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

MADE IT TO ECUADOR! BLOG UPDATE BY; Aaron Zapata

Bienvenidos from ECUADOR!

We spent a very long day traveling yesterday! We left Normal Illinois at about 7:30 am and did not make it to Quito Ecuador until 11:30 pm! We made it to our hotel at 1 am and did not fall asleep until almost 2 am (Thanks Jared haha) We had to wake up at 6 this morning to catch a bus for our four hour drive to Riobamba today. We arrived safely and we loaded up our apartment for the week with all of our belongings. Then we loaded back on the bus to head to the Orphanage. Now that I am finished explaining the travels, let me share with you all about what God is already doing in the heart of myself, and all my fellow team members...

God answered my prayers about safe traveling. I had to learn that safe travels doesnt always mean I wont be afraid while traveling, it just means that God will get me there in one piece! The plane rides were long, but we made it to our destination all together and in one piece and that my friends deserves a PRAISE THE LORD! :)

It wasnt real to me that we were actually leaving for Ecuador until we boarded our plane from Miami to Quito Ecuador. I remember I was walking on the plane and everything around me was already different. Emotions and many thought filled my mind until at one point I had to bow my head and lift my heart to Him, the Almighty Comforter. I prayed that I could find peace in Him and in knowing that He is in control, not me, not the pilots, not Satan, ONLY HIM! After I said Amen, I was able to breathe better and "see" better. I was exhausted (as were all my team-mates) and upon reaching customs, I had already began to try and grasp control. I needed to run to the restroom after we finally exited the security in Ecuador, and it was at that point that I realized where I was. I am in Ecuador. Not for a vacation, not for sightseeing, not for trying to mark this off my "christian check list", but to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the people of this country. I realized I had been so afraid of my new surroundings that I was smiling less, being grouchy, talking less, and I knew that this in no way was being Jesus to these people so I lifted my head and walked through the airport and loaded our bus.

So you may be wondering what God could teach me in only one day? Well God has taught me alot today, but God has taught me the most over the last 4 months that has a boiled down to today. TRUST HIM! It is so easy to say that we trust God, but putting that into practice is a different hurdle we have to jump. I was scared that I didnt have time to go to Ecuador this summer and God answered. I was afraid I wouldnt raise enough money...and God again answered. I was afraid of the language barrier, and...well...God IS answering. Spanish words I did not know that I knew are flowing from my lips to help get us where we need to go and speak words of love to these people. God is my trust. I am learning....and each and everyday being stretched to trust him more. My prayer tonight as we prepare to work closley with the children at the ARK tomorrow is that I will TRUST God with everything in me. I know that if I trust Him and not myself, I can truly be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Tomorrow is a new day. Tonight we ordered pizza and will spend the rest of the evening getting our Vacation Bible Materials ready for the children tomorrow. Please pray for rest, as we ALL need it.

Also, remember, just because you are not physically here in Ecuador with us, God has put you on a mission field right where you are. I challenge each and every person that reads this blog to go out and LOVE all you come into contact with. We are in Ecuador because God has placed us here the next few days, but God also has something planned for you!

Until the Whole World Hears,

Aaron J. Zapata

Good news...

Abbey got her passport!! We are all very excited and relieved! When Abbey text me my eyes filled with tears as I saw our Awesome and Faithful creator jump yet another hurdle that seemed impossible to us! We are praising Him for making it happen once again!

PRAISE GOD!!!!

Pray for the Group

1)Pray that in everything we do we would bring glory to God. The point of this trip is to point to Him. So pray that we would not become self-focused, but that we would have our eyes fully fixed on Jesus and that we would all listen to and obey Him.

2)Pray that God teach us all something through this trip that will have a lasting focus on our lives and the lives around us.

3)Pray that we will be bold in sharing the gospel through the love of Christ with those we come in contact with while we are there. And that God would already be working in the hearts of those we come in contact with.

4)Pray that our team would be flexible, humble and that we would have team unity.

5)Pray for safe and smooth travel We are flying from Chicago tomorrow and stopping in Miami before heading down to Quito. Pray that check-in and security will be smooth. We also have a very short layover so please pray that we will make our next flight without any trouble. Then on Wednesday morning we will be riding a bus down to Riobamba. Pray that there will be no car trouble and no motion sickness as we head down.

6)Pray that Abbey Graeber would receive her passport today. Her and Chad turned their applications in at the same time and Chad has received his, but she has yet to receive hers. So pray that it would come this morning please! We all want her to go and it would be heartbreaking if she didn't get to go with us. I will be sure to let you know if she gets it.

Thank you everyone again for praying for us! We can't wait to share this experience with you! We will probably not be posting anything tomorrow because we will be traveling all day, but we will hopefully get a blog posted on Wednesday night.

Thanks!

The Ecuador Team

Julie Myers

1. Please pray for my health. As many of you know, I came back from Guatemala sick two years ago and my family and I have been a little anxious about me going out of the country again. I know that God called me to go on this trip just like He called me to go to Guatemala so I am trusting Him to take care of me and whatever happens is His will for me.

2. Pray that God would give me His wisdom as I lead this group. I will need His wisdom as I make each decision before the trip and while we are there.

3. Pray for unity for the group and pray for me to be wise in handling confrontation between team members if that unity is being broken by arguments. I do not enjoy that part of being in charge so pray that I will be courageous in a gentle way while handling those situations.

4. Lastly, please pray that I would wholly lean on Jesus. I want this to be His trip and I want it all to be for His glory. Pray that I wouldn’t get in the way by trying to control a situation, but trust that God will take care of it all. He has a plan for us and I want us to fit into His plan instead of making Him fit into ours.

Last December, God brought Ark Children's Home across my path. I instantly felt His Spirit moving in me and knew that God was telling me that I was supposed to go there someday. As I prayed more about it, I knew that God was wanting me to take a group down there on a short-term missions trip. God has amazed me as He has opened up doors that I saw as impossible! He has orchestrated this trip from the beginning. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do in and through the group while we are down there! Thank you everyone for all of your support so far both financially and through prayer! Can't wait to share our experience while in Ecuador with you through this blog!!

In Christ's Awesome Love,

Julie Myers