Day 6

During Zone time at camp, Yarison spoke individually with each child about what i believe, was the shedding of CHrist blood for out sins. As i watched him sitting close to each child,looking into their eyes and explaining,i felt my heart warm. We can't talk to each other very well, but we can smile for sure Lots of that for sure. Iwas frustrated with the language barrier for sure, but each day got a little easier. Tomorrow is the day that we encourage the kids to give their lives to CHrist. I so badly desired to be part of that! Yarison is a wonderful young man. I only with that we could talk more so that i could learn about him. Mrs.N said that he was a fairly new Christian. If i was as young of a Christian as he was, there is no way i would feel as confident as he is. I admire his conviction in his faith. He wants to pass on the Good News!

For dinner, we went to Portovieho, we had been going to this one place by the beach in Manta for the first couple of meals. The restaurant we went to was owned by one of the ladies who goes to the church in Portovieho where we are holding the mane camp. We got to mee the senior pastor and his wife. We had albacore tuna for dinner, I had never had tuna that size before. It was a hunk of tuna meat almost as big as two of my fist, and it looked more like a piece of steak at first.

Day 5

Tuesday was a much smoother day. the stations were more organized and everything was set up earlier. Yarison and i had 4 kids that day, Kristina. Kristina and Sarita both grabbed my hand when we left Zone time. For me that was the highlight since i could finally feel them open up to me. The language barrier was still an issue since i hadn't really been able to talk to them outside of smiling, pointing, and the occasional "Hola Bien gracies como estas etc"

After grabbing some lunch and heading back to the hotel to change we were out the door again on our way to the Manta church. The "field" at the manta church was a cement lot. It was a little scary to play on since it was wet and there were numerous puddles.

When it came to do the warm up drills, jumping jacks, stretching etc... i accidently volunteered to do it! So the kids were all lined up to do the drills and the leader guy i assumed was going to lead and i was just going to follow his lead and be an example. He pointed to me and said something in Spanish and i could tell it was a question so i nodded my head...mistake!

Next thing i know he walks off and points for me to stand in front of the kids! I had volunteered to lead the stretches, but i had only seen them done 3 times. I didn't have anything to loose so i just jumped in and started. It was a little crazy since my mind was trying to remember the spanish numbers 1-10 and i was trying to remember the stretches. A little scary but we made it through!

After the camp was over, we played a little small sided game with the games and a couple of the leaders and that was a lot of fun. I totally juked out a older guy and all of the dads who were watching laughed like crazy!

I was really enjoying the food, the sea food was very fresh and tasty! i had lots of fish and shrimp dishes.

Day 4

Sunday night Mike had a seizure because his blood sugar dropped to low. Poor Joy was so scared and at first wasn't sure what to do. I was awake at that time and i could hear her screaming and banging on Mr.&Mrs. Newburns door. At the time i did not know hwat was going on or who was screaming, but i could feel that something was not right. Mrs.N came down the hall and was banging on Dave's door to get him to come and help them. We were all awake by then. Zach came and told us what happened. It was rather ironic that Mike had that episode since Mrs. Donna had just been talking to Mrs. Julie and i about how she was surprised that we hadn't had any spiritual warfare. We all prayed for Mike and Joy as he and the Newburns went to the ER. Mike didn't remember a thing of that night, all he remembers is that before his episode he woke up with a really high blood sugar and than gave himself an insulin shot, which he must have over dosed on.

So the next morning at breakfast we were all very anxious to hear how Mike was doing. By around 5am they had gotten him stabilized and he was going to see a specialist.

Monday was the first day of camp. Zach and i set up the fields. It was a little difficult since there were mud puddles everywhere and we had only 60 cones plus a couple that the church already had. I learned a valuable lesson, in Ecuador/latin america, time is relative...the church was not prepared for the day and we started the camp over an hour later than we had anticipated. High power soccer is a completely new program to the people at the church and half of the leaders are my age or a year or two younger/older.

Of the kids who came to the camp, about 60 are "high risk", some don't go to school, are not properly cleaned and dressed every day, family life is anything but ideal, and 13 year old girls are getting pregnant.

Yarison and I started of with a group of 3 kids, Jose Luise, Misiel, and Sarita. i helped run the drills for the kids. During the Zone time, bible stories and small group time, i felt a little awkward since i didn't know what was going on. I talked with Maria and tow other teen shwile the kids were playing the games after the zone time. I can usually get the general idea of what they are saying to me. The next day (tuesday) we were scheduled to help run another camp in Manta, a busy busy day!

Day 3

In the morning (Sunday) we went to two different churches to promote high power soccer camp.The first church was large and open literally ad super hot! It was basically a warehouse. The nest church we went to was the one that was holding the camp. I saw Yarison again and i said hello. Next we went to the beach...i was so excited! Before we hit the beach we had lunch, i ate entire whole fried fish, it still had its eyes and YES i did eat the eyes! The beach was so crowded because of Carnival, basically a national mardi graw that last for four days. Joy and i both got sprayed with colorful foam, think silly string but foam. It was loud wild and crazy!We walked up some stairs so that we could see the entire beach and all i could see was brown bodies and black heads.

At the two different churches i had no idea what the pastors were saying or what the songs ment, but that only made me realize just how amazing this experiance was. Two completely different cultures coming together to worship one god. My heart was filled with wonder as the thought came to me "Different songs, but the same ardent worship of the same God....AMAZING" I was feeling all emotional and it brought tears to my eyes and an ache in my heart.

The woman of the group had really taken me under their wings by that point, i had three moms with me! hahaha I could hardly go to sleep that night because the next day we were going to be running the camp, i prayed that the kids would see the Lord's love for them through my actions and my smile, as i wouldn't be able to tell them since i didn't speak spanish.

Day 2: OOPS!

We had breakfast at the mission house and then went for a walk. What i had thought was the slums of Quito was in reality the middle/upper middle class. As a form of barbed wire they would stick large pieces of broken glass into wet concrete on the top of walls and let it dry. They had it all around a children's daycare/school. I was apauled by that thought. It was interesting to try to get everyone's luggage sorted out since the carry on could only be 10kilos i think and the wuitcase had be like 20 kilos. i had put all of my stuff into another suitcase and put some balls and towels in it. the plane we took to Manta was much smaller thankfully the flight was much much much shorter. We had time for one beverage service than it was time to go down.

When we stepped off the plane in Manta. I literally gasped out loud. Words do not even begin to describe just how hot and humid it was! It felt like if i rubbed my fingers together, condinsation would fall! WE put our luggage into a little red truck and on top of our massive can and got ready to depart for the Hotel Orlando. Its interesting because we always have a driver to take us places. Thank goodness as well because driving out here there is crazy, people are just speeding around packing into truck beds and driving like maniacs. The city of Portoviejo reminds me of the pictures Dad took while he was in the Philipines. Graphitie on the walls men in tank tops majority of the houses out in the country were split bamboo shacks and so forth. Compared to my suburban bubble, this was totally alien. I saw a mom holding her child infront of there tiny house, with clothes hanging on a line it was open and dakr and for some reason that broke my heart. I though that if any of the kids who were coming to this camp live in those kinds of condition than i have to somehow communicate wit them to tell them about Jesus's love for them. I can't help them by giving them a better home, but the least i can do is help them is make sure that their sould is taken care of.

I was very worried about the language barrier, the coach who i was paired with barely spoke english and i spoke zero spanish. Yarison! I really hoped that i could connect with the kids even though i didn't speak the language, my heart longed to help them know the Lord and to make the connection. I remembered that if you put your cares into the Lords hands he will put His peace in our hearts.

The big OOPS moments was when you greet people at least among the young people like myself it is ordinary to give them an air kiss. I wasn't aware of that! Zach and i were playing soccer with a couple of the teens from the church and when the guy left he came up to me and said something in Spanish and leaned in toward me. I stood like a dear in teh headlights for a second and then it clicked in my head. I completed the move but at that time i didn't know htat it was and AIR kiss so i actually kissed his cheek.... I didn't find out till later that what i did was incorrect. Very embarrassing!lol

Day 1

Woke up at 4am to go to the airport, well actually 3:45 because my body woke me up because i was so excited! WE made it to the airport in no time at all and when i saw how many bags we had i was shocked 300 balls! I got the window seat and i sat next to Joy and Mike. After an hour layover in Houston, we began our final leg of our journey to Ecuador. I was a little nervous when i had to fill out the visitors VISA, since i didn't want to mess it up and give the wrong information .

When we landed in Quito we saw the Lord working almost right off the bat. The airport people wanted to charge about $1500 to import the balls into the country. Dave tried to explain to the customs people that the balls were not for sale but were to be donated to the kids in Ecuador. Dave pulled out one of the balls and showed them the word of God and the 10 commandments, everything changed after that...they waved the charge! The next day Dave realized that the bag of balls was the one that the church had prayed over.

We reached the mission house just before 11pm i think.

Culture Shock Story #1

Well i will not be posting about each day yet...but i thought it would be fun to give a little snap shot of the culture.

WATER

Yeah so i probably drank 80 bottles of water while i was there. We are not supposed to drink any of the water that is from the tap. I mastered the art of brushing my teeth with only two mouthfulls of water!haha

Sorry!!!!!

So the hotel we stayed at did not have a computer because it was stolen. And the internet connections was SLOW/non existent... This trip was an eye opening experience and i can't wait to tell you all about it....tomorrow/when i get a chance. As of now i have homework to catch up on, clothes to wash, and a shower to take. ( i think the hotel we stayed at may have had bed bugs...)

Just borded the plain to quito...im so excited!

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Time to turn of my phone...houston here i come!

Yes i got the window seat!

Leaving for the airport...SO EXCITED! (and sleepy)

6 hours!!!!!!!!

My flight is at 7am, i have to be at the airport and ready to go by 5am, so i need to be up by 4am, thats only 6 hours from now! Crazy Stars! I can't believe that it is almost time, i got out of the shower maybe 10 minutes ago and my hair is still in a towel, and 6 hours from now i have to be awake and getting ready to head out the door. Awake meaning my physical body is moving, my brain will most likely still be in dreamland. Downloading music to my 1st generation Zune for the plane ride, this thing is a brick and is perfect for traveling i'm sure nobody is going to want to steel it since it is SO old and this thing has been dropped countless times and has been submerged in water to!

T minus 48 hours!

Wow i can't believe it, less than 48 hours till take off! It feels like only yesterday when i was heard about this trip...where did the time go?

I have been trying to cram as much school work in as i can before i leave so that i don't have to think about it while i am gone and be able to focus solely on serving Christ in Ecuador. Also, i've been packing...now that has been an adventure! I am going to be taking only a carry on suitcase and a personal backpack thing.(Thank you Aunty Joy!) My suitcase is stuffed to the gills with clothes and other essentials and it barely zips closed. I have serious doubts whether it will fit into the over head bin!

I am not sure what to expect out of this trip...will i come back a completely different person or will it be just the same old me?I know i won't be exactly the same...i just wish i new what the Lord has in store for me!

Cuban food

Went to La Casa Del Mojito for dinner tonight with the rest of the team and their families.Our group of approx. 15 took up practically the entire place. It was a very small but it was cool to be able to see the cook in the kitchen making the food. Poor guy...so many people to cook for so little time!

I get the impression that they eat a LOT of plantains down there since they were served with practically everything! I ordered the Lechon Asado: Slow-roasted marinated pork, topped with sauteed onions,yuca frita,tostones and congri. Very tasty!

Updates

This past Sunday the team discussed some of the finer details of our trip. We will be running one camp for about 250 kids, fortunately we have had over 280 balls sponsored at this time! Dave Newburn gave us a quick run down on what our trip is going to be like.

We have a 7am flight on Friday Feb. 12, from Seattle to Quito Ecuador(yaaaay early morning!) We won't land till about 10:30ish. We will most likely stay at a mission house in Quito. The next day we will get to do a little sight seeing around Quito before our flight leaves for Manta.

The next day(Sunday) we are going to go to the church that is holding the camp. After meeting with them to help tie up any loose ends, we are get to go to the beach!!!!!!! very excited for that!

The rest of the week, monday through friday, is devoted to the camp. We have to be up and ready to go by 7am so that we can be at the church by 8am to start set up and go over the agenda for the day. After camp, we get to help with tear down and clean up.

On a couple of days that we are going to be there, we will be helping out at another soccer camp being put on by another church.

Saturday and Sunday we might go sight seeing, in the area there are several towns known for their wood carving and leather goods.

We will return home on Sunday evening! busy busy busy!

YES!

Just found out that i have now raised all of the funds i will need for my missions trip to Ecuador!!!!!!!!!!!! Super excited and there are only 4 more weeks till i leave!

Wow it just hit me, i'm leaving for Ecuador in only five weeks! Where did time go?

WOW!

I just added up all of the generous donations that i have received up to today and wow it has really added up! As of now i have a grand total of $1240 dollars! I need a total of $2080 by January 23 (the deadline was pushed back) and words cant describe how excited i am that i have been steadily moving towards that total with your help!

As of January 1st, the team has sponsored a total of 63 balls! We still need to have 437 balls sponsored before January 25th....o boy!