The Mountain Majesty of Ecuador

The mountains of Ecuador are forever changing.  For a week I watched these mountains surrounding Quito, and they never looked the same each day.  It was one of the most striking things I will always remember about this area of Quito and within 2 hours from Quito.

Just when you are seeing the sun shine on one side of a crystal green mountain, a cloud will float by, casting small shadows of olive, light brown, or deep forest green across its sides.  I could just stand there forever and watch how the mountains would change with the sunlight and cloud cover of the day.  It was completely beautiful, especially the view of the volcanoes like the one above and below.  We soaked it all in....

Sometimes the clouds would cast larger shadows, leaving only high peaks of sunlit mountain, then only to open up for a moment to reveal tidbits of vivid blue sky above.  This massive expanse of ever changing cloud cover and sunlight never painted its images the same way twice on its mountain canvas below. 

 

Our last full day in Ecuador we fellow shipped with our guides, translators, and their friends on a mountain side surrounding Quito.  It was not just a mountain side either.  It was mountains from as far as the eye could see from one side of the sky to the other.  It was a massive panoramic view like none I've ever seen.  My pictures cannot begin to show you this.  It was simply too vast for my camera.  We watched the mountains change once again as the sun crept closer to its slumber behind those peaks.

It's an afternoon and evening I won't ever forget.

Sunlight pouring through the clouds....

Saying goodbye to the day, as the clouds change over Quito.

 

And knowing the next day we would say our goodbyes to this place.  I was thinking and pondering the events of the week.  Who we saw, who touched our lives, and thanking the Lord for the opportunity to take a peek inside the beautiful country of Ecuador. It was hard to believe I had traveled so far.  I certainly didn't feel like I was a continent away from my home.  

I guess God draws us all closer to each other if we just say "yes" to venturing out to the other parts of the world that are His also.    He has given me another perspective to consider and written new messages on my heart, because I went to Ecuador.

One statement one of our team members says is that "she's thankful that God sees the world all at the same time."

I love that statement.  God knows our needs and the needs in places we've never been before.  I know now some of the needs in Ecuador.  And now that I know, I can at least pray until the day the Lord brings me back to this place in His timing.  He may bring me to a new place next time I go on missions, or he may just show me other things right where I am planted, across town, in my neighborhood, at the retirement community where my folks live or some place here I've never been to before.  I see Him already doing that.  So many opportunities are right in our own backyards.  By going to Ecuador I see so much more clearly that what matters most is that I'm living out my faith and not keeping it to myself.  I'm just so thankful to have seen and experienced what I did those few short days. 

And those ever changing Ecuadorian mountains..... will be ingrained in me for quite some time.  Most importantly, the faces of those I met in and around those mountains I'll carry with me.

A drawing by John, Cynthia, Mendy, Lizzie and Judith

 About the cross.....

Our team building project on this day we were fellow shipping by this panoramic view of the mountains, was to draw, paint, create (however we felt led to), a picture of what the children of Ecuador meant to us after being on this missions trip.

Our group came up with the cross as the back bone of the entire picture.  Jesus is the center of why we are in Ecuador to begin with.  It's about sharing His love with orphans, using our talents, abilities and anything else He has given us.  Also, it's about giving Him the glory for everything on our trip.
 
The rainbow  was for an actual rainbow we saw in the sky over the mountain one day on the tour bus!  Very cool!  

The mountains we all agreed had to be a part of the picture, because we were all so taken with the mountains which we saw each day on route to see the orphans.  

A heart at the center because of Christ's love for the children and us.  

Hand prints made by our 9 year old team member symbolizing children's hands painted in white to symbolize purity.  The hand prints are inside the heart, because Jesus loves children so much.

Then at the bottom I drew an Ecuadorian boy and girl with crowns, because one of the crafts we did with the children was to make crowns and decorate them.  

We read a Bible story and showed them that they are children of God, in essence because we believe in Christ, we are heirs to the King himself, Jesus Christ, and thereby they are "prince and princesses" of the King.  

The little boy I drew was a child that touched my life on this trip.  He wears red glasses and I'll never forget him.  

So many precious boys and girls.....  the orphans of Ecuador will forever be in our hearts and prayers.

  Sharing what the trip meant to us through these drawings and paintings and hearing the testimonies of the team members on this mountain with the panoramic view behind us, with the sun starting to go down was especially meaningful to everyone.

Thank you Lord for everything.

Painting the Boys' Room

Day two of painting included painting the boys' room.  The main reason the staff at this particular orphanage asked us to paint, was so the boys could have a brighter room.  It was dark without clear paned windows.  The only outside light they had coming in came from two small translucent windows at the top of the double doors going to the outdoor playground.  Most of the time I'd imagine these doors were closed.  This time we had apricot and green walls to paint.  The same green as in the girls' room.

The colors chosen for the room were bright yellow and a rich darker blue.  Little did we know that it would take 4 coats of yellow paint to cover the walls well.  The blue went over the green columns beautifully.  Following the same format as for the girls' room,  Monique painted special words and pictures on the walls.  

Tina, Lizzie and John working hard on the second or third coat of yellow.

I'm working on cutting out with the first coat of yellow.

Cindy cutting out with the blue.  We had plaster falling in many areas on the walls, but we did the best we could given the circumstances.  If given more time these could have been patched properly.  We simply were not afforded the time to repair walls and paint.  Maybe another team could do this for them in the future.

Oswaldo lending us a hand.  He and his dad brought us delicious pizza for lunch that day! He and his family were awesome tour guides and translators for our trip.

Tina and I

Here I am with Courtney and Tina.  They are an awesome Mother daughter team!

The play area afterward.  Monique did a beautiful job!  "Jesus is my friend" painted on the wall.

"We are never alone."

While we were painting, three children kept coming in  to see what we were doing.  One was a 10 year old boy who I mentioned in an earlier post about our first day at this orphange.  Our First Day at Orphanage 2

This little boy, whom I'm going to call "Marty" (though this is not his real name)  popped in from time to time to check out what we were doing.  I so wanted to talk to him.  I tried, but my Spanish is poor. The language barrier truly bothered me.   I asked him if he liked the color of his room and he said. "Si!!"  He began teaching me colors in Spanish.  I would have liked to have just hung out with him and given him a roller to help us.  Tina had the same idea and she had the roller.  The next thing I knew she had handed over her roller to Marty.  He was trying his hand at rolling a wall with another little girl and they were sharing the poll.  It was precious.  Tina thought just like any other child, he would be interested in participating in making his room fresh and new.  I love that Tina did that for him.

 One story I have to tell you about Marty.  He saw that Monique was painting special pictures on the wall.  He made a special request of her.  It was not something she or anyone would have expected.  Perhaps a boy would want an airplane or a cool car painted on the wall, but this is not what Marty asked for." Would you paint an angel on the wall for me?"  An angel..... of all the things he could have requested.  He wanted an angel.  There was one empty wall left and this is where Monique went to work.

"Jesus loves the children."

Once the beds were moved back, Marty's bed was almost directly under that angel.  The best part of this story is what Oswaldo told this orphan.  I'm going to try to relay as closely as possible what he said.
"You know Marty, you don't have to have an angel on your wall to feel loved and protected.  God already loves and protects you.  All you have to do is pray to him.  Ask him for an angel and he'll send you one, just for you, but all you have to do is have faith and talk to God."  It went something like this.  I love how Oswaldo used a teachable moment to minister to Marty.

If I only met Marty for this short time and if I never really got to communicate to him what I truly wanted to say because of the language barrier, I was so glad to have met him, because now I can pray for him.  He may not remember I'm praying for him, but that doesn't matter.  I am.  I know he exists.  I know he is special in God's eyes and I know God wants me to pray for this boy and his family situation.
I will never forget his red glasses..... or his smile, when he did smile.  Or giving him chocolates and watching him skate on his skater shoes back and forth between the girls and boys room this day.  I won't forget the first day I saw him on the play ground and how he kind of kept to himself.  How he was so intrigued by my "spill proof" water bottle and tried and tried to figure out how it opened.  I had to push the special button on it for him and then he wanted to look down the hole to see.  It was so funny.  Now that I met him, I am not the same.  I will pray that his family situation will improve so he can go home, or that if this is not possible for family to care for him, that God provides a new family for he and his sister.

I won't forget you, little prince of the King. 

The Zoo and A Room for the Girls Made New

The next day at orphanage #2....was full of blessings for our entire team.  What we learned on the way back to the retreat that afternoon was that the children were supposed to go to the zoo that day.  However it had to be postponed until tomorrow, the day we were coming back.  We would get to accompany the children to the zoo.  A place they rarely get to go and an opportunity probably many missions teams have not been able to do.  

There was also a request from the staff there.  They asked us if we'd be willing to paint the girls and boys rooms during our time there.  Of course we said, "Yes."  It was decided to divide the team, part would stay and paint, and part would go on the field trip to the zoo.  I liked both.  I asked Sean however if he could use anymore people to paint.  He said "Sure."  So I volunteered to paint.

I heard later that the team that went to the zoo had an awesome time and so loved seeing the children's faces when they saw the animals.  It was a very special day for everyone.  We cannot post pictures of the children on the internet, so I'm sorry I cannot show you what a good time everyone had.   Just know it was a wonderful experience to be with the children at the zoo.


My story is about "two rooms made new".....This is part one.

 I didn't think I'd come to Ecuador to paint, but that's what I did for two days with about 8 other team members.  We gave the orphans freshly painted bedrooms. Freshly painted yes, but also with a stamp of the love of our team on it.  We made them special.  You'll see what I mean soon.  

I love to paint.  I've painted every room in my house on the inside.  I don't shy away from it.  I was so happy to be able to do this for the kids.  I could have been at the zoo with them and spent time with them.  That would have been so fun!  I chose this instead and I was blessed by it in more ways than one.  I know when we finished the rooms on Wednesday, our love was all over those two rooms.  We prayed over the rooms too.  We prayed for the children to have precious dreams, for security and protection, for love and for Christ to wrap his arms around them and help them to see that despite their circumstances they are loved by a Father in heaven and are never alone. We prayed for the Mommies taking care of them.  We just prayed for God's blessing upon all of them and that the love of Christ would be felt in those rooms.  I think we all felt a peace when we left that place late Wednesday afternoon.

John, Tim and Cindy,  Tina and her daughter Courtney, and Monique and I all painted this first day and didn't go to the zoo.  Let me mention too, that our team leader Sean, had altitude sickness and had to rest after having to go to the ER the night before for fluids.  He stayed with us all day and took it easy.   I know it was hard for him not to be able to help us that day or go to the zoo.  He said God showed him a lot that day through his rest, that if he could do nothing else this day, he could pray.  So he did.  It was very humbling he said to be the leader of the group and not be able to lead.  God took care of the team and we kept going, with people stepping up to help where needed.  We have an awesome team!  And we serve an awesome God!  Sean bounced back nicely for the rest of the week!

A few members of the team upon returning from the zoo also took up paint brushes and helped us paint in the afternoon.    Here are some pics of before we started and some pics of those I mentioned above.

We started in the girls' room.....  It went from blue, green and white to pink and purple.

The "before" picture

This was the play area for the girls on the opposite side from the beds.

Here are some of our team members....

Cindy peeling glue off the walls.

Monique sweeping the walls to get excess dust off.  No time to sand or make any kind of repairs.

Here I am cutting out.  Pink over blue is a challenge.  Our biggest challenge would come the next day in the boys room where we had to paint bright yellow over the same green found in the girls room and over an apricot orange color too.

Tim did a lot of the rolling as did Courtney and Tina

Smiles from  Cindy.  She and I did a lot of the cutting out.

There was nothing I loved more than seeing the joy 9 year old Lizzie got out of using a roller.  She was so excited to be helping the little girls out by giving them a new room.  She had already been to the zoo that morning with the children and she participated with the painting with her mom and dad, Cindy and Tim when she got back.  What a trooper!

John and Monique... teamwork!  Loved that lavender paint!

Jeannine had gone to the zoo with the children, but helped us paint in the afternoon. 

Here I am, doing the second coat cutting out....  I loved what the director and one of the caregivers said after we had finished.  They absolutely LOVED the room and they noted that they needed to "paint the curtains" next because they no longer go with the room color.  They got a good laugh out of that.

The room is shaping up nicely.  Alyssa in the left hand side of the photo did a great job cutting out those columns with the lavender paint.  She also went to the zoo but then helped us paint in the afternoon.

I must say something about one mother daughter team and their positive attitude.  I was so impressed by Courtney who is a rising 8th grader and her willingness to do anything we asked her to do.  She probably rolled over half of that room twice.  If some little thing happened that might not have gone our way, she was the first person to have a positive comment to say.  Always looking at the bright side of everything.  Tina, you have done a great job as Mom!  I know she gets that from you!!  At one point I had paint on my hands and stopped taking photos, but I will post a pic of Courtney and Tina in action soon.

The finishing touches of the room were done actually the next day, Wed July 20th.  After talking with Oswaldo we thought it would be good to put Biblical truths on the walls in Spanish so as to encourage the girls when they were in their room.  Monique worked diligently on brainstorming ideas.  Cindy helped her with translation and we all pitched in with ideas.  Monique prayed over which words to paint on the walls.  As we started to paint the boys room I suddenly heard Chris Tomlin music coming from the girls room.  Monique was playing the music in there while painting those encouraging truths about God on the walls for those little girls.  It was uplifting to hear the music.  She told us later she was praying as she was painting.  Here are some of the beautiful details that were painted for the girls.  

Balloons, hearts, flowers, birds, and hand prints......  all painted with love.

Monique painting her flowers.

Monique's flower and Courtney's flower pot in the play area of the girls' room.

Lizzie and Courtney made flower petals on the wall with their hand prints.  A little piece of them has been left with the precious little girls.

  " El Señor es mi Pastor "  Salmo 23

The Lord is my shepherd.  Psalm 23

  Jesús amo a los niños.   Dios me oye.

Jesus loves the children.  God hears me.  

 These are the words we left with them on their walls to fall asleep under and to see when they wake up in the morning.  We pray that those that can read will read the words to those who cannot.  It was a privilege to paint this room for those little girls.  I don't think I'll ever paint another room in my life and not recall the days I painted at this orphanage.

Here are four of us.  John, Tina, Myself and Cindy