Cumbaya Day 1

Wow! What a CRAZY past couple of days it has been. I am finally here, snuggled up in my bed in Cumbaya with one full day under my belt. For some of our team it was not so easy getting here, but more on that later.

As most of you know, last week Ruthie was at the MK retreat and they finished that up yesterday morning. She told me it was an amazing time, they made a lot of new friends, and saw God work BIG TIME. A lot of the kids even came forward to say they felt called to full time missions just like their parents. So great! As for me, I had an amazing week in the GORGEOUS Glorieta, NM with none other than my favorite VINE STUDENTS. There will be a post on that coming soon, but I just have so much to tell you about Ecuador that it will have to wait! I definitely saw God working in the lives of the students at camp, though, and there were some huge burdens lifted off a few of them. One night, a girl got up on the hot seat and simply said, "Tonight I have realized that my chains are gone and am no longer held down by my sin and insecurities." WOW. Such profound words and a huge concept to grasp! Can't wait to tell you more.

Ok, now what you've all been waiting for..........ECUADORRRR!!!!

As soon as the bus pulled in Saturday morning from camp, I headed straight home to do laundry and repack because I only had a 5 HOUR turn around time. (Keep in mind we drove all night on the bus) My parents and I left Love Field around 5pm and safely arrived in Ft Lauderdale, rented our car, and got a GREAT nights sleep! After sleeping in 'til 11, we grabbed a little chili's and started towards Miami. We thought we had plenty of time so we started driving down the road right off the beach just to see the sights a little bit. That is when we received the call from Matt Poe (cue the duh duh duh music). He told us that their flight had been cancelled due to Volcanic Ash. Uhh.....WHAT??? This news kinda freaked my mom out a little bit, but we were on a different flight and a different airline than everyone else. Ours ended up not being cancelled and we got on after many calls to my uncle, who is a pilot, just making sure we weren't going to fall out of the sky, and we didn't! Praise the Lord! Our friends on the other hand were not so lucky and they had to spent the rest of the day and night at a hotel in Miami, then left at 6am this morning. 

So, this morning, those of us who had already arrived (all the people from the MK retreat, my parents and I, and the Earleys) set out to do a little PR for the week. Basically, the biggest thing we are doing this week is going into a little community called Las Marias and putting on a Vacation Bible School for the kids and any moms that want to come. Obviously, we needed to let them know we were here, so we printed out some flyers and hit the streets! We had translators with us and they pretty much did all the talking with the people we saw, but I was definitely trying my best to understand what they were saying and throw in a few words here and there with my, all I've taken is Spanish 4 and not since Freshman year, Spanish. When we got back to the community center, we realized that there was a little issue. Someone had left a sink on last night and there was about 1 and a half to 2 inches of standing water across the whole place we are supposed to have VBS in tomorrow. Everyone just jumped right in with trying to get that water out of there. Even some of the kids grabbed a broom and helped out!

Audrey doing her thaanng.

This is Danino!

Danino and Anthony. They were too funny!

Lovebirds. With their gender appropriate brooms.

David got into a little squabble :)

Waiting for the bus to come pick us up with everyone else!

After all the flyer passing out and squeegeeing water, we anxiously awaited the bus to come back and pick us up with the rest of our team who had finally arrived! We headed back to the hotel for some delicious PB&J for lunch, did a little intro session with all the translators and everyone, and then headed back to Las Marias to set up for VBS! Once we got there we set up pretty quick and a lot of kids came out to play with us. They are all so cute and full of energy.

Las Marias

Gangs all here!

Matt telling the kids to bring all their friends tomorrow because they are going to have the best week EVER!

Praying over the community and our week.

The last thing we did today after eating dinner at the super nice brand new mall was sort through all of the clothes we brought with us to donate to the preschool and dance ministry we will be going to later on in the week. We had A LOT of stuff to go through but we finally got it sorted and stuffed into age appropriate bags to give to each child we meet!

At this point we were all getting PRETTY tired. 

Now I am just finishing up this post up and ready to go to bed! (you wouldn't believe how long it took to upload those pictures on this WiFi) I can't wait to get VBS started tomorrow and see God really reveal himself to some sweet kids and moms. I ask that you guys pray and believe with me Ephesians 3:20-21 tomorrow and all throughout the week. It says. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." I am SO GLAD I serve a God who never leaves my side and whose Holy Spirit is with me AND inside me! What great power he gives us. I pray that he would give me and the rest of the team here this week strength and courage to BODLY spread the message that Jesus loves them SO MUCH that he came to Earth and died on the cross to save them from their sins and he DESPERATELY wants to have a personal relationship with them. I hope so much that the people here will get a grasp on that this week.

We appreciate your prayers so much so PLEASE do not stop. We start VBS tomorrow at 9:30am and it goes until noon so anytime you think of us during that time we would love it if you could lift us up in prayer to the Father.

Either Ruthie or I are going to try to post every night so keep checking back for more stories and adventures! 

Hasta mañana!