Ecuador- Dreams, family meals, and concerts

6-11

I did not sleep well at all last night. I  couldn't stay comfortable for long. My sunburn forced me to lay on my belly and face. I kept waking up every few hours and my pinky and ring fingers would be asleep from the way I was folding my arms.  Once I finally got going today, I was happy. We met up in Nigeria with Pastor Caluca (sp?). He told us that he would be out of town tomorrow and asked if one of us would preach. We assured him that one of us would teach.  We then went on for house visits. Sheri and I went with the pastor and  Eric. We took alot of blood pressures. We saw two pregnant women and were concerned to find that their blood pressures were very high for anyone let alone a pregnant woman. We also stopped by and visited the woman with the Conjestive heart failure. Her entire face lit up when she saw us.  She had been improving which was so encouraging to see. The pastor also took time to pray with her and encourage her.
After a few more houses the pastor decided a break was in order. We all headed back to the Nigeria church and sat around as he asked us questions about our families, or dreams, our thoughts. I have been so confused and torn since being here that my answer was not a very good one. All I could tell him was that I want to do what Jesus did.
  Then he told us his dreams, and the story of how he met his wife. It was so cute. He is a very energetic and expressive guy and his wife is very quiet and meek. It was cute to hear him talk about how he tried to win her over.
If you ever get the chance, it is worth listening to a Latino man talk about how he met his wife. The passion that these men have is crazy. it is always one of those "I saw her, had to have her, pursued her tirelessly until I got her." kind of stories.

After our rest we headed to the house of the man who was our driver. He has such a sweet spirit and it was obvious that his heart was very wrapped up in working with us. Sometimes he would walk around Nigeria with us just because.
He had invited us to eat dinner with his family. So the large group of us all invaded his house, and naturally a bunch of his relatives showed up also to meet us.  We were served a huge plate of pollo, a huge helping of arroz, and an advacado which I passed on to someone else to eat.
I felt like I could pass out at the end of this meal.
We then did check ups on the family. The whole family, including the relatives who had stopped by. The whole family had such beautiful spirits. We then prayed with the family before leaving.
I was bordering on a food coma and fighting with everything in me just to stay awake.

There was a reggatone concert at the church tonight that one of our friends performances and he invited us. Not like it would be easy to miss considering we live there, but still he made it very clear that he wanted us there.  US girls sat in the blacony and watched the sanctuary fill up with students. Andres found us and I went downstairs with him to be with the excited youth.  He tried to get me to dance but I lack the confidence to completely let loose, not to mention I was still exhausted.

I did dance though, and talk with Andres. I was surprised to hear him tell me that he may not be able to translate for us the last week. I asked him why but he just said he would tell me later. He never did tell me that night.
I have a feeling my heart is going to break in more ways than one when I leave Ecuador.
Near the end of the concert I met a girl who was so excited to meet me. She said it has been her dream to meet an English speaking girl from the states. She was so excited and started introducing me to al of her friends. I cannot even begin to explain how excited she was,and her excitement made me very excited too! Why do I have to leave this place????

6-12

It is wonderful having our present home filled with people and noise on Sunday mornings. I went down for first service with the rest of the team. After worship I sat with Andres during the sermon while the other girls were doing some sort of preparing.  Right after service we headed out for Nigeria. Jen,Manaal and Andres led worship. They sand a few English songs that were translated to Spanish, then they asked the congregation to teach us some songs. Livre lead some songs and was so passionate about it. It was unbelievable, and way powerful. Jen then spoke. The topic was God using using our weakness to show His strength. Each member of the team also shared a story. I had a story planned, then  after hearing Jen speak I realized that my story needed to change, so I had to wing it. It went very well I think. Jen did a wonderful job and the team all had good things to say. After service we headed back to our Guayaquil home. We ate, took short naps and then returned to Nigeria for house to house visits.  We saw alot of high Blood Pressures. I feel so blessed to be here doing what I am doing.

After our Nigeria visit we prepared dinner and had some good heart to heart talks. In the middle of our talks the phone in the kitchen rings. It was a call telling us that Marlon was ready for us. Marlon was one of the guards who just so happened to have an infected bite on his knee that was full of pus. We, being caring motherlike medics, offered to drian it and dress it for him. We left our prepared food in the kitchen un-eaten and ran downstairs to the patient. Manaal was so sweet and gave Marlon a sucker to keep him calm during the procedure. haha! I'm surprised by how well my stomach did as I cut open the blister and cleaned the pus out. GAG!
When you are in those situations it is different. Like Manaal was explaining to a lady in Nigeria today about EMS work; when you see the injured person you almost don't look at them as a person but as more of a problem that needs to be solved. We drained, cleaned and dressed it nicely for him. We then ran back up the two flights of stairs to our waiting dinner.  Near the end of dinner our phone rings again. It was someone asking us to come down and play soccer.  We decided to go watch but concidering our full tummys none of us were eager to play. We met up with some of our friends at the soccer field next to the church. Checho, Sara, Andres, Marcel, and a handful of other familiar faces. We sat on the bench and watched the game. Manaal was asked to play with a girls team and being the brave girl she is, she played and well at that.  I sat on the bench enoying these wonderful people, thinking to myself that life could not get any better, but it did. A guitar was brought out and the whole group broke out in song. My heart was so happy that I couldn't even sing. My heart felt like it may explode. We sat there for a few hours until Manaal was done playing and people were getting tired.  

Once back in the church we checked on Marlon who had played a bit of soccer in spite of his infected knee. He was really feeling the pain. His knee was throbbing and his body had chills. We kicked back into medic mode and started telling him to ice and elivate his knee, then ran upstairs to get him ibuprofin and ice, then ran back up the stairs
again to get the guys some water.  Finally we got to go to bed and it was WONDEFUL!!!

Ecuador- New places, more food, and google translate

6-10
(I am so sorry about the lack of photos. Manaal was our photographer at this point)

Can I love my life more?? This morning we headed out to a new area, Ceraceta. This place was such a huge contrast from Nigeria and ever Guayaquil. This was more rain forest like rather than the slums or the city. we arrived to find a huge group of children assembled and waiting for us. We did not expect to find this. We brainstormed and quickly came up with some skit ideas. We did a skit about  how  germs are spread. Then Jen narrated a skit while she had kids volunteer to act out the different parts.
We had only a small amount of time with the children so we did the two skits and before the children left and we set up a small clinic.
Manaal and I saw patients at one station (with Andres translating), Sheri had a station (with Eric translating) and Jen ran pharmacy and anything else that needed doing. Manaal and I made a great team. I took the lead with some of the patients and was very relieved to find that I really did know what I was talking about. We saw many patients of many different ages. Again, most people had a simple flu or needed to drink more water but meeting with them was so special, if for no other reason than to simply meet and connect with them.

We were served a huge meal in the middle of our clinic time. A huge plate of rice, potatoes and tuna. I ate everything on my plate
but regretted my overfull tummy right after. We took a short walk to see the area right after lunch. I really loved this area.
The houses were built on stilts and I wanted to move into one right away.

After our walk, it was back to the clinic.
We met  a man from the area who was 105 years old.  He laughed and joked with us and told us some of the history of the plantation.
We were welcomed so warmly into this community.

*This story is about to become more interesting*

On the drive back to the church I was able to talk with Andres again.
I really like talking to him. He has such a good heart (and a nice face).
He told me I should move to Ecuador, but I just couldn't see how that would work.
He then told me that he would come to Ethiopia with me and be my bodyguard. He then offered to help me pay to go there. I just told him to save his money  and move to the states. We talked more about our families and just different ideas on things until we got back to the church.

Once we get back to the church Manaal starts making some pasta.We gave two HUGE helpings to the guards downstairs. Then we ate a huge amount of of the pasta ourselves. We were so stuffed and ready to clean up the kitchen when in walks Christian and Victor with a whole rotisserie chicken, plantain chips, a salad, and a doughnut. We told them to call the other two boys up and we would eat then. We all sat around the table eating our second dinner of the night. Us girls were trying to force enough chicken into our bodies to not appear rude. (the chicken tasted wonderful though).
We started feeling the language barrier so Jen and Manaal pull out their laptops and pull up Google translator. With the help of google translate we were able to communicate with each other. We laughed so hard. The translations are obviously not perfect which just added to the humor of it all. It was beautiful.

(I wrote this right before bed so the tenses are going to change)

My tummy is beyond full now. We are winding down now and I am looking forward to tomorrow. I never want to leave this place.
Thank you Jesus for how much you bless me.

Ecuador- Frozen yogurt, sunburns, and long talks on the beach *sorry I have no photos of these days*

6-8

WE had this morning off. We slept in and then did some needed things. We walked off in search of a lavanderia to have our clothes cleaned. We had to do some exploring to find it, and somehow we managed to communicate  with the owners to have our clothes cleaned. We walked to the mercado and did a shopping. We hauled our bags of groceries back to the church then walked off again in search of something frozen.

We had to spot at one point and, in our very broken Spanish, ask for directions. Our search was a success in the end. I got a fruitilla frozen yogurt and 2 pan de yuka. Best treat ever.

On the way home, we stopped for empanadas and bought some chocolate ice-cream for the church security guard.

Our evening in Nigeria went so fast. I worked with Sheri and Andres. It was a really wonderful evening in Nigeria. (I'm not sure why I didn't journal more today. I must have been tired.)

6-9

Today was our free day. We headed out nice and early for the beach.

We left the church at quarter to 8. We got a ride to the central bus station where we met up with Eric. (Andres met us at the church)

The bus ride to the beach was about two hours long. The beach was beautiful!!
We rented a little cabana and sat about enjoying ourselves.
I have never before been to a beach like this where vendors come right up to you and try to sell you things.
We were served a lunch on the beach and even had a man with a guitar play and sing for us.
There were pelicans flying around and swooping to catch fish.
Every now and again the fishermen would pull in the HUGE fishing net and bring back hundreds of perfect fish with it.

I also got to spend some time really talking to Andres and getting to know his story. We sat on the sand looking out over the waves. He is a pretty quiet and mysterious guy, so to have him open up to me so easily about things that were tough in his past was really a cool thing. It was great to see how much Jesus has really changed his life too. SO great!

I wish I could have stayed at the beach forever. It is a good thing we didn't. I got so burnt!
My face turned all pink, and my back and shoulders were so red.
This happens everytime I go to the beach no matter how hard I tryto keep up with the sunblock.
The bus ride home was difficult. It was so long and myhead was spinning with so many thoughts.
I was so happy to  to be back to the church and about to go to bed.

Ecuador- babies, runny noses, and mas agua,

6-7

Today was all about assessments at the Nigeria daycare. We set up stations and it ran somewhat like an assembly line.I started out the line with weighing the children, asking about general health, checking for low weight,and getting immunization histories.

This also doubled as an opportunity for me to practice my Spanish with the children. I then passed the beautiful children to Manaal and Sheri who checked ears, nose throat, and did general checks. 

Then the child's information was passed to Jen who made sure they had up to date records. 

  This method occupied our time until lunch. For lunch, we took one of the motor-buggies to the market. All 6 of us squeezed into the tiny buggie that hardly holds 4 people comfortably. 

We ate at the market in the dining area. We were served a meat, a plate of beans and rice and some meat. Andres and I opted for the chicken, Manaal, Jen and Sheri went with the fish, and Eric got cow stomach. It was terribly filling and the total bill came to 9 dollars.

After lunch we squeezed back into the tiny buggie and bumped down the road into Nigeria and to the daycare.

After lunch I switched stations with Sheri and got to work with Manaal, listening to lung sou

nds, taking temps, and hugging MANY babies.
LOVED IT!!!

 We finished with the daycare around 3:30. Our poor translators were exhausted at this point but we had more houses to visit.
We had many of the usual "You need to drink mas agua" house or the "just keep giving this medicine and it should clear up on its own"families. I worked as the tech. I took many blood pressures and was there to help Jen with whatever task she needed help with. She got a kick out of how excited I got whenever she would ask me to take a BP.
I am now more determined than ever to work on my Spanish skills. I hate the reality of having to go back to the states in the future.

Ecuador- school visits and rides in a police car.

6-6

Monday.

We went first thing in the morning to a school in Nigeria to talk with a woman about screening the students at our clinic the last week.
It took only a few minutes of us being on the school grounds before the children noticed us and started running up and talking to us and hugging us. They were so cute as they tried to remember and practice saying the few english phrases they knew.

The lady had some things come up that prevented us from meeting with her. Another teacher then offered to give us a small tour of the school and answer any questions that we may have.
THe school was originally built on stilts over the river until a group from Norway came in and helped them build a new school and help with funding.

After our time at the school we ran into a ride situation.
We had no way to get out of Nigeria for lunch and we were not planning to do house to house visits for some hours.
Us girls got very excited about the idea of riding the canoes across the river and catching a bus on the other side.

The women from the school said that the neighborhood on the other side is a very dangerous one. We were still up for thr risk, but Eric (who was our translator for the morning) was quite decided that this was a terrible idea. He told us "I am your bodyguard, but who is my bodyguard?". I feel that is a legitimate enough question.
Eric then walks right up to the Nigeria police station and asks an officer if he would drive us out of Nigeria. Because God worked out everything in this trip, of course the officer drove us out. We all packed into a police truck and bumped on down the road and out of Nigeria.
My first time riding in a police car, and it was in Ecuador.

Once out of Nigeria we caught a cab back to our church/home.
Eric joined us for lunch. We made our very best American-Mexican for him. We made fajitas with pita bread, plantains, and some left over beans and rice. It is wonderful having our own kitchen.

After lunch we headed back to Nigeria.
Imagine the look we got from the police officer when he saw us back in Nigeria not 4 hours later.
We picked a new street and did house to house visits again.
We encountered some interesting things.
In one house we met a elderly woman with such bad heart failure that she had fluid from her feet all the way up to her chest. She hadn't been able to lay down for something like a week because she couldn't breath if she did.
There was another lady with a kidney or bladder infection.
We ran out of time before we ran out of houses.

We headed back to La Roca (our church home) and spent the evening getting to know the guards who were hired to stay downstairs while we were there. They were men from the church. We joked with them about them being our babysitters, and they responded by telling us that we were good kids.  We sat and listened to their stories and testimonies. It is not an unusual thing to hear a person's story and learn that they were in gangs, that they were involved with drugs, that they had ties with the Ecuador mafia, that someone in their own family tried to kill them. Then they tell you about how God has saved them. How He completely changed their lives. That He brought restoration and protection and peace.
At the end of the night we all prayed together and us girls went up to bed.
The really funny thing is that I have been more observant since getting here and I am trying to learn as much as I can about people and the culture, so everyone thinks that I am very quiet.
They keep making comments about me being so quiet and then Jen and Manaal start laughing and try to explain that you usually they cannot get me to be quiet.



Oh Ecuador!!

Ecuador: part 2 - Sunday

6-5
THe morning started out with breakfast, lunch building  and then we

waited for our ride. There was alot of "hurry up and wait" moments

over the course of the first two weeks.   We met our new translator,

Eric, today. 

 

We all squeezed into the van and rode out to Nigeria for

church.

The church service was wonderful. For part of it the pastor had us

break into groups and each group was to write about different ways

they would like to see the community improve and how they plan to make

those changes happen. It was the best way to truly see these people's

hearts. The church also prayed for our team. The pastor then asked us

to come up and speak to the church one at a time. I had no idea what

to say, but I wasn't nervous. I just spoke from my heart. :]

At the end of the service, the church was served a lunch. After lunch we headed out to do house to house assessments. Jen and I made a team with Andres translating, while Sheri and Manaal went with the pastor and Eric translating. 

The houses we saw were full of children with the flu.We also saw a number of women with arthritis. We didn't encounter anything serious, and  didn't have to hand out any medication. We gave the mom some advice  and then prayed for the family.
One of the cutest things was when a woman excitedly invited us into her home just to talk. She talked about how she had told the pastor that we should have stopped by her house first.
 

We spent the afternoon in Nigeria doing these house visits then headed back.
We asked about a frozen yogurt place and Andres offered to take us to one. So we and Adres and Eric walked to the Naturissmo.
What they call frozen yogurt here is different than what we are used to in the states. THe yogurt is a liquid-drinkable form, they then mix fruit and some ice in with it and blend it.
It was just the treat that the team was craving.
THe rest of the evening was spent cleaning ourselves, eating, reading and relaxing.

Ecuador: part 1

6-2

The three of us girls met up with Sheri at the LAX airport. We

found ourselves outside of the secure area with no way of

checking into our flight to Panama until hours later. We

decided an adventure was a good idea. We walked off to the bus

stop and headed toward the Santa Monica beach. We ended up at

a Thai resturaunt instead. I had been craving Thai for weeks

and was overjoyed when the rest of the team was as excited

about Thai as I was. After dinner we checked into our flight

and headed out. We made it to Ecuador with no trouble. Customs

was a bit cautious when they saw the suitcases full of

medications and medical supplies. Thankfully they didn't need

much convincing to let us through.
Bennie was there waiting for us at the other end of customs.
We were then shuttled to the church that was to become our

home for the next two weeks.

Friday and Saturday-

6-3

The first two days here have been spent learning new names and

faces. Last night was our first night here. We walked to a

local resturaunt for dinner.We were going to go with just

Bennie but the guys at the church were so distressed at the

idea of us going without more man to escort us, so they walked

with us to the place.  This place what like the place in Al

Satwa were they had no menus, they were making just one sort

of dish but were making it well.
We ordered 5 meals of pollo expecting to each eat one. We

ended up eating about 2 of the servings between the 5 of us.

The good news was that we had a fridge at the church for the

left overs. We then went back to the church and settled in.

view from our kitchen window

6-4
This morning Sheri, Manaal and I walked to a nearby fruit

market.
We then had a meeting with Pastor Samuel who pastors the big

church in Guayaquil, Pastor Caluca (sp?) of the Nigeria

church, our team and our translator Andres who we just met.
Meetings are somethign else when you don't speak the language.

I know that my understanding will get better with time, but

for now I am so lost. The meeting was really good for setting

the schedule for the next few weeks.

After the meeting we went to Nigeria for a visit. We say the

church. We were supposed to stay at this church but they had a

water problem that prevented us from staying there.We all

loved it right away and agreed that something could be figured

out in spite of all the standing water. We visited the Daycare

 in Nigeria also.We plan to do assessments of all the children

here in the future.
We saw two children while we were there who had minor

illnesses. There was one baby that we were a bit concerned

with. She had a pretty bad cough that lingered.
One thing that goes without saying is that the children there

were adorable.
We visited some church members after. They wanted us to check

on their children how were sick.
It was a great experience to be invited into these people's

homes to talk with them and see how they live.

Our trip to Nigeria was short. Upon returning home, we set out

in search of ear plugs and tongue depressors. We may or may

not have wandered a bit out of the way just for the sake of

exploring.
 There was a youth service at the church that night, so we

just walked downstairs from our room and got to watch all

these youth get excited and dance for Jesus! PERFECT!!

It is time for me to start blogging about Ecuador

If I don't start blogging now, you will never be able to keep up with my life. Things are moving so fast and GOd is doing BIG things in my life right now.

If you think about it; please pray for me.
As is the story of my life, I thought I had things figured out, then I got thrown a curve ball.
I seriously have no idea what to do.
  Please pray for me and let me know what God tells you.

update 3; Manaal's turn

Hola! Buenos!

I guess its my turn to send the update...the days here are both short and long with the amount of life we have been experiencing and regardless of the length, they are always full of surprises.

I was busy cooking and glistening in the church kitchen, which is upstairs and faces a busy street with a HUGE window, in a tanktop, my ipod blaring and attempting lunges as i waited for things to simmer, boil and bubble. You can imagine my surprisa cuando the guards, who are normally restricted to the first floor, entered asking to refill their water container with the filtered water. after i got over my embarrassment, i asked if they wanted some food when it was done...20something guys...of course they said yes... and that was the start of our truly entertaining night. Hanna and i brought the 4 guys some of our makeshift baked ziti and as soon as we had cleared our own table, we were again surprised when they came up with a sachel with the most amazing rotiserie chicken, plantain chips and salad...and a huge doughnut to share. we were all full, but as culture would dictate we gratefully cut away at the chicken, sharing, when the other 2 came upstairs it was a full on fiesta. they dont speak english and we barely understand spanish... enter "google translate" Jen's mac and my mac were on opposite sides of the table as we all laughed at the translations while making conversation. I want a jelly doughnut!  we would have rocked america's funniest home videos.

These are the kinds of precious and memorable moments that have flavored our trip.

Ok, a few highlights from the past few days...

Earlier Today...We spent the whole day at an agricultural community an hour away in Saraceta. We taught a million kids (or so it felt) about sanitation then set up a mini-clinic and saw anyone who needed health care. we couldnt have asked for a more beautiful setting and group of people. we were in a shaded jungle-like environment with sunlight coming through the palm leaves like a movie. We even had stocked bathrooms (apparently built for specifically for a wedding by the owner of the plantation). The people were gentle and fed and stuffed us with snacks - when was the last time you got coconut milk and bananas for a snack? it was awesome. 

Yesterday was our dia libra, so we took a bus 2.5 hours away to the beach, where all the white people and myself got burnt... but it was a much appreciated day of rest. it was beautiful and the water was actually warmer than our mas frio shower. 

Wednesday - Pastor Samuel's birthday party was here at the  big church...the festivities included mobbing him at the stairs with signs and singing, a snack ( a veritable feast!) (are you noticing the food theme?) and more singing. then we had the opportunity to restock and catch up on logistics. as i mentioned, We are starting to understand spanish...sort of... at least, with the help of Jen's iphone translator and a combined 2 semesters of Spanish between all of us.   that morning, we managed to conquer the grocery store, find a laundramat (since hanging "drawers" in the church shower seems to be taboo), bought empanadas  and frozen yogurt for lunch. 

Wednesday afternoon took us back to Nigeria for more door to door health care outreach... we were welcomed into several family's lives for a few minutes or an hour each. Of particular note for me were the two last families.

First, a family with 11 children, an anemic mother, blind father (in one eye) several chickens, a dog with puppies all in a tiny home too small to host us, so we sat on their living room furniture (plastic lawn chairs) on their stoop, watching the neighbors wash clothes and dogs fighting. They shared stories of hope, miracles, and need...since the father cant work anymore. Even through their struggles they are so hopeful...happy and eager for us to pray with them. 

Humor goes a long ways in these neighborhoods, my absolute favorite visit soo far was the last gentleman of the day. 

... we were walking around nigeria door to door and i was saying "A-ver" which is what you say at the door to get someone to answer it... and a cute old man stuck his head out of the grated window... and said Buenas Dias, and then  in spanish "Come in"....he didnt know who we were yet... so we went in as he was pulling chairs around to give us somewhere to sit in his tiny one room area...and he said "so how've you been" like he knew us forever.... LOL, and we responded great! how bout you?...his reply " ummm, not so great! i took a laxative yesterday so i had a pretty rough night...but im ok now...(no pause) so who are you and why are you here:?" LOL. i couldnt help but laugh. we of course told him we were health care workers and here to answer questions and checkups and invite people to a clinic in a few weeks...after which he started yelling for his wife from down the street, she had the hugest knee and ankle i'd seen in a while and she was limping and practically crying... so it was a great visit... including the long conversation he had with eric our translator about  the history of how their home was a gift and life in general. at the end  i asked if i could take his picture, he said, yes, but why,  "because you invited us into your home!" and he said, " everyone is welcome here...everyone who knocks on the door, neighbors, visitors, sometimes even thieves"... he had such a great dry sense of humor and grace. 

I feel as though everyday, even though we are here to serve these people, that we are constantly being shown a kind of generosity and grace that amazes me. I can only hope some of it sticks to me.

Thanks for your prayers and support, 

Gratefully, 

Manaal  (and Jen, Hanna and Sheri)

Update 2

The last  two days have been very productive days. Sunday morning we met our second translator (eric) and headed to the Nigeria church for service. 

The pastor and congregation welcomed us very warmly.

We joined the congregation as they broke into groups and each group wrote down their ideas on things they would like to see improve in Nigeria, how they would make these changes happen, and then draw pictures of the changes.

It was beautiful to see the hearts of these people. They wanted to see beautiful things happen in the community; health clinics, places for counseling teens who face abuse, a no alcohol and drugs law, paved roads and parks. 

  Each member of our group was also asked to speak in front of the church.

 We were not warned in advance that we would be sharing, rather we were just called up to the front and told to speak to the group.

After the service we visited with the pastor a bit before heading out to go door to door for health visits. 

We picked one street and had one group go on each side.

There were alot of children with the flu and coughs.  

It was wonderful when some women would invite us into their homes just to visit.

 It took us only a few hours to go the length of the street, we returned to our giant church that we call home and with the help of our translators and some locals found our way to a much anticipated frozen yogurt place.

Today we again spent in Nigeria. We  went to a school there to talk with the woman in charge about doing some work there. Due to some conflicts we weren't able to see her. 

It took only a few minutes of us being there for the children to realize that we were there. They started running up to us and hugging us  and talking to us excitingly, they also practiced their english phrases with us.

A woman there gave us a tour of the school and told us about the schools history.

Getting home had its obstacles. We were all for taking a canoe across the river and catching a cab there, but our translator/body guard thought it was a terrible idea.

As a native he said that the other side of the river was too dangerous an area. He would say "I am your body guard, but who is my body guard?".

  He then walked up to a police officer and asked him to drive us out of Nigeria and drop us off somewhere we could catch a a taxi. We squeezed into the police car and rode out of Nigeria.

The police officer looked at us strangely when he saw us back in Nigeria just a few hours later.

We continued our door to door checks down another road. 

It was wonderful to have children who had seen us that morning run up to us and hug us when they saw us by their houses.

We saw less ill children on this road and more ill adults. 

We took time to pray with every person and love them as much as we could.

We spent our evening connecting with the guards who stay here at the church.

We joked that they were our babysitters, and they laughed and told us that we were very good children.

We heard their testimonies and stories about their families and great things God had done in their lives.

We all prayed together before finally letting our translator go home and we ourselves went upstairs.

I am excited that I will be here for three weeks. 

I feel that the people we are meeting here will touch me in more ways and teach me in more ways than I could ever help them.

  

Please continue to pray for our safety, health, our translators sanity, and our relationships with those in Nigeria and here at La Roca.

 -Hanna Coffey

This is update 1. Written by Jen

I'm grinning from ear to ear.
- So are Sheri, Manaal, and Hanna (the lovely ladies serving with me on this trip).
- So is the pastor of "La Roca Nigeria," a new church plant in a slum on the outskirts of Guayaquil. We spent the afternoon with him.
- So are the people we met as we walked around Nigeria today.

Why?

Because we're doing exactly what we were made to do:
Serve God by loving people.

Nigeria (Spanish pronounciation "nay-hay-ri-uh") is poor. Really, really poor. Like a poor part of Africa plopped on the outskirts of one of Ecuador's nicest cities. Standing water, trash, and feces in the muddy streets force you to watch where you're stepping. In our brief visit today we met children with lice & scabies, hepatitis, diarrhea, and unexplained fevers. We sat and talked to moms and were treated to snacks and drinks in each home. I love watching medic teams get EXCITED the harder the circumstances get - when our feet get dirty and our clothes start to stink (it is 90 F with heavy humidity here), grins just seem to get bigger. 

Answers to prayer:
 - I asked you to pray for quick bonding with our translators and local church leaders. This happened today. We're excited to be working together.
- I asked you to pray for smooth travel. Our overnight flight left us tired, but we had no delays or problem, all our bags arrived, and we got them through customs with minimal hassle.

Please continue to pray:
- For good reception as we visit families in their homes and build relationships while meeting medical needs
- For health and safety
- For wise decisions and direction as we prepare for a larger medical team the last week. In particular, please pray for our meeting with the school director in Nigeria tomorrow, and for connections with Guayaquil hospital leaders.

Thank you!

Jennifer

HELLO FRIENDS

In case you are feeling forgotten please know that I have not forgotten you. I have been having SOOOOOOO many adventures here in Ecuador and plan to share them once I am back in the States.
I have internet here, but am waiting till I can add photos to the days accounts.  I have been journaling every night, but mostly I am taking the time to enjoy myself here. I won't have as many photos from this trip. Some of the areas we are working in are not the sort of place you want to be snapping photos at unless you want to risk being robbed. That and I am working so it is not ideal to be snapping pictures as I am trying to listen to medical histories and take BP readings and what not.
I am very excited to share our stories with you!

I am going to post a few of the updates that we have been sending out, but to get it from my scatter brain perspective and hear my personal story though this, you must wait! :]

I have this friend with a beautiful gift and heart!!

A friend of mine wrote this on her blog and it about made me start to cry my eyes out. She has beautiful words and an even more beautiful heart. I can say these things about her because I have seen her through her rough times and have seen her when her heart is alive! I love this girl!

"for our last small group today my leader had us draw (yes, with crayons) a picture of our relationship with God right now. then we were suppose to draw out what we wanted our God relationship to look like.

i drew this really radiant sun in a perfectly blue sky that beamed above the earth, which is were i drew me standing far below, looking up at the sun. or...something like that. anyway, after i drew the first picture i began thinking about the second one and after a couple minutes i wrote this on the second half of my paper.

"i thought about drawing God more on my level, but then I realized I still want someone above my problems and brokenness."

To me, God is someone I can relate to, He's approachable. Like the sun, He warms my life with good things, and my life revolves around Him. much like the earth revolves around the sun. He deserves respect and awe because He is unthinkably beautiful and powerful. When I can't see the sun, i know it still there in the sky. Sometimes it doesn't seem like God sees me, but i know He still does. I just feel like the sun is a great analogy for God. at least for where i am in my life right now. and I'm content with that."

Ecuador- another chapter

It's almost here. The thing I have been waiting 4 years for.

I leave today for my first Medical Mission trip.

For those of you who have been on this journey with me for a while know where I am at.

For those of you that haven't let me tell you, it have been a long, hard, and WONDERFUL journey.

It started with my cross-country move from my house in Illinois to Idaho.

I moved in with a lady and her mom whom I had never met.

I have developed a relationship with these women that I wouldn't trade for anything. They have been a HUGE blessing in my life and I could never thank them enough.

I met so many new people.

Watched my parents move to the other side of the globe.

Pushed through EMT school and the 4 tests required to get nationally certified.

Two Skills practicals and two written tests.

All the while working as a barista.

Mission Medic class started the same week as my last EMT classes.
I learned how to poke people with needles, start IVs,
and place stitches along with so many other skills.

I spent Christmas with a wonderful family that took me into their home and shared their life with me for a number of days.

Was blessed with a number of beautiful friends that encourage me and help me be brave.

Got involved in salsa dancing which helped heal my knee immensely and brought even more great people into my life.

I gained an unbelievable amount of medical knowledge.

Mostly I learned what it meant to be brave. 

I leave today for Ecuador to do the very thing that I have dreamed of for years.

To do beautiful things in broken places.

Thank you for all the support and encouragement over the years, this year in particular. 

You mean the world to me! 

I will updates you on the Ecuador trip as soon as I can. 

mini-me showing her Mission Medic support!

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4