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.