January happenings

I figure it's time for an Ecuador update for all of you. I've been back exactly 1 month now, yet I must say that it feels like much longer! So much has been going on, that if I included it all, you'd never finish reading my email. Basically we've had big activities every weekend, with little activities all week. For example... 6th grade class retreat.

We took the kids to camp, and then out on a boat to see the dolphins. We saw quite a few, swam in a bay off an island, and also had some good conversations with our graduating students. Pray that our students turn to the Lord, rather than away from Him, during their middle/high school years.

Then it was off to the mountains with the school staff to celebrate almost the end of classes. The crisp mountain air, ancient Inca ruins, and good times together were a great way to end the school year. Our school work is not done however, as we continue to plan and make big decisions for the upcoming school year. It's a great privilege and responsibility to be part of this work, and is completely sustained by God and many of your generous donations. So thank you very much, from all of us at Hope of Bastion School!!

Two wonderful friends got married the next weekend! We had a great time sharing their day with them at their camp wedding, on the beach. Ceremony-food-beach... great time! 2 weeks later, they're about the happiest couple that I've ever met! It's been nice to have them as an encouragement when we get hit with disappointing news. The day before their wedding, one of the girls that I have been investing in for the past 2 years told me that she's pregnant. So sad to see her follow the footsteps of her sisters, and not God's plan for her life. I know it's not too late for her to make good decisions with her life, but everything's going to be a whole lot harder now.

Our students graduated this week and Eddison played his saxophone for the event. Today we finished up the process of getting him a scholarship to a really good high school that has a band and orchestra. I'm so excited for this kid!! The other picture is of our lovely Lenny, who's mom tragically died a year ago, and was missed at her graduation.

Please pray for us as we're off to camp on Sunday for a week of teens. I'll be counseling for that week. After that, I'm heading to the jungle community of Onzole, where I'll be helping my friend Nikki translate for a work/camp team that's coming down from Canada. After that, I'll go right into VBS that we're still in the process of putting together. Our VBS will end with an exciting event...

Operation Christmas Child!! Yes, a little late for Christmas, but the boxes just came in, and we're going to use them to jump start a new ministry in "Block 8", a poorer and highly drug influenced community about 20 minutes (walking) away from our church & school. Picking up the boxes was a story in itself, picking them up in a sketchy part of town with bad directions, loading them into a truck with no way to tie them on so a neighbor on a bike bought us rope, driving home in the pouring rain at 30 mph, becky noticing the break lights through the downpour and mentioning it to the driver so that he too might slow down, and finally becky breaking off the truck's windshield wipers and her and the driver manually sticking the wiper out the window to give it a swipe, effectively preventing a crash. Good work! We got our 110 boxes safely stored away without too much wet-ness.

If you're still with me, thanks for reading! Please pray for camp season and our Block 8 VBS. A team from NJ will be coming to join us for March kids' camp and I'm very excited about that!! I'll be doing the messages that week and the next and appreciate your prayers for that as well!! Pray that kids will trust Jesus as their Savior and that others who already know Him will be motivated to live lives pleasing to God.

the P-word

Dare I say it? Dare I express it this way? My first unwanted pregnancy. When that little boy handed me the doll and said, “This is my aunt’s secret”, I didn’t believe him. I looked at his aunt, a young, Christian girl, just finishing her 2nd year of high school. All children are a miracle, a gift, an amazing creation of our God, but why her? Why now? Why why why???
“No,” I said. “It can’t be true”. She nodded her head.
“Don’t joke this way with me!” I practically shouted. “I don’t believe you!”
“It’s true.”
I don’t think I’ve ever felt these emotions before, all at once. This girl who I’ve invested in for the past two years, who I’ve loved, trusted, and believed to have a future different from her brother, sisters and parents before her, has given in. The normalcy of a teenage pregnancy in this neighborhood is as if you say to your neighbor, “I bought a new pair of shoes today.” But I truly believed it would be different with her. She promised me. I feel betrayed. I feel defeated. I feel like I messed up. I didn’t do MY job with her. I’m sad. I’m angry. And she knows it. She also knows I love her, and that I’m praying for her. God, PLEASE, rescue my dear girl from this cycle, this entrapment. Restore her relationship with You, and give her wisdom in raising the new life that has now begun.

A Month of Blessings

Sometimes blessings are subtle, sometimes they smack you across the face, and sometimes they're just so unique and creative, that only God could have put the scenario together piece by piece. I've been in the US for exactly 1 month now, and as my time nears to an end, it's nice to be able to look back and be thankful for what God has already given to me this Christmas season. Let me share with you a little...
* Right after Thanksgiving, I was able to fly out to the UP (Michigan) and see family.
* Generous gifts for Ecuador: a new laptop, sponsorships for school and camp, toys for our school store, clothes for friends... and the list continues!
* Reconnecting with friends is always a highlight!


*Have I mentioned bagels??
* So I guess I better consider my 6 extra pounds a blessing as well!
* Shopping with mom
* Praying with Jonny
* Church in English
* Thrift stores & speaking Spanish
* Valley Christmas parties, parties, parties!












* I was able visit one of our students from our school in Ecuador who recently moved to Brooklyn! We went to AWANA at Evergreen Gospel Chapel, and I hope she get's plugged in at that church.

* Speaking of NYC, I've been blessed by SAFE (and extremely comfortable) public transportation. Wow. No one scared that their 1997 Nokia cell phone was going to be robbed...
*Along with the continual shock of comfort and safety in the US comes the banking experience. US Bank experience: free cup of coffee and a cookie, walk up to the teller and do what you need to do. Ecuador Bank experience: Guard w/machine gun and a 2 hour wait...

So, all of that to say, I've really enjoyed and appreciated my time at my US home. I'm so thankful for time to be encouraged by my family and friends here, as well as getting special emails from Ecuador and knowing that I'm missed there. It's extravagant that I can call 2 places, 2 countries, 2 continents, 2 languages, 2 communities HOME, and my God, that supplies all my needs, is constant in both of those homes.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor 13:14) as you celebrate this season. Merry Christmas!!

October in Ecuador

So, what's been going on in October? I hear that leaves are falling, pumpkins are being picked and snow is predicted up in NJ! What's up with that?! As usual, life is different on the Equator. We're just finishing up our 2nd trimester at school, and we've been very busy. We had our 2nd Mom's Presentation or "Tarde de Mujeres". We had a better turnout this time, with about 50-60 women! These ladies below were the leaders, the faithfuls that come every Monday to the meetings. We've been going through the Dobson Parenting videos, and the Moms are really enjoying it.

Hm I can't figure out how to turn this picture! Sorry. Turn your head or computer please. This is a house that we visited on Kindergarten visitation day. One room house with a bed in one corner and a stove in the other. The oldest girl doesn't go to school (her mom has never signed her up), but came to camp this year and trusted in Jesus as her savior!! Her little sister started school with us this year because their neighbors (a good friend of mine) did all the work to register her.

Speaking of school, we recently went on a field trip. Now, the teacher in me thought "what is educational about this???" while the missionary in me thought, "THIS is what kids should do!"

Have you ever seen kids having so much fun on a see-saw? They played and played in the park before the bus took us over to the water park- basically a jungle gym placed in a wading pool.

The kids had a blast. I remember playing in parks with my brothers as a kid, and I'm glad our kids could enjoy a morning of fun with their friends. We had them all paired up, little kids with big kids, and it was so cute to see the older ones watching out for the little kids.

And finally... the bachelorette party!!

My roommate Lili announced a month ago that she's getting married! After that shock wore off, she announced that it'd be in 3 weeks!! We threw her a quick party at my house with some of her family and friends. We played "The Game of Things" and drank punch that all the Ecuadorians thought was alcoholic cause they've never had punch before (but it REALLY WASN'T). Now the first big day is upon us. We'll accompany her at the civil service this morning and her church wedding is tomorrow! I love how everyone has helped get everything together to make a great wedding for her, and it's been done all under a month. Lili's been very busy, but happy and excited. That's how wedding planning should be done!

Poor is Relative

The other day a little girl asked me, "Erin, you like to help the poor, right? When I grow up, I want to help the poor too." This little girl grew up in a bamboo house, uses an outhouse, and slept in the same bed as her parents until she was 6. When she talks about the poor, she thinks about other family members that have less than her family and that her family tries to help out. It’s an attitude of gratefulness, and not of entitlement, that should be present in all of our lives. No matter how bad we have it, someone else has it worse! Goes the other way too, doesn’t it? No matter how good we have it, someone has it better!

Speaking of having it better...

Sometimes life in Ecuador can be tough. Sometimes it is just absolutely amazing!! We got a little glimpse of amazing when Nikki, Janna and I drove down the coast and saw some humpback whales! Apparently they travel up from Antartica every year to have their babies off the coast of Ecuador in July. Then, in September, they head back down south! There weren’t that many out there, I guess because it was the end of the season, but we saw a few shoot air out of their blow hole, and had a really wonderful time.

Mom's Visit! focusing on the good...

I just dropped Mom off at the airport. So sad. It was SO fun to have here here with me!! I have to be careful how I phrase the description of our time together because of the incident. I won't say any more about it, since it's still pretty traumatic to describe. Feel free to read about it here. So, how was our time? Being with my mom was GREAT! We also did a lot of fun things. We did normal life and special trips. Here's a little picture show of our time...

Mom delivered some birthday presents! Thanks Aunt Mary Ann from Jose! He LOVED his new clothes, cars and sunglasses!

Mom and I went to the mountains! Below is the city of Cuenca, where we enjoyed beautiful views and had fun exploring. The altitude, 2500m or 8202ft is pretty impressive, and we might have experienced a little altitude sickness. Should've had those coca leaves to munch... ;)

The cool weather was beautiful!!

My Bastion friends treated Mom well! She got a massage at one house and a manicure at another! As well as some delicious food...

The Fruit Loop story:

Eddison won $100 in a race. He told me that all of that money went to his family for food, and mentioned, "I just wish I could have bought Fruit Loops. I've never tried them, and I bet they're good." $100 and he just wanted Fruit Loops! And there was no money left after the family essentials. After he helped me in my garden one afternoon, I gave him a box and he was ecstatic! Later that day, he told me that he finished the whole box while doing his homework. Love that boy!!

I've started a new incentive program in my music classes. Students who behave earn stars. 5 stars= a private piano lesson. This was Felix's first lesson. He was excited!!

Mom loved this 13 day old baby (Aunt Mary Ann, she's your sponsored boy's new little sister). Pray for her mom, Flor, who's having some complications after the C-section.

Oh yeah, I know what I'm doing!! I had the privilege of using Nikki's Vitara for a week and I'm proud to announce I now know where the radiator is and how to check for water, as well as drive in traffic and stop on hills with a stick shift in Guayaquil. Could not be prouder!!

Don't you love walking down the street and getting attacked with a hug that won't let go?

The COLORS at the market are so beautiful. These women next to my mom listened to us speak English and then spoke to each other in Quichoa (language from the mountains)

A Visit With a Friend

I just got back from visiting my good friend, Noemi, in Block 8. I must have lost 3lbs going up and down those mountains to get to her house, but maybe I put it back on in the generous lunch that she served me. I got to her house, and found her nephews (with her daughter, on the right) sitting at a make-shift table outside her tiny house.

Noemi is generous and compassionate. Talking to my brother last night about the pair of spiritual gifts of mercy and evangelism, I was struck by the thought that these must be Noemi's spiritual gifts! She seeks out creative ways to talk to her neighbors about the Gospel. She's always ready to do a Bible study with someone and, while she doesn't feel confident on her own (being a relatively new believer), she's a willing instigator and helper. Besides her concern for her neighbors' spiritual needs, she's very aware of their physical needs as well. She considers herself very blessed in her tiny, 1 room "half-house" with the outhouse bathroom, and wants to use her resources to bless her neighbors. When a 17 year-old mom of 2 kids knocked on her door and asked for her left-over chicken bones to feed her hungry kids, Noemi split her recently bought groceries with the young mom. Today we brought the family more groceries and talked with them about Jesus.

Again, I was struck by the thankfulness that people have for God and His provisions. Even in this house full of kids, where putting meals on the table is a difficult task, the mom/grandmother praised God for His faithfulness. Noemi considers herself truly blessed, where as any North American would question her means of survival. Now, it looks like her husband will be laid off next week, so please pray for this family and for God to continue blessing them physically, emotionally (thankfulness!) and spiritually.