last day

Today was our last day at El Refugio with the Geneva team for this year.

We had a great day with devotions, solo time an equator visit and a great time of wrapping up our trip around the fire tonight.

It is great to re-cap the trip and hear what God has done through this trip in the lives of each of the team members.

Thank you for praying for us and please pray that our trips home will go well, and that we won't forget the things God has taught us.

VBS at El Refugio

Yesterday and today have been two, busy, good days.  We worked all day yesterday and this morning on the climbing wall and prayer garden.

We poured a concrete apron around the base of the climbing wall that will later be filled with ground up rubber.

In the prayer garden we are doing major landscaping, which meant we wheel barreled about 4 to 5 truck loads of top soil to different areas of the garden.

After lunch we prepared for VBS.  About 10 young people and youth leaders from the Cala Cali church joined us in this effort to reach out to the community children.  27 kids that attend the AWANA children's program at the Cala Cali  church attended and about 85 other kids showed up as well.  It was a great time of games, bible story, verse memorization, and crafts.  At the end all were invited to the AWANA program at the local church.

We thank God for the opportunity to partner together with the local church in this area and plant seeds for Christ.

Please pray for these community children and their families that they might know Christ as their Savior.

Back at El Refugio

We made it back to El Refugio last night at 7:30 pm after a great trip of work and ministry in the high jungles of Ecuador.

This is a little recap of our time there.

On Tuesday we split in 3 teams and worked on different projects to help in the missionary work in the local area.  The jungle did not disappoint us in regards to rain.  We had some major rain storms, and did take a couple breaks from the worst of it, but for the most part we just got wet and kept working.

On Wednesday we went to the nearby town of Rio Negro and had a wonderful time of ministry with the local elementary school.  There are no Evangelical churches in this town.  The young people shared some about their lives, did a drama on the topic of God creating the earth and everything in it and played games. The children and teachers enjoyed the time very much.
We spent the afternoon in the town's park and gymnasium playing with the kids.
At 5:00pm we returned to where we were staying and did an hour jungle hike.  I enjoyed this very much of course, and everyone returned muddy, wet and with a great experience.

Thursday morning was a very special time.  We went to a beautiful spot on a jungle river where 14 of the students on the trip were baptized.  It was wonderful to hear their testimonies.  A number of them referred to their last years trip to El Refugio as a time that God used greatly in developing their faith in Him.

Then for me, the highlight, was when Juan Carlos (our program director) and I had the privilege of baptizing Esteban Santos.  He is a young man from the nearby town of Cala Cali.  He became a Christian when he was young, but attested to the fact that teams that came through El Refugio from the US and ministered in his church to him as a child and the relationship he has with our camp, is a big part of what has strengthened his faith and encouraged him to turn away from the temptations of this world and serve Christ.

  Thank you for your prayers.  Please continue to pray for us as we will be working hard on projects all day at El Refugio.

Adventure race and travels

We began today with the adventure race, to give the group a taste of the different programs at El Refugio, to get to know one another better and to invite kids to our VBS on Saturday.

We are now getting ready to leave by bus to the jungle for 4 days.  The bus will be here in a few minutes.
I'm including one picture of some of the group on the work day yesterday.

Pray for us as we travel and for our group as we minister to the village of Rio Verde.

Thank you,

Rick

Back in Ecuador with Geneva

On Friday night I arrived with a group of 30 high school students from First Baptist Church of Geneva.
These first two days have been filled with lots of pouring of cement, digging ditches and preparing for more cement pouring.
The projects we are working on are: The climbing wall and the prayer garden area in front of the Grace center.  We have already accomplished a lot and I hope to have some pictures up soon.  My camera is broken so it is a bit more of a challenge to get pictures.

Please pray for us as we head for the highland jungles tomorrow. We will be doing ministry with the village children and some community work projects.

Also remember my family as they all stayed home this time in Michigan.
All for now, Rick

The last finale

LIFT finished their time in Ecuador by climbing to the top or Ecuador's 8th highest peak, Illiniza Norte.  16,820 feet was a bit higher than the Adirondacks of New York where they had been training for this, but they did very well.  Everyone who left base camp made the summit. We experienced rain, sleet, snow and ice pellets along with a few sunny moments with views of the peaks and lands around us.

Thank you so much for all your prayers for us during this trip, the Lord has indeed used this trip in all our lives and in many peoples lives that we have come along side.

LIFT is in route for home as I write, and I will be returning home tomorrow.

Thank you and God Bless

Chaco days

We have had a wonderful time in Chaco and are winding down now with our last meetings tonight with the Church.

Yesterday was a very full day with a full work day, continuing the work at the new church with concrete work and ditches.  We also traveled to a nearby community and sister church to do some clearing of brush and cleaning of the church property.

While work was going on, some of the girls attended a womans meeting and had the opportunity to share a testimony.  Another group went to do a Drama of Jonah with 65 + Scout program kids.  This is a co-ed group of kids that learn scout type things but whose purpose is to teach these kids about Jesus Christ.
We also went around the community and invited kids to see the David and Goliath Drama.  Afterwards we shared individually with them about who Christ is and what he did for us.

                                                        Drama with the Scout group

In the evening, we had a big part in the Saturday evening service.  We did special music, shared two testimonies and Tim Owens (Assitant Director of LIFT) preached the message. My part is interpreting, which is sometimes a challenge when I forget some word in the middle of the message.

                                                      We had pig skin for lunch


Tonight we finish our time with the Chaco church with a meeting with the Youth, Sunday School time with the younger kids and then a special in the the main Church service.

                                                  This mornings hike in the jungle moutains

Please pray for me as I continue to interpert and for us as we head for the mountains to do a mountain climb, for our last group days in Ecuador tomorrow.

El Chaco

We made it into Chaco yesterday after a good road trip over the mountains and down into the beginning of the Amazon basin.   We stopped at a water fall called Cascada Rio Malo.  It was beautiful and all enjoyed getting soaked by the powerfull spray.

Once in Chaco we walked a bit around town and later enjoyed getting to know many from the Church at their Thursday night prayer meeting.  It was a joy to pray together with them.

Today has been spent as a work day on the church.  We have cleaned, painted, dug sewer ditches, and done cement work. We are excited to see this church building starting to be used for ministry.

The LIFT  group is now playing indoor soccer with the young poeple from the church. We will see who wins!

Please pray for us tomorrow as we have a very busy day of work and ministry.

Day in Quito

Today was the LIFTers day in Quito.  We were met in the morning by Santiago and Bethany Coloma, who took us to a day care run by a mission organization called Extreme Response. The day care is for children who's parents work in the city dump, going through and recycling the cities garbage by hand.

They did two drama presentations and provided a simple lunch for the children.

At about 1:00pm they left the dump day care and headed for the center of Quito to see the historic section of the capital city.

While they were involved at day care, I had three meetings with different missionaries and then a doctors appointment.  When I finished those meetings I met the group in down town Quito and finished they day with them eating at an Ecuadorian roticery chicken restaurant.

Please remember us in prayer tomorrow as we travel the road to the town of Chaco where we will be ministering with the church there for the next 4 days.

Work days

We have had two beautiful days here at El Refugio. The sun and the mountains have been out during the days and we've seen beautiful starry skies at night.

Our main project has been working on the climbing wall.  Last years LIFT team was the one that launched this project and they have been continuing that work again this year.

It has been great to see how much it is progressing.

We have helped out in some maintenance and cleaning as well.  Some of our team has been clearing landslides on our hiking trails, fixing access roads and cleaning our Grace center.

I think everyone is pretty tired.

We will be changing gears again tomorrow morning as we head into Quito for another day of ministry.
Please pray for our team, for stamina and the ability to keep adapting to new places and people.

El Refugio

For the last two days, we have been at El Refugio spending time with our facilitators.  Our facilitators are Ecuadorian Christian young people who have a heart for youth and have been or are being trained in facilitating our programing here at El Refugio.

It was great to see the LIFT students getting to know these young people, working together, worship our Lord together, and praying together. Both groups were very encouraged by the time they spent together.  The LIFT group was also able to spend some time in presenting some of the things that are very important in their discipleship program.  They spoke to the facilitators about discipleship, accountability and mentoring.

Together we put up a new tower for the climbing wall, climbed the El Refugio property line and had a Sunday worship service together.

The pictures are of the LIFT group on the highest point of El Refugio property, reciting the Sermon on the mount for the Ecuadorian facilitators to hear.
The other is of both our groups together, before we had to say goodbye to them all.

This afternoon we got on the local bus and went to the Equator monument to do some souvenir shopping.

Please remember us in prayer for safety the next two days as we work on the climbing wall.

Oyacachi

We just returned from 3 great days in Oyacachi.  Oyacachi is a village of mostly Quichua people.  It is at about 10,500 feet elevation and surrounded by high mountains and waterfalls.  We were able to communicate well with the people in Spanish.  There are about 600 people who live there.
There is a church in Oyacachi, where we stayed and worked with during our time there.

When we arrived on Friday we walked through the village and soon had a crowd of kids following us.  They had been told we were coming and were excited to see us.  Soon we were playing with kids, doing puppet shows, and sharing the gospel with them through evanga-cubes and bead bracelets.

During our time there, we were able to share in a Thursday night church service with testimonies, drama, singing and preaching. We also had the opportunity to visit the grade school where we shared a testimony, did a drama about David and Goliath and shared about life in the United States.

I especially enjoyed the time I was able to spend with the pastor.  It was great to hear his heart for his people and be able to be an encouragement to him through all our group took part in.

I have been doing a lot of translating for the group. At times I get a little tongue tied, but overall it has been going well.

The next 4 days will be spent at El Refugio.  Tomorrow we will be spending time with our Ecuadorian facilitators, getting to know them and doing a workshop on discipleships, mentoring and accountability.

Please pray for me that I will be able to translate clearly and have more opportunities to share Christ with the people we meet.

The LIFT team arrived safely this morning at 8:30.  We picked them up at the airport and we are at El Refugio now.

Today was spent resting, unpacking, having a orientation time and now packing again for our trip tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will leave for the mountain village of Oyacachi for 3 days of ministry in the Oyacachi church.

The afternoons have been very rainy in the mountains, so we will probably have a little more of a challenge in playing with all the children in the village.

Pray for our time in Oyacachi that we will be a help to the ministry of the church there and be able to aid them in reaching their people for Christ.

Arrivals

Thank you all for your prayers.  I had great flights and made it into Ecuador on Thursday night.

Since my arrival I have been visiting people and making arrangements for the LIFT team.

I enjoyed hiking into my brothers house in the mountain jungles and staying with him over the weekend.

Monday morning I had the opportunity to share with 22 Cofan people on the topic of lying and stealing, and that through Christ we can know the truth and be set free from the sin that keeps us from God.  My Cofan was a little rusty, but with God's help I think everyone was understanding me.

These Cofan people are in Quito for a course on protecting the jungle in which they live. My brother has the first hour with them every morning and teaches on morals and ethics. He uses the Bible as the text.  It has been a great opportunity for witness.

Pray for the LIFT team.  They arrive tomorrow morning and are flying all night. I am sure they will be pretty tired out.

March 16, 2011 LIFT to Ecuador

Tomorrow I will be heading to Ecuador for 3 weeks to host a team from LIFT in New York.
We will be working on our climbing wall, ministering in a mountain village called Oyacachi, and in a jungle town named Chaco.

Please be remembering this team and me in prayer and also for my family who will be staying behind in Michigan.