EMT current group photo

EMT current group photo
June 2023 Ecuador Mission Team

Day 6 (June 15): From Pizza to Pim’s

Day 6 (June 15): From Pizza to Pim's


A lot of the students were really positive today about teaching. Today was the science fair preparation day. Tomorrow each class will demonstrate and explain their science projects and recite their Bible verses of the week in English. There are mouse trap cars, marshmallow catapults, pink slime, straw towers, and aluminum foil boats, among other things. 











Jolie told me a story about one of her students in the third grade (which she teaches along with Chase and Lucy) who has a learning disability that makes it difficult for him to pay attention and hard for him to connect with his classmates. His name is Samuel. He was always acting out, isolating himself from other students, difficult to teach because he wouldn’t listen. It wasn’t until Wednesday that he actually started participating. He’s really good at math and very proud of his good work. Jolie has seen a transformation in Samuel throughout the week. He has started participating in class and interacting with his classmates. Even his teacher at Amor y Esperanza told Jolie, Lucy, and Chase that he seems like a new person. Praise God for working in his life this week!





Today, Bailey started filming some of the children and taking photos of them with the cereal product that Pancho's business will sell as marketing material.






After lunch we had a party for the kids at Amor y Esperanza who are sponsored by Whitefield students or families. We gave them pizza, soda, cake, and ice cream. The joy on the kids faces when they were told they could have a SECOND cup of Coke — wow!  The way sponsorship works is someone signs up and commits to sponsor a child, paying $45 per month to cover tuition, health insurance, and meals (what a bargain)! Our students will have the option to take on a sponsored child or to sponsor a child with their family.  Encouraging a group of friends, a Bible study, or sports team to join together to sponsor a child is an awesome way to completely change a child’s life.   










Tonight we drove to downtown historic Quito to eat at a nicer restaurant called Pim’s. It’s located underneath a statue called El Panecillo, depicting the woman and dragon from the book of Revelation 12. The statue is high up on a hill overlooking Quito. What is amazing is that the lights of the city go on beyond what we can see. The city sprawls all over the valley and between the mountains. Most of the boys ordered the hamburger entitled “Her Majesty the Superqueen,” while many of the girls and chaperones followed my suit to eat something native to Ecuador: llampingachos, which are potato patties with cheese, pork, and fried egg on top. 




Susan chiming in here — giving Alice the chance to turn in a few minutes earlier tonight!  In looking at some of the photos of construction today, a song comes to mind, “There’s a house the Lord is building, one He’s always planned, there He’s laying out a table, so to feast with man …”  The Lord is building here in Ecuador.  He is working through our hands, now dry and for some even blistered from the work, through our backs, a little achy from bending and lifting, and through our arms as we carry heavy blocks and push wheelbarrows full of concrete.  But the real work is the building of God’s church, working through our hearts, to encourage Pancho and Pity, through our mouths as we teach, pray, and worship, and also through our hands and arms as we give lots and lots of hugs — to each other and to the students.  As we build the physical building here, we have a visual reminder of the Lord’s church — a firm foundation, Christ the cornerstone, on which we are now laying brick by brick, block by block, connecting with cement — just as the Lord is building us together into one Body, with the Holy Spirit as our “cement”!  We are learning to work together, play together, and worship together.  Sounds a little like that Whitefield motto, “Work hard, play hard, honor Him.” 









Mr. McCune impersonated the roosters near the construction site.




In the Lord’s house, there will be a table laid, a feast like none we have seen this side of eternity, but we have feasted here for sure!  We even have trouble getting to the bus on time in the mornings because of the delicious empanadas, hot chocolate, marmalade of various fruits to spread on the ample bread, yogurt, fresh fruit, and more.  But as we eat, we are also sharing ourselves.  We have all our tables arranged in one big square so that we are all facing in and can see everyone as we partake.  I, for one, know that I am also feasting on the Lord as He expresses Himself through the Whitefield students here — wonderful times of encouragement, hearts laid bare, and lots of laughter too.   

Cheers, peace, and grace to you all, 


Alice and Susan in Collaboration due to Brain Fatigue 

1 comment:

  1. I am so grateful that this week was full of blessings for him that Whitefield gave to the children of "Love and Hope"
    thanks

    ReplyDelete