Una Minga

In Quechua, one of the indigenous languages of Ecuador, “minga” means “the coming together as a community for the betterment of all.”  Community members can call a “minga” if they are in need of assistance and people will come from miles around to help.  For example, if the building of a school is behind schedule, a “minga” might be called to summon community members to help finish building the school.  They may or may not be able to take advantage of the school–the community ties are important regardless.  (Taken from Answers.com)

Our ministry has the privilege of benefiting from the historical tradition of a minga starting tomorrow when the good folks from Iglesia Emanuel, our partner church (church building pictured below), will be coming out to work on the construction.  Tomorrow’s minga will be followed by two more mingas in the coming weeks by the wider Ecuadorian Covenant Community.  What a privilege it is to be a part of the Covenant!!!

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Latest construction pictures

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That girl can drive!

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Congratulations to Kim on receiving her Ecuadorian Driver’s License.  Now both of us can hit the Ecuadorian roads!!!!

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Reaching Out

The past two Saturdays we’ve been helping out with a our good friends’ Henry and Olguita’s church Iglesia Santiago and their outreach to north Quito, quite near where we live now.  We are hoping to start a new small group and eventually a new church there.  It is exciting to see a new ministry like this come about and we are happy to be a part of it, especially when it is so close to home.

 

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Construction continues…

Construction continues at  the work site of the first home for at risk children.  It is amazing to see what two Ecuadorian contractors can accomplish in just a few short weeks!!!   They have poured the remaining column bases, back filled around the majority of the column bases and have dug, laid rock and poured pretty much all of the shallow footers.  Now onto pouring the columns and floors!

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International Leadership Summit

We had the opportunity to attend an International Leadership Summit hosted by IPEE at our very own Covenant Campgrounds in Santo Domingo.  This was a wonderful event with international speakers and participants all centered around the idea of sharing God’s word in a fresh and a new way and developing leaders in your church to promote church growth, church plants and church revitalization.  Participants and speakers came from all around Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Honduras,  Guatemala and the United States.  The leadership of the Covenant has recently set a goal of planting 50 new churches in the next 5 years.  We were very inspired by the event and are feeling like maybe we should be a part of planting a new Covenant church…

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Dave Olson from the Covenant in the U.S. was one of the featured speakers

Discussion

Small group discussion

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The service of reconciliation

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This was a big event in a wonderful newly completed main pavilion at the camp in Santo Domingo

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A pastor from Honduras and one from Peru sharing about how their churches have recently seen increased growth

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A picture of the newly completed, beautiful main pavilion

A picture of the newly completed, beautiful main pavilion

 

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New Webpage

We wanted to share with you all a new webpage that the Santiago Partnership has developed for promoting our project, especially the construction of the first home for at risk children.  On this page, you can view a new version of our video that was yet to be released.

You can check it out here:  https://fundly.com/help-us-build-a-home-for-at-risk-children-in-ecuador

Group Picture from Mission Trip

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Off to Santo Domingo

We will be heading to the Camp in Santo Domingo on Wednesday and be there through Sunday for an International Leadership Summit.  We are excited to be a part of this amazing event and hope to learn a lot.  We will be out of the communication loop during this time as the camp does not internet nor cell phone service.  The picture below shows the progress of the new pavilion that is being constructed at the camp to be finished by the beginning of this event.  Please pray for the speakers of the Summit as they will be teaching us from this very spot.

Pavililion

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Oh no!

DerrumbeROAD CLOSED!!!! This is the scene on the Pan-american Highway heading north to Cayambe, the road we take in our travels up there.  This landslide and road closure is a result of the most recent earthquake and its accompanying after shocks.  Simeon and Joel discovered this problem this past Monday as they were traveling to Cayambe and could not get through and have since learned that this road closure could last up to 6 months.  THIS IS NOT GOOD!  We have heard that an alternate route could potentially take us up to three hours to get to Cayambe, a trip that is normally one hour.  Please pray for all of those affected by this landslide/road closure, including us as we don’t know how it will work to be making regular trips up there.

 

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Vacay

Humpback whale jumping.

Humpback whale jumping.

The family at Isla de la Plata
The family at Isla de la Plata

Simeon looking at the blue-footed boobies

Simeon looking at the blue-footed boobies

Joel's favorite trees from the Coast

Joel’s favorite trees from the Coast

Esther checking it all out

Esther checking it all out

This past week we were able to go on vacation!  It’s been quite a while since we have had a vacation and with how busy things have been this was much needed.  We traveled to the Coast and stayed in Puerto Lopez.  This is the main area where the humpback whales come to mate and have their babies.  We took a boat ride to see the whales and also to Isla de la Plata which is also called the “The Poor Man’s Galapagos”.  There you can see many of the same birds as you can on the Galapagos.  We had a great time!  I wish I could take credit for the picture of the whale jumping.  I can’ t though, but it is the closest picture I could find of what the whales we saw looked like.  Our boat was right beside a family of 3 whales.  The babies are very curious and jump like this one.  We were so close that we could almost touch them!  It was SO amazing!

We are so thankful for this time that we had together to be together as a family and relax and have fun and just…be.

 

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