Adios Riobamba, Ecuador!

Our last day at the orphanage was an interesting one! Heather and I helped with the babies while the rest of the gang helped level out a volleyball court for the children to play on. We worked for a few hours and then were able to play with the children a little before we were heading back to pack up at the Cozy House (our apartment) and then off to Quito.
After we were done working, Naomi, one of the Allan children brought over an interesting dish for us to try. Cui, also known as Guinea Pig, was on the menu for us today. To all of our surprise the poor innocent Guinea Pig was fully intact and was smiling at us! We all decided to try it….well all except for the Deans and Jared. I was the first one to try a bite and to my surprise it was not that bad. The rest of the gang continued to try the Guinea Pig. We all made our way to the dining room and continued to try different parts. A little boy named Tito was sitting next to me eyeballing the little guinea pig. We asked him if he wanted to try it and he eagerly said yes! To our surprise he gobbled it down and asked for more. It was the funniest thing I had seen all week! Chad, Jordan, and I were feeling brave and  we decided to taste the brain of the Cui. While we were being disgusted by the taste of it, we were brought back to the table to see 10 other children chewing and ripping apart our Cui!!!! It was a funny sight!  We will post videos on our facebook soon!
After laughing and laughing, other emotions began to sink in. It was time to say goodbye. We held our tears together as we hugged each kid and told them that we loved them. It was a bitter sweet feeling. I am ready to be back in the states, but I was not ready to say goodbye.
I met God in Riobamba, Ecuador. I met him in the faces of EVERY child in the orphanage. I met him in the hearts of Glenda and Ron. I met him at the sight of his Chimborazo mountains and even at the view of his volcano Tungurahua. I met God in the people of the city Riobamba. I met God in dirt on my pants, the pee on my shirt, the dust in my hair, and in my warm bed after every long day. I have to say goodbye to Riobamba today, but I have the greatest souvenir ever, my changed heart for God’s children, and God’s mission for everyone to know him better.
Our apartment is all packed and we are about to get on the bus for Quito tonight. We travel four hours today, crash at a hostile in Quito, and then we head for the airport in the early morning. Please pray for  safe travels and peace of mind. It is hard to say goodbye, but we cant wait to bring back all that God has taught us to the states. Our mission is not over!

Until the Whole World Hears,

Aaron J. Zapata

Ups and Downs

As the oldest members of the team, we are finding that the younger members have a lot more stamina than we do! The work projects have given us aches, pains, and sunburn, but we are grateful for the energy to do the work. We have sanded concrete (a new experience for all of us). John and Brian tried their hands at stucco...didn't have much success. Our big success was removing 4 large Ecuadorian cacti. It was sticky work...as in we all got poked with the cactus spines. Our work project today was shoveling a truckload of sand into their sandbox.
I have worked with the toddlers twice. It is definitely a different experience...the language barrier makes it difficult to communicate with the workers. The way they handle some of their routines is quite different than the way we do it in the states. Although it could be distressing to watch, we continued to serve as they requested. That was one of the most difficult things for me to do.
John and I ended up staying at the apartment on Sunday, missing the village trip, due to illness. We have discovered that the food and drink doesn't always agree with us. The day of rest helped us recover.
Today is our 25th wedding anniversary. The "kids" are treating us to a night alone at the apartment with a lasagna dinner (which I have been craving). They are having dinner out and then heading back to the Ark for glow-stick capture the flag.
John and I have been out of our comfort zone in many ways on this trip. But I asked God to show Himself to us on this adventure, and He has in many ways. I have been blessed by Rosalia, Daniel, and Christian, all special-needs kids at the Ark. Chatting with Ron, Glenda, and their kids shows us their commitment to Ecuador and the needs of these kids. Watching the kids interact, the compassion they show one another, we can tell they are truly loved and cared for. We have also been blessed by the "kids" on the mission team -- their prayers for us and this trip have been inspiring. We thank all of you for your support, prayers, and encouraging words.

An Ecuadorian Sabbath

Ecuador, on the whole, is a beautiful country. We got a great look at the terrain on our bus trip from Quito to Riobamba on Day 2. But the fullest picture of Ecuador’s beauty came Sunday on our trip to Calshi, a 30-minute truck ride outside Riobamba. Seven of us sat in the bed of the pickup, and while the ride was painful, the view was excellent. Patchwork fields patterned hills leading up to Chimborazo, a striking snow-capped mountain in the Andes range. It was the first view we got of the mountain, which has been shrouded by clouds for the rest of our trip. Clouds still hid the tip, but it was great to see.

Tu Amor Hace Eco En Todo Mi Universo (Your Love Echoes In All My Universe)

Hola! The blog title is a new song we are learning here. I have been seeing God's love and hope echoing here in Ecuador. God is so good! One of the things God has been showing me is to be in awe of him & how endless and indescribable his love is. I am in awe of God's creation here. I see his power and might in the mountains. I see his glory set in the sky. I see his beauty in the orphans and the people. I see his love in the orphans' faces and smiles.

Today was a busy day for me. I worked in the baby room with Aaron. Honestly, it was a difficult, tiring, and at times frustrating experience. But I loved every moment. Loving God's precious orphans is so worth it and brings me so much joy in serving our God. They had me changing diapers and feeding screaming babies. It is very challenging not being able to verbally communicate with the workers. Their diaper changing system is very confusing. They use cloth diapers but no plastic coverings. So you are constantly changing babies and getting peed on. It is an unforgettable experience haha. The first baby I changed was wiggly, upset about getting changed, poopy, and peed all over me while I was changing her. It was in that moment of frustration God spoke to me and reminded me of his love. Our sin grieves and frustrates God, yet he still patiently deals with us. And willingly chooses to pour out his unfailing, lavish love on us. He loves us so much he sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners and enemies of the Holy God. I am so in awe and speechless of his love!

Also, I am amazed at the kids love for each other. Ron and Glenda love these kids so much and these kids love them back. This love then flows out of the children. It reminds me of how God loves us and wants us to love and abide in him; then his love flows out of us on others. 1 John 4:16. I see God's love in all the precious orphans. I pray you all would grow deeper and deeper in love with Jesus and be in awe of our awesome God. Thanks for all your prayers! Please pray for us. Tomorrow we are going to a village to share the gospel, and some of us our sharing our testimonies. Brian is teaching a lesson on the gospel. Jared, Jordan, Hannah, Julie, & Aaron are doing a gospel mime. Abbey, Heather, and I are sharing our testimonies. Love you all!!!

In Christ's Love,
Sarah Bethea :-)
ps we also did some shopping today. It was fun to experience more of Ecuador's culture.

K.G.B. Night

Last night the orphanage was having a game night and ask us if we wanted to participate, most of our members were to tired but Julie, Jared, Aaron, Abbey and I decided to go. We ate our dinner and then went back to play. It was then that Ron decided to tell us that last time they played one of their volunteers broke her leg. They paired us up with kids who spoke no English and told us we were their guardian angels. The way the game works is some of the people are the K.G.B. and some are Christians and no one knows who is who but you figure it out pretty quick when a "Christian" takes you to jail. Now their are also fence walkers, they can decided at any point which side they are on. The K.G.B. try to bring the Christians to jail, while the Christians try to gather in groups of three or more. when the Christians gather they have to pray, say a bible verse and sing a song. The point system works like this, K.G.B gets one point when they bring a group or a single christian to jail. The Christians get a point when they gather: sing pray and recite and get their entire group to the point keeper who also is the jailer. It sounds kind of tame but let me explane the yard. Its a big fenced in yard with one side that is the play area, like a big soccer field, the other side however is long grass, bee skeps, piles of construction material etc. and they play in the whole yard and the kids run full steam. It was hard to be a Christian but so much fun. And the kids really got into it, getting out their Bibles for their verses. We had a really great time and no one was seriously hurt. we are a have sore muscles to day so it should be fun.

Chad Elam

P.S. happy Birthday Aaron's Mother.

Things Are Gettin' Better, Gettin' Better All the Time

Tonight we agreed that things seem to be getting better. We are becoming more comfortable with the kids and the Ark. We woke up this morning and had the same breakfast as yesterday with bananas as the fruit. Then we headed off to the orphanage. Abbey, Brenda, Brian, and Chad all went to work with the babies. Things seemed to go much better for them today. We are starting to learn the ropes of the babies/toddlers and it is helping a bit. However, the language barrier is still making it hard to understand the expectations for us.

The rest of us continued the sanding. It was a dirty and physically tiring job but Ron (Ark Director) quickly provided us with a pick me up. He had us come do a "fun" job which entailed ripping some sort of dessert plant out of the ground that was taking over the garden. This is a story you will have to ask us about when we get back. Lets just say it involved a rope, a truck, some human weight (us), machetes, and axes.

After a yummy lunch of rice, chicken, veggies, and cabbage we got to enjoy the kids and finish taking on the cactus. Then we ran our VBS program. It seemed to go quit well today. The kids entertained us with their beautiful Spanish music for about a half hour before we headed back to the apartment.

After pizza for supper and few hours rest Julie, Abbey, Chad, Aaron, and Jared headed back to the Ark to play KGB. They came back a bit breathless but they seemed like they had a blast. I believe you will hear more about that from Chad tomorrow morning. The rest of us had a night to do laundry and rest. We spent our free time reading, preparing Bible lessons, playing Skipo, and just talking. It was a great time of fellowship.

Thank you for all your prayers. You all are so dear to me.

God Bless
Heather Snyder

Today. was. crazy.

SO our day started with a breakfast of eggs (soft boiled), croissant rolls (with jelly), and fruit (...I have no clue what kind). Until lunch that was the high point of the day for some of us. It was a weird day of highs and lows. Jared and Jordan worked on blow torching the yard, Brenda, John, Chad, Brain, Hannah,and I worked on sanding down concrete in the laundry room and fridge room and Heather, Julie, Aaron and Sarah worked with the babies and toddlers. And it was the group working with the kids who had it the hardest. It was a rough day of a million babies and lots of rules they didn't understand. But once we hit lunch life got better. It was food that was recognizable! After that we got to chill and just play with the kids till 3 then we had bible study. Once we were finished with that we schooled the children in soccer....ok I'm lying they pwnd us big time. I think the final score was 8 to 2 or 3 and that was only because Naomi (one of the directors daughters) switched to our team half way through because we were doing sooooo bad. Chad and Brian blame the lose of breath on the high altitude....but they also blamed the inability to speak Spanish on it.... We left the orphanage at 5 with Naomi and a boy named Ivan who took us to town for dinner and shopping. We ate some native food. Those who know me will be completely surprised to know that I, Abbey Graeber aka the pickiest eater ever ate pig feet. We got back to the apartment and have just been chilling since. During our debriefing we realized how much God has brought us together. We all were checking in on each other at the orphanage, we tease each other when we say some thing wrong (which has happened a lot), we have inside jokes and we all freaked when Heather almost got hit by a bus. So I guess the biggest blessing and comfort God gave us today was family. A new family of twelve. Without each other we all would have broken down multiple times today BUT instead we had a day of adventure and fun and tiredness. So thank you God for the people God brought on this trip it is only the 3rd day, it feels like a month. We come from very different families but it feels right to be together.
-Abbey