Before the medical brigade I went to Manta, a city on the coast near Chone. My friend’s family lives there, she is back in Cuenca going to college.  She had a long weekend so we decided to go with her grandparents to visit her family. It was a great mini-vacation. We spent time with her family and got to lie on the beach a little bit. I met my friend’s sister, she is great. We got to Manta on Friday morning and I left Manta Sunday afternoon headed to Chone with my friend’s dad, the pastor of the Manta church, and some member of the church. The trip was not too long which was nice and with the windows open it wasn’t too hot. Manta and Chone were both very hot and pretty humid. It reminded me slightly of being back in GA.

I had such a wonderful time on the medical brigade. It was an experience I would not have traded for anything. There was a group of about 16 doctors, total we had a team of about 30. The main point of the medical brigade is actually not to bring medical health to towns but to help jump start a church plant. The Manta church is planting a church in Chone and the medical team’s presence brought a lot of recognition to the plant. After the people see doctors they go straight to the evangelism room. There are people from the Chone plant and the Manta church available for people to talk to and to teach them about God. On Thursday night after the last official day of the brigade they had a meeting open to all the people affected by the brigade. Between the first two days there were about 50 people who received Christ into their lives. I am not sure what to total amount was at the end of the week. Thinking back on the impact the medical brigade had, I am in a slight state of awe. It did not even really hit me until halfway through the brigade that we really were helping. I had a small part in the whole event but I am so glad I got to be apart of something so impacting. I worked everyday in triage.  Let me tell you, that is a busy place. This is where you receive all the patients and get their blood pressure, weight, pulse, temperature. Also you get find out what is wrong with them; that was my job. Now I am nowhere near being fluent in Spanish but I had to use my limited knowledge to figure what was wrong with them. That was an interesting experience. These people love to talk, they would tell me every little problem they had and how they got it, and basically their whole life story. I would love to hear all of that if I had the time, oh and if I actually knew all of what they were saying. I did a lot of nodding, and smiling when appropriate, that week.

The medical brigade was made up of about 16 or 17 doctors and nurses; about 5 or 6 of them were surgeons. Starting Monday morning the doctors received patients. The work day was from 8:30am to 5:30/6:00pm with an hour break for lunch. There were doctors of all traits, family practice to cardiology specialists, to surgeons. I had no idea what these people could do on a brigade. Some issues were very small and were treated with some pills. Others were solved by surgery. The price of a surgery was dependant on how much the people could pay. These doctors and nurses worked so hard and gave their time and effort, basically for free. I know the people of Chone were so thankful for their services, heck I was thankful and I was not event a patient.

I am so happy I was able to serve such a wonderful organization. The people on the brigade had a huge heart for people. I am blessed to have been able to work with them. Global Health Outreach is a great organization. I will never forget this experience, from the adorable little kids to the pictures of surgeries shown to me by one of the surgeons.

The past few days have been busy. Though I have not started working at the church or the orphanage, I have been exhausted at the end of each day. Let me tell you, listening to Spanish all day is tiring. Your brain is working overtime trying to understand a different language and that take more energy than usual.

Let me back track a little. On Friday a couple came down from New Jersey to check out Ecuador. They left this morning. Even though we only spent three days together, feels like we have known each other forever. They are a wonderful couple. But I digress. On Friday I spent the day running errands with Deanna. We picked up the couple and dropped them off, we went to buy her boy’s uniforms, we picked up the couple and dropped them off again, and we went to store after store.  We were away from the house all day long. By the time 7:00pm rolled around I was pretty ready for a rest. We stopped to get Chinese for dinner and let me tell you, it took a while. We got home eventually and ate dinner. The ministry Deanna helps with, SOS. It is a ministry that deals with hurts and hang-ups. I was going to sit in on the meeting but there was actually a meeting for Manos, the out reach ministry, and it was a younger group so I sat in on that instead. Luckily there was a girl there who spoke English. She is one of ten students from Taylor University that came down from a semester abroad. After SOS Deanna, three of her friends and I went driving down town. It is about 10:15pm by this time. I was not sure if we were actually going to go somewhere or we were just taking a drive. By 11:00pm we where back at the house drinking coffee (well hot chocolate in my case). So there we were five women sitting around talking (me mostly just listening). After all that rambling here is one of the things I really wanted to talk about. Women. No matter where you are or what language you speak there is something great about hanging out with women. The atmosphere is almost intoxicating. There is nothing to compare it to in my opinion. I loved just sitting there listening to them. Of course it helped when one of them would translate, but it wasn’t necessary. That night I got to be about 12:30 or 1:00, I cannot really remember. It was a great night though.

Saturday brought a whole set of events. The family and I took the couple from Jersey to the Foundation, the radio station, and the Orphanage. While the couple and the boys were at the orphanage I went with Deanna and her friend to buy school supplied for Brandon, Deanna youngest son. Let me tell you, that was a process. After that I went home and took a glorious two hour nap while the gang went out. I was also able to take my first long hot shower, key word being long. I also did some laundry and homework (yes Spanish homework).  It was a good relaxing day. That afternoon Deanna, the wife of the couple, some of Deanna’s friends and I went shopping at one of the markets. It was funny because half of us would be glancing around but pretty much constantly moving forward. The other half were stopping every two seconds, sometimes without the other half noticing. I love how you can categorize women shoppers in two main groups; the pursuers and the stop and analyzers. It is great. After shopping we went back to the house and Deanna’s two brothers came over along with the older brother’s wife, son and Taylor student who  When we got back the men where about to play poker, so naturally I decided to join in J OK so maybe not naturally, but it seemed fun. I last a while but eventually lost. Which I completely expected, I am not the most knowledgeable player. The fist game ended, I cannot remember who won, and we paused for dinner. After that we decided to play for money. It was a three dollar buy in, that’s all. It was Jeremy, Deanna’s older son, Deanna’s two brothers, the Taylor student, and I playing. I was convinced I would last maybe half the game. By 1:00 am I believe it was only three of us left. Deanna’s youngest brother, the Taylor student, and….me! I couldn’t believe it, but I was in last place. I went “all in” thinking I was going to lose and let the two guys finish. Well, that didn’t happen. The tides changed and at 2:00amish it was down to the Taylor student and me playing. At 2:30amish…I won! I couldn’t believe it!!! I think it was the first poker game I ever won, and it was for money. Not that it was that much but it was kind of cool. It was weird taking money from people from no reason, but I guess I earned it. I truly believe I won because I asked for a miracle. That was the end of the night.

The next day was, as it always is, Sunday. I still cannot sit through a meeting without a translator, but the message was great. After church the family, the Jersey couple, and a friend of Deanna’s went downtown and visited the Cathedral in the main square. It is beautiful. The couple from Jersey loved it. Then we headed over to Deanna’s parents house. There we ate lunch and had coffee and talked. Deanna’s Dad and a couple other pastors got home around coffee time. They had been at a pastor’s retreat all weekend. I loved sitting around listening to them talk. Luckily they all spoke English as their native tongue, so that is what they speak when they are together. Only half of the time they were talking about God or the church. The other half they were talking about random things. But when you are around people with that much wisdom and life experience, and experience in the Kingdom of God it is just nice to soak it all in. It is evident that they all spend time with God and are truly working at doing His will. Some are more corky than others but theirs hearts are all in the right place. I cannot imagine ever getting tired of sitting and listening to respectable pastors who are living out God’s will for their lives. It is the same in the States. When you get a chance to be around pastors you take it, whether it is the just sit and listen or have a lunch. They are opportunities that you never want to pass up. It not only a great experience for you but it is also great because that pastor is making time for you. Pastors are some of the busiest people, so when they make time for you or invite you along some where you take it. I hope I get more opportunities like that in the future. There is so much to learn, I do not want to miss a bit of it.

I believe I have rambled long enough about only three days of my life.

Take Care

Tomorrow I start Spanish classes!!! I am very excited. Today I went to the language institute and tested to see what level of Spanish I am at. Beginner, if you were wondering. I know a few phrases, but that is about it. The instructors were very sweet. I am excited to work with Grace. I hope her name reflects her personality because I am going to need lots of grace while learning Spanish. Learning new languages has not been my strongest skill in the past. Pray that changes.

Today I also met with Gustavo. He is over all of the staff at the church. If you are from or are familiar with C3 Atlanta, he is the Jeff Kane. We discussed what I will be doing for my three month stay. He listed off many possible areas I could work with including; the radio station, the orphanage, the Foundation (the hospital), and the church. He also mentioned working with the youth. All of these areas seemed great to work with. For now I will be focusing on the church and the orphanage. The church needs help with administration. They have a great base foundation but hopefully I can use some of my knowledge to make it more efficient. They listed out many areas that need to be fixed and I mentioned some things they did not have set-up. Between our two lists I am going to have a lot of work to do. I can’t wait! I might be asking some of you in ATL questions, so be prepared. If you love me you will help me . Don’t worry they wont be crazy hard questions, just some basic ones about what you do for C3.

Up until this point I was not sure what I was going to be able to help with. I wouldn’t say I have one great skill; it’s more that I know a little bit about a lot of stuff. This worried me a little because I thought most missionaries had a specific thing they were bringing to the “mission field”. I am definitely not a singer or musician of any kind. I have not danced in forever. I am not a naturally gifted speaker. I was worried. After this meeting I was reassured. I knew I was going to help in an area that they actually needed help in, not just an area they could use me. I really think I will be able to use a lot of the knowledge I learned during my second year of SOM here. It gave me a better view of how C3 is run. With that knowledge I can help fit it to the Verbo culture and make their lives run a bit smoother. This is a big project, but I am ready for it. I hope I can do what they need. It is time to work hard, and then play hard.

Thank you for reading. Take care

I hope everyone is doing well in the States! I just arrived in Cuenca yesterday everything is going great so far. The people here are so welcoming, even through the language barrier. Tomorrow I am going to take a test to gage my Spanish knowledge, which I know is very little. Then I am starting classes on Wednesday. I am excited to start learning the language. Then it will be easier to connect to the people. Enough with what is going to start tomorrow, now to my travels.

WARNING: A lot of rambling is about to begin about my travel. Be prepared

I left for the airport on Saturday Aug 29th at around 2:00pm. It was an easy ride, which was good because my nerves needed to settle down a little bit. My parents and I got to the airport and thought it would be smooth sailing from there. We were wrong. When checking in I was informed that my return flight was cancelled. The airline cancelled service to Guayaquil starting in September. Who cancels flights without informing its passengers??? I was going to be stuck in Ecuador!!!  Luckily our representative called a few different people and got me a return flight on a different airline. This process took about an hour and I still had to go through security. I was getting nervous at this point because I did not have that long before my plane left and security can take a while. This time though I was lucky and security was a breeze. The gate was easy to get to and all I had to do was wait. That was an interesting experience. Nothing crazy happened, which I was grateful for, but it was weird sitting in the airport knowing I was leaving my family and friends for three months. I know it is not really that long but I have never been away for that long. Sitting there I was nervous and excited all at the same time. I knew I was going on an amazing adventure but I was going alone, traveling to a foreign country by myself. I knew God was going to protect me and that this was his plan for my life, so I was reassured. I remembered to trust him and it was all good. The time came to get on the plane, no hassles there. I did get a whole row to myself, score! I could lie across and watch Star Trek, the movie that was playing on the plane. It was a great movie by the way; I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. The ride was pretty fast, only five hours.  I landed in Guayaquil and went through customs. That was one of the parts I was dreading but it was actually very easy. I finally located my bags after wait forever at the baggage claim conveyer belt I saw them in the corner sitting there. Silly me did not think to look for them over there. Now here comes the fun part. To leave you have to walk through this set of sliding double doors, and as you do you see this huge crowd of people. It was insane. I knew who was picking me up but I did not see them anywhere. I was searching for signs. Nothing. I made my way out of the crowd and waited. Silly me did not write down the phone numbers that were given to me by my host family. The only number I had was for a pastor in Cuenca. I was waiting for a long time. I knew that the family picking me up was there but I just didn’t know how to find them. This very nice lady offered her cell phone. She called to pastor in Cuenca and left a message. She even gave me her cell number just in case. After waiting a while longer I people picking me up found me. They were so sweet. I found out that the pastor in Cuenca got the message, called his daughter, and then she called the people picking me up. That is how they found out I was at the airport. The ladies helped me with my luggage, even though it was super heavy. Then they took me to a cafe to me their families and some other friends. Also at the cafe were three guys from California, staying Ecuador for missions work. After a while of chatting with those who spoke English I went to where I was staying the night. The family I stayed with was from the church. The whole family was so nice. They showed my how everything worked, put on some Hill Song for me to listen to, and made me a great breakfast in the morning. I went to church with them the next morning. I got to see some people from my last visit, which was really cool. The worship was great. I love how no matter where you are you can always worship. I had no idea what the songs were saying most of the time, but I could still worship. The Holy Spirit was still present. I could still praise God. It was great! Shortly after worship I had to leave to catch my plane to Cuenca. The oldest son of the family I stayed with took me to the airport and helped me get everything sorted out. After saying goodbye to him, I was off to security then my gate. The plane ride was quick an easy. Thankfully the Cuenca airport was very small and I could easily get my luggage and meet Deanna, the lady I am staying with. After the airport we ate a great lunch at Deanna’s parents. Then later that day we went back to her house and I unpacked and rested.  Unpacking was…interesting. It was weird to unpack thinking about how I am staying here for three months of my life. When you think about it three months is almost nothing in comparison to the rest of your life. But these three months is different. These three months is going to change my life. I am counting on that to happen. I cannot wait to experience new things, learn a new language and a new culture. This is all so exciting, I can barely handle it!

Thank you for being patient and reading my rambles about traveling. I will write again later, who know what about.

Take care.