Babahoyo Day 1

Wednesday morning, after only getting 3 hours of sleep, I woke up at 5:30 so I could be ready to go to group prayer and devotions at 6.  After that we had breakfast and loaded up the bus to head to Babahoyo!  It was about an hour and a half ride or so and the bus didn't have AC, but for now it was morning time and it wasn't that big of a deal!  Once we got there, we went straight to the hotel, and Pastor Ashley told me to handle getting the rooms taken care of.  Here's the thing, I do know some Spanish, enough to communicate what I need, but the problem is that when you say a little, anyone would assume that ohh that person knows Spanish.  And so then the fast motion questions start flying.... All along here's me 😨 uhhhhh yo no se what you are saying to me.  Thankfully our translator Miguel was listening in and saved me from complete frustration and utter embarrassment!

After that we went straight to a school where the Peruvian team we are teaming up with was already in the progress of doing a program.  The leader of their group, Edwin, came out and quickly explained a skit to our group and made them jump right in for the second program at that school.  Lets just say we hit the ground running!

Babahoyo is not the safest place in the country, but God miraculously provided for us.  We had four police escorts stay with us all day long!  Never in my life have I had police escort me in country while on a missions trip.... I had a security guard in Haiti, but this was full out police force there solely to watch over and protect us!  It was cool and a little nerve racking at the same time! Lol believe it or not, I really didn't feel anxious about it at all.  I knew we were covered!

After we ended the programs at that it at school, and the students had left, all of the police officers came forward and received Christ as their personal Savior!!! They said the program had effected them so much and they could feel God tugging on their hearts!  It was the coolest things I've seen!  Then they even started helping us talk to the students and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ!  It was just really neat, God is awesome like that!!

Then we went to lunch and had rice and liquified  mashed potatoes, and meat of some kind, I think beef.  It was good but I really couldn't eat that much because by this time it was HOT and HUMID outside and I just wanted to curl up in air conditioning!  Wait a sec maybe the bus ride will give us some relief..... Hahaha just kidding remember no air conditioning??  We were like inside a sauna on that thing!

Anyway, that doesn't matter because live were brought into the Kingdom today!  After lunch, we went to the church we are working with and practiced dramas and tried to mesh up some of our stuff with some of the Peruvians stuff.  It was fun to see all the different things we were bringing to the table.

After that we went to another school which is known to be where some of the toughest kids go to.  We were suppose to do four programs at that one location, but they ran so long we could only do two.  There were a lot of breakthroughs happening in people's lives and it was a great experience.

After that, we went back to the church and had to do drama practice for Heaven's Gates and Hell's flames and eat dinner on the fly!  After all was said and done I got back to the hotel around midnight!  I think I got about 4 hours of sleep last night which is an hour more than the night before so hey that's an improvement!

I will fill you in on the rest in the coming days!  The days are so long and it's hard to right everything at one time.  Keep praying for the team!  Tomorrow is Saturday and we have a huge VBS we are doing and I am teaching the bible lessons and making sure the whole thing runs smoothly!  So sleep would be a wonderful thing, but apparently it's overrated! Lol :)

The Road to Guayaquil

We are in full speed ahead mode!  The teams arrive tomorrow and there is a lot to do and time keeps ticking!  I took the time today while I was in the car to type out a great blog about the trip here and what we've been doing since, but as things would have it, it disappeared from my phone!!! Ahhhhhhh so anyway, I'm gonna try my best to sum it up quickly!

We split the drive up into two different days, which was a great decision on the Penley's part!  The first day of driving was full of wonder and exploration of God's creation!  We went to volcano Cotopaxi and drove right up to the snow line which was around 15,000 ft this time of year(apparently, this is their winter, or as close to winter as you can get on the equator)!  The wind was whipping up there and pummeling dirt and tiny stones against the truck. So of course, I had to get out an experience these gale force winds! I thought the wind was gonna sweep us right off the mountain at one point but it was totally awesome!

That whole day was amazing because after we got done there God decided to show off some more and he revealed the larger volcano peak in Ecuador to us at sunset.  Apparently, the mountain is usually covered with clouds and it was as we approached it, but as we got closer and as the sun began to set, the clouds have way and revealed this majestic beauty....

Pictures really don't do it any justice, but I'm telling you God was showing off and it was a sight to behold.  We are already driving along on the ridge of a mountain and this thing soars above everything else!  It just kinda makes you stare in awe that God did that and that we get to experience it!

That night we stayed in the most beautiful inn that was within view of that volcano and I was on cloud 9 all night long.  It was like I was being doted upon by the most high King that whole day!

Well, as it often goes, when you go up, you often have to come back down.  The next day started off gorgeous and winding through the mountains, but as we approached Guayaquil the scenery changed and the mountains faded and gave way to banana field after banana field after banana field (True fact, Ecuador is the number one exporter of bananas I'm told... I can see why now!!) Miles and miles and miles (or kilometers as they measure distance here) of banana trees!! It was crazy!

Guayaquil is towards the coast, and boy you can tell it is towards the coast!  The humidity in the air, the bugs, the dirt, everything about it screams "you're not in Quito anymore!" Which is fine.  It has it's own beauty, like the sun reflecting off a rice field (or bog?? I'm not sure what you call it) as it sets in the distance, or the groves of tall banana trees that trail as far as the eye can see.  The people here are different too, it's like a Southerner in the U.S. taking a trip up North.  Different environment, different way of life.  People speak faster here, (it's hard enough to understand in slow motion, put it on fast forward and I'm lost...), they drive crazier here, and so far they seem to try to pull one over on the Gringos more here.  All in all though, they are still people who need Jesus and that's what we are here for!

I think I will leave it at that for now.  Once the teams arrive there will be more to tell about, hopefully I will continue to have some Internet access!  I'm looking forward to watching the teams learn and grow during this time.  I pray that God will open their eyes and show them the things He wants them to see, that He would break their hearts for what breaks His, and that they would leave here forever changed and having forever changed the lives of the people here who come to a saving knowledge of The Lord!

Puerto Quito

I have been very busy and tired, so blogging has been hard to commit to the last couple of days!  I will try to catch you up though....

Saturday we went to a town called Puerto Quito.  It is in the secondary jungle zone, so the climate and vegetation are much different than what I've been seeing in the mountains here in Quito.  In fact, we dropped over 2500 meters in elevation just in our 3 hour trip there!  That's crazy yo!! (That's for you Dad-Day😉) Anyway, it was an awesome drive and the transition from mountain vegetation to jungle vegetation was quite abrupt!  I couldn't get any good pictures from the car, but I'm telling you pictures wouldn't have done it justice anyway!

We went down to Puerto Quito with a local pastor from Quito who is trying to get two church groups started out there.  There are no evangelical churches out that way, so the Penley's are helping him once a month bring a service to the people of Puerto Quito.  There are two locations they have started ministering to so far.  So there is a morning outreach and then an afternoon outreach.

Both locations are at a local government run school, so it's kind of neat that the very same schools the government uses to control what the kids learn and where they can attend school, are being used on the weekends to bring the Love of Jesus to a community desperately in need.  Some of these people have never even read or seen a Bible.  So when you refer to a passage from the Bible they have no idea where it comes from or even where to begin looking for it.

So this Saturday, we did some worship, Pastor Ashley preached a message, there was a kids program, we provided lunch and gave away a bike and some other things, and we also brought in some bibles and other material that will help them to learn and grow in their walk.  The idea is that they will begin digging deeper with others in their community and start building a church in that way, until they can get someone on a full time basis out there to pastor them.

Overall, 10 people accepted Jesus into their hearts that day, and at the second location four people, who had already given their lives to the Lord, were baptized in the river!  It was a great day, a very long and itchy day (lots of bugs), but it was a great day, and most importantly 10 people accepted Christ that day!!

Here are some pics from the different locations...

Going in to the first location (sorry it's blurry it was a bumpy ride!)

The first school we went to...

Praise and Worship..

Kid's session...

Then it was off to location number two.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take the truck all the way in, so we parked and carried all of our stuff in... :)

Bridge #1 (yikes! 😰)

I had to carry a big bag of sugar plus a backpack in! (Let's just say, heights and I don't mix very well, especially on a swinging wooden bridge held together by rope.... But I did it!!!!!)

This is the path that led to...

Bridge #2 (a bouncy metal bridge, yay...)

But we finally made it!  After the outreach we went down to the river, and this is where four people were baptized 😄

Afterwards, everyone jumped in and it turned into a big party!  People brought food out from nowhere and passed it around.  I drank sprite from the same cup as 30 other people!! Haha fortunately, I was smart enough to realize what was happening and accepted the cup as like the third person, that way I wasn't at the end of the line! All in all, it was a great day, and I can honestly say, I wouldn't have experienced this back in the States!

Tomorrow we leave for Guayaquil and the teams fly in next Tuesday, the next few days will be even busier preparing for them!  Thank you for keeping us in your prayers as we prepare to dive full force into 3 full weeks of nonstop ministry!!

Beauty For Ashes

"To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory."

~Isaiah 61:3

About 7 and a half weeks ago, a really close friend of the family was in a horrible motorcycle accident, and wasn't expected to make it.  He fought strong and held on, and many of you joined me in praying constantly for him and his family, and I cannot thank you enough for that.  It is with a heavy and much saddened heart that I tell you that Jeremy passed away this morning (June 5).

I am at a loss for words.  I don't even know how I currently feel.  I know I am sad, and so confused, and upset that I am not even in the country right now to be with my family, and to be there for the Taylor family.  I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through right now.  I know that Jeremy is in the presence of our Lord right now, and that he is getting to celebrate and rejoice with the One who created it all, but it doesn't change the fact that there is sadness and mourning happening here in his absence.

So my prayer is that there will be beauty for these ashes.  That the mourning would be turned to rejoicing and that God will make the Taylor family like those great oaks that He has planted for His Glory as it says in Isaiah 61.  I pray that God's glory and goodness would become evident to all.  That even when it seems there is no purpose in this, that God's mercy and kindness will become evident.  And as Jeremy literally rests in God's eternal embrace, that our souls would feel that same embrace and know we are His and He is ours!

Please keep the Taylor Family in your prayers through this tough time, and thank you again for all of your support and prayers over the last couple of months, keep them coming!

As far as Ecuador goes, things are gearing up for the teams that are coming down in about a week and a half.  There is a lot to do and we have another outreach this Saturday.  There will be plenty to talk about in the coming weeks for now I will leave you with a picture of the clouds rolling in off of the mountains.  One of my favorite things so far about Quito is seeing God's Beauty unfold right in front of me.  I love getting to watch clouds develop and move in off of the moutains.  One second it's sunny and the next second clouds are swarming in from nowhere..... Hmm, that's kind of like life... Funny thing is, no matter how many clouds are out you know the sun is still there.  You can feel it in the warmth of the air, you can see it through the breaks in the clouds, and even if the clouds completely block it out, it seems to be able to make its way through and still shed light on the Earth.  God is the same way with us.  He's always there, always reaching out, and always wanting to shed His light on us.  His love is there for the taking, we just have to be willing to reach out and grab it!

Sleepless Nights

So as promised, here is the next installment!

Ibarra was a long and tiring weekend, but lots of memories were made!  We had about 30 young people come out who were there to be trained for college ministry!  The idea is to get them starting their own cell groups (we call them small groups in the States) and reaching out to their own campuses!

We met lots of great people and got invited to lunch and dinner every day by the pastor of the church we were working with.  I found out that in Ecuador(and I'm pretty sure all of Latin America as well), whoever does the inviting is expected to pay unless a previous arrangement was made.  In America, our assumption is we are paying for our own meals separately when someone invites us out, unless by the grace of God, your friend decides to pay the bill for you!  It was very humbling to accept that notion.  Here the pastor of the church was paying for all of us, shouldn't it be the other way around??!

We also met Alejandra who is the pastor's daughter.  She grew up in church but never wanted to have anything to do with ministry since her father was in it.  Back in October, lo and behold, God spoke to her and told her He wanted her in ministry, in specific to be a pastor!  So here she is 7 months later, training and helping to run things at her father's church.  She's 29 and it was so cool for me to see her at this stage making life changes and chasing after God sized dreams!  In my book, she is a lion chaser!  She could have ignored what God spoke to her and simply brushed it off or put it on delay, but instead she dove right in and tackled the challenge head on.  I'm re-reading "In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day," and Mark Batterson puts it best.  He says, "how we react when we encounter these lions will determine our destiny. We can cower in fear and run away from our greatest challenges. Or we can chase our God-ordained destiny by seizing the God-ordained opportunity."  Alejandra definitely seized that opportunity and God is doing great things in her life because of it!

The scenery was once again gorgeous as we were in and around Ibarra, here are some more pics....

Here are the kids hanging out in a tree

Here is some of the local food we have been enjoying (Lunch and dinner are huge here, not so much breakfast)

And here we are all smashed in the back of the truck on a 4 hour trip through the mountains! (There's no seatbelt law here lol)

So now to get to the part that the title hints at.  Sleeping in a hotel in the middle of the city is not the most ideal.... I wish I was not such a light sleeper, but I'm not even sure Marquis would have been able to sleep through this... And if any of you know Marquis, you know that would almost be an impossible thing to imagine!  The music was turned up loud and the neighbors were battling between the sound waves to see who would win out and overtake the other.  The dogs barked and everything echoed through the tile floors, walls and ceilings of the hotel.  Insulation?? What is that?? I wish I could say God miraculously allowed me to sleep through all of that, but He didn't.  So instead I prayed and then whined to God and then prayed some more for the people we met and the things we were doing, and then unfortunately whined some more..... And finally around 3 or 4 am things quieted down a bit and I was able to get a few precious hours of sleep.  Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend, and tonight I'm 100% sure I will sleep well in the comfort of my own bed, in my home away from home!  Tomorrow we will rest and maybe journey up to the Volcano! Yay!! :) For now I want to leave you with this additional thought...

"When we don't have the guts to step out in faith and chase lions, then God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him." -Mark Batterson

So what lion are you chasing today?

Ibarra

On Wednesday, we hit the ground running!  There were lots of errands to be run and lots of things to prep and pack for the college ministry workshops we would be holding Thursday thru Saturday.  Traffic in Quito is kinda like traffic at Crossroads during the busiest parts of the day.  There was lots!  Also, malls are big around here.  They are everywhere.  Supermarkets are also big, but who needs a supermarket when you can get all your fresh fruits and veggies from people walking the street and selling their products as you drive by.  You can get a huge bag of oranges for $1, can't beat that!

Ecuador uses the US dollar everywhere so that has been a huge blessing that I don't have to exchange currency.  You can get a meal for around $5, at least so far I've been able to!  Also, it's rained every afternoon so far (aka 2 days).  Today, it was rainy all day as we traveled North through the mountains to get to Ibarra (pronounced E-bar-a with a rolling of the r).  We had to drive through Otavalo as we made our way to Ibarra.  Otavalo was one of my favorite places the first time I came to Ecuador so it was great to be able to drive through it again!

The countryside is beautiful with rolling mountains, lakes and streams.  It was just hard to see all the beauty with all the rain that was happening.  Here are a couple of pics from the drive up here while it wasn't raining as much:

 

And another...

See why I love Ecuador so much?!! :)

Tonight we had a three hour workshop with some local college students.  The Penley's want to build interest within local university students so that they will go back to their school and start up small groups of their own where others can be discipled.  Tomorrow night we will hold another workshop and then Saturday we will have several workshops and breakout sessions.  With all that being said, I'm definitely exhausted and ready for bed!  Hopefully I can get another update to you in the next day or two!  So far I've been impressed with the wireless Internet access here!  Thank you all for your continued support and prayers :)

The Adventure of a Lifetime Awaits!

I made it!  I have arrived in Ecuador!  It was a very long and tiring day, but I'm here and I was welcomed with hugs and smiles and chattering up the wazoo! It was such a blessing for me :)

Out of the three flights I took to get here, the last one was the most interesting.  The other flights were completely packed and it was quite a sight to see me shoving my carry on in the overhead bin. It was just a little too full, haha, but I was determined to not have to check that bag so with a few good shoves and some determination, it was safely nestled in for the trip.  Only it got worse when it was time to retrieve my bag from the overhead and people were waiting for me to wrangle it out of there.  If you know me, you know I hate attention, especially if I'm "that person" who is holding everyone else up.  Needless to say, I succeeded in getting the bag out and it probably wasn't nearly as bad to everyone else as I was making it out to be in my head!

The last flight was less crowded and I got to spread out some more.  I met a sweet young lady named Carmen and she was headed back to her home country of Colombia, after she spent a few days in Quito with some people she knew.  Lo and behold I found out she had been staying in the States for a while, in different places, and one of the cities she stayed in was Cary, NC!! How crazy is that?! So we had lots of interesting stuff to talk about.  

The flight itself was one of the most turbulent flights I had ever been on!  I mean at one point the plane must have hit an area of low pressure because the plane literally dropped straight down for a second or two and everyone lifted out of their seats, I only to slam back into them when we got lift again.  Luckily, our seat belts were on since the captain had turned on the "fasten seat belt" sign a few minutes earlier.  I wasn't expecting an amusement park ride at 30,000 feet in the air, but it was memorable to say the least!

At the end of the flight, Carmen and I followed along with the rest of the crowd and tried to figure out customs and immigration together.  That was the part I was most worried about, and would you know that God sent someone to sit beside me on the flight who was fluent in English and Spanish, and who was just as worried as trying to figure out customs as I was!  Together we made it through and then parted our ways, but it was a sweet reminder that God cares enough about me, that He would send someone to help me through customs and immigration, even if I could have figured it all out on my own.

When I walked through the exit doors, the Penley's were waiting open arms and just as excited as I was, if not more!  Rylee and Aiden tackled me with hugs and then the catching up began.  Rylee and Aiden started catching me up immediately on everything that's been going on, and Amelia quickly joined in!  I loved it :) Aiden wanted me to catch him up on like the last 3 or 4 years in Raleigh, and let me tell you that little guy has a memory like no other.  He was telling me things I had forgotten about and asking me to fill him I'm from there.  Haha I did my best but I'm sure I left out some stuff since my memory is nothing like his!

All in all, I am so thankful to be here and I can't wait for the adventure that is in front of me!

This is a picture from the window of the Penley's living room :)