A few weeks in...

Hello friends and family!

Thank you so much for your patience, as getting internet here at El Refugio isn't the easiest task, but I am blessed to have it right now that I can update you with how things are going!

Daniela and I have been really enjoying pouring our time and efforts into the five interns here at El Refugio.  Their names are Ashley, Laura, Bryce, Anna, Danielle.  There are a couple other full time staff members named Danny and Israel that come and join some of our devotions and lesson times.  Ashley and Bryce will be leaving El Refugio next Thursday, so it will be hard to see them go, as we have gotten to know them so well.

Our devotionals and lessons have been going very well.  Last week, we studied the importance of what it means to "die to yourself daily", to "take up your cross", and "to follow Christ".  I feel these lessons have been going very well, and Daniela's and my prayer is that these interns are really taking something away from our lessons about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Tonight we will be studying how we can take the mission statement of El Refugio, and how we can apply it to our lives biblically (Give 110%, Challenge by Choice, Be Here Now, and Choose Joy).

Last week (Saturday), Daniela and I served at a road and bike raced called "El Reto" ("The Challenge"). It was held in Pintag, which is located southeast of Quito in the valley.  Daniela and I got up very early (2:30 AM) and went into Quito with Danny, and picked up other El Refugio facilitators to help with this race that is held about 3 times a year in different locations.  The race consisted of two parts, running and biking.  Each team was made up of three members, and at each check point, they had to get their team card hole-punched by one of the facilitators from El Refugio.  It was a fun day, although it was an early morning!

A couple days ago, I hiked the "Perimeter Hike" here at El Refugio at 5:00 AM with the Geneva, IL group.  It was a beautiful hike, and it wasn't too hard.  The reason why we hiked it at 5:00 AM was to see the beautiful sunrise from the top of the mountain.  It was a gorgeous sunrise! (I enclose a photo below)

The Geneva group left yesterday early morning.  They helped dig a lot of trenches in the new prayer garden here at El Refugio, and helped lay new flowerbeds in the garden.  Some other students from the group helped lay a cement foundation to the climbing wall and to new high ropes elements.  They really helped get a lot done here at the camp, and it's been incredible how much the Geneva, IL church has done here over the past 12 years!

In a couple weeks, the director of El Refugio (Paul Reichert) will be hosting 20 people his home church and 10 members from the youth group here at El Refugio.  Daniela and I are planning on going to the jungle with his church in mid-July, so we are definitely in for a fun experience there!

Towards the end of July, Daniela and few other facilitators will be going to another region of Ecuador for a mission trip with Juan Carlos, the program director here at El Refugio.  We will ministering to children, families, and youth here, as well as doing some personal discipleship and hiking in some canyons.

I have been taking Spanish lessons with a woman named Marianela, and for our group session a couple days ago, we went to Pululahua, an inactive volcano nearby.  I enclosed a photo below.  You can see behind me is the crater and there are people that live in the crater, and use the land there for farming because it is so fertile.

That is the news up to now.  We have a couple more retreat groups coming in the next couple weeks here to El Refugio, so Daniela and I will be busy getting ready for them, and serving them while they are here at the camp.


Please continue to pray for wisdom and discernment in our time here with the interns with discipleship and in our lessons.  Also, pray for safety from the bees (both the honey bees and the big black bumble bees), as flowers are starting to bloom and there are a lot around our cabin!  Also, there are a couple dogs along the road into the town of Calacali that bite, so please pray for safety from them when we are walking into and from town.  Thank you again everyone for your support and your love!  We will write again soon! :)

A couple weeks in...

Hello Friends!

Daniela and I have made it a couple weeks already and we´ve started to feel more at home each day.  Our days have been filled with planning and preparing for an adventure race for a youth group that has come down from Geneva, MI.  The adventure race entailed 12 challenges that each team had to accomplish before a set time.  The race was today, and I thought it went really well.  Daniela, Laura, and Daniela´s brother helped on one of the challenges called The Lost (which was similar to a large maze) and I was working in a tree house with one of leaders of the group, Rick Borman, and we were judging another challenge: interpretive dances to a bible story out of the book of Matthew.

Daniela and I have had a wonderful time so far discipling the interns here at El Refugio!  We had our first meeting last week, and I think it went great.  Daniela and I introduced our theme for the summer: What Does It Mean To Be A Disciple.  I taught the lesson last Wednesday evening, and we studied The Great Commission passage out of Matthew 28.  We also looked at a way on how to make disciples, through an acronym I created: PULLTABS (Pray, Understand, Love, Lead, Teach, Ask, Baptize, and Send).  We also looked at characteristics of a disciple and how we can become these.  This coming Friday, I will be teaching on obedience and following.  I am very excited about this lesson, because it is something I do have a heart for.

This afternoon, the youth group at El Refugio left for the jungle and will be there for most of the week.  Daniela and I will be take a couple of the interns up to a place called Mindo on Wednesday, where we will do some canopy exploring, go see a butterfly farm, and do some other touristy things.  On Thursday we hope to go to the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World) Museum just outside of Quito and do some cool hands on experiments with the interns.

Thank you all for your ongoing prayers and support for both Daniela and I during our time down here.  It has been a wonderful time for each of us, and it has definitely challenged us in our spiritual growth and in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  But as we are being challenged by His Word each day, we can find ways to pour into the interns, and encourage them and teach them, and we have found these times so rewarding, and when we are doing discipleship, it just confirms our calling to this kind of ministry so much more.  Thank you all so much, and we constantly praise God for your support and prayers!  God bless you all!

Photos

Our cabin!

"La Casa Grande" (Where there is a lounge, office, ping pong & fooseball table, class room, and meeting room)

El Refugio, Calacali Ecuador

Hello Friends!

Sorry it has been so long since we have had internet, and a chance to get online and update you with our time here!  It has been quite a change for us, as Daniela and I have moved into our cabin at the El Refugio camp.  We will enclose some photos of our cabin soon, and the photos of the camp as well, so you can get a good idea of where we are and what we're up to.  The camp is situated in a very small town about 30 minutes outside of Quito called Calacali.  And the internet is very slow, so thank you for your patience! :)

You generally have to take a bus into Quito if you wanted to do any shopping or sightseeing there.  Daniela and I have gotten very accustomed to riding the bus, and I feel pretty comfortable about taking the bus there and back.  I haven't mastered it, but I'm getting there.

Tomorrow marks the first day of our discipleship program here at El Refugio with the interns.  There are approximately 6 interns at the camp right now.  Daniela and I will be doing lunchtime  devotionals with these interns on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  We will be doing a more focused bible study together on Wednesday evenings after work around 4 or 4:30 PM.  Then during the week, Daniela and I hope to meet with the interns one on one for some more personal growth and discipleship time.  Outside of this time, Daniela and I will be working with one of the El Refugio leaders, Juan Carlos, in programming a lot of the activities the groups will be doing when they come to the camp.  These could include field games, scavenger hunts, high ropes activities, low ropes activities.  We will also serve as assistants when these groups are here, and maybe in time helping facilitate some of these ropes course activities.

The bees are very busy in the mornings, and are always around.  I unfortunately stepped on one a couple mornings ago (a HUGE black bumble bee) and got stung on my right foot.  Don't worry! I'm ok now, but it hurt like crazy.  So please pray that no more bees get into our cabin, or anywhere in our general vicinity and sting us! Thanks! :)

This weekend, Daniela and I took two interns (Ashley & Laura) to Quito with us.  Daniela's family took us all to La Plaza De Las Americas (a small mall) for yogurt with pan de yuca (it's comparable to a cheese bread, SO GOOD!).  After, we went to La Ronda (the historical district of Quito) and walked down these beautiful streets at night where the Presidential Palace is, historical churches, and beautiful small shops where the Ecuadorian people sell a lot of their hand crafted goods.  After La Ronda, we headed to another town called Cumbaya, where we ate dessert at a restaurant called Coffee Tree.  There were some DJ's there playing some crazy electronic music outside the restaurant which was pretty loud, but overall the experience was good.

Today, Daniela and I, her family, and Ashley & Laura went church at Daniela's father's church, La Gran Comision (The Great Commission).  He preached on 1 Corinthians 1.  It was a good sermon, and I feel I am learning more Spanish and understanding more and more of what is being said each time I am there.  After church, we went out to lunch at a mall called El Jardin (The Garden).  After we shopped for some essentials for our cabin at MegaMaxi supermarket, and then headed to a park called Teleferiqo.  At Teleferiqo, you can take a tram up to the top of mountain where you can get a beautiful view of the city of Quito.  However, the price was very expensive, so we ended up spending a little bit of time in the small amusement park next to Teleferiqo, and I did a go-kart ride, and rode a roller coaster.  Soon after, we headed back to Calacali and El Refugio for the evening.

Thank you for your continued prayer for us, and your support.  Please continue to pray for our time here, our safety and health, and wisdom as we continue to pour into the lives here at El Refugio, into the lives of the interns, and into the surrounding communities in Ecuador.  Also, pray for all the lives here in Ecuador, that they may come to know Christ more in their lives, and that the Word of God may be known more and more!

Moving In

Hello friends!

Today, Daniela and I started to move our luggage into our cabin at El Refugio.  We won't be living there full time until Wednesday.

Daniela and I purchased our food we will be eating while at El Refugio today at a grocery store called Santa Maria.  Shortly after, the director of El Refugio took us over to the center.

El Refugio is a beautiful training and retreat center!  It has a soccer field, volleyball court, ropes course, and many buildings to host retreat groups and meetings.  Our cabin is very quaint, and it's tucked up in the forest behind the main buildings on the way to the ropes course.  It has a small living room, a kitchen, a master bedroom, a guest with two bunk beds, and a bathroom.  We will post photos as soon as we can, and we will try to take some video as well and give you all a tour of the center.

Daniela and I will be meeting two of the interns we will be discipling this summer, tomorrow night.  Their flight will be coming into the Quito airport, and will will be meeting them there.

Thank you again for your prayers and support!  More to come soon!  Daniela and I are very excited to see what God will be doing this summer at El Refugio!

We have arrived!

Hello everyone!

We arrived safely at 9:40 PM last night into the Quito airport.  We waited in a long line to get through immigration, and waited a while to get our four large checked bags at baggage claim, but we finally got them!

We were met by Daniela's father, brother, and grandfather, and we piled (literally) everything, including ourselves, into the car and went back to Daniela's father's house which is about five minutes from the airport.

We unloaded all the bags at the house, and we all went out to an Italian restaurant with one of Daniela's friends, David. My first meal in Ecuador was... : CHURRASCO! (Meat, fried eggs, rice, french fries, lettuce, & tomato)

We were pretty tired once we got back from the restaurant, and we went to bed.

Today, we will be relaxing and catching up with some more friends and family of Daniela's.  Tomorrow we will be going to Daniela's father's church in Quito.

We will continue to update you as we start with El Refugio next week.  Please continue to pray for safety and protection while we are down here, and for God's wisdom and discernment in our ministry to the interns at El Refugio, and to the other staff we will be interacting with at the retreat center.

God bless you all!  And thank you all again for your prayers and support!