Wildest Dreams

We had our own Wildest Dreams prayer service tonight at the same church in which we worshipped this morning...they were very gracious to allow us to be there. It was such a meaningful time, especially considering what were doing was in tandem with what our church was doing in Brentwood.

The evening was pretty Ecuadorian for us, from the dog which decided to howl just outside the church door the whole time to singing a new worship song (at least to us) entirely in Spanish, basically repeating over and over "Our God is so good." It was very encouraging (at least to me) to hear team members share about how God has ministered to them specifically at Rolling Hills, as well as to hear their prayers and hopes for the future.

I have no idea what God is going to do thru this "Wildest Dreams" campaign, but I have to only imagine and trust that God will do something that will give Himself incredible glory, and I cannot wait!

On another note, please pray for us. There are a couple of folks who are beginning to feel under the weather a bit. We are fortunate to have some good down time while we are stranded here in Quito, so that will definitely help. We have planned a light day for tomorrow, so hopefully by the time we begin traveling home people will feel better.

We are confirmed for a flight on Tuesday morning. Things could still change, but air travel is normalizing since the accident on Friday. Unless something else happens, we should be home on Tuesday at 5:28 p.m. Pray for that, please! We love Ecuador, and our time here, even the extra, unplanned days, has been really great. But it will be nice to be home.

Sunday

Today was a great day. We went to the University Baptist Church here in Quito and joined them during their worship service. We felt very welcomed by them because the pastor had the congregation say “Welcome” in English to us. It was very sweet. After church we went to KFC for lunch. Then we walked a couple of blocks to an artisans market and shopped for about an hour. Right now we are having some down time: some are resting, some are emailing, and some are watching football (we get NBC, CBS, and ABC here in the hotel!). Tonight we have arranged to use the sanctuary of University Baptist Church for our own version of RHCC´s prayer night. Laura (on our team) was a part of the planning team for this service so she is guiding us through what our brothers and sisters in Tennessee are going to be doing tonight. We look forward to joining our church body in prayer and spirit despite being on separate continents! I think it is ironic that the theme of our building campaign is “Wildest Dreams” because never in our wildest dreams did we think we would still be in Ecuador!!! Our God has a sense of humor.

We love Ecuador so much...

...that we are here until TUESDAY. That´s right. Steve and I just got back from the airport working out details, and this is THE option, not one of many. I don´t have many details to give at this time other that that, but Tuesday is it. We are supposed to arrive home at 5:28 p.m. If something changes and it is earlier (or later, if that is the case), we will let you know. We will do the same with other details as they devlop.

Thanks for praying. The team does not know yet as they are still sleeping. This should make for an interesting couple of days since most of us are running out of clothes and money! But we will work it out. God knew this was happening well before we did.

Travel Plan B

Well...we had a great day traveling through beautiful areas of Ecuador. As we were getting ready to go to bed early to get rest for our early flight we learned that the airport here in Quito has just shut down. Nobody was hurt but there was some damage done to the runway by a plane coming in from Spain. They have shut the airport down for the next 20 hours. Brent is going to the airport in the morning to make alternate arrangments. There are no plans as of yet. The earliest we could fly out would be Saturday night but could be as late as Sunday. We will update the blog once we know more details.

While we are frustrated about not being able to go home tomorrow as planned, we are in a beautiful country that we have not yet seen all of. We are excited about being able to explore the historic district of Quito as we wait.

Hope to see you all soon.

Thursday

Hola Amigos!
Today was an amazing, but sad last day serving at the school. I know I had just gotten to the point where I was remembering names and faces of the many children that have been loving on me for the past couple days. It was hard to say goodbye to their sweet faces. Our time with them was really good though. They seemed to be more attentive today during the bible story time, particularly at the end when Steve shared the gospel with them once again. I had 2 girls holding on to me during that time, and when Steve mentioned that God knows the number of hairs on their head, one of them gasped and looked at me pulling out her hair to imagine how many she had. It was really sweet, and I know that there were seeds planted in the hearts of many of those children, and they certainly showed God´s love to me in a way I have never experienced it before. When our session with the kids ended, the teachers went out of their way to provide lunch for our team, which is a huge gift in their culture. It was an honor to receive their thanks, and the positive feedback they had to give. We left the gates of the school today with children holding onto us and pleading for us to stay. It certainly makes me want to come back to see those kids again. After lunch we had a special baptism service for a member on our team, Ashley, who felt God calling her to take that step of faith while in Ecuador. It was awsome to get to share in that with her. We then packed up our bags and loaded the bus for Quito, which is where we will stay tonight and tomorrow. This has been such a rewarding week for me just getting to know this culture, and the Ecuadorian people. I know I will be proccessing all the things I have seen, and the things God has been teaching me for weeks to come. We have one last day left here in Ecuador, and I know it will be an eventful one.
Check back tomorrow!
Laura B.

Tuesday

Today was a packed day but it was amazing! We did our first day of VBS at the school this morning. The children were so excited to see us again. Like yesterday, they ran to the school gate when the bus drove up. Seeing their little faces poke through the gate was priceless. There is so much love to give these children and they absorb every ounce! At the end of our VBS time we were able to give the children their photos in a frame with the 10 commandments in the back. They went wild when they saw their own face on a printed picture. This is a picture of the kindergarten class when they posed for their class photo.

In the afternoon we went to the Baptist Church in nearby Patate to help paint the sanctuary. With a crew of nearly 15 we were done in under two hours. Below is a picture of the team at work in the sanctuary.

First day of work

We have internet coverage tonight at the camp, which we did not expect. So, here is a brief update...

It has been such a wonderful day. We spent the morning at the Garcia Moreno school, which we have visited each time RHCC has been to Ecuador. It was great to see familiar faces of teachers, maturing smiles of children who used to be missing their front teeth, and new kindergarteners...precious, to say the least. We played the Olan Mills man today and took school pictures of each student. I wish I could post every one of them. Some of the kids were bringing their best, for sure. We had a few jokers, but wow...amazing faces. We will be distributing their "school photos" tomorrow (we printed and framed them all afternoon) after we do our first day of backyard Bible club. Pray for us...there is the possibility of a new church plant going into the Garcia Moreno community, and the foundation of the church may rest on the teachers, children, and families of the school. This is, in many ways, a pivotal week. We are excited and are anticipating God to do great things.

Our team is fantastic. Everyone enjoys spending time with everyone else, so community has been relatively easy for us. We bonded well last night as we sat on our bus for 2+ hours awaiting the landslide to clear so we could get home from our tourist afternoon and evening. Yes, a LANDSLIDE at the base of an ACTIVE VOLCANO (who keeps chirping and churning...sounds like an airplane taking off). We have really gotten to see some amazing bits of Ecuadorian culture in our short three days in country. Don't worry...we're safe and well taken care of, just wanted you to know what we are seeing and experiencing.

We are looking forward to a great day tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be back with an update tomorrow night.