realize they needed to have some people in the kitchen. Mike and I and a few other locals were in the kitchen for most of the time over the last two weeks. The team was able to help when they weren’t doing VBS. When Mike and I arrived in Fiji, we were all given assignments for 4 weeks at a time with different opportunities to serve. For whatever reason, this was the one place that I didn’t want to work, but it seems God really had a plan. I ended up having kitchen duty for the entire 3 months. I did my normal complaining behind closed doors of course, but God knew my heart. Four years later, my heart has been transformed for working in the kitchen and I am so thankful for it. We met a wonderful lady named Roceo (see picture above) and she taught us a few tricks in the kitchen. She was sad to see us go and told us we would be missed very much. I was reminded of my attitude again with a couple of people on this team where they felt the same way I did four years ago about their job and I shared my story about how God can use us even when we don’t like the work we have been assigned. It may not have made much sense to them now, but I know it will in the future. Jesus always has a reason for the discipline needed for the moment. (Hebrews 12:7-11)