Month 4

Where I was?

Yet another all-squad month in Quito, Ecuador with multiple ministries under the umbrella of Inca Link.

My sleeping accommodations:

• Really comfortable bunk beds in their Missionaries house.

The ministries:

Inca Link is an organization that is dedicated to reaching the Latina children and the house we are staying in is a base for Ecuador. However, all three teams work with different ministries. Team Pinky Promise is working with a college ministry called Cru and also helping to teach English in high school classes. Team Squash Sisters is at another destination out of the city with a camp called Camp Refugio that seems to be more of a retreat for missionaries. My team, Team Bloom, worked with Camp Hope for disabled people to go for therapy and also to be while family members work.

Unfortunately, because of COVID we didn’t have the chance to work with the kids. Even the program is only open to see these kids twice a week. However, we had a great time making crafts they can sell for a profit, cleaning in preparation for a reopening, as well as anything these women needed help with.     

People I met:

• Silvia. Oh Silvia, is this petite, humble, steadily faithful, and joyful women we got to work with. A lot of our ministry this month seemed to be more to bless her than anything else and it was such a blessing to meet Silvia. Who started working and living at camp hope because she needed help with their disabled son! How incredible is that!!
• Dulga has an interesting name, but also the heart of the whole place. She was always so kind and loving working with us.
• Jon a group of us met while zip-lining in Bano’s and then proceeded to drive us around to see so many other things all day. Such a fun guy who literally seems to work as a photographer everywhere and possible owns the whole town.
• Fabie, Mabe, and their daughter Alegria are amazing hosts that loved to hang out with us and cook for us!!
• Rich is from North Carolina here to get into the Inca Link world with hopes to establish an Inca Link in Argentina with his pastors from back home. Such a sweetheart that also loved to hang with us.  

Adventures:

• THE EQUATOR!!
• A touristy mountain town called Bano’s, where we zip-lined, swung from the swing off the earth, and saw such beautiful waterfalls and country!!
• A Catholic church called the Visillica.

Travel: How and what type of transportation

Medellin, Colombia we bussed again for 14 hours to Bogota where we stayed the night. A plane from Bogota, Colombia we flew to El Salvador and then into Quito, Ecuador where we met our host and the bus that took us to our home for a month.     

New Experiences:

• Making Christmas cards for profit. SO MANY!! And feeling like Santa’s elves 🙂
•  Scraping in between steppingstones for the whole outside.
• Swinging from the end of the earth.
• Standing at the equator.
• THANKSGIVING in Ecuador. It was so GOOD!
• Needing to Quarantine again but this time in Ecuador.
• Ordering chicken to cook and it came in whole chickens

Food:

• Soup with popcorn on top
• Breakfast balls the size of a softball made out of corn meal and inside always cheese.
• A fruit called granadilla that you had to break open and suck the seeds with fruit around it without eating the seeds.
• SO, so many baked goods as we had an oven first time and #quarentine.

What I enjoyed the most:

I loved getting to know Silvia and seeing the love and heart of a group of people working so hard to love a population that this culture turns away from. This staff at Camp Hope is so inspiring to see how much they love and care for these people. Also, I know I shouldn’t, but I think quarantine is fun. This is my second one on the race and I have to say I love the worship we do and how we get close to each other and make such fun memories. I understand and do hate COVID and the lives it takes. I just love when in a healthy environment people plans get disturbed and we get to put the pieces back together.     

Memories, ASK me about them!: some of them might be funny!

• Making crafts than eating our packed lunches in an empty depleted playground always felt like we were in rehab. Haha with jam and cheese sandwiches.
• MEGABED when we watched Jackie’s testimony and The Shack. So basically a cry day!
• Being told I didn’t have COVID when I thought for sure I did, but Noon’s did and we both responded in the same way as in Costa Rica, as well as Carl crying in the corner.
• Getting FULLY FUNDED!! (Read about it)
• Steph made a Christmas tree out of cardboard!!
• Holy Spirit night of FREEDOM
• Smashing walnuts in an abandoned playground.
• Quarenteam caroling to us!
• Cycle club in the kitchen with no bikes and lots of popcorn with Dana and Sav.
• Decorating Christmas cookies out on the lawn of Inca Link missionary house.
• Attempting to clean windows with vinegar.
• Meeting a guy named Jon at the ziplining tour and then having him drive us around Bano’s to see the swing and multiple waterfalls.
• Screaming Shania Twain at karaoke with Lubbock, Cass, and Kayla… when that wasn’t the vibe!
• A ridiculous amount of cookies being made in the first oven we had in FOREVER.
• Uber eats oreo mcFlurries during quartantine. 
• All squad Thanksgiving!!
• Team Christmas photo with our green sea to summit sleeping bag liner. 
• Changed the lyrics of Ice Ice baby, to Christ Christ Saves me
• Hot chocolate and fires!!
• Made so MANY Christmas cards.
• Noons and Carl go to dentist to be told they have over 10 cavities between the two of them. 
• Had a quarantine debrief
• Christmas themed worship with the first day of Advent with S.K.
• Volley in the front yard with a soccer ball. 
• Santa run!!
• The absolute miracle that we all tested negative to leave for South Africa!!

How to pray for where I was and the ministries I worked in:

• Pray that Camp Hope can fully reopen with a full staff soon!
• Pray for Silvia just because I want her to feel so stinkin blessed!
• That Rich, when he gets back home this month will be able to fund his mission to Argentina.
• Pray that our squad continues to live in unity and freedom of a godly joy.
• For Fabe and Mabe of health and closeness with God.