hmm christmas in july???

Hola from ECUADOR!!!

We are already on country #2 wha ?! We hit 2 months of being in south america 2 days ago. That seems unreal. In some ways it feels like at least 6 months, and in some ways it seems like just a few weeks ago I was at home. I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never understand how time works. 

Ecuador has been good to us in our first 14 days so far. Although, I keep having to remind myself that it is NOT july. It literally feels like summer with all the heat, sweat, and beach days. Totally feeling the christmas spirit :))) BUT we are doing our best to make things festive and decorative here!

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So, on November 30th, we departed from Armenia and set out for our crazy week of travel. I slept in 5 different beds within the timespan of 1 week. New record for sure.

Just for fun I’m writing down all of our travel details so you can get a semi accurate feel for what we did haha

1. So Friday, November 30th, we left Armenia and flew to Bogota. Got in at 10:30, went to bed around midnight.

2. Saturday, we flew from Bogota to Quito (also waited in line at the airport for 2 HOURS to check our bags. thanks avianca.)

We stayed in Quito at an Inca Link house called “Casa Blanca” from Saturday-Wednesday for debrief! I am already in love with Quito and can’t wait to spend a month there. (1 month till my mom comes to visit me there yay!!!!) It’s at stupid high elevation, like 12,000 feet I think?? so yes it’s quite hard to breathe but AHH it’s sooooo pretty there. Mountains for days. luv it. 

While we were there we got to be reunited with the World Race team we worked with in Bogota, who were also living at Casa Blanca with us for those few days. It was so sweet to see them again! They were there with their 20 other squad members, so it was a full house! It was a slight culture shock to see and talk to so many other gringos again haha, and we also treated ourselves by going to an English speaking church in Quito. That was the first time (and probably the only time we will for the rest of south america haha) we had worshipped in English since being in the U.S.! 

3. Wednesday morning at 6am, we all piled into a van (half asleep), and drove 8 hours to Manta, Ecuador, which is on the coast. 

4. Hah, you probably thought that’s where the traveling ended, right? WRONG !! 

Haha so we stayed in Manta Wednesday night, and then Thursday afternoon, Bryan and Erica dropped off us 3 linkers in Portoviejo (a town about 45 minutes from Manta) to serve for 5 days. Portoviejo has a few different Inca Link ministries run by a guy named Percy. 

Our time there was SO special. Although it was short, it might have been my favorite location we have been to yet. My favorite thing about staying there was definitely the people.

So, people! >>

Percy lives with his wife and 2 daughters, ages 4 and 1. Their family was SO sweet and welcoming. Immediately, they started saying “mi casa es tu casa y mi familia es tu familia,” and they said it in a way that made you really feel it! By the end of day 1, I felt so comfortable and embraced by them. Also just gotta mention: Gema, Percy’s wife was a BOMB cook. So good. 

So, the very first day we got there, Percy told us to grab our swimsuits because we were going to the beach! We hopped in the car, and drove 45 minutes out to a gorgeous coast. We got frozen yogurt, walked on the beach (officially stepped foot in the pacific ocean yay!), and watched the sunset. It was a sweet “welcome” evening, and later, we found out from Kei that Percy doesn’t even like the beach, yet he wanted to take us there so that we could enjoy it. WHAT?! instantly loved the guy. (Also on the way home, we pulled up to a little street tienda and I tried fresh coconut water out of a coconut for the first time, bc when in Portoviejo. it’s a must. it was super good.)

There is also an intern named Kei, who lives with Percy and his family. She is 66 years old and from Ohio. She is living in Portoviejo for a full year and is on month 3 so far. Spending time with her was one of the highlights of my time there. She is so full of wisdom and general life experience, and I just loved having plain conversation with her. She has such an honest personality, finds joy in the small things, is such an engaged listener, and enjoys adventure. I woke up in the mornings just excited to have a cup of coffee over breakfast with her! haha. Percy and his family will be out of town between Christmas and new years, so we intern girls are going to stay with Kei for a few days during then, and do some ministry work with her for the week and i seriously cannot wait. When the plans were made official, she squealed and went “It’ll be like a refreshing all girls retreat!” I just love her haha.

As always, I loved hearing the testimonies of the people we were living with. Wow, God keeps showing me how amazing he is through the way that he works in each person’s life. Both Percy and Kei had incredible stories of their journey in coming to Christ and they blew me away and inspired me.

Ministry in Portoviejo >>

WOW we only had 5 days but we definitely stayed busy! (which was soooo nice after a month of a lot of rest in Armenia)

Friday-Tuesday mornings (except for Sunday), we would start the day by going to an elderly home, which is basically a safe house for mentally challenged older men. Most of the men lived here indefinitely, and were living on the streets prior to coming to the house, as a result of not being wanted by their family. There were 6 men in total. A couple of them had worse conditions than others; one had delayed mental skills, one had depression, and one had schizophrenia.  

We would go for 2 hours each morning and our days would always look different. We always began first with facility chores, and then teach them worship songs. After that, things varied. Typically we would play a game of charades, jenga, hangman with them. We also brought a new Christmas activity each day to help them celebrate, since they didn’t have any loved ones to celebrate the season with. We took popcorn strands, helped them make paper snowflakes, candy canes, and paper chains, and then used all of the crafts to decorate a tree out in the front yard. The last day, we brought goody bags labeled with their names on it, with home-made gingerbread cookies, candy, and bracelets that we crocheted for them. 

Serving there taught me a lot about selflessness. It was easy to have initial negative, shallow thoughts over how sweaty and hot it was while we mopped, or how bad their pet squirrel stunk up the building (both were quite horrid, believe me.) God really convicted me to have a more selfless heart in serving joyfully in whatever it was that he wanted me to do and to not let the days waste by, but be fully present where I was. That consisted of starting conversation with them, figuring out how to be joyful while I did chores like sweeping, or praying in the moment when one of the guys said he had been feeling sick. It makes me think of how Jesus didn’t get uncomfortable when working with the ill in the bible. He embraced the lame, he sought out the lepers. He wanted everyone to have the truth in their life and to experience healing. It definitely made me stop and analyze what service can look like, and how to follow Jesus in doing that.

After the elderly home, our days looked different. A couple days we took the bus to the mall to get supplies for ministry — baking & craft goods, etc. One day we took the completely WRONG bus, and we thought we’d be riding it for 20 minutes. Instead it drove us around for an hour and we got a full tour of portoviejo hah. But hey, all for $0.30, so that was cool.

Kei was our new best friend for the week, so she took us to the local clinic on Friday afternoon, where she helps volunteer. We got to meet the head doctors who run the clinic — they’re a Christian couple from Alabama, and have been serving in Portoviejo for 15 years. After talking, we told them that we’d be happy to come back and serve, so we will be back later in December to help with cleaning and organizing in the building!

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the local church’s (where Percy works) high school youth group, and I got to lead a worship song on the piano in spanish! I sang 10,000 razones, and Esther helped. However, note to self: next time, when it’s our first time leading worship in another language, we need to practice SINGING that with the PIANO beforehand. We never got to practice with the piano, and it definitelyyy threw us off just a bit ahah. May or may not have butchered it in front of 50 people but oh well. ya learn and move on hahaha.

Saturday night after dinner, we went to a college bible study group, and just got to meet some new people and sit in our their study.

On Sunday we went to church, and then later in the day we went to Percy’s semi final soccer game. He plays on an Inca Link club soccer team for 18-30 year old and is the team captain. They barely lost the game, BUT they have another semi final game on Sunday, and we’re going again! (This time however, we’ll be better prepared with posters and a hecka ton of caffeine. yes we will be READY to cheer and YES they will win bc of that.)

We spent Sunday decorating gingerbread cookies for the elderly men, and simultaneously introduced Percy’s family to American Christmas traditions. Sunday evening, Percy took us linkers and his family to the downtown park in Portoviejo with lots of food trucks (we went to a bubble waffle food truck which i didn’t even know was a thing but it was so good oh my gosh), sports, and activities (google it, it’s super cool!)

 Monday, we started our new afternoon ministry. Late afternoon on Monday and Tuesday, we headed to the outskirts of portoviejo to serve in a garbage dump ministry. There were about 20 kids from toddlers to 14 years old. It was a small, very poverty-stricken community tucked away in the hills. Percy goes there 3 times per week every week, doing bible games with them and serving them food. We taught the kids worship songs, practiced interactive bible verse memory, played a group game, colored, and then served them a hot meal. I had never been in that type of setting before, so I wasn’t sure of what to expect, but it was so fun!!! The kids are usually really crazy, but got super shy once they saw a bunch of gringos haha, but it was fun getting them energized with worship, and just being able to love on them. It was so so eyeopening to see the types of homes they were living in — practically tree-house style homes — and being able to share things with them, like a home-cooked meal, that I so easily take for granted.

Tuesday night, the Lamcas picked us up and brought us back to Manta (sadly :( haha) Here, we are working at an Inca Link ministry called, “Bonsai,” which is an after-school kids’ program, similar to the ministry we did in Bogota. We spend the afternoons serving them a hot meal, and then splitting into age group classrooms with crafts, homework help, and bible lessons. Mornings, we interns are spending time on curriculum planning for the kids’ summer breaks. We’re in charge of creating personalized notebooks for each child and assigning specific worksheets for the kids to do during their summer break (which is in january and february,) so that the teachers don’t have to worry about creating multiple lesson plans on top of their current lesson plans. I’m in charge of Preschool-1st grade levels for about 10 kids’ notebooks, and I’ve really liked doing it so far!

We are still getting settled into Manta and ministry with Bonsai, since it’s only been about 3 days so far. But, I will hopefully have an update on life here pretty soon!!

— I think the most important Manta update though is that Erica bought us a $5 BABY CHRISTMAS TREE. PTL. They’re usually like $50 for a little tree so we thought there was no way that we’d get one, but apparently God really wanted us to have one because YES WE FOUND ONE ! 

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Prayer updates:

Thank you SO much for the prayers! My homesickness has gone down BIGTIME. I haven’t been homesick at all during my time so far in Ecuador, which is totally a blessing from God, bc I got it a lot in Colombia haha. 

I am seeking to be more present where I am, and to serve with joy. If you would like to pray for me, please pray that:

- I live well in the moment and to not let the days slip by, but rather take advantage of them.

- Our new intern, Kendall got in this week YAY!!!! We lose our other intern, Nick, tho :( He was only here for 2.5 months, so lots of transition is happening for our team. Please pray for smooth unity amongst our team as we readjust to new dynamics.

- We also have another intern named Rebekah coming, whom we have never met before. She’s a college student and is just coming to help serve during her school break, from Dec. 21th-January 10th. She will be staying with us linkers here in Manta, and helping us serve here and there in Portoviejo as well. More transition! Haha, please pray we would be welcoming to her, and that all of us would have an uplifting time together.

As always, I am extremely thankful for you all. Seriously couldn’t do this without all of your support! (emotionally, spiritually, financially, etc.!)

 LOVE YALL !!

-Allison