April 21, 2013

Montrose, Co team and San Martin Church

You probably recognize the San Martin name but last time it was San Martin Chapel that was put up by the Elkhart, IN team.  The church is now organized and has outgrown their chapel so Joey Burns put together a team.  This team had a little different dynamics in that most of the team short term missionaries were home school kids and a few adults from six different churches.  When families come it is nice to hear, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa being called through out the week.  As was the case with this team. The age range was from 11 to 72 years of age.  We stayed in Chunchi which is known for abandoned children because their parents go to another country to earn a living and send the money back to the family.  The family could be children taking care of younger brothers and sisters.  
San Martin is on a mountainside outside of Chunchi about 20 minutes.  Most days we worked in the cold fog and rain with the people of the village and we built the church around the chapel.  Everyone found something to do no matter what age they were.  The San Martin brothers and sisters planted their crops a week early so they could help with the construction the week the team was there. At the dedication service the San Martin people fixed us a feast of pig and cuy, guinea pig, which we watched them kill and prepare the day before.  
The night before the dedication Bryadon, Joey's son was talking to the lady in the ice cream store about where we were building the church and the lady was very interested and wanted to come to the service.  Sure enough the next day she came to the service and brought another couple with her.  She wanted to talk to Mario, the District Superintendent about planting a new church in Chunchi.  She said her town needed to get back to the basic values of life and help the abandoned children.  During the dedication service one of the ladies of the church gave a gift of a wall hanging that her husband, who is in prison, made for a gift.  Each team member received a decorated small clay pot that contained eggs, seeds, and grain. That is all they had to offer us. 
During devotions several of the team members rededicated their lives to Christ and one of the boys accepted Christ for the first time.  One of the ladies, 70 yrs old, on the team observed the kids and the team members during the week and realized that on the last night she needed to have a closer walk with the Lord and she rededicated her life also. 
We are looking forward to the day that Chunchi is ready to build a church and we can call Braydon and his family to help build the church.  Thank you Joey's team.

San Martin Chapel
Sam Martin Church- we built the church around the
chapel





Joey Burn's team of home school kids and
parents and grandparents
Young at heart

Lake Havasu, AZ - Aposento Alto "The Upper Room"


We started 2013 out with a team from Lake Havasu, AZ which was led by Dwight Rich's, Field Strategies Coordinator for NAF, brother in law.  Aposento- The Upper Room church was meeting in a tiny "upper room" in the upper part of Quito. The meeting place was so full every Sunday people would have to wait until the children left for Sunday School to be able to find a  place to sit.  The two teams connected by prayer before they even met, by a card that was passed out with all the AZ team members names with their picture, so when they arrived they already felt like family in Christ. 
We always say that God puts the teams together in a special way and this team was no exception. First, team leader, Carlton Harvey's 80 year old mother was on the team. She was from another state and had been an NMI president for many years and had always wanted to go on a W & W team so this was her first experience to participate on a team.

 
Wilma, team leaders mother

Rick being served a dink of water
Second, Rick from MO, wanted to go on a W & W trip and his church was not going so he called GMC to find out the schedule for W & W trips. He wrote to several teams and asked if he could join their teams and Carlton was the first to respond . Rick came along with them and you would have not known he was not from their church. He added
much in the area of music during worship time and entertained us with other songs. Third, Keith Spicer, from Oregon, had shipped his motorcycle to Quito before his arrival with Mission Corp Volunteers, Wrights, and was waiting to get it out of customs before he started on his trip across South America, alone! It took longer for his bike to get out of customs than he anticipated so he                             helped out around the W & W shop and became part of the team for several days. God really knows how to make connections!! Not only were there connections on the American side but the two churches came together in special bond to build the building and the church. Thank you short term Lake Havasu Missionaries.



Keith Spicer from Oregon

First day of work

Last day of work
















Just having fun on the jobsite!













April 18, 2013

Maine District and Torre de Fe- Tower of Faith

In Dec. '12 a District Team from the state of Maine came to work in Santo Domingo to help them put a second story on their church. The team was led by Pastor John Evans from Strong, Maine.  His family served as Mission Corp volunteers here in Ecuador while they were completing their sabbatical two years ago. 
Long before the team came the pastor of Torre de Fe church, Jefferson, started raising money by social media, visiting churches and what ever other way he could.  He asked each person to pledge $10.  Then the Maine district came along to partner with them to help them build the second story sanctuary to their church.  
Santo Domingo -Torre de Fe before
The Maine team was made up of people of all ages, all walks of life and different churches.  Each night someone on the team shared their personal testimonies of how God had changed their lives or delivered them from some addition.  God truly had blessed this team and made radical changes in their lives.  Their personal testimonies were a great witness to the Santo Domingo church.  Thank you short-term missionaries from Maine.
Santo Domingo_Torre de Fe after