new years' thoughts + manta recap!

2019. doesn't feel much different. on december 31, i always love reminiscing on the smiles and memories and difficult things that the previous year brought. i'm always so excited to make a list of new years goals and plans, and mark off all of the things i did in the year before. i look ahead into 2019 and see so much excitement and beauty that God has brought together: missions, a summer of family and travel, and heading to liberty university in the fall.

i love to look back and see how far He has brought me, and each year i stand amazed, thinking "i never would have imagined a year ago that i'd be where i am now." and for this year especially, that truth stands stronger than ever for me. never in a million years could i have dreamt up a season of life as beautiful as this. I am learning and growing each day more than I could've ever thought. sometimes i still find myself needing quick reality-checks, and having to remind myself that WOW i'm in south america.

but as far as goal-setting goes, this year is different. 

i've thought it over, and only by the grace of God am i where i am right now.  i'm learning daily that it's not my doing, nor my efforts that have brought me here. yes, i still enjoy to create goals and carry vision, but if i have to pick one goal, i want to be known as one who madly pursues jesus above all else. i pray that he stretches me during the painful parts of 2019, that i see my loved ones come to jesus, that i rejoice in the midst of trials, that i learn that truth prevails over lies and doubts.

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life update:

december has been an eventful month for sure! We've had packed schedules pretty much every day of the week. We've been living in Manta, serving at a children's ministry called "Bonsai."
After returning from Portoviejo, we jumped into kids' ministry here by serving the children lunch, helping with homework for a couple hours, and various activities, like taking the kids to a nearby park, helping with crafts, worship time, etc.

Most of our time here has consisted of curriculum planning for the kids' summer vacations, by creating personalized binders for each child, with 60ish homework practice worksheets. We spend 2-3 hours per day working on those, and are finishing them this week.

We served at Bonsai for 1 week, and then it took a 12 day Christmas break. We took advantage of the downtime to go back to Portoviejo to visit Kei and help in their community! We spent 5 days of girl time together, and served in a nearby Christian clinic by cleaning and organizing a closet (it hadn't been sorted through in 7 years), cutting a years' worth of gauze, and raking leaves for them. 

We sadly sent Nick back to the US last month :( For his last cultural experience day, he chose that all of us go surfing!! Turned out more like boogie boarding and getting swept away by every massive wave hahaha but we came to find out later that we accidentally chose to go to the most dangerous beach in all of ecuador, so consider us survivors!!! haha

In portoviejo, we helped at a garbage dump ministry. A few days before Christmas, we played some games with them, fed the whole community a big dinner, and had sponsors send money so that everyone could receive gifts! We spent 2 hours wrapping them and it was so beautiful to see all of the kids' and parents' faces light up as they received their gifts.

Kendall arrived this month!!!!!!! We have been having a fiesta together everyday haha i love her so much

This is Percy!! He is the ministry leader in Portoviejo that we stayed with for our few days we spent there. He is so much fun and he has the sweetest family. He's got energy for daysss and I wish we got to spend more time working with him.

The day we sent Nick back to the U.S. :( Still trying to convince him to come back for Machu Picchu in May haha

It's pretty much routine at this point: mid-afternoon basically everyday, Kendall looks at me and says "i want ice-cream. walk with me to the tienda pleeeeeease." she's a cutie.

Right before Christmas break, the Bonsai kids had a presentation day for their families, and performed songs they had been practicing for their parents.

Christmas Eve fiestaaaaaa!!!! We got the full Ecuadorian experience. Some families from church invited us to their party, and we got the full Ecuadorian experience: dinner at 10pm, jamming to music for about 5 hours, going around the room and recapping the years' highlights, singing feliz navidad at midnight, and 12:30am dessert. Never going back to U.S. style, Ecuador has won my heart with Christmas festivities ;)

Christmas morning!!!! The Lamcas and Browns (the Inca Link founders) are SO SNEAKY, they secretly coordinated our parents to send us Christmas gifts, so we got to open gifts from our families on Christmas day!!!!! It was so sweet, I cried reading their notes. Best. Surprise. Ever.

The Lamcas treat us too well <333 they gave us "Christmas stockings" (notice how their hung over our "fireplace" :))

Ok so lemme introduce you to the Zambrano family -- they were our Manta bffs!! Their whole family was super involved with the kids' ministry we served at, called Bonsai. 
So there's the parents, and they have 4 kids: Leo, Josselyn, Andres, and Crisnel. They were all college-aged & we Linkers got SO close to them!! 
After barely knowing and hanging out with us for only about a week, they invited all 4 of us girls to join their family festivities on Christmas day! SO GENEROUS AND LOVING. They treated us and took us to the beach, showed us their favorite things about Manta (like drinking out of fresh coconuts) and I had never felt more loved. Also pretty much all of their family was musical (everyone but Nelly, but she dances so she basically still counts haha) so I FELL IN LOVE WITH THEM EVEN MORE. haha, we spent so much time jamming together: singing, playing instruments, etc. They are seriously some of the most loving people I've ever met in my life. 

Esther's bday!! She's an early morning riser, so after she went to bed, Kendall, Rebecca, and I sneakily stayed up till 2am baking her a breakfast coffee cake, got 4 hours of sleep, and then baked it in the morning to surprise her before she woke up hahaha. It was quite the process, but we successfully surprised her with a birthday breakfast!

Before & after of a closet we organized in Portoviejo for a local Christian clinic. It hadn't been cleaned or sorted through in over 7 years!

Jovenes group from church/Bonsai. Love these people!

Sunday church with Kei! Such a sweet, refreshing girl weekend together!

bubble waffles. our newest obsession.

New Years' Eve festivities! In South America, everyone buys "viejos" (which means "old man"... symbolizes burning the old year) and lights them on fire at midnight. We played games, sang songs, danced, and jumped over fires. It was quite the night and a new years that I'll never forget!

We just arrived in Quito on Friday, and are settling here for all of January. We will be serving at Casa Elizabeth, a teenage pregnancy home, as well as partnering with an organization in the city called "Camp Hope," which is a home for disabled children. Also, our families come in 6 days!! I can't wait to see my mom and catch up with her/show her life in South America!

Please be praying over the ministries we'll be serving at this month and for continued team unity, as we have had lots of changes with teammates this month. Thank you!! <333