Even the Stork in the Sky knows her Seasons: a lesson in service in Quito.

Well we’ve been in the Capitol city of the country of Ecuador, Quito, for a few days now and I don’t really know what I was expecting but this place is just incredible so far. Even though I have been having a great time here one of our team members had to be rushed to the emergency room. Apparently since our teammate Helder had enema and was used to living at sea level in Brazil when he came to Quito (which is 9200 feet above sea level) he got violently sick because his blood was getting enough oxygen and his spleen enlarged to the point where we thought he was going to need emergency surgery. One of our leaders took him to our next destination and they’re going to wait for us to join them there in a week. It was scary and there was a lot of praying involved but God was faithful and he didn’t need surgery and didn’t need to go back to Brazil; which were very likely options. Last week in Chile the majority of our work was outreaches to school and interacting with people but this week’s work is more “practical” you could say. This week we’re all we’re doing is painting… a lot . We’re painting the entire church that we’re partnered with and for 8 people it’s definitely a week long job. Something that I love about the pastor of this church is that he believes that as missionaries our first goal is service. He told a story about how he wanted to tell this tribe in Peru about how much God loves them but he said he couldn’t until he built them a bathroom. Service needs to come first and then the words will follow, our actions will always speak louder than our words and that’s a comforting thought when you feel like you can’t use your words as well as everyone else can.

I’m not complaining though, you don’t need to speak Spanish to paint and I feeling more useful this week. I’m also understanding the Ecuadorian Spanish much better than the Chilean Spanish which was something I was hoping for. This blog entry is more on the lighter side, I’ve been feeling really blessed since I got to Ecuador. I’m praying that this keeps up and that I don’t forget why I’m here since the family that lives next to the church that are chaperoning us are taking us to do so many fun things. Not only are they making us delicious traditional meals, they’ve arranged for a different family in the church to prepare us dinner every night. They’ve taken us to colonial center of the town to do some sightseeing and to do some shopping for authentic Ecuadorian clothes.

Something that has been blowing my mind since I came here is how cheap everything is, and its even weirder since the Ecuadorian currency was changed to the US Dollar back in 1999 or something. In the United States if I saw a dime on the ground I may or may not pick it up considering how far away it was but here is Quito (which I’m guessing is the most expensive place to buy stuff since it’s by far the biggest city in the country) that dime will buy you a pack of crackers and two of the best tasting bananas you’ve ever eaten. I feel like I’m in the 1960’s or something where pennies still buy you stuff, today I bought an authentic alpaca handmade beanie and little alpaca wallet for 5 bucks!

The house we’re staying at has WIFI so I was able to upload some pictures and some terrible one-take little videos. I’m feeling a little like a tourist this week but I’m chalking it up to blessing from God, and also that this week is a lesson in the importance of service that we need to carry with us for the next 2 months :)

Ecuador from 22,000 feet.

We’re living in some apartment above the Church we’re partnered with and if you walk down the street a little bit this is the view of the Quito you see.

Paint, Paint, Paint, we’re definitely not lacking work to do here and even though it’s taking up a lot of time you only get to see two pictures of it because pictures of people painting are pretty boring.

This is my own personal little slave who I make bring me snacks whenever I get tired from painting, and if he doesn’t hop to it I grab him by the ankle and hold him out over the roof.