Escuela Biblica

We just finished a week of vacation bible school at the soup kitchen. We had about 100 kids attend each day from the neighborhood. It was organized chaos- thankfully we had 3 great volunteers from the US that brought all the materials for us.

Greg helped out in the recreation station, while I helped out in the craft department and learned the spanish words for lizzard, surfboard, knot, keychain, and glitter. We still find ourselves humming vbs songs in our sleep.

Summer fun!

What a fun week we've had! This week at the soup kitchen, we've had soccer tournaments with all of the kids from the soup kitchen- 6 teams in all. The kids are out of school now and don't have much to do during the summer. For most kids here, summer = child labor, babysitting for siblings, or roaming around the dirty neighboorhood looking for something to do. So this has been a fun diversion for them. Greg has been refereeing now that his leg is better and I've been playing with the youth team. We also hosted our 12th sleepover with kids from the soup kitchen. It's always a marvel to watch kids eat pancakes for the first time - the sheer amount of butter they put on them (and that is because we say no to their requests to put Mayo on them), along with putting slices together to eat them like a sandwich. Last night, none of the girls had never used a fork before (spoons, please!). Plus, Pava is such a hit with the kids- they always fight to take her for a walk and scream when she chases them around the house.

One lucky dog....

We're happy to report that our dog, Pava, is coming home with us to the U.S.! Our super cool friend, Kathryn took pity on her when she was visiting and decided to start a "Save Pava" campaign among her friends and family. She raised all the money for Pava to come home with us when we leave Ecuador. Yea!

The Colors of Quechua

Here are some photos of the Quechua people, the indigenous people of Ecuador. We just love their bright, bold colors and the distinctive way the women and children dress.

The new soup kitchen...

...is almost completed! Last week, we had a team complete the walls and ceilings as well as bring the rest of the funds needed to finish the building. This soup kitchen is located 30 minutes north of the existing one and should be up and running sometime in August. The downstairs will feed lunch to kids in the community, while the upstairs will be used for small group meetings. Here are some pics of the work in progress.