Feliz Navidad y Feliz Ano Nuevo

We hosted a Christmas party celebration for the workers here at El Refugio. One thing we learned was that not many Ecuadorians have their pictures taken. Danielle took each of the workers and their families pictures when they arrived, and then while they were eating she printed copies of the pictures and put them in frames; the workers were thrilled.
As with many of you our workers have seen both blessing and tragedy this past year. From left to right of the panorama: Don Victor is our eldest worker at 78 and is really such a steady presence. Next is Enrique and his wife Alicia with two of their nieces. Alicia is waiting for a kidney transplant and travels in each week for kidney dialysis. The money has been donated for the transplant procedure, and they now are waiting for a kidney donor. The next family picture is Holgar, our head worker, and his wife Angelica, our head cook, with their twin boys Vladimir and Kenard. They are expecting a baby girl around the first week of February. Holgar and Angelica both have been very instrumental in working with Howard and I on our Spanish. Pedro is next in the picture lineup. This last year saw tragedy for him as one of his granddaughters died of cancer at the age of 5. We bought a tree as a memorial to her and planted it on the property; we see him there each day paying his respects. Finally, there is Andres and Marlena with their new baby girl Katerine, who was born mid November, along with Marlena's mom Panchita, who is visiting from Peru. This baby girl will be exposed to four languages through her family: Spanish, Kofan, Quinchua and English. I have written frequently about this dear family; you remember Andres is our guard and Marlena is a cook with Angelica.
All the men work with Howard on the operations side of El Refugio and I work with Angelica and Marlena. My proudest moment this last year was seeing both the women receive contracts that allowed for them to be blessed with three months off, with pay, after their babies are born.
These are the people Howard and I work with on a day to day basis. We thought you would enjoy seeing pictures of them and their families and learn a little bit about their lives.
We pray you had a blessed Christmas and our prayers are for a New Year filled with hope.

Time Out of our Regularly Scheduled Post

With Thanksgiving approaching, I wanted to take time to say how much we appreciate each one of you who make it possible for us to serve here at El Refugio. Each day we are reminded we could not be here with out your faithful support.
I wanted to share with you about God's faithfulness to us. I know the economy is bad and we pray for you as you weather the storm surrounding all the financial issues. I want to encourage you to remember God knows each and every one of our needs and is ready and willing to meet those needs. I share this testimony to encourage you.
Last spring we received a substantial amount from one of our supporters. Then a couple of months later, from the same supporter we received another large donation. To be honest, at first we entertained the idea of purchasing a piano. We went and looked at pianos, in Ecuador they are very expensive. Pretty much like a car, they not only hold their value, they increase in value. Anyway, we did not purchase a piano and the money has just sat in our account at International Teams. This month, we had to have our car worked on so we could get it "Matriculated" (equivalent to DMV tags). Much to our dismay, the bill grew larger and larger. Something about the head and valve guides. When all was said and done, do you know the amount it cost for us to get our car repaired was exactly the amount of the two donations we received "last spring". God knew and had prepared in advance for our needs.
I hope this encourages you. We feel privileged to see God work through each one of you.
Happy Thanksgiving

Summer Tour 2008 "El Reto"

Just when you thought you could basically figure out what ministry looks like at El Refugio, we'll throw a twist into the mix. Right in the middle of summer we hosted one of the Ecuadorian adventure races called "El Reto". The race consisted of three parts, the first was literally running up and around our mountain (quite an achievement when you remember we are at 10,000 ft.) bicycle riding and then orienteering. We hosted the event to develop some good community relationships. Even with all the craziness with the racers, every once in a while it's fun to have a change in pace. Below racers take off from the starting line.

Loved the contrast in this picture

Racers poised against the horse backdrop

Summer Tour 2008 "Father Son Team"

Program Director Juan Carlos Cevellos

Each year the emphasis for the Father/Son Team shifts from climbing to jungle adventure. The cool thing this year was the group included three generations, Grandfather, father and son. The time was spent reconnecting with each other, but more importantly with God. Juan Carlos is shown above chatting with the Grandfather from the three generation group. Plans are already underway for the Father Son Climb for the summer of 2009. Any Father and Son combos interested can contact us and we will get you signed up.

Summer Tour 2008 "Southern Baptist Kids"

"Southern Baptist Retreat"

The next group to arrive for the summer was the Southern Baptist kids from all over Latin America. Once a year the Southern Baptist Convention treats the adult missionaries to a time of rest and refreshing in Quito, while the kids spend their time here at El Refugio. Since this was a retreat group, we basically provided housing, food and most importantly programing. The leaders of this group always go way over the top to really make the kids feel love and cared for during their time here.
This would be a good time to mention Israel, an Ecuadorian who worked as an intern under my position for the summer. Wow, what a blessing he was to me and the ministry over and over again. He exhibited a true servants heart as he served in any capacity required. Israel was completing his internship for the University here at El Refugio, and we hope in the near future to find a position for him here full time. Pray for God's leading and provision in his life for this to happen.
The reason I mention him now, is he attended one of the sessions provided by the Southern Baptist leaders. The speaker spoke on how each of us has a different love language, and the next day Israel was so animated about the session, he had never heard of such a thing. What a privilege to be a part of his life as he testified how this message really impacted his life. Later in the summer I also witnessed him patiently talking with one of our bus drivers and delivering the Gospel message with wisdom beyond his years.

Summer Tour 2008 "Geneva Youth"

"VBS with kids from local barrios"

The next work team for the summer arrived 3 days later. This was our largest group of the summer. Geneva Youth arrived with 48 Juniors and staff. Combined with our staff we fed approximately 70 for every meal. Housing was fun. El Refugio has 3 dorms that can sleep 10 each. We then put 4 girls in what we call Casita Juanita, 4 guys in the boy's intern house and the remainder in Casa Grande, where we set up bunk beds. One of the challenges with a group who comes each year is to offer something new. This year we held our first annual pig roast. When all was said and done we fed over 100 people. Fun.

"The first annual Pig Roast"

Geneva Youth has been coming every summer for the past six years. One of the amazing things about this group is how we could see their time investment and the benefit of coming every year. The Youth Pastor had prepared the kids before they arrived and while they were here participated in a devotional each day from James. Each night ended with time by the camp fire debriefing the day, what each of the students had learned and what God was teaching them.
While Geneva Youth was here they completed several work projects, held a VBS on property, and for some of the kids the trip culminated in the jungle, where a baptism was held.

"Baptism in the Jungle"

One thing we learned is you can not out give, serve, or love the Geneva Youth Team!

Summer Tour 2008 "Family Team"

Geneva Family Team

Zip Line in the Jungle

Waiting for a turn on the Ropes Courses

Here at El Refugio, we basically have two types of groups, those who come for a retreat La Red would be an example of a retreat group, and then those churches who come specifically as a work team. Now under the definition of a work team they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Our second group of the summer was a “Family Work Team” from Geneva Church outside of Chicago. How our dorms are set up we can “host 5 maybe 6 family units. The family team is always fun and always a little more lively as we learn to accommodate the different ages to fit the work project. The team scoured and cleaned our pond and worked at pouring the foundation for our future shop. During their stay here, they hosted a VBS, held babies at the orphanage, enjoyed campfires each night with a devotional, hiked and of course worked. What I remember most about the family team is their complete generosity.

Summer Tour 2008

Receiving instructions for the Ropes Courses

Ivet Castro, Director of La Red

For some reason, we have found since serving in Ecuador it feels as if time has simply sped up. Really, it seems like a heartbeat since we started the summer of 2008. For those active readers of our blog, you’ll remember we closed the kitchen down for the month of May to clean and organize.

Our first “official” group of the summer was a retreat held at the end of May, for one of the ministries connected with Youth World called La Red Juvenil (The Youth Network). To learn more about this ministry you can go to: http://www.youthworld.org.ec/lared.htm

Mr. and Mrs. Jay Morgan Kimbler

Before I start recapping our summer here in Ecuador, some of you have been asking about the wedding and to see some pictures. On the day of the wedding I told the kids to not worry about taking any pictures with their cameras. The photographer said she would take plenty of pictures and then we could just relax and enjoy the day. She did an incredible job, however we arrived back here in Ecuador without a single picture. So I had to wait until the photographer released the CD to Nicole, and then wait for someone to carry them down to us, so I could share them with you. Enjoy!






All photographs by Natasha Burnett of Human Nature Photography

Summer Wrap Up

To be honest...I was absolutely floored when I checked our blog and realized it had been a full two months since I last posted. When I look back, as I wrote the blog for June, I had no idea how the craziness of summer would hit. From that point until now, El Refugio hosted 7 groups who were as varied in size as they were in ministry. The good news is just last week we were able to purchase a modem which increased our internet speed to about 236 k bps from 44. I have no idea what that means, only that in just making the few minor changes I posted today took me a fraction of the time it would have in the past.

So over the next few weeks, lets sit down and catch up.
As God is our Refuge (and surely has been the last eight weeks)
Mary for the Scholl family

DESEMPRE

Thought you might like to read a letter we received from a man named Oscar who heads up DESEMPRE, a group which frequently uses our property for corporations who desire team building. This particular group was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Ecuador. They were here for two days, and camped up on the mountain for the night. One of their activities was as a group figure out how to catch a live chicken and then as a group decide what to do with the chicken, eat it, make it a pet or simply let it go (which meant they did not have dinner that night).

Quito, 13th of June, 2008

This letter is to express a special thanks to all the team from Hacienda El Refugio who helped us during our event on June 5th and 6th.

Your help was very important for the success of the training. We wish to recognize thank everyone of the Hacienda facilitators and staff for being extremely helpful and collaborative with us. Thank you for being such a good example of Christian brothers. In a special way we want to thank the extra effort and time given by Lorena, Juan Carlos, Abby, Howard and Mathew.

Every one of clients was impressed by the organization of the training, and amazed by the beauty of the place. You really are doing a great job at keeping the place in its best shape.

Additionally, I want to let you know that during those days three people of the Sanduchitos Pura Vida Team received Jesus Christ as Savior, and 112 people were exposed to at least some Christian thoughts.

It was great to see our both teams working together as one team, and we look forward to continue to organize events that would glorify God and enhance our professionalism.

Best regards,

Oscar M. Aguirre

GERENTE INTERNACIONAL

DESEMPRE S.A.

Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

Have you ever uttered the words, “There is no way I am going to do such and such?” This is exactly how I know God has a sense of humor, because any time I have the audacity to say that phrase, He always finds a way to draw me to do exactly the “such and such”.

Last year, the suggestion was made that I should take over the kitchen here at HER, of which I promptly replied, “Are you kidding me, I can barely take care of my own kitchen!” And then the conviction and prompting of the Holy Spirit started to settle in.

The first of May, I took over the position of Guest House Manager for an interim period. With this position, I oversee the Kitchen and the cooks, the care and cleaning of Casa Grande and the dorms and finally, the coordinating of the interns here at El Refugio. Proving God does have a sense of humor and He can manage to get a job done, using even the most unlikely people.

For starters, thirty days in May we closed the work team kitchen and thanks to our hard working interns we completely emptied, inventoried, cleaned and painted the kitchen. Our goal was to open for our first group the last weekend in May for La Red, a ministry affiliated with Youth World. From that point on there has been no looking back. Since the first of June, we have hosted the Youth World team for lunch, a training day for the Quito Quest interns, and most recently our first work team of the summer. We have only just begun, by the end of summer, we will have welcomed five more work teams and fourteen Quito Quest Groups. Fun, no really, Fun.

Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

Many exciting things have been happening at El Refugio. We have known our Director Bob Spoolstra and his family will be returning to the states June of 2009. Recognizing the team is in transition, a leadership team has been put into place to navigate the next 14 months. As Director of Operations, Howard will be one of the members on the team. Pray for them as they articulate the vision for El Refugio. Our mission is clear:

A training and retreat center which facilitates a deeper relationship
with Jesus Christ, through nature and outdoor adventure

The team has spent the last several weeks expressing how we as individuals and corporately carry out this mission. Now, the challenge is to articulate what our vision will be for the next year, five years etc. and how we proceed from there.

For a little background, the team here at El Refugio either serves on the Operations or the Programming side. In an effort to integrate these two areas, some training has and will continue to take place. Programming started the training with the whole team this week, illustrating how they train the facilitators who serve with us. Juan Carlos Cevallos, our new Program Director has developed a program for young Ecuadorians to come and serve as facilitators at El Refugio for our many retreats and programs. For those of us on the Operations side this was a very beneficial time.

Juan Carlos and Paul Reichert, who is now our Program Developer, explained how they teach the facilitators how to use Experiential Education with the different groups. This starts with Experience, then reflection, generalization and finally application. Basically it is: What – So What – Now What. The idea is the experience should change you. If you step out into the front of a bus and it almost hits you and the next day you do the same, you have not learned anything. However, if the next day you look both ways, the experience has left you a better and wiser person. Which is exactly what our high and low rope elements are designed to achieve when a person participates in each activity, teach the individual something about themselves and hopefully they will grow.

Biblically, this is illustrated how Christ spent time with the disciples. If you will peruse through any of the gospels, and notice when Jesus sat the disciples down and “debriefed” with them after an encounter. He did this, so that by the time He ascended into heaven, each disciple was prepared for their individual ministries, to the extent each one died professing their belief in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I challenge you to look through the scriptures and see examples of this concept, What – So What – Now What. As always, we understand and appreciate we could not be serving here without the love and support of so many of you.

As God is our Refuge, Mary, for the Scholl family

Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

While technically, we are in our “slow” season, many things have been happening here at El Refugio, both on the operations and programming side of things.

First, at the end of January we experienced our first Youth World Annual Meetings. The speaker spoke each day from Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount. I would encourage you to find a copy of “The Message”; this translation provides an interesting perspective on a timeless message.

Each day we heard reports from the different areas of ministry, which was both encouraging and sobering to hear the events of the last year. I would encourage you to look up www.youthworld.org.ec and browse around the website to learn about the various ministries we serve with here in Quito. One interesting note, our team now has 54 members with a projection of 60 by the end of this year. This number includes full time missionaries, term missionaries and interns. As you can imagine, with that many people, this provides countless opportunities for ministry to happen in diverse ways.

The month of January and first of February were a blur for our operations team. They worked fast and furiously to finish up the PTC (Professional Training Center). As you know they have been working on this project for the last seven months. The goal was to finish it by the Leader Mundial Global Summit. They came really close. In fact many from the team came out and pitched in with sanding, varnishing and painting. By the time the meetings took place, the great room was pretty much done, with only some minor things still needed to be done. The result was that 26 men from 9 different countries came end enjoyed a week of instruction in their very own training center.

Programming has been equally as busy. They started the month of January with a team of young women from Gordon College who came to train in emergency procedures both for themselves and our team here. They also worked on cutting some new trails, down in the cloud forest near our property which will be used by future teams. Last week a group of Ecuadorian leaders from a church in Guayaquil came and trained with our team. Then this week they returned with 30 youth from their church to participate in the full camp activities. Several Saturdays we have had groups out here and today, in fact, we have a Quito Quest group from Northern California doing a work project.

Next week we will celebrate our one year anniversary. Hard to believe a year has passed and yet, at times it feels like we have been here a life time. God is good and eternally faithful. Please realize how much we appreciate each of you and understand we could not be here without your support, spiritually, emotionally and financially. Remember, we love to hear from you and about your lives as well.

As God is our Refuge, Mary for the Scholl Family

Traditions ~ Culture ~ Family

Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador January 2007

The three older kids were able to join us for Christmas. Although the time went far too quickly, I can say we enjoyed every minute. We continued many of our regular family traditions and added some new ones. There is an Ecuadorian tradition to hand out “Navidads” to the children. On Christmas day, while the Cline family (fellow missionaries and friends) were driving out to have Christmas dinner with us, they noticed a ton of kids lined on the road for their Navidads. We knew we had a bunch of beanie babies up in storage, left from groups this last summer. So we loaded up both our cars and just started driving. When we saw kids on the road we would stop and give them a beanie baby. One little boy told Howard, “Now Christmas has finally come!” We all agreed this is a tradition we want to continue.

We also had a good time “viewing” things through our kid’s eyes. One humorous Ecuadorian habit is to turn the flashers on their car whenever they need to do something out of the ordinary. Doesn’t matter if what they are doing is illegal, if they have their flashers on, it’s OK. We saw cars on the wrong side of the road backing up, to a car triple park. No worries, though, because they had their flashers on.

On New Years Eve day Howard and the kids were able to climb Guagua Pichincha (15,692 ft). Feeling confident a week later Howard, Nicole and Kevin climbed Iliniza Norte (16,815 ft). The altitude really affected Kevin, when they descended he said that would be enough climbing for him, no thanks he didn’t need to try Cotopaxi (19,388 ft), one of the world’s highest active volcanoes. Maybe next year.

Finally, thought you might enjoy a picture of Nicole and the young man she is going to marry. His name is Jay Kimbler and they will be married on March 28, 2008. Jay is a great guy and we are hopeful for these two and the future God has in store for them. Currently, Jay is employed in Visalia, CA. as a Herd health manager for a club calf operation. They raise cattle for 4H and FFA show animals. Pray for them as they make decisions about their future together.

We appreciate each of you and are constantly reminded how much we rely on you.

As God is our Refuge, Mary for the Scholl Family