Cayambe - An Indian Community

The day started with an hour and a half smooth ride from Quito to the city of Cayambe. The ride from Cayambe into the indigenous community was another hour and a half ride but this time the smooth road had become very bumpy (And with four people squished in the back seat you can imagine how "comfortable" it must have been). Despite the bumpiness (and the occasional donkey, sheep, cow, or horse in the road) the view was amazingly beautiful and beyond words. And the more we stared at its beauty the more the bumpiness and squished hips seemed to be completely out of minds. It is moments like these that you really wonder how people can look at such a beautiful site and still wonder if there is a God. How can they still doubt He is the creator?

The night before we left for Cayambe we purchased 30 bibles to give to the church in the Indigenous community. We purchased enough food to give to 20 families in the area. We also brought a donation of girl toys, boy toys, and cloths given to us by a local orphanage. After giving the food to 20 families and giving the donations away we munched on some food and awaited the night ahead of us. None of us could even imagine what the night was going to hold. The only thing that we knew was that we were performing at a service where all the surrounding churches would be gathered. We knew there was possibly going to be about 300 people and that there was going to be music and a message. They asked us to be a part of the program so we prepared five songs to sing. The service was supposed to start at 7 (but since we are on Ecuadorian time) it started late at 8. There was singing, drama, dance, and 4 messages. Before we knew it, it was 12 in the morning and we still had not sung yet. We were a little worried that our voices would not allow us to sing because of how late it was but God definitely got us through. The people seemed to enjoy the singing! They were even asking us to sing more songs. The service went from 8pm to 1am…5 hours of worshiping God with a kind of music we had never heard before (some songs in their own language “Quichua”). It was such an amazing experience to see how simple the lives of these people were. They had nearly nothing (as far as material items) but it didn’t matter. In a way I sort of envied how naive they were to the outside world. There was nothing to distort or distract their thinking. They love God a great deal--that is one thing that did not go unnoticed and I don't think that anyone of us left that place unchanged

Friday - Food Pantry and Day Care

On Friday we went to South Quito with Byron to bring food to fill up a food pantry which is run by a church in that area. This is the same food pantry that we were able to go to last June trip. We were able to purchase food for 20 families. The women who run the food pantry expressed their thankfulness with many tears and many hugs. They were taking pictures of everything we brought and were to excited to see us again. The pastors wife said she thought that we would never be able to go back to the food pantry. After filling the pantry we went to the church to see what it looked like. We noticed that the beds they had for children to sleep on in the nursery were very old and dirty so we decided to give the church money for two mattresses so the kids would have a clean bed to sleep on.










Later on in the day we went to a daycare in which 75 kids are taken care of. We brought toys, cloths, strollers, and much more things that the daycare needed. These are kids that come from poor families where both parents have to work in order to provide enough food to feed their family.

On thursday night we went to La Libertad where we helped out with a youth group and VBS (Vacation Bible School). This is the same place that we visited last trip (in june) where we painted the outside of the church and the inside of two rooms. How cool it was to see how the rooms are used now. The bright green room is now used for the kids VBS and the white room is used for the adult and youth group. Bre and I were able to sing for the kids, youth, and adults. It made me so excited to see all the kids and how much they have grown. Most of them seemed to recognize me and Bre and it was just so nice to be able to hold the little ones in my arms again :) It was so awesome to see that the work that we started last June was still continuing to grow. God is definately at work in that little church and Becky and Byron are doing such an amazing job with the people in the area.






During VBS we taught the kids that God is the creator of everything. We gave the kids chalk and told them to draw on the wall things they knew God had created. Some of them drew mountains, clouds, the sun, water, people, dogs, cats, etc. One little boy decided to draw on his face :) (It made me laugh because...God did create him after all!) We also did a craft with the kids where we had them make little balls with pieces of paper and they glued them onto a picture of the world. The bottom of the paper says "God created the World".

By:Danielle

If It's God's Will Then It's God's Bill

I just want to give a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who gave financially and prayerfully towards the Food 4 Puyo Project.

When Danielle, Efra and I decided in January to do this trip we only had enough money to purchase our plane tickets. We didn't know how we were going to pay for our own expenses never mind buying food for others; but when it's God's will then it's God's bill! Through the generous giving by EABC and Danielle's church family in Madawaska and the sale of Bre's CDs we have been able to do even more that we could have imagined! Jesus took our small offering and multiplied it to feed many. Let me list for you all the things we purchased to bless God's people.

$630---Food for 21 families
$300---Food for 10 more families for the Pastor to visit later this month
$100---ESL Materials & Gifts for 30 students
$250---A metal door for the Church building EABC helped built in June
$150---A special gift for the Pastor's Family
$80----One large bed for the family we met Monday morning

And that's not all......
we still have about $700 left to give away in Quito this weekend! By this coming Tuesday, the Food 4 Puyo project will have given away over $2,200 dollars!

Thank-you so much for your support; for it is better to give then to recieve. May your recieve a double blessing for the portion that you gave and may God recieve all the glory and praise.

by Alyssa

This Weeked--Elevation 18,500 Feet

by Efra

This coming Friday Danielle, Bre and I will be purchasing food for the same food pantry EABC’s team helped stock this past July. In the afternoon we will purchase Spanish Bibles for the indigenous people group we will be working with the following day.  Saturday morning the four of us, along with Byron Gudino from Isaiah 61 ministries will make the rough journey up into the mountains to visit a Quichua Indian community in Cayambe. This particular community lives off the land and they are very poor. Our team will bring them rice, sugar, and other items they usually can not afford to eat but are important for their health. In the evening Bre, Danielle, and I will perform a concert and then Byron will share the Gospel along with giving out the Bibles. The team will spend the night in whatever accommodations the community can provide. The following morning we will attend a church service and then head back to Quito for the remainder of our trip. Please pray for safety and health while we travel and spend time in the mountains. It is much colder in Cayambe because of elevation and it might be harder for us to breath. We are looking forward to helping out this community and sharing the love of God to them.  

Saturday--More Than We Expected

Saturday was the highlight of the trip for me. Everything happened so quickly but the gravity of the day will last for years. On top of bringing food to 5 families during the week, we also took time to personally invite 11 additional families to an outreach service on Saturday. That afternoon our team was running late getting to the service because picking up the fresh foods took longer then expected and we had to pick up a huge cake for our guests.

As we pulled into the drive way of the church we noticed all the children playing in the dirt and the parents waiting inside the church with anticipation. We unloaded the food into the building next door and hurried over to the church. Pastor Carlos introduced us to the families that we had not met previously and shared with them why we were in Ecuador. Bre, Danielle and Efra sang three songs that the people really seemed to like. One boy was dancing a little and a few ladies were singing along.

After the songs, a few of the parents stood up and thanked us, our church, and most importantly God for providing the food. Many seemed to understand that God had provided the food and not us (to Him be the glory!). Afterwards, Pastor Carlos shared the Gospel with the families as they ate cake; this gave us time to sort the food for distribution. Once everything was sorted we asked one family at a time to come receive their food. Everyone seemed surprised when they saw the amount of food we were giving them and they were very grateful. One woman could only get the word, “gracias” out cause she was crying so much. I was blown away by the joy that filled the air and all the smiling faces. I realized that the food we were giving was going to feed a lot more people then I had thought of before!

After the food was given out, our team realized that the some of the families could not carry the food home by themselves….SO…..we loaded as many people (and food) as we could into the back of our rental truck and took them to their neighborhoods. There was much laughter as we waved good-bye to each other. I pray that every time these families eat from the food God provided for them they will remember Him and give Him the glory. I pray that they will be filled with hope and will surrender their lives to Jesus. I think especially about the young boys and men who received food. They can be the leaders in their home and neighborhood and bring change for the better. I pray that the food we brought (that God provided) not only fed these families stomachs but also their hearts. We as a church planted the seeds now may God bring the increase!

by Alyssa

End of the Week English Party!!

On Friday, after 5 days of teaching, we had a party for our English class. This was soooo much fun! The kids were so excited! We served food (meat, cheese, crackers, cookies, cake, and soda) and played review games to see how much the kids had learnt. They learnt so much English! We were so proud of them. We also had Pastor Carlos Moyas come and share the gospel. What a cool thing it was to see how many kids wanted to know God more and how many wanted God to be a part of their life. (Soon we will upload a video of the kids praying.) At the end of class each student was given a certificate of completion, a dictionary, track, book mark, and a photo of the entire class. What was ever more awesome was when we met the director of the school in which we had been teaching. He was so excited about everything that we had taught the kids that he told Carlos that anyone from his church is welcome to go anytime to do programs with the kids. What an awesome opportunity and what an amazing open door!!

Friday

Today we visited two needy families. The first family’s story made me sick to my stomach…When we entered the house everything was dark except one room which had a full size bed in it. {Later we found out that this bed was for the whole family of 5 to sleep in.} That was just the beginning…in order to provide for her family, the mother {a widow}, works almost everyday. This leaves the oldest child {a thirteen year old girl} to take care of and cook for her three little sisters. Because she takes care of her sisters, she has only completed up to the 4th grade in school. This means that this bright young girl is not getting an education because she is left to be a caretaker of three young children all pretty much under the age of seven. This particular week the mother was gone and did not return home from Monday till Sunday afternoon. So for seven days the children were alone. This is the only option if this family is going to eat and provide for each other.

Please be praying that this family would be supported financially so that the thirteen year old girl would have the opportunity to go to school again.

The second family was an older couple…which might I add…were the cutest older couple ever. You could tell that they had been through a lot together. Their home was probably one of the worst I have seen. The smell of rotting wood and mold was overbearing. Their small house resembled what to me looked like a shack that most Americans would keep their tools, bikes, or even animals in. In order to provide for each other the lady washed cloths for people in the area and the man collected garbage in hopes of selling what he was able to find in the trash.

There were no words to describe how I felt when I saw such conditions. God has blessed me abundantly. I live in a nice house…I have all the food I need…I have a car…and a good job…How often I take these things for granted…

By Danielle

Thursday / March 12th

Today we visited a Native American family. In this family are 3 children and a mother who is a widow. To provide food for her family the mother washes cloths for people in her area. Lately, because many more people are buying washers for their homes, she is pretty much out of a job. To continue to provide for her family the mother has been cutting neighbor's lawns. {This job also makes it hard because cutting lawns is not something that most Ecuadorian families do...they are definitely not like Americans when it comes to the upkeep of their lawns.} We saw from these circumstances that this family was very much in need of food. We shared the food and explained why we had come. The pastor shared about the love of God with the family and we all prayed together. Because the mother's native language is Quechua we are not sure how much she understood because she did not understand Spanish very well...but one thing is for sure...God was present in that home...and if God wants to speak and make Himself known...then language is never an issue.

By Danielle

A new door opens

On Tuesday night we were supposed to go to a family that lived far from Pastors house. Someone was supposed to meet us at his house so we can go visit this family. The person never showed up so we had to change our plans and ended up going to a family of Indians.

This family had been to church once a long time ago. Pastor Carlos explained to the mother why we were there and she listened to him carefully, after few minutes of listening to Carlos she said she was really thankful to God because of what we were doing.

Her husband arrived, from the way he talked he clearly wasn’t a Christian but he was open to learning about God. Even though He had had bad experiences with Christians before he said he still believed there’s a God that was always taking care of us and blessing us.

The husband said he didn’t know how to read so pastor told him that if it was ok with them he could come to their house once a week and work with them and try teaching them how to read using a Christian reading course put together by a Christian institution, husband and wife seemed to be really excited about this idea so they said they would love for them to come to visit them.

Pastor and his wife will be visiting their house every Friday around 6pm to talk to them about God and teach the husband how to read.

By: efra

Wednesday-God is bigger than any plan...

The road before us was long, bumpy, dusty and would have been impossible to drive on if we had not rented a truck...The location of the family we were about to visit was nothing I had pictured. The houses in the area were all lifted off the ground so that when the rain came the house would not be washed away. The walls of the houses had spaces between each board...so that you could see the outside from the inside of the house...You can only imagine how wet it must be when it rains. The path that we had to take to get to the family´s house was made of logs (not very sturdy ones!) ....If you fell off the logs you would most certainly end up in the mud!!

On this day we set out to help one family...God had a much bigger plan though...we ended up helping 5 families. The first famliy we met with was a family of 8...living in a very small house. The mother was a widow and by her rugged stature you could tell that she was a very hard working lady!

The second family was a famliy of 4. They invited us into their home and we shared with them about the saturday outreach service. They were so excited!

We were not able to go to the third family´s home but the lady of the house was so excited to hear about the saturday outreach service and was very excited to also meet the pastor (Carlos Moyas). She expressed the need for a pastor in their area and how seeing pastor Moyas was an answer to prayer.

The fourth family was not home because they were out working so that they could provide for their family...This family´s house was like nothing I have seen before...it reminded me of a small shack...and there ¨kitchen¨consisted of a couple logs for a fire...

The fifth family was a famliy of 5 children who were alone most of the days...with no one to take care of them....


Each of these families God provided the means for us to help. How cool it is to know that God´s plan for the day (week, month, year) is so much bigger and better than we can even comprehend. What an awesome God we serve!

By Danielle

English Classes

Our English classes are going great! Efra, Alyssa, Bre, and I are definitely VERY tired when we get done with our two hour long class…who would have thought that teaching would be so tiring!? I am very thankful that God has been strengthening each one of us because sometimes I wonder how we get through the day without falling asleep standing up! Haha


The kids (and adults) are very smart! We were surprised at the amount that each person knew. I think the biggest thing that our students are thankful for is the fact that we teach them how to correctly pronounce words. The teachers here often don’t teach pronunciation—most just teach “the Spanish way” to say the words. Some of the lessons we have taught include…numbers, colors, simple greetings, body parts, and stories from the bible. We were so surprised to see that many children in the class had already heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 people. All of the children that we are working with come from poor families. We know this because of the school in which they attend. On Friday we will be having an end of the week English “party” for the kids and sharing the gospel with them. Please be praying that God would open the hearts of our students and that many would come to know our Savior Jesus Christ.

Monday Night

On Monday night we brought food to a family whose house had been washed away. Their house now consists of a tiny wood and tin shack for 4 people—a mom, dad, daughter, and her husband.

The food items we were able to bring them were a little different from what we gave in Ibarra. We gave things like carrots, tomatoes, apples, 2 types of onion, lemons, pasta, a twenty five pound bag of rice, sugar, salt, detergent, two types of soap, cheese, 10 pounds of meat, etc. They were so thankful for the little that we were able to bring that it brought them to tears. They knew and understood that God was taking care of them no matter what state they are currently in. The big blessing in this story is that the government is now helping this family build a new house. It may be a long process but God provides!

By: Danielle

Monday Morning

by Alyssa

I have been so humbled by the things I have seen here in Puyo. Over and over again I realize how ungrateful I am and how bless I am to be an American. The poor that I have seen in the US cannot compare to that which I have seen here. On Monday, we visited a mother and her three young children. The house was no more than the size of a one car garage. There were three boards of wood on the bottom half of the door to act as a child-safety gate. The house only had two rooms separated by a shabby wooden-panel wall and a tattered sheet. The corner where the sink and cabinet were held only a dozen eggs and three coffee cups. The dishes stored under the sink looked unwashed and used beyond their years. There was an unfinished table and three old plastic lawn-chairs which Danielle, Bre and I sat on. The mother told with us that she and the children share a mattress on the floor in the other room. The two oldest children were no more than four and five and the youngest was two. The mother looked tiered and the sadness that she expressed to us showed on her face. There was no glass in the large window behind her; only a sheet was used to keep the elements out. With tears in her eyes, the young mother was not bitter about her situation but adamant in sharing with us that she still had hope in God. I was humbled by her response to the difficulties in her life; I know that I would not be able to react in the same way. My heart went out to her and the many others single mothers that have been abandoned or left widowed by their husbands.

Craziness in Puyo...

The last three days have been quite busy-- the heat and humidity definitely add to our exhaustion. But God is good…We have been able to bless 8 families so far this week. Here is what our days look like…We visit a family in the morning around 9:30 to invite them to our outreach service that will be held on Saturday. We usually get back to the hotel around 12 or 12:30 and then we eat and plan for our English classes which are from 3pm to 5pm. The class definitely keeps us on our toes…We have 35 students!! 30 of them are around the age of 11 and 5 are adults from the church we are working with. After a loud, exhausting, hot and humid class we head to the market to get fresh food for a family we visit around 6:30. After visiting a family accompanied by the pastor and his wife, we head back to the hotel. This is usually around 9pm. We then eat (because there is no time beforehand)…and we plan our classes for the next day. So as you can see our days are very productive…that’s for sure!! Without your prayers we would definitely not make it through the day. So thank you!! We will continue to keep you updated as time permits.

By: Danielle and Alyssa

Transportation

by Alyssa

I want to say thank you to all of you who donated towards our trip. Originally we wouldn’t have been able to afford a vehicle but through your partnership and God’s providence we were able to rent a truck for the week.

This truck has been a great help to us; it has carried our seven large suitcases and got us safely through the mountains. We have also used it to transport the food purchased for the families. We had 250 pounds of rice and 50 pounds of sugar and much more.

The truck as also been helpful in getting to the homes in which are on roads with many pot holes, rocks and lose gravel. It is also much more comfortable riding with eight people in a truck then a small car or taxi since we can sit in back. I am thankful for this vehicle and the many ways God has used it to bless us and the people here.

Muchas Gracias!