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.