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