The beauty of Ecuador

 

Ecuador is a beautiful country with lots of mountains and volcanoes.  It was such a blessing to get up in the morning and see this view.  And our view was at 10,800 feet elevation!  Of course, the view wasn't like this every morning.  Seeing the volcano was a treat, but usually you could see the mountains at least.  

Unless the fog rolled in and blocked our view!

And sometimes the clouds looked like they were sitting on the mountain.

In addition to these views, we got to see lots of animals at Dunamis.  They weren't pets though.  Even the ones that got named, got eaten.  Boris had named two llamas after two of our church members, Larry and Toots.  Well, we got to try Toots on our trip and she was kind of yummy!

'Merica is on the right and the llama on the left was named Lee during our trip.  Who knows when they will get eaten!

Other animals on the property include horses, pigs, cows, sheep and dogs. 

Janine spoiled the dogs with treats

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We worked in four different houses this week.  One was the mission casa.  This is where we stayed and it is a very nice house.

There was a house where the girls had classes and in 2023, our team worked on fixing up that house.  The upstairs was used for movie day and jui jitsu.  It was very hot upstairs!

The girls under 18 live in Casa Zoe with their children, if they have any.  We had spa day there in addition to evening devotions.

The last house we worked in was Casa Spates.  This had the inside playroom where we watched the children.  This is also where the men were painting.  This house is being renovated to be used for girls who are 18 or over and have no place to go.  Right now, there is only one girl living there.  The men on our team worked extra hard and finished the outside of the house and the railing.

  

 More breathtaking views!

The flowers on the grounds were really pretty and the clouds were awesome

They had an outdoor grill and eating area

The greenhouses

Volcano

View from our balcony

At night, we could see so many lights from so many houses!

Our mission was important and God blesses us with a beautiful place to do it.  His glory was evident in the skies!

Community in Ecuador

 

Part of the ministry at Dunamis is to do outreach to the community.  In addition to telling them about Christ, they also talk to the children and adults about appropritate touch.  They want any child to be able to be able to find help if they need it.

We were able to spend three days doing Vacation Bible School in a nearby community.  The first day we talked about creation and did a craft where we built the world God created.  The kids loved using lots of stickers!

This one lady participated in all the fun and crafts!  She was super sweet!

We also face painted that day.  The kids and adults really liked that!

We had a parachute for game time and the kids loved it!

When we drove up the second day, children were waiting for us!  That day we talked about how God created Adam and Eve and how He wants to have a relationship with us.  Then we rounded out the week on Wednesday by presenting the plan of salvation with salvation bracelets, and teaching that we should be the light in the world.

On both of the last two days, the girls played Pato, Pato, Ganso (Duck, Duck, Goose) and the boys learned American football.  

At the end of each day, the kids got on stage and tried to teach us a dance.  It was a lot of fun and I was able to get one of the ladies to dance with us.  

Other fun activities included painting nails; and playing Bingo with the ladies.  Everyone won at some point and was able to pick out a prize of jewelry.

On Tuesday, the ladies asked us how long we were staying and we had to tell them only one more day.  There is no church in this community and it seems they really miss that.  On Wednesday, we made goodie bags for everyone.  Candy and toothpaste!  As we were leaving, all the adults wanted us to take pictures with everyone.  Then the wife of the community president told us how grateful she was for all of us and what we had done for them.  One of ladies also seemed to be telling us that too.  She would speak to us in Spanish and appeared to be very grateful and appreciative.  

Representing Look Up

Our fearless leader with his Bluey bag full of supplies!

It was definitely a great three days of sharing God's word and His love and receiving love from the children and adults who came each day.  They asked us to come back and I hope that we can!