Field Study Traveling — The North District
We’ll be leaving on Monday for the Ibarra area (up North) we’re we’ll be doing our second visit in the Field Study for the Center for At Risk Children and Medical Clinic. We should be returning late on Thursday. Please pray for safe travel and for God’s leading in our meetings.
Categories: Field Study, Ministry, Prayer Requests, Travel, Updates
Tags: Ecuador, Field Study, IPEE, Ministry, Travel, Trips, Updates
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Quito’s Good Friday Procession
We had an amazing cultural experience yesterday, Good Friday, going to Quito’s Good Friday Procession. We didn’t have the chance to go last year and we had heard so much about it that we decided that we couldn’t pass it up this year since we were here in Quito.
To explain, Quito’s Good Friday Procession is a Catholic Church tradition of following the footsteps of Jesus on his walk to the cross. But more than that, it is the opportunity for many Catholics to engage in the Catholic sacrament of penance where they suffer (literally) for their sins in the past year as a way of seeking forgiveness. These ways to suffer in this procession include carrying a huge wooden cross, wearing a crown of thorns or barbwire and/or chains on their feet and also not wearing shoes on the blistering hot asphalt as they walk the 5 miles of the procession. Some penitents took it a step further by wearing crosses made from cacti strapped to their back, wrapping barbwire around their body or lashing themselves with some kind of cord or chain.
Though we aren’t quite on the same page theologically speaking, we did very much appreciate the cultural experience and understand that many of the people were very sincere in the faith.
With the pictures below, unfortunately the clothes that the penitents (purple robes with pointed hoods) wore has a different meaning in the States. No, these are not Ku Klux Klan members; rather they are Catholics acting out their Christian faith in a way that is very important for them.
Depiction of Jesus being lead by the Roman guards.
No not Ku Klux Klan members. Penitents walking the path of the cross of Jesus.
Penitents carrying the cross.
Penitent who wrapped himself in barbwire.
The mourners.
Simeon had the best seat in the house.
Categories: Family Fun, Reflections, Updates
Tags: Ecuador, Ecuador Info, Family Fun, Reflections, Updates
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Thank You Knollbrook Covenant Church
Friends from Knollbrook Covenant Church in Fargo,ND
We received quite the wonderful little blessing from Knollbrook Covenant Church in Fargo, ND, their Missions Commission and the Burrows family. The Burrows, pictured left, came down to Quito over Easter break to visit their daughter, Katie, who works at the Alliance Academy (a Christian school that is right next to us). The Missions Commission Chairperson, Diana Knecht, had emailed us previously to see if there was anything that we needed that the Burrows could bring down. We had thought of a couple of little things and emailed her back. Well, much to our surprise and as churches often do, they brought down 30 lbs worth of goodies!!! They brought us a ton of the Gerber snack foods for Simeon (which are great on all of our road trips), peanut butter (which is really expensive here), cake mixes and icings (also really hard to come by), chocolate chips (impossible to get her), and brownie mixes. And they even brought down one of the giant books that Kim needs to read for her classes over the summer so we don’t have to buy it and have it sent down.
We just felt incredibly blessed by their love of us through these wonderful gifts. The most special part of it for us is that we know that a church, which we’ve never had prior contact, was thinking about us and praying for us and wanting to bless us in this way. The things are wonderful of course, but it’s the fact that people we didn’t even know were thinking about us and praying for us. At times, we can feel a little bit distant from all of you in the States but when blessings like this occur, we feel a ton closer. THANK YOU KNOLLBROOK COVENANT CHURCH!!!
Update on Simeon
Simeon with Friends in Tena
We just want to say a big THANK-YOU for all of you who have been praying for Simeon and his slow growth. We went to the Pediatrician this week and we got the report that his growth has improved quite a bit. HE’S NOW ON THE GROWTH CURVE!!!! Yeah, it may be the lowest 5% but at least he’s on the curve. It helps us to feel a little bit better that he’s at least a little bit closer to normal in terms of his growth. In reality, we haven’t been overly concerned because we know that there was nothing really wrong with him and all kids grow at different rates, but it’s just one of those things that you hope he can be a little bit closer to normal. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR SIMEON!!!!
You can, of course, continue to pray for Simeon and his growth but maybe now you can focus your prayers a little bit more on Ruthie, Joel’s mom. It’s getting close to being a year since she had her major surgery on the back of her neck and she still has not regained her swallowing 100%. She still has to puree most all of her food. We all just want her swallowing to recover 100% so that we she can enjoy eating again. Thank you all so much for your prayers for Simeon and Ruthie!!!
Categories: Prayer, Prayer Requests, Simeon, Updates
Tags: Prayer Requests, Simeon, Updates
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Dedication of Kyler
Last Sunday we had the opportunity to be a part of our babysitter’s, Valeria, and her husband’s, Holger, baby dedication of their new baby Kyler. This was already very special moment for us but they also asked us to be the “consejeros” (literally “advisors” or “counselors”) for Kyler. This is kind of like God parents where we are to pray for little Kyler as he grows up and be available for advice and Spiritual counseling. We are to look after him as he grows up as Spiritual mentors.
This was a very neat service and we were honored to be a part of it. Here are some pictures so you can get an idea:
Little Kyler and his three "consejeros".
The dedication service itself.
Holger and Valeria with Kyler and Kim and Joel behind.
The Dedication prayer.
The presentation after the Dedication.
The post-Dedication photo: Holger's mother, Kim, Kyler, Joel, Valeria & Holger
Kyler was wiped out after all the action.
Caleb and his "girlfriend" Mandy.
For the Hoskins, Henry does preach at Santiago; We have the photo to prove it.
Categories: Family Fun, Ministry, Prayer, Updates
Tags: Friends, Ministry, Santiago, Updates
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Blessed Holy Week
We just wanted to wish you a blessed Holy Week as you worship in your communities this week. This is a very meaningful time for us and we know that is the case for you also. We have tried to not schedule a lot for this week so that way we could reflect on the significance of this week. We are taking Spanish though because this is just about our only free week that we are going to have for quite some time.
Categories: Family Fun, Language Study, Ministry, Reflections, Updates
Tags: Churches, Ecuador, Language Study, Ministry, Reflections
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Field Study: Amazon District
After Kim’s last HIV/AIDS workshop in Tena, we took advantage of the fact that we were in the Amazon to begin our Field Study by visiting churches in the Amazon District. First off, the Amazon District is the “Conference” of Covenant Churches that can be found in the Amazonian (“jungle”) region of the country. There are around 10 in that area in total. Second of all, if you remember, the Field Study is where we are going to be visiting all of the churches that have ministries with children to see if there will be a good place for our future ministries of a Center for At Risk Children and a Medical Clinic to fit in. The idea is that we don’t have to recreate the wheel if we can find a place that would just be a new extension of a current ministry, rather than starting everything from scratch. So, we’ll basically be going through this process of visiting all 6 districts (or “conferences”) of Covenant Churches and their ministries with children. So, the Amazon District was our first.
Things started off well the first day by having a meeting with the president and coordinator of the district as well as several key representatives of churches and ministries found throughout the district. As well as we had invited the Director of FACE to have a FACE representative on hand. We had a meeting of over an hour and a half and talked about all of the ministries with children in the district as well as we planned out the rest of our time there.
The picture above is from the Scouts in the jungle town of Baeza. I had hear about the Scouting ministry in Ecuador but this was my first opportunity to be a part of it. The Scouts in Ecuador are a combination of the Scouts as we know and the ministries of the church. It’s basically the Scouts with God and the church added in. It was really neat to see and experience this first hand as it is a great ministry that they have in Baeza.
Please pray a lot as we go through this process of the Field Study. We just want God to lead and for Him to open and close doors where he sees fit.
Categories: Field Study, HIV/AIDS, Ministry, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Tena, Travel, Updates
Tags: Christmas in Ecuador, Churches, Ecuador, Ecuador Info, Field Study, HIV/AIDS, IPEE, Ministry, Prayer Requests, Tena, The Amazon, Travel, Trips, Updates
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HIV/AIDS Workshop-Final Week
On Tuesday, after arriving in Quito on Monday evening around 8PM, we left for our final workshop in Tena. Our plan was to travel all the way to Tena on Tuesday, but we had a slight delay because of a mudslide. We ended up just staying in Baeza overnight and leaving early in the morning on Tuesday for Tena. This week, our friend and fellow short-term missionary, Mandy Hjelm came with us again to help translate. This week we discussed infection and co-infection with HIV/AIDS and with this I did a general overview of infection. In this, we discussed bacteria, germs, viruses, protozoa and fungi. We also discussed adherence to HIV/AIDS treatments. Since a lot of medications given for HIV/AIDS treatment are many and complicated, it is not always easy to adhere to the plans given. I tried to simulate this by giving the kids ‘medications’ (which were really chocolates) to simulate taking medicines during a 24 hour period.
The 3rd thing we talked about was a general overview of the most common Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Of course I showed the pictures of each disease, which did gross the kids out, as well as the professors, but hopefully was effective. To help the kids understand a little bit more about transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, we played a game where each kid received a cup full of candies. Two volunteers received the same cup, except with instructions not to share their candy with anyone but each other. Another kid received a cup with instructions not to share his candy at all. One kid had a different candy which was supposed to simulate HIV or another STD. During the game, the kids were supposed to trade candy with each other and then write down the names of the people they traded candy with. After about 10 minutes, we had the kids sit down. We asked the kids with a different type of candy (in this case we used gummy worms) in their cup to stand up. We told them that the exchange of candies was supped to simulate having sex. Anyone that had a gummy worm had HIV or another STD. Then we had each person stand up that had traded candy with anyone standing. Eventually everyone was standing except the 2 volunteers (simulating fidelity) and the other (simulating abstinence). I thought this was a really cool game and I think the kids really enjoyed it.
SO…what are my thoughts about the workshop….
I think overall, the workshop went well. I think I may have overestimated the amount of information that the kids understood about infection, bacteria, viruses, etc…I think we realized that for the majority of the people attending, even the professors, this was the FIRST time they were hearing about infection, how it’s transmitted, what germs are, etc…
Although their information was limited, they really WANTED to know EVERYTHING about what we were teaching. That is different from the States. Although the amount of information that is known about infection and things is higher, the majority of people don’t want to know EVERYTHING. They just want to know what they need to know. Mandy and I talked about this and she is the one that brought it up. It has been a very interesting thing to ponder.
I now understand why the outline for the class was so basic. At the beginning, I was trying to figure out how to fill 5 hours with ‘what do the initials HIV and AIDS stand for’ and ‘what are HIV and AIDS’. Now I understand that starting from the beginning is where I should have started. With basic information. If I am asked to do this again, I will try to do this.
WHAT DID I LEARN…
I have always wondered in all my years of school, if professors ever learn anything… I hope they did, because even during this four week workshop, I learned A LOT!
I never would have thought of myself as a professor or teacher. Nobody really prepares you for that although it is kind of a natural part of the RN or Nurse Practitioner responsibility. I learned that I am actually pretty good at it. Not to toot my own horn for sure, but I really tried to put in a lot of activities and games that would help kids learn. I learn that way, and I am guessing I am not the only one.
However, I realized I have a lot to learn! I think this is an important part of being a teacher. It’s good to be open to what you CAN learn and what you can be TAUGHT! I realized by trying to make the kids come up with their OWN ideas, I was going against the grain a little. I’m OK with that, but I also need to be aware of this in the future. Just because we LIKE thinking on our owns as Americans, others in the world may not be as accustomed to it.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time in Tena and I really felt I was HELPING. That makes me feel useful.
Here are some pictures from our final workshop…
Mudslide looking down
Bringing the mud out to put in trucks to carry it away
Another mudslide picture
Mandy and Kim teaching during Week 4 of the HIV/AIDS workshop
Activity during week 4-kids exchanging candy
Activity with kids exchanging candy-simulating STD transmission
More pictures from the activity from Week 4
Simeon with friends he made from the workshop
The Santiago Partnership