Day 10 - Sunday, July 7

An update from Andrea M:

Sunday began with a good breakfast with our amazing new travel companions, Linda and Martha, who have been serving the Lord in Ecuador together for more than 30 years. As most of you probably know, Linda and Martha work with women and youth in many ways. Martha serves as a nurse, and she was faithful to care for those of us who had trouble with food and altitude adjustment on the trip. Many thanks to her, Brenda, and David for their generous care!

From there, we drove to our second and final Sunday service of the trip, where Al was invited to give the sermon. He took a powerful look at disappointment and hope, in the story of the road to Emmaus in Luke. Andrew was also invited to play drums with the worship band, while the usual drummer lead the service.

Sunday was our last chance to spend time with the Meyers and our Ecuadorian brothers and sisters, so after another great lunch from Brenda, Linda, and Martha (not to mention lots of homemade cookies), we were off to the church for the final visit. The guys went to the fields to play sports, and the girls stayed back in the classroom to polish nails - Ecuadorian ladies know how to do it! 

The classroom was a great team effort this week - from tracing out the pictures, to rolling on the big sky, to mixing colors, to carefully painting and outlining each shape, and finally adding details - every piece of the room is the work of many hands. After manicures, Gissela and I carefully worked on the wall in a few spare moments, adding a baby Moses ("Moisés") in a basket to the river on the fourth wall. There are also two white sound baffles, which will be disguised as clouds, on the ceiling. The church was transformed in look and sound from the Sunday before, but there are still many finishing touches to come!

The whole group came together in the evening to say final goodbyes in a light rain, give gifts, and of course, take lots of pictures. It felt far too soon to leave when we were beckoned to the trucks. 

As we closed the doors after what we thought was the last "Ciao!" the Ecuadorian teens huddled tight and waved cheerfully - a little too cheerfully... and we realized we were one short. I yelled, "bye, Abby!" and they replied together in english, "What?" After a few moments, she reluctantly emerged from behind them, and we were on our way.

The niños enjoy the newly colorful, Bible story themed classroom. Behind them is a depiction of Matthew 19:14 - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." This verse is painted on the fourth wall, which is also home to baby "Moisés" floating down the river.

Mural update as of Saturday: Most of the "Noé y el Arca" wall, finished with the exception of a few minor details.

Adán y Eva

Al was invited to give the sermon; he spoke on disappointment and hope in the story of the road to Emmaus in Luke. 

One last group photo after church

We will never forget our amazing new friends. This passionate and musical couple are engaged to be married later this year!

The chicas exchanged gifts of hats, sunglasses, and jackets as mementos and tokens of love.

Martha and Linda get in for a team photo.

Photos from Saturday

A lady selling fruit in oTavalo. 

This man was selling souvenir string instruments.  

This guy just looked super cool. 

Andrea buying bracelets from a lady in the parking lot.

We ate lunch Puerto Lago, at a nice restaurant on the shore of a glacier lake in Otavalo.

The Meyers', Linda, and Martha

On the dock behind of Puerto Lago

The mountain across the lake from Puerto Lago

American Football!

Good conversations

Gathered around the bonfire for singing and testimonies from Russell and Salvador

Day 9 - Saturday, July 6

An update from Sam and Russell:

Hello everyone! We did a lot on Saturday. In the morning we went to Otavalo, a town thirty minutes north of Cayambe, to shop. We went to a huge market where the Otavalo Indians sold all kinds of handmade stuff. It was an extremely cultural place with all kinds of jewelry, cloths, hats, knives, ect... We bartered the price down because they started extremely high. It was a new experience for some of us and we enjoyed it a lot. After we spent all the money we brought we went to a fancy restaurant on a glacier lake. The food was terrific but the view was even better! After that we headed back to the cabins and rested before heading to the church for youth group. We played flag football in the park(finally a game us Americans were sure we could win). Then we made picture frames for a group picture we took earlier. Everyone signed each others frames which made us all feel famous. Then we had a huge bonfire! Then Russell and Salvador shared their testimonies. They both talked about how God has a plan that's better than ours. It was pretty emotional for everyone. Then we sang praise songs and talked and ate hotdogs. We went to bed that night to an extremely loud concert across the street.
Photos soon to come!

Day 8 - Friday, July 5

Short update from Andrew:

Friday was another full day of work and a lot of finishing touches.

We were given the task of winding up all the kite string onto spools. They don't call me Mr. Efficiency for nothing. 

David had some large photos he took printed and we hung them on the walls with the finished sound baffles.

Gissela masterfully painting a verse on the mural and Vicky adding some finishing touches.

Some kids climbing onto the roof of the church. 

La cometa de Salvador (Salvador's kite)

Flying kites on the roof

Mount Cayambe nearing dusk.

The view of Mount Cayambe from the street near the Meyers' house.

You may be wondering, "Why sheep?" Because Andrea wanted them here, that's why.

Day 7 - Thursday, July 4

Update from Jay:

Hello from beautiful Cayambe! Thursday was another full day of work and friendship. You can see in the pictures below that we tackled a number of (very) odd and interesting jobs, however, I would like to tell you two stories.

First, the kites. One of the crafts we decided to do with our "English Club" students was to build kites. The kite-building event was one of my primary responsibilities on the trip. A few weeks ago, I found a website that had some very simple designs for kites using trashbags, dowel rods, and electrical tape. After talking with the Meyers, we decided that we would be able to find all the materials in Cayambe except for the dowel rods. Oh, those tricky dowel rods. They had to be 3/16" diameter, 36" in length, and made of hardwood. We would need about 100 of them. I found them online from California for $30 shipped. Since they were 36" in length, they wouldn't fit in our duffel bags, so I used a guitar case. American Airlines charged me $70 for my second checked bag, so now the dowel rods were at $100. OK, fine, this was going to be a really cool craft and still well under $2/kite. Guess what. The dowel rod/guitar got lost at the airport in Cayambe. After everyone had their regular duffels, we were still waiting on that guitar case to come down the chute. After about 30 minutes, we gave up and went to report our lost bag. They pointed me in the direction of the "odd sized bags" and we found the trusty guitar case full of our precious cargo. Well, to shorten this story a bit, we got all the necessary materials and constructed our wonderful kites. Controlled chaos. Friday was kite-flying day and it was wonderful, but that story can be told in tomorrow's blog.

My second story is about a fun adventure at our hotel "Cabanas". We are staying in small cabins that beg for the telling of many interesting stories well beyond the scope of this blog. Our adventure on Thursday involved the case of the lost pillowcase. Cheryl likes to pack her own pillow on trips like this. Today, a trip from the cleaning crew resulted in a new pillowcase for Cheryl and the loss of our own personal pillowcase. Ha...simple eh? I would just take my handy little Spanish dictionary with me and we'd have that pillowcase back in no time. Wrong. After working through some "Spanglish" including "la funga" (pillowcase) and "sucio" (dirty), the cleaning/receptionist/waitress girl went into action. Before I knew what was happening, I was helping her carry a mop and broom to our cabin for a second cleaning of our cabana. Oops. After a bit more mangling of the beautiful Spanish language, we got it worked out and we have our pillowcase back, along with a new set of clean towels and an empty trash can. And a new friend. Whew.

Making sound baffles from egg crates for the sanctuary. Very nice.

Setting concrete for a porch step. Al can explain the trap door problem that went along with it.

Flying the sample kite. Trashbags and dowel rods...who knew?

Chatting with the Chicas

Fun on the playground.

Volleyball...Ecuador style.

A cute girl and her dog. A common sight.

Getting to know each other. Another common sight.

Group photo!

Day 6 - Wednesday, July 3

An update from Trebol:

Hola. This is Trevor or as the Ecuadorians call me Trebol... In case you were wondering this means clover in Spanish and this is what some of them thought my name was when I introduced myself on Saturday. So now that we got that little background information out of the way, we will skip straight for the update. 

Yesterday was Wednesday or as the Ecuadorians would call it miercoles. And for you Americans: hump day. It was another very productive and fun day as we woke up to grilled cheese for breakfast. After our breakfast we headed to la iglesia (the church) to continue our work. We started a new project attempting to build a big concrete step outside the kitchen. We also painted a white trim around the windows and doors and the mural continued to progress. Gissela, the girl in the top picture will never take a break painting. We joked with her that we we were surprised she didn't sleep at the church.... 

After our work at the church we went back to the hotel and we all got to experience Ecuadorian ice cream. I personally got to try a banana split, Cayambe style. It was magnificent to say the least.

After that treat we headed back to the church for another day at English club. We played soccer and got beat pretty handily: 6 to 3. Then we went back and made friendship bracelets with all the Ecuadorians. Andrew Menke shared a devotional after the English club. He talked about trials and went through Hebrews 12. It was very good and I think it spoke volumes to the youth. 

After eating dinner at the Meyers we headed back to the hotel to get a good night's rest for day seven in Ecuador. So yup that sums up hump day. Adios! Over and out.

Gissela painting Eve's face.

This is how Abby got off the roof.

The kids really enjoyed playing jump rope.

Cheryl helps Saika with some english learning worksheets.

Nikki made a new friend!

All the mural painters that helped today.