Summer 2007

As many of you knew, Danielle and I traveled home to attend Nicole, our oldest daughters graduation from Cal Poly San Luis. The photo includes from left to right: My dad Bob Scherer, Danielle, my sister Suzie, (in front) my mom Kay Scherer, (behind her) my nephew Craig who attends Annapolis, Kevin, Nicole, behind her to the right, Ralph, Howard's dad, me and in front of me Ralph's wife, Helen. We had such a fun time celebrating the day with her and are so proud of her accomplishments. There was a large ceremony and then the individual colleges held smaller ceremonies, where Nicole received her Bachelor of Science degree.
During our time in the states, it worked out for my mom to schedule back surgery. The girls and I were able to help she and my dad move into one of their one bedroom apartments, so my mom wouldn't have to maneuver stairs during her recovery process. I am happy to report the surgery was a success, however I would appreciate prayer for my mom as the recovery has been a little slower than she had hoped.
I regret we weren't able to see very many people while we were there. I really believe God oversaw the timing though, so I could be there during this time with my parents. It has been years since we were able to just sit and enjoy talking with my folks. Even at 45, I still love to lay on the bed with my mom and share the days events.
Another subject I had not elaborated on was Nicole returning to Ecuador with Danielle and I. This was part of her graduation gift from us and we have loved every minute. She has been working with Howard on the training center for Leader Mundial. She also has been working with the eleven horses we have here on the property.
One week after Nicole arrived, she found out she had been accepted to a Vet school in Canada. She has gone through the process of weighing all her options and in the end has decided to turn the offer down for various reasons. I ask prayer for her as she decides what to, once she arrives back in California.
We would love to hear from you about the things you are doing during the summer of 2007.

Weekly Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador - July 26, 2007

Weekly Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

July 26, 2007

In the midst of all the building projects last week, the Geneva Youth Work team took two of the afternoons and held a Vacation Bible School for the kids of Calacali. The first day about 85 children attended, the second day there were closer to 100. In previous years the team has gone out into the barrio to hold the VBS, this year we invited the children to come to Hacienda El Refugio. Once they arrived the kids were split into three groups and rotated between different activities. The first activity was games held on the soccer field. The second was a puppet show held on the front steps of Casa Grande, presented entirely in Spanish. And the final activity the children did was a craft, where they made photo frames and visors. As the children worked their way through all three stations, the gospel of Jesus Christ was presented to them through songs, stories, and sharing. Juan Carlos was able to share the gospel with one of the children’s father and he accepted Christ as his Savior. I wish I could describe how fun it is to hear all the laughing and singing from both Ecuadorian and American young people.

Danielle and Jonathan with children from Calacali during the VBS

I am pleased to announce, I will start teaching Danny and David our Ecuadorian interns English three times a week. When I returned from the States, there was a young woman visiting here, who got the program going and really gave me the confidence to continue on with their studies. As soon as I feel confident with these two young men, I will start to teach Andres’, our guard and Holger, the head worker. Beyond that, Juan Carlos would like me to start with an evening a week just teaching any of the workers who would like to learn. I am so excited about all the possibilities. Pray for me as I put together a curriculum which is beneficial to the boys and meets their needs. Also, if anyone has any input, please send it along my way; I am open to all ideas and suggestions.

As Always, we covet you prayers and love to hear from you,
As God is our Refuge, Mary for the Scholl Family

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

Estados Unidos

Last Thursday, Danielle and I headed back to the states to attend Nicole's graduation from Cal Poly San Luis. Howard and Jonathan stayed put, as the camp is moving into the busy season. We had a wonderful time at graduation and were so proud to be there when Nicole received her Bachelor of Science degree.
Danielle is now at "Kickback", an after school is out camp, the youth group attend each year on the the Kern River. Kevin and I helped Nicole pack up her house and prepare to move to Tollhouse, California.

My mom is scheduled to have back surgery on the 28th at Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara, so I'll head over there and lend moral support to my parents.

Finally, I hope to help Bridget move into an apartment and get settled before we head back to Ecuador. Lots to do before we fly back home.

Really, we haven't been gone long enough for there to be "cultural" issues. My main luxury is to have the freedom to move about without the concern for sticking out. Wait, I take that back, I am in total Shock about the price of gas, I cannot believe people aren't screaming.

I've heard from several of you and enjoy your words of response.

Remember, God is our only Refuge.

Scholl Family Newsletter

Scholl Family Newsletter
June 2007
Serving God in Calacali, Ecuador
“God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalms 46:1


Honeymoon

May 26th marked our three month anniversary here in Ecuador. Many of you have traveled with us each week as we acclimated to life in another country. This is a good time for us to evaluate how we are doing and what changes should be made. When I started writing the weekly update some of you cautioned, as we became busier in ministry it might prove to be a challenge to maintain a weekly update and you were right. I (Mary) also became conflicted at “dropping in” on your emails each week. The solution we have found is to develop a blog site where I can still journal and you can access the entries at your own convenience. You can access our blog at http://www.howardschollfamily.blogspot.com/

Language Acquisition

Howard y Daniel Narvaez D

Danielle y Doris Balseca

Mary y Doris

We finished three months of Spanish with our two instructors Daniel and Doris. The decision was made to take a break for the summer. There were two reasons for this, the necessity to put the groups first that would be here this summer. And the second, Howard and I needed some time to assimilate what we had learned before we could move ahead in our learning. So, we take a break, speaking only in the present tense (Danielle not included), however feeling a bit more confident we are going to learn to speak Spanish.

Spanish is really an orderly language. However, there are some frustrations. For example, you learn verbs such as memorizer, dividir, and practicar which are easily understood to memorize, divide and practice. So you think to yourself, “Spanish is easy!” Then you run into a verb like manejar, huh? Yes, manejar it means “to drive”. To drive are you kidding me? Why not drivider? Or my favorite verb to forget, olvidar which means, “to forget”. The basic thing I have had to learn is when the verbs are easy, bonus, however more times than not they will have to be learned with some word association. For example, “to share” is compartir. In my mind I visualize compartments and those have to be “shared”. Please understand though this requires a lot more hard drive than remains on my brain! Pray for us as we practice over the summer and become more fluent.

Newlyweds

Marlene y Andres

Andres is one of the Cofan guard here on the property. Marlene is his new bride from Peru. They are the ones Danielle made the photo album for. Andres is studying to be a pastor and Marlene has a degree in linguistics from a university in Peru. Pray for them as they settle Marlene’s VISA issues. When they are not working here at El Refugio, they are busy working on translating the Psalms for the Cofan Indians.

The Cevallos Family

Courtney, Lillie, Marlie, Juan Carlos

An update on the Cevallos family, Juan Carlos gave a report at a recent team meeting and only expressed gratitude for how everything has worked out. Juan Carlos is one of our program director here at the camp. He has been very influential in bringing our two Ecuadorian facilitators to live here at the camp. He also works very closely with the Ecuadorian facilitators who come and help out with the various day camps.

Hacienda El Refugio

The camp continues to be very busy. In one week we had four different day groups. As always the variety of the groups is what, I believe allows the camp to be most effective. For example, we had a group of businessman, kids from a Korean school, a scouting group and finally a group processing through grief.

To top that off we head into our busy season with work groups coming from the states that will be staying here on the property, plus eleven different Quito Quest groups who each spend a day at HER. This translates to Howard being very busy making sure everything is up and running and supplies are ready for each of the work projects planned. As always we completely recognize we are serving at HER, because of you our friends and family who support us in various ways.
I will close with Paul’s words from Ephesians, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel” 6:19 NIV.

As God is our Refuge, Mary for the Scholl Family
Contact info–schollseven@gmail.com (we need your email address)
Support info – http://iteams.org/ Click on the Give link
Designate for the ministry of Howard and Mary Scholl
Blogspot – http://www.howardschollfamily.blogspot.com/

Website – http://www.youthworld.org.ec/ Click on the El Refugio link