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Serving Christ in Ecuador |
We’ve gotten some great news in the last couple of weeks: the road is open!!!! That’s right! The Pan-american Highway heading north of the city to Cayambe that had been closed since the big earthquake has recently been opened. It’s not totally open as they are still working on it during the night, but at least it’s open during the day. This has made our trips to Cayambe much, much quicker. We just wanted to let you know the good news!!!
This past week, Esther and I (Kim) went up to Cayambe to observe and help as we could with a Medical/Dental team from Florida. This team has been coming to Cayambe for many years so we were excited to see how they did things and take some notes. The members of the team were very kind and for some it was their first visit to Ecuador! Around 590 patients were seen during the 5 day trip. For me, it was SO exciting to see the clinic open and helping those in the community of Juan Montalvo which is the vision and mission of the clinic. It was a privilege to be able to serve next to great doctors and nurses and to see the heart to help those in need. Additionally for me it was wonderful to create deeper relationships with those at the Compassion center at Iglesia Imanuel as well as parents and other family members of the kids. It was truly a blessing and I am grateful for the opportunity we had to go. Here are some pictures from the week!
My new friend showed me how to carry Esther on my back just like she carries her daughter. This is how the Quechua usually carry their babes
I had the awesome opportunity to visit a rose plantation with the team. usually this is prohibited, but we were able to go because Pastor Jose has friends in high places!
Nurse Melissa and Nurse Joyce doing well-child checks
Dr. Bill and translator Jose seeing patients
Volcano Cayambe
Here’s an article that was recently posted on he Indiana Wesleyan University Alumni Blog:
http://iwualumniblog.com/?p=894
If you recognize the document pictured here, you are probably either a missionay or at least have lived internationally at some point. This week we received some documents from the States with this form of legalization called an Apostille. An apostille is basically a legal notarization that says that the document attached can be recognized internationally. A normal notary is only good within the State that is notarized. The apostille gives the document international notarization.
Back to the news… we received this week some paperwork from Rush University that explains what all Kim accomplished in her internship while at Rush. We are hoping that providing this documentation will make it so that she doesn’t have to do her one-year Rural (internship) here in Ecuador for her licensing. We will see this next week when we go back to the Ministry of Health to see what they say. Your continued prayers are appreciated!!!
Oh and Special Thanks to Eugenio and Pia Restrepo for all of their help in getting us these documents with all of the legalization!
I have received some questions as to what’s up with the beard. For many of you who have known me for a long time, seeing me with a beard is a bit surprising. I’ve pretty much never had one before besides one summer when I was taking Intensive (“Suicide”) Greek. Well, the reality is that I’ve never liked facial hair and still don’t for that matter… even currently at this very moment! So.. the natural question is…. why do you have a beard??? Well, the answer isn’t quite as trite and simple as you might expect. Here goes nothing…
On Tuesday, we had a special “Dia de Difuntos” (All Souls Day) Celebration at the IPEE offices on Tuesday. All Souls Day is a special and unique holiday here in Ecuador in which we are basically celebrating the lives of those who have passed on before us, kind of like All Saints Day in the church in the States. What’s different is that it is an incredibly popular holiday here which pretty much everyone celebrates. The typical family will take time to visit the graves of the loved ones who have passed on to pay the respects and remember their lives.
One neat part of the holiday celebrations are the special treats of “Colada Morada” (Purple fruit drink) and “Guaguas de Pan” (Bread in the shape of Children – kind of like the “Gingerbread Man”) which are both pictured here.
We also had the opportunity to celebrate the Birthday of our beloved Martita. Martita is the Secretary for IPEE and has held that position for many, many years though she will soon be retiring so we need to take this opportunity to celebrate here when we can.
Kim and Esther are up in Cayambe this week. There is a Medical/Dental Team working at the clinic this week and so she went to help out, getting to know them and learn from them. The team comes from a church in Palm Bay, FL and has traveled to Ecuador the last 12 years!!! They go through an organization called SIFAT. They have had a long standing relationship with Pastor Jose and and Iglesia Emanuel and were part of the reason as to why Pastor Jose has dreamed about starting a clinic for quite some time.
Joel and Simeon are staying back in Quito so that way Simeon can be in school all week. Please pray for Kim and Esther that they are ok up there without the rest of the family and the same for us down here. Pray that Esther is happy so that way she is able to help out without too much work going towards Esther. Pray that Joel & Simeon don’t starve throughout the week! (That last one was a joke!)
I (Joel) finished up my short, 2-week sermon series at the Covenant Church – Missionary of the Valley today. It was an incredibly positive experience and it ended with having the folks from the church offer to come help at the construction site as well as taking a free will offering for the project. The church took up an offering of almost $175 which was incredibly generous. We will never forget this church and its hospitality and generosity.
Joel will be preaching a 2 week sermon series at a Quito area Covenant church tomorrow and the following Sunday. Your prayers are appreciated as he shares God’s word.
Let’s be honest, I feel pretty culturally inadequate most days as a missionary. Language is of course how I mainly feel inadequate, every day. Even when I feel I am having a good “Spanish Day”, it is still pretty pathetic. There have been many times that I have made silly language errors and thankfully, our friends here are very forgiving and it usually brings a lot of laughs. I still look twice when I see a family of 5 on a motorcycle and it stings my heart each time I see a child begging on the street. This coming week I will be leading devotions for the Covenant Offices here (n Spanish of course), talk about not feeling up to the task-pretty much all of my inadequacies wrapped into 10-15 minutes. But I need to push myself, I know that…
I wanted to share a recent experience with you that made me feel…well, I had a whole range of emotions.
We pulled up to the work site on Friday to work on the floor of the house. We drove up to 22 Quechua church members from 3 Lote. The majority were women who were carrying their babies on their backs and carrying pounds worth of dirt, or bricks or rocks.
Quechua women working hard with babies in tow.
Quechua woman from 3 Lote.
As we pulled up, I made sure to have Esther’s pacifier, blankets, eventually her stroller to push her in to calm her down and go to sleep. When she started crying, I got back in our car to feed her and burp her (Now, in my defense there was a lot of dust blowing around) AND I wasn’t even working, didn’t pick up one shovel or wheel barrow or hammer. I had to make sure everything was in order and Esther still was SERIOUSLY crying and I couldn’t console her. The bottom line is a felt like such a privileged American **GASP**, yes I wrote that! I had all my STUFF and still couldn’t calm my kid down or work. Talk about feeling like a failure with a capital “F”! Please hear me when I say, yes, I was embarrassed, not to be an American mom, but just that I felt I needed all this STUFF to take care of Esther when the moms I was around were “doing it all”. We have similar comparisons in the States. We see the PTA mom with her 4 perfectly behaved kids at the meeting drinking a latte after being at work for 12 hours. As a pastor’s wife we see all the other moms with children in the pews dressed nicely saying yes mommy and no mommy as our kids barely GET to church with breakfast and their hair brushed. There are comparisons everywhere in Ecuador and in States and around the world. NO ONE has it all together. We are all broken and it is a good reminder to me as I face my inadequacies daily. It SHOULD be a reminder that my hope and my worth do not come from speaking Spanish perfectly, working and taking care of my children all at the same time and the list goes on. It should be a reminder that my hope and my worth come from my heavenly Father who formed me and created me to be who I am-my faults and my short comings and ALL my inadequacies. This experience was also a GIANT reminder of how much I have to learn as a missionary and as a mom here in Ecuador. I have so much to learn from those around me and I need to have an open heart to learn not a heart of comparison that I can’t do it all.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. -Ephesians 2:10
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. -Psalm 139: 13-14
The Santiago Partnership