Grace Chapel Lancaster

We had the privilege of hosting our sending church, Grace Chapel of Lancaster, California.  They were here for a whirlwind vision trip, so that meant we did a little bit of everything.  The idea was to show them a variety of the things a group could possibly do, so they could then plan for future groups to come visit, work and minister here at El Refugio.  We were so encouraged by their time here and felt completely blessed by each of them individually and by Grace Chapel.

We travelled out to Otavalo, an indian market where you can buy amazing Ecuadorian things.  We stopped for lunch and the price to pay to eat our picnic lunch at this amazing spot, was to pay to have our picture taken with this young boy and his llama.  Deal :)

The whole group, plus our interns at Mitad del Mundo or "The Middle of the World"

Fun day of programming.  This was the first time I had ever done the programming, I was challenged and saw first hand what a great job our programming director, Juan Carlos Cevellos does, we are really blessed to work along side him here at El Refugio

Dean Spoelstra, one of our Pastor's at Grace Chapel, trying out first hand our programming wall

Touring downtown Quito, taking a break in the Presidential Square.   While we were there we had some excitement as the military moved in with their full riot gear on.  We found out later that the president was there and getting ready to address the crowd.  Howard was in the van waiting to pick us up as I tried to round everyone up and get us out of there.  I kept thinking to myself, "How did I become the one in charge and in some alternate universe, this is probably hilarious!"

The men installed additional water tanks for us, and I am pleased to announce we haven't run out of water since then.  "Gracious a Dios"  Thanks be to God!

Billy Cox, (he and his wife Bernice are very close to my parents) and I enjoying a cup of coffee at the Basillica.  It meant so much to me to have Billy come visit, on the final day during worship, he and I couldn't even look at each other without starting to cry.

Brad, Suzanne and Shelbey.  God made sure this side of heaven would be bearable by providing friends like them :)