Last Day

This will be brief. I need to pack still and we need to be up and going in around 6 hours (ouch)!

We had a nice relaxing day today lazing out in the hot springs (and when I say hot I mean SUPA HOT)! Then we headed back into Quito for some shopping at a cool open air market. We let the girls go off by themselves because I have NO desire to be near my wife when she is shopping. An absolutely dreadful experience! Lol...I know it's going to be especially troublesome when her eyes get big and her heart starts to beat louder and faster. We all found some nice souvenirs and gifts and left tired and ready for bed. But alas that was not to be...there was still the awe inspiring "Crepes and Waffles" restaurant that I have vowed I will go to EVERY time I am in Ecuador! It is such a wonderfully deliscious experiences that words can barely contain the yumminess that we experienced. I had a chicken and mushroom crepe, a Suprema Sundae, and a nice cup of English breakfast tea. I was a nice time just to relax as a team before starting the gruelling and emotional ride home. On a side note Amanda and I picked up some pretty interesting tea - Coca Tea (it is made from the leaves of the cocain plant and is supposed to be very good for your health). Let's see if we can make it through Panama and the US (don't worry I have been assured it is not an illegal substance).

Our flight break down like this. We fly from Quito to Panama with COPA Airlines at 7:00 a.m. Then we head to Newark on Continental Airlines at 10:00 a.m. arriving at 3:09 pm. We then have to stay in Newark until Sunday when we will catch a Continental flight home at 1:10 pm. It is sure to be a long journey and we would appreciate your prayers that it would be smooth and uneventful.

For those of you who need to know we are flying in on Continental Airlines Flight 2512 at 2:32pm.

We look forward to seeing all of you and showing you more pics (4000+) and some videos (2+ hours) of the awesome experiences that we have had here. We continue to miss these kids so much and look forward to what God has in store for both our futures and thiers.

Thanks again for reading along. Take care and God bless! Catch you on the cold side of the world!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.'
'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future."

King Solomon and the prophet Jeremiah

J (for the rest of the team)

See you later

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart...God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God."

The Apostle Paul

Here I sit in Quito quietly thinking off all that has happened over the past few weeks. Most have gone to bed tired from the day's journey and from the emotions felt. Christian is playing worship songs in the background.

My mind wanders to the kids that I so desperately love. That all of us so desperately love. Tears come to my eyes as I think of their beautiful faces; when I think of their amazing faith that has carried them through things that I can only imagine. My heart breaks knowing that tomorrow will come and I will not be able to hug and kiss them all. To hold them in my arms and tell them that I love them. I know I speak for the entire team when I write these things. We have barely left these kids and already we are thinking about when we can come back and how we can tell more people about what is going on out here in this tiny little place. The lives that are being changed for the sake of Christ. This is what true religion is. To take care of these little ones that so many have discarded like trash. How? How can this happen? I do not know the answer but what I do know is that the Lord's loves each one of them more than I can know. If my heart is breaking for them what must his heart be like as he looks upon their tears?

As I am sure you can tell, it was an emotional goodbye this morning. We arrived at the orphanage at around 9:30 a.m. and had about an hour and a half to say goodbye. The kids were awesome. They put on a few little skits for us and some of the ladies even gave us a beautiful dance routine. After all of that came the time to say goodbye. I cannot begin to describe what that was like. These kids are so amazing...I can barely think of words to describe the love that we have for them. The one comfort we have is we know that they are going to be o.k. Our heavenly Father is going to look after them.

We then traveled to Monti Cristo and met up with Allan, Pearl and the kids to have lunch and say goodbye. Please be in prayer for this family as they sacrifice so much for the continued vision of Por Amor and Montanita Verde. They face so many challenges each and every day and their faithfulness to God's calling is clearly reflected in the eyes of the beautiful kids.

After our final goodbyes we headed to Quito. The gang is doing better this time because we all took altitude sickness pills in anticipation of what happened on the way here. We had a nice evening with Paul and Susan and found a great burger joint where we enjoyed something other than rice, plantains and fish!

Tomorrow we are going to head out to some hot mineral springs a few hours from here for a little R & R and then head to the markets for some shopping. It will be nice to be busy for a bit to help us work through the emotions of today.

I know I say it every post but thank you so much for taking this journey with us. Your prayers and support bring us such encouragement. Each of you had a role in making this a highly successful and life changing trip for all of those involved.

As we left Peter, the house Father, turned to me and told me that this was our home and these were our kids and that we were welcome back any time. It brings me such joy to hear these things and I know that one day my wife and I will return to Ecuador (as I know Danielle and Christian will as well).

God Bless you all,

Only 1 post left!

J (for the rest of the team)

Our Goodbyes

Another day at "La Playa"

Hello all! This is Christian signing in here. Jeremy decided to call in the poet to get things going for today. So lets all buckle are seat belts and enjoy another day in Ecuador!

This morning started off right! Jorge has given us, once again, his Ecuadorian delicacy-two slices of fabulous french toast! Us Canadians really appreciate this treat and I'm sure all other Canadians will hereafter. So with bellies full we ready ourselves for the last full day with the kids.

The beginning of the day involved some work projects that we needed to get done. One of the projects, which was to hang a bathroom door ended in disaster. Jeremy (LIAR, LIAR, LIAR - J here) forgot to tell me to put more screws in the hinges before we left, so in the wee hours of the night, the door game crashing down. Now some would say "but Christian aren't YOU the carpenter in this party, shouldn't you have remembered! " Rightly said, however..............um...........I was........uhhhhh........... well the door turned out to be slightly rotten, so a new door was needed anyways! Ahem, moving on. The other projects during the day involved, making a shutter for a window, sanding planks and things for signs, hanging the sea turtle sign with the name of the orphanage on it, painting the work room. Also, we finished and set up the wonderful Nativity scenes that my padre y madre made. THANK YOU PARENTS! They really loved them. It was nice to get a bunch of things done today. Regretfully there is still so much more work needed to be done. I wish we had more time to fix it all. Pray that help comes though as doing these construction projects can be a little stressful, as there are lots.

After the work it was time for play and we got a chance to hang out with the kids. For some of you that already now. I was planning on getting all of the kids hand prints stamped on my guitar. Well it is done. My guitar looks awesome. With help from Amanda and my sister, we got all there handprints in their favorite colour as well as there names and favorite bible verses written down. I love it. It will help me to always remember to pray for the kids when I'm back, as well as remind others of how amazing these kids are.

Basically in the afternoon the plan was to go to the beach again! But here you often have to "hurry up and wait." Waiting however involved, rat-tails, kids jumping off there bunks, locking the "Monstair", me, in a broom closet, Dutch Blitz, and many more quirky fun things. Eventually we ended up getting down to the beach. We piled the kids and ourselves into two pick up trucks, and with a bumpy, loco, ride we made it down. Much like the last time at the beach we hit some waves, watched waves hit some kids and just laughed and played and laughed some more. I tried to surf, but the waves were totally way too big dudes. It was an awesome couple hours too just spend with these kids. Every moment you cherish.

After the beach we all piled in the trucks to return to the orphanage. I was in Allans and he decided to take us on a lovely scenic route. Which turned out to be 12 people holding on for dear life. San Larenzo ain't no praiere land! But we fought to stay aboard, and made it to the orphange sweet and sound! Although with a few bumps and bruises. We ended up just saying "Hasta Luego" to the kids as we are going back up at night for there devotions.

The time to spend with this kids is winding down. We have tonight and tommorrow morning. Its amazing how quickly you can fall in love! We have only been here for 2 weeks and I'm going to miss them sooooo much. I know it will be hard for us to leave but I'm excited. I'm excited because I know God made this trip happen for a reason. I'm excited to see what the future holds for me with this place and for the rest of my family. As well as coming home and sharing this experience with all of you. I do look forward to coming back as much as I will hate leaving, because as Jeremy said before this is a "see you later", these kids have made there way into my heart, and I want to keep them there forever. Thank you all for your support, for your prayer and for taking the time to read this blog. We love you all!

C (for the team)

J here...man my little bro did a good job! He's so grown up! It's hard to believe! Especially when he blames the door hanging incident on his older, wiser, much more 'guapo' brother! Tomorrow when we are back in Quito I will post the spider picture! Peace!

Chifles, Plants and Bats

Hi all!

This is going to be a quick post because I am dead tired today. Christian and I ended the day with some awesome Bodyboarding in the ocean before dinner. The swells today were upwards of 3 meters. We got pounded good a couple of times but caught some really sweet waves!

But I am getting ahead of myself. I wanted to share briefly an awesome experience we had last night. After dinner we headed into the small town of San Lorenzo in search of these little baskets that the people out here weave. We entered the square in the middle of town and saw a bunch of people sitting on the corner. We said hello and asked about the basket and two little old ladies jumped up and began to lead us towards a house. One of the ladies put her arm around my waist and chatted away. I didn't understand a word and couldn't pry myself away so I just went with the flow. Once in the house they had us sit around a little table and then all of a sudden tons of kids and other adults started showing up. By the end there must have been about 20 kids and 6 adults standing around watching us take a look through their baskets. It was a pretty neat experience. After that we headed to a little bamboo hut that sells pop and these awesome Chifles (Plantain chips). We had in tow the 20 kids that we had met at the house so decided to buy them all suckers, some pop and some Chifles. It was mad chaos handing everything out but it was such a fun thing to do. We sat around for about an hour chatting with the kids and a few old timers that were hanging out there. It was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. A chance to connect with some of the people of this community!

Today we helped the kids plant a bunch of the trees that they had purchased. It was some good times! In the process of cutting away the grass to plant the trees one of the kids found a baby tarantula. It was a neat little furry red thing. We then convinced Christian to hold it in his hand. He did so reluctantly but it was the first step in overcoming his fear of spiders. I got some awesome pictures of it! Unfortunately Amanda went running away screaming (to the boys extreme amusement)...I think she is going to take a bit more work.

A bit of a post thought. When we first arrived at the orphanage this morning several of the kids were sitting in the corner of the house playing Dutch Blitz! It was such a funny thing to see! They were having so much trying to beat each other. The end of the game came when the entire 'mob' started yelling and screaming at each other about cheating! It was awesome. We're going to leave the card game with them to play!

After the tree we played around with the kids for a bit and then headed out on the jungle hike. It was super hot so we took our time but it was really interesting. Alexis is a certified nature guide so he showed us some really interesting things about the jungle. It was another awesome day with the kids, holding their hands and chatting about things as we hiked through the jungle. Near the end of the hike came the moment we had all been waiting for...the bat caves! I ran across the road with a few of the kids and made my way down a really steep gravel covered hill. It was a little nerve racking trying not to lose control while sliding down the side of a 40 foot 'cliff'. Once I was in position with the video camera the chaos began and all the kids (with my family in tow) began running through the tunnels. The noise of the bats was intense and was quickly followed by the screams of my family members and the kids. I got some awesome video's of the whole thing. Our walk ended in San Lorenzo where we hung out with the kids a bit more and then headed back to La Cueva to play in the waves!

Only one more full day here with the kids and we are really starting to think about our departure. I had a talk with Paul (our ER leader) and he said that Juanita and Peter have been so thankful that we have been able to be here spending a lot of quality time with the kids. It has been such a priviledge to be here and have the opportunity to develop relationships with these precious children. Each of us have made very real connections with a lot of the kids. Connections that we all know will last forever. So, though we are sad to be leaving soon we all know that we are not saying goodbye for ever but rather more along the lines of see you later.

Thanks again for all of the support and the comments you all have made. We appreciate you being on this journey with us and investing your time and money into bringing love and joy into the lives of the kids here and into our own lives through them.

Now I am off to bed because the planting, hike and waves have punished me.

God Bless,

J (for the rest of the team)

More Pictures!

Mud, Peanuts and Plants

Today was a good day. It started out with a huge rainstorm (no thunder or lightening though). It was pretty cool because I watched come towards us from way out in the ocean as I did devotions.

After breakfast we headed to Montanita Verde to continue working on the various projects we are engaged in. One of my favorite times with the kids is saying hello and goodbye. Every morning when we get there we walk around and get hugs from all the guys and huge hugs and kisses on the cheeks from all the girls. It is such an awesome time of connecting with the kids. Each hug is given with such huge, beautiful smiles...it starts the day off right. A warning to all of our friends...ladies you will probably be kissed on the check by Christian and I...it is a custom to great every woman (whether you know them or not) this way!

After the greetings Amanda and Danielle loaded into the truck with Paul and Susan to head back tom Manta to buy some plants/trees for the orphanage and do some other errands. They came back at around 2:00 p.m. with a Mango tree, Papaya tree, Avocado tree and a few other really neat plants.

Christian and I stayed back at Montanita Verde to continue trying to get our work projects done. We put together the Christmas Creches (sp?) my parents made for each of the house (they are really beautiful) and we plkan to present them to the house parents tomorrow at some point. After that, because we were not feeling well, we began to lazily get things done. Christian finishing his work bench and me back in house 2 putting up the bathroom accessories. Just as we were about to head out the boys came and got us and told us to follow them to get some sugar cane. Not ones to disappoint young children (he he) we followed them down the road. Now initially we saw all the kids were wearing rubber boots and we were only wearing sandels. We asked if this would be a problem and they said no. They were wrong. With the rain the road turned into a nasty, muddy mess. The type of mud that stuck to our sandals every step. In about 15 feet we probably around 10 pounds of mud and donkey feces on our feet and squishing through our toes (yes it was as gross as it sounds). After getting some awesome chunks of sugar cane the kids to us to a guy that knows the Jackson's garden. Once there he showed us the honey bee hive (filled with African Killer Bees). It was cool until the dog ran down to the hive and the host turned and started running yelling at us to do the same. Little nerve racking. I guess if the bees get ticked off they can swarm you and kill you. Nice. After that we spen an hour helping the kids pull peanuts out of the ground for them to roast. It was a dirty, messy, grand old time! Especially when we started throwing mud balls at each other!

After that wonderful adventure we came back and finsihed our projects in time to have lunch around 1:30 p.m.

After lunch (2:30 p.m.) we had another awesome time hanging out with the kids. Christian hung out with the older girls dancing in the kitchen (I got some great videos), Danielle hung out with the lads on the front porch and helped Paul clear one of the gardens and I attempted to teach a few of the boys a new card game, "Gang of Four". We had spanish instructions so at least they had that but it was still difficult. After the card game Christian and I headed out and played Ecua-Volley with the lads (a game similar to volley ball but with some really different rules). Good times.

The day ended like it began. Hugs and kisses all around with fun threats of wrestling to come. We are all having a bit of a difficult time coming to terms that we are going to be leaving here so soon. Each of these kids have left their hand prints on our hearts in such a lasting way! Tomorrow we are going to help the lads plant the trees/plants and then finally we are going to get to do the jungle walk! Going to get some good video's of the other 3 running through the bat cave!

That's it for today. I may try and post some more pictures tomorrow if I have time (like 4 hours)!

Take care! Continue to pray for our health as we are still feeling a bit ill. The sore on my butt is still nasty and soar. There was talk that I might have had some weird parasite lays eggs in me (ya I wasn't amused and more disgusted than you are right now). After having several people look at it (including Juanita the house mother...ya real nice) they all say that they don't think it is anything to worry about but I need to keep an eye on it. Ya...so...enough of that, I appreciate your prayers!

God Bless,

J (for the rest of the team)