Goodbye Faith Church... Hello Retreat

Hello dear friends, family, and supporters!

Daniela and I are just coming off a 12 day stint with Faith Church Youth Group.  They left yesterday morning to go back to Pennsylvania.  We had a great time with them, getting to know them, and building into them while they were serving with us in the jungle and at El Refugio.  During the past few days, the group, Daniela, and I served at El Refugio doing various work projects such as mixing cement for a second pond in the prayer garden at El Refugio.  The group also worked on digging a trench to run electrical wiring down to the outdoor amphitheater at El Refugio.  Another project that the group did was to plant several new trees on the property, by the volleyball court and inside the prayer garden.  Below is a photo of the Faith Church youth team and family team mixing cement at El Refugio for the second pond in the prayer garden.

We also took part in a two day VBS at El Refugio with the children of Calacali.  For two afternoons this past week, the Faith Church teams and some of the El Refugio staff participated in putting together bible lessons, songs, games, snacks, and arts and crafts for these children.  Below are a couple photos from one of the VBS afternoons:

It has been a wonderful time these past 12 days!  We are sad to see the youth team go, but now Daniela and I are preparing the lessons and discipleship for our intern retreat tomorrow.  We will be going to Manabi, which is on the western coast of Ecuador, and we will be staying at a hotel right on the beach.  Daniela and I have been planning focused lessons around the topic of relationships and we will be doing a couple spiritual formation talks regarding a book that all the interns are reading called The Me I Want To Be.

Please pray for continued health for us on the retreat, and safety as we travel and while we are in Manabi.  Praise God for what a great time we had with Faith Church and the friendships we made with the groups and we pray for continued relationships with them for many years to come.

Thank you again for your ongoing prayers and support during our time down here.  We are so blessed to have such supportive friends and family!  We will write again once we are back from retreat.  God bless you all!

The Jungle... :)

Hello everyone, near and far!

Daniela and I are still alive from the trip to the jungle with Faith Church from Pennsylvania.  It has been a great blessing for both of us to have the opportunity to spend a lot of time with this youth group from this church, and to be able to go to the jungle and serve alongside them.

Let me rewind a few days.  Faith Church youth group arrived last thursday, and Daniela and I welcomed them at the airport that night.  We helped facilitate some team building games and low ropes activities for them on Friday, so they can start bonding as a team, and they would get to know the property of El Refugio better.  We finished Friday with the zip line.  There are a total of 10 members on their youth team, seven youth and three leaders.  Each evening we have a have a campfire, and debrief a lot of the things that happened throughout the day.

On Saturday morning, we left for the jungle which is southeast of Quito.  We stayed by a river called Rio Negro, and in a beautiful building called El Monte.  Our first afternoon, we went up the mountain a little ways to a village called Azuay, and there we participated in a small church service in their small church there.  We then stayed and fellowshipped with the people there, saw the new property that was being laid for their new church building, and played some soccer with the natives.  It was a lot of fun!  That evening we went back to El Monte and then went for trout at a restaurant close to the river.  I generally don't like fish, but this fish was pretty amazing!  After a delicious meal of trout, we all went back to El Monte, debriefed, and headed to bed.  We found several cockroaches in the building that we often had to fend off or kill each evening!  A great cultural experience :)

The following day, we went to a place called La Isla most of the day.  It is a property close to the river as well, and there we were in charge of weeding out a lot of the weeds that had been growing up through the paths and in the forests.  Another group was in charge of moving and rolling lots of large stones from the property, and rolling them into the river.  The final group was in charge of cutting trail with machetes, and clearing more trail visitors to walk on.  La Isla is owned by a pastor from the town, and he is using the resort as a way to earn income when tourists come to visit the town.  The property is great for birdwatching and has many spectacular views of the river and a big waterfall.  That evening we headed into a nearby town and had dinner at restaurant (chicken this time for me) and we returned that same evening to the church in the town were were just working in for a church service.  After a few worship songs, Daniela, myself, and a few of the Faith Church youth went upstairs and did children's ministry with the kids.  It was a lot of fun!  Daniela and Beth (one of the Faith Church leaders) did a lesson on not worrying with the children, and then we all helped them make Fruit Loop necklaces.  We then sang lots of songs together after doing the crafts until church was over.  It was a fun experience, and a really great time with the kids there in that small town in the jungle!

The following day, we were assigned to do some work on the property that we were staying at, El Monte.  We were to resurrect the caretaker's house which is not a long walk away from El Monte, and to repair the bridge over a small river to get to the caretaker's house.  The biggest task of the day though was to eliminate an enormous termite's nest that was in the building right next to the caretaker's home.  That took about an hour to fully knock it off the wall with an ax, machete, and a hoe.  The pieces of the large nest was then thrown into the fire and burned.  In regards to the caretaker's home, we had to throw away and burn all the furniture inside, sweep and bleach all the surfaces inside the house, and mop all the floors.  The house turned out really nice.  There were some teams working on scrubbing the outside of the house for it to be painted.  Daniela and a few other Faith youth helped her paint the outside of the building.  I was with a team bleaching the floors and walls.  I also helped sweep up the pieces of the termite nest as they fell on the ground.  That was intense!  Below is a photo of Daniela and I from the day with a newly painted wall behind us:

That evening we returned to the trout restaurant for a second helping.  We then had our final debrief that evening in the jungle and went to sleep.

Yesterday, we had a long travel day.  We went and visited the waterfall by La Isla, and got to see it up close.  It was so big and so powerful, and it made me think more of how small we really are in this universe, and great and powerful God truly is by making this waterfall.  We then boarded the bus and went up the road a ways for some lunch, and then made a quick stop in a town in the afternoon called Salcedo, which is best known for its ice cream!  They are circular shaped, and come in many different flavors.  We arrived back at El Refugio last night around 6:00 PM.  We had dinner together, and sang worship songs around the fire and talked about our reflections from the jungle.  

It was amazing how fast those three days went by in the jungle.  It has really been a tremendous blessing being a part of this work group so far, and Daniela and I are so thankful for your continued prayers and support in what we are doing here.  We have a day off today, and the Faith Church family team will be arriving in Quito tonight.  They are about 20 people, so it will be even more exciting with more people coming here to El Refugio to help serve.

Daniela and I look forward to sharing with you more and more as these days continue about how we are doing, and how our time is going with the groups coming in and with the interns.  We had a couple interns come with us to the jungle to help, so Daniela and I had some great talks with the interns in the jungle about their spiritual life, and how they are reflecting and responding to what God was doing there and all around them. 

God bless you all!  We will write again soon :)

Yours in Christ,

One month mark...

Hey followers, family, and friends!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support during our time here.

After serving here at El Refugio for one month, it has really opened my eyes to knowing what I want to do with my life.  Being in discipleship with others, and being discipled has really helped me find my calling to ministry.  Daniela has really enjoyed her time here at the camp as well, and she has found great fellowship in new friends and in the interns she has been discipling.

Since last week, it has been quite  bumpy road for Daniela and I.  Ever since Geneva left, a stomach bug had been going around the staff members at El Refugio, and unfortunately, I got the stomach bug and was sick last Wednesday evening.  It took me about a week to fully recover from it, and get back on the normal eating diet.  Daniela had the stomach bug before me, and it took her a few days to get back to normal as well.  Please continue to pray for health for us and the rest of the staff and interns here at the camp.  We would greatly appreciate it!!

We had to say goodbye to a couple interns within the past week.  Ashley and Bryce left to go back the the United States.  But from that, two more new interns came to join El Refugio, Santi and Ben.  Ben will be serving one month at the camp, and Santi will be serving two months.  I am excited to be discipling them, and sharing these coming months with them!

We have a couple more small retreat groups in the coming week, and next week we have a work group coming from the United States from a church called Faith Church.  It is the home church of the director of El Refugio.  Daniela and I will be going to the jungle with Faith Church's youth group in a couple weeks.  I am excited to be going and serving alongside this group!

At the end of July, Daniela and I are coordinating the intern retreat to the beach.  We will going to Esmeraldas, and we will be doing some deeper discipleship and retreat programs, activities, and lessons while we are there.

Thank you again for all your prayers and support again, and we will look forward to updating you in the coming weeks ahead!  God bless you all!

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!