Weekly Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

Weekly Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

July 21, 2007

Greetings to all of you from South America! While I was in the states, overwhelmingly I had people ask me to please restart the weekly wrap up. I will send a wrap up out each week and then post it on our blog. I would encourage you to check out our Blogspot, as a friend and supporter has updated it for us, you can find all our past newsletters and wrap ups in case you missed any. Thank you to Doug Wade for his help in moving us along on the information highway.

For those of you who would like to be removed from our mailing list, please respond to this email and in the subject line type remove, we will be happy to do so.

While Danielle and I were in the states, Howard and Jonathan were busy with the teams here at HER. The first was a father/son hiking team, fund raiser, which attempted to summit three mountains here in Ecuador. They were not able to finish the final climb, Cotopaxi, due to weather. This was a disappointment but the trip was successful in raising a significant amount for HER. A family team followed with seven families, who started the project of painting our Casa Grande as we revamp it for a welcome center. They also re-roofed one of our staff houses and cleaned our irrigation system. Right after them we had a group of kids from a mission organization who spent the time with us while their parents spent a necessary respite in Quito. Currently, we are at the end of our largest group, 39 kids and adults and this group has worked hard. They have had a total of seven workdays. They have poured the foundation for the Leader Mundial conference building, dug trenches for the electrical, dug the hole for the septic system and proceeded to finish much of the painting in Casa Grande. Currently, they are on their trip to the jungle, but that doesn’t mean the camp rests. Today, Saturday we have three different groups here using the facilities, a Quito Quest group, a group training to be Ecuadorian facilitators, and an Ecuadorian church doing some team building. Our camp mission statement is we are a training and retreat center which facilitates a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, through nature and outdoor adventure. As you can see this is done on a regular basis.

Many of you have asked about the situation with the water system. When we first arrived, Howard had discovered the water had diminished quite a bit. Last week, Howard and Holger (pronounced Ol’hare) one of the main workers went up on the mountain and checked out a water source that was used earlier when the camp was first started. The water was drinkable but had a lot of sediment in it. So they built a filter system by using a water tank with gravel and charcoal inside and installed it up in the canyon, called a quebrada in Spanish. They were able to build this filter system for under $250. The system is now in use and is keeping up with this large group we have here now, plus all the staff and short term people. For example, last Tuesday we had two groups here at HER and there were in excess of over 80 people, when Howard hiked up to check the tanks they were over three quarters full. He is very happy with the improvement and the campers are happy, when at the end of the day they are able to take a shower!

Needless to say, Danielle and I jumped in with our feet running when we returned. Also, Nicole our oldest returned with us, until the end of August. She got up the first morning and went to work with her dad. This has been so fun to have her here helping out. As always we recognize we are here because of your faithful love and support.

As God is our Refuge, Mary for the Scholl family