And.....We're back!

The team arrived back to Los Angeles safely on June 22nd.  We are all grateful for the support and all the prayers during the trip.  Everything went so smoothly and even avoided some potential scary moments.  

A video/slideshow is being put together but in the meantime, I want to share some of the photos from my iphone just to give you a glimpse into this mission trip.

I already know that my photos will not do any justice to how amazing this mission trip was.  It will just be a glimpse into how God's love can change a person, a city, and a country.

Day 1:

We arrived into Quito Airport nearly midnight.  Since we felt it was unsafe to drive a large bus  at night in windy roads, we slept at the airport until 4:45am.

We all unpacked our sleeping bags and did whatever we could to get comfortable.  It wasnt very comfy at all and it was very cold.  We woke up at 4:45am and took a 2 hour bus ride to Otavalo.

When we arrived in Otavalo, we were greeted with the beautiful sunrise.  Thank you God for providing that!

 The team stayed at Pastor Jacinto's home.  You can see the volcano in the background with rows of maize (corn) fields.

On the far left of this photo, that door led to the bathroom.  The old bathroom that is.  Our church rebuild Pastor Jacinto's bathroom to be very nice and attached to the home.  The team was very happy to know there was a toilet and shower (although many of us barely showered.)

Good morning photo of the girls (and Will)!

The view was quite breath-taking.  

Some of us wandered around while others were resting and came across this mini farm.

The pastor's wife feeding us sugar from the Maize cane.

We also found a little daycare and got to meet some of the kids there.  We came back with some candies and treats to pass out to them.

We also ate some amazing food on this trip.  I dont know what this is called but it was delicious.

One of the things we did on this trip was scout different areas to plant churches.  This was one of the areas we went to and we hope to build a church here in the near future.

That evening, we had service at church.  I dont have pics from that since I was involved in the worship but here is a photo of us fixing the drum pedal with duct tape.  They had instruments at the church but things were not in using condition.  But we made best with the drums we had and God really made it sound good!!  

Day 2:  School service.  Im not exactly sure how many students there were in total but we provided caps for all of them, orange and navy ones.  It was a great gift and perfect because it was becoming very sunny and hot outside.  So God really did match the gifts perfectly for this trip!

After the service, we met with the teachers and handed out special gifts to them and prayed all together.  It was great to have them open up the doors to us at the school and we know this area will be very blessed!  Then we had more food...it was so good.  Its hard to describe how flavorful the food was!~

 That evening, we had a night service with Helen Jdsn speaking.  There was so many kids and they were all waving flags they made.  

The evening ended with what we could only describe the most closely to a flash mob.  The church played Soy Libre (or I am Free - from Newsboys) and it felt like all night we danced and worshipped.  It was so liberating to praise with all our bodies and voices and no one was tired...in fact, once we got on the bus back the team busted out with impromptu worship. It was just one of those moments when we were all captured by the spirit...

Day 3:

We woke up the next day early and headed to Esmeraldas which was approx 6 hours away. It was crazy how the scenery started to change from corn fields to a tropical jungle.

Of course, we stopped for breakfast!

 Once we got closer to the church, all the school kids started coming up to the bus.  You can feel the excitement, curiosity, the wonder on the faces...We really didnt know what to expect either....

Most of the kids were so excited to see cameras.  They wanted to take photo after photo and they would all crowd around the screen and giggle and laugh.  

This was our home where we stayed.  The downstairs had the kitchen and eating area.  We all slept upstairs.  It was really just a large wooden box.  The girls slept in the far right room and the boys ended up sleeping out on the deck area.  No wifi, no tv, no AC, no fans, no flushing toilets, an outdoor shower...that was about it.  

Then we ate of course!  Baby shrimp ceviche and plantains.  How can food taste so good!?!?

After breakfast, we drove around Esmeraldas.  I dont really have pics from this portion but we got to learn a lot about the city.  It borders Colombia so along the water, there is a lot of drug dealing and a lot of kids end up getting influenced by that.  About 90% of girls are sexually abused there and have kids at a very young age.  Its one of the poorest areas and is usually very dangerous and have lots of crime.  Actually, we went into one area and a police came up to the bus.  The pastor got out of the bus and was talking to the officer and he told us that just about an hour ago, there was a gun fight right where we drove through.  The officer thought we were lost and told us we should not stay around there.  We went to a couple other areas, had some amazing coconut drinks and had lunch...I know, more food.

None of us thought we could stuff another thing in our stomachs (keep in mind there were no flushing toilets) but once our lips tasted the fried fish, it was game over.  We couldnt stop eating!

That night we had service outside.  It was a bit crazy because 95% of the people were little kids.  There was hardly any youth or adults.  Just a bunch of out of control kids (that we would soon come to love very much).

After we had all cleaned up from the service, we heard that we would have to play Futbol (soccer) against the kids in the area.  It was game over to begin with.  These little kids were amazing and this was just one boy, Kerry, who stayed behind and tried to teach us some moves.  No bueno.

Day 4:

We had worship at the school in Esmeraldas which was walking distance from the church and where we stayed.  One thing the church said the kids love was live music.  No one really plays instruments there and they were mesmerized by the keyboard, drums, and guitar.

 The team performed songs, skits and passed out gifts to each classroom.  Each student got a drink, potato chips, and a bag that consisted of a notebooks, pencils, crayons...etc.

After we returned from the school, we had an hour to rest up but somehow we ended up having another impromptu worship session.  I started playing guitar and there was a small group of kids, but all of the sudden we were surrounded by kids singing the songs we played the night before.  They memorized all the songs and were singing along with us.

We also had a lunch service where we sang songs and the team served food and drinks to everyone who was there.

This was us taking a break before heading out to the beach to have a youth service and play futbol.

The beach is walking distance for these kids.  They were all decked out in their futbol jerseys.

While the guys hung out by the soccer field, the girls ventured down to the water.  There were TONS of shells everywhere.  It was crazy!  So we wrote in the sand "Jesus te ama" and "dios le bendiga" and told the kids to fill it in with shells.  It was the simplest thing, but the kids were so excited to work on it.  There were kids that popped out of nowhere collecting shells and handing them to us.  

There was service at the beach that was targeted to the teenage demographic.  We had a message and performed our skits and body worship.

We passed out oranges to all those who were there.  

The kids walked back to church once the even was over.  We headed back to church as well, but of course...there was more food.  Which was going to be our last meal in Esmeraldas...All of us were stuffed and some of us havent had gone bathroom but we managed to finish all our food because it was THAT good.  The picture alone does not do it justice but it was grand.

That night we had one final evening service...

As for the end of the that evening service?

You will have to wait for the video.  None of us would have ever expected it to end this way.  In fact, it was like a perfect ending to a perfect movie.  So stay tuned for the video and many more updates from the team.

Thanks for reading this and looking through this post.  We know God is going to transform these areas and especially these kids.  There was a new spark of hope that we felt and we are eagerly looking forward to the next trip back!!!!

JAHA 2013 Missions Team!