The Story of the Woman Who Walked

Last week during our vision trip to Manta (the same trip that I mentioned in my last post, "The Story of the Little Girl Who Prayed), our group had the amazing opportunity to take part in a baptism ceremony at the beach. Several of the new churches that have been planted last year and this year through the Stadia - Compassion International partnership decided to get together to have a joint baptism ceremony for the folks that have made decisions to follow Christ. We had the privilege to see 43 people baptized and to share their joy as we celebrated with them. 

Note the last photo of the woman in the chair. She has been unable to walk for at least the last four years, but she decided to be baptized, so these four men carried her in a plastic chair all the way down the beach, into the water, she was baptized while still sitting in that chair, and then they carried her back to the shore.

Sister Rosa, the wife of the church planting couple that has been planting churches in this region of Ecuador for the last 25 years or so (and an amazing woman of God), was speaking with another lady after this baptism. In the middle of their conversation, Rosa said, "Excuse me, but the Holy Spirit is speaking to me." With that, Rosa walks over to the woman in the chair, puts up her hand and says, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to get up and walk!" And she walked! And walked, and walked. 

In case you have any doubt that she really did walk, here is a video (I hope you all can view it - I don't know what permissions might be attached... but if you can't, I've at least added a still image.)

Words cannot fully describe how I feel to have been privileged to have been there, to have been a part (as an observer) of such a miracle of healing. My eyes tear up every time I think about it. The things that we saw an heard and experienced just last week were truly awesome. I'll share more of the stories from that one, single, week-long trip in the days to come - stories of more miracles and joyful, heart-wrenching stories. And this was only the second trip that I've been a part of in the month that I've been here. If that was one week, what do the next 2+ years hold? I can hardly wait to find out.

Thank you, God, for calling me here, for allowing me to be a part of your Kingdom work here in Ecuador. Thank you for the beautiful faith of the believers here. Thank you for their depth of trust in You. Thank you for setting before me such amazing examples of Your disciples from whom I can learn so, so much. Lord, open my eyes that I might see, open my ears that I might hear and understand, grow my faith, teach me and use me in this place. All I am is Yours. 

The Story of the Little Girl That Prayed

This is Anggie, a beautiful little girl from Las Lagunas, Ecuador. Las Lagunas is one of the four villages where Stadia partnered with Compassion International and Camino de Santidad (an Ecuadorian church planting organization) to plant four new churches in 2011. The new church has been up and running for a little over a year now. Along with its regular weekly services, the church also hosts the Compassion Child Development Sponsorship Program (CDSP).

Anggie has been registered in the CDSP and has been attending the after-school programs offered through it and the church. Through this program, Anggie receives medical care, tutoring and school help, she learns about God and receives spiritual guidance, she gets hot, healthy meals and clean water that she may not otherwise enjoy without the program. And all of the children in the CDSP receive these things through their participation in the program. As the program has been running for a year now, many of the children in the Las Lagunas CDSP already have sponsors, and they also draw pictures and write letters to be sent to their sponsors while attending the after-school program. This is also where they receive the letters that have been written to them. For the kids, this is the best part of the program. They LOVE to receive letters from their sponsors. Reading those words of love and encouragement gives them hope. It lets them know that there really are people who care for and who love them. But as of last week, Anggie was one the few children remaining in Las Lagunas without a sponsor.

This past week, we (Compassion Ecuador) hosted a group of Stadia church planters on a vision trip, and we had the opportunity to visit Las Lagunas and to meet Anggie. Anggie was very excited to meet us, and she had every reason to be. That morning when she woke up, she shared with her mother that she had just dreamed that someone had finally chosen to sponsor her. Of course, it was just a dream, so she went on her way to school, probably without a second thought about it. Then God rocked her little world. During a regular morning at school, an irregular thing happened - the Compassion project director came in to find Anggie and take her to the church to meet someone.

Debbie, one of the ladies that came on the trip, brought with her a request from a friend back home - "find a child for me to sponsor." The night before we headed to Las Lagunas, Debbie was looking through a few of the packets of children without sponsors, and she was drawn to Anggie's packet. She didn't really know why, but she felt that Anggie was the child for her friend. Imagine Anggie's surprise when she found out that the person she was to meet was going to tell her she had a new sponsor and was going to make her dream come true!

As awesome as that is, it gets even better. Not only had Anggie dreamed of finding a sponsor the previous night, she had also prayed (as she had every night for some time), that she would have a sponsor before her 5th birthday. Now take a moment to look at the above photo again and note the birthdate. August 24, 2007. We visited Las Lagunas on August 21, 2012, just 3 days before her 5th birthday.

What an awesome God we serve who faithfully answers the prayers of little children and makes their dreams come true!

Greetings From Beautiful Ecuador!

I made it! And as I've promised, now that I'm here, I will update this blog regularly even if it kills me to do so. It shouldn't be that difficult really. I already know that I'll have many stories to share, and I can't think of a better place to share them in full detail than here.

My first two and half weeks here have been busy but awesome. People ask how I'm settling in, but I really haven't had a chance to settle in yet. I spent my first week apartment shopping, spending time with the Puga family (my hosts for the time being - and they are amazing people), catching up on emails and updates about the new church plants here in Ecuador and finalizing details for the mission trip team that was arriving a week after I did. Oh, and sitting and watching the hummingbirds at the feeder every morning :)

My second week here was spent hosting my first mission trip team in Manta, which on the coast. So I arrived in Quito on 24 July, flew to Guayaquil on 30 July and then hopped on a bus to Manta on 31 July with a group of 12 other gringos to visit Nuevo Portoviejo, the site of one of the newest churches being planted by Pedro and Rosa del Hierro. To see where in the country these different places are, follow the red lines on the map below. Not bad coverage of the country in two-week's time.

Praise God that even with all of the confusion and last minute changes in setting up the trip, it was successful, and the group seemed to really enjoy the work and treasure their time spent with both the kids in the Compassion project and their own sponsored children. There is nothing better than seeing a child meet their sponsor for the first time. You never know how the meeting will go. Some kids will run as fast as they can into their sponsor's arms as soon as they figure out who their sponsor is...

...while some others are very shy and not so sure what to think.

But what is neat is to watch those shy children open up little by little as the day goes on and they spend more and more time with their sponsors. I wish I had some photos of Nesto, the little guy in the photo above, with Erik, his sponsor, toward the end of the day. It literally brought tears to my eyes to see how hard Erik worked the whole day to break through and gain the trust of little Nesto, and then to Nesto finally smiling and laughing in Erik's arms. I can explain until I'm blue in the face just how special and important the relationship between a sponsor and their child is, just how valuable that interaction can be, even if only through written letters of love and encouragement, but until you've seen how these kids cherish those letters and how they look at their sponsors with such love and admiration, you can't really understand the impact. I'm so happy that there is now a group of 12 more sponsors who truly understand that impact.