Ecuador

Ecuador was probably the most amazing experience in my entire life. The people there were so ready to receive the gospel. It made it very easy for us. The first full day there was my 16th birthday. I have to say I completely forgot about it. Not that it mattered. The girls suprised me and hung a banner in the cafeteria and let me blow out candles. We went prayer walking at our ministry sites on that first day. The second day which was our first day of actually being at our sites all day was awesome. We played soccer and basketball with the kids. We told a Bible story and we made salvation bracelets with them. Mrs. Tammy, a wonderful lady from one of the churches from Tennessee, led to ladies to Christ using these bracelets. It was a mother and daughter. The third day we made some salvation bracelets and also handed out the BelieverBands which were a huge hit. The kids knew how to explain them to us. Although we didn't understand them because of the huge language barrier haha. Wednesday was our last day at our ministry sites. It was a very eventful day. We did what we usually did in the morning. We played with the kids and did the Bible story and craft. Then we went to eat lunch at Juan's, the pastor of the house church in the community where we worked. After lunch, we usually just play sports or anything with the kids. I was playing basketball with these three other kids. That was when I had my first asthma attack. It was pretty scary. Dad and Mrs. Tammy helped me through it. After that, we led five people to the Lord! It was so incredibly awesome! Dad led a guy to Christ named Jason. Then there were three teenagers who overheard Dad talking with this guy. They also wanted to come to the Lord. This was when there was about five minutes left in our day. The bus was waiting for us up the road. Some of the IWC staff came and told us it was time to go and people were waiting on us. We had to tell them to wait! After the three teenagers accepted Christ, another guy came up and wanted to do the same thing! We were all so happy. Juan was there to invite them all to his church. The next day, Thursday, was our huge block party. I think we had like 600 people there. A lot of the parents of the kids we had been working with came to this. There was a team of IWC people who had only one job which was to hand out Bibles and tracts. There were a lot of people who accepted Christ at the party. Friday was our day to be tourists. We went to the equator in the morning. First to the real one and then to the monument. It was pretty cool. Then we went on a tram ride up a mountain. The views were incredible! After that we went to the Indian Market where we all got to talk down prices on everything. I'm so thankful for all the relationships built during that week. I'm excited to see what God is going to do in all of our lives. I also can't wait to see some Ecuadorians in Heaven someday, if not sooner.