To: The Best Group Ever!

Mrs. Schuitema, Guille, and I were talking the other day about what a great trip we had with this group.  We thought you should know!  We all feel very blessed to have experienced ten days with you in Ecuador.  Each day you continued to wow us with your great attitudes, work ethic, kindness to one another, openness to adventure, and receptivity to God's work in you.  A lot was asked of you: getting up early, working long days, singing in a church (in Spanish!), trying new foods, sharing your faith stories, etc.  You did not complain; instead you rose to the occasion with a smile on your face.  Thanks for being a terrific group!  Specifically, thanks to:

• Brad for working really hard and never complaining about stomach issues.
• Emily for being so daring--painting up high and trying new things.
• Erica for quietly working hard and consistently each day and always offering a kind word.
• Josh for putting a lot of thought into his testimony and sharing from the heart (and being AC's putty buddy!).
• Julie for having a great attitude even while sick and not being afraid to get dirty while working.
• Kendra for doing lots of heavy, dirty, and high-up work with Julie.
• Mallory for her winning attitude--always with a smile or contagious laughter.
• Mariah for her maturity and leadership from the beginning--designing T-shirts, organizing lunches at school, and bringing the group together.
• Mary for buying us cultural foods to try and telling us all about them!
• Sydney for singing while working and daring to tell her story at church.
• Tim for making us laugh, asking great questions, and being outgoing IN SPANISH!
• Zach for his leadership by example--speaking in church, praying for the group, and always treating others with respect.

We got a shout-out on the Fogg Blog!

Last Day: Reflections

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How was your trip?

How did you see God at work on this trip? How did you grow spiritually?

In the United States, I found it very common to think that people that don't grow up with or have as much stuff as us are not as happy or content. However, when I came here, that began to change. All the people I've met might not have as much stuff as me, but they are so happy and joyful because of what they do have. God showed me that I have a ton to be happy about: a loving family, a warm house, and amazing friends. - Julie

What I learned on this trip I am still not sure will actually influence my american life quite yet. I still do not know what God has done in my life because of this trip but I am willing to see and search for a change of heart when I get back if that is even how a “change of heart” even works. I have asked many questions on this trip leading me to believe that my world view has expanded even a little bit yet I do not know if the answers I was given actually spoke to me. I hope that when I get back I will have even a slight bit of some sort of understanding.

-Tim

What I learned on this trip is to go with it. A lot of the time on this trip we were put into situations that we were not conferrable with. Like at young life yesterday night. At first I was kinda scared so I was just standing there awkward. Then I just started to go with it and it was better. I met some people that I would have never met if I just stood in the corner not talking. God Has shown me to just BE and not worry about other stuff.

-Josh

I really saw God at work during this trip by seeing the differences in culture. Ecuador is a lot different than Michigan, and it was so cool to see how they live. Even though these people live their lives a lot differently than how we live, they still worship the same God. When we went to the church service this week it really opened my eyes to see that they are worshiping the same God. It is so cool to think that we have a huge community of Christ followers all around the world. Seeing the differences and the similarities about the people, and the country of Ecuador this week was so life changing and I will remember this trip forever! -Erica

I saw God at work on this trip because all of the people were so happy with what they have. Living in the United States we never seen to “have enough”. The people here in Ecuador have shown me that you can live with so little and still be so happy and blessed. I think God placed me here to realize how blessed I am and how I can use my blessings to bless others. I am so glad I was able to go on this trip and I feel closer to God because of it.

-Emily

There were so many ways that I have experienced God on this trip-too many to count. Throughout the trip I have been searching for why God has called me on this trip. I got my answer almost as a slap in the face. As we were painting and through devotions I began to realize that it isn't about me or the work I do. Our culture is so surrounded and influenced by ourselves and focused on “ME.” As the trip moved on, God opened my eyes to realize that I am following His call and he is working through me in ways that I will never be able to comprehend. This is a powerful message for me because I can apply it in my every day life. God has a purpose for me and I just need to follow His call wherever he leads me! Thanks for the support!

~Mariah

Throughout this trip here I have seen God in so many ways. This trip came to me and I knew it was something God wanted me to go on. I am so happy that I got to experience this trip because of everything I have learned. This trip made me focus on other people and other things not just myself. During the devotions, testimonies, painting, orphanage and the beauty here is something I will never forget. It has shown me how much love there is all over the world. This trip has seemed like it has flew by but I have learned how to seek God in other cultures and realize that God will provide for me. Gods purpose may be unknown for now but is something that I need to pray about, and go where he leads me. - Mallory

One thing about this trip that was most surprising to me was the modernization here in Ecuador. In the cities, traveling on the road systems, interacting with the people, all of it surprised me due to how close they are to me, to us, to America. I even saw it in the spiritual events like attending the church service and the Young Life event. The Holy Spirit is definitely there as Ecuadorians worship in their faith communities. That was especially amazing to me because as Americans we have a mind set where we need to bestow our blessings on those in other countries and spread the gospel. But the people of Ecuador are happy and they already have the gospel. This just challenges me to change my thinking when it comes to going to other places around the world, because they might bless me even more than I bless them. -Zach

This trip has been such a blessing in my life because of how many opportunities I've had to see God and let him show me what I need to see. One specific thing that has really impacted me on this trip that God showed me was that the United States is my home, but there were so many instances here in Ecuador that I thought to myself, “Wow, this could be home.” I'm not going to run off to be a missionary right here, right now because I can be a missionary back at home in my own life too. But I can see myself living outside the US in the future. I'm still processing our trip and the God moments I've experienced, but this is what I've taken away at the moment and why I believe God wanted me here to show me. -Sydney

The thing that I really learned about on this trip was about the need to be open with others. We need to be open with everyone or else you do not really know that person. Everyone on this trip told there testimonies and that was something that most of us have never done. It really forced me to think about my faith walk for the first time. I feel that this was a very important lesson for me to learn and I hope bring that back with me to Michigan. -Brad 

The experience of going to Ecuador was different for me than what it was for others.  Because I had lived there before, I wasn't really shocked by anything.  For me it was fun to go back and see what was different, and what was the same. One of the best things about going back was getting to see people that I haven't seen in years, and hearing about what has been happening in their lives. -Kendra 

Day 8: In the Jungle

Welp. (That was Tim.)

Today was a wild day that shall be written in history books across the American and Ecuadorian nations.  This fine group of wild Caucasian Americans (and Guille) took a trek through the wild jungle nestled in the midst of wild Ecuador, some without pants on. More on that later.

To start off, we took a wild ride through Puyo into the Kichwa tribe sector.  Our amigo clan pulled up next to a wild, raging river that made the hair on our necks stand on end when we were told we would be canoeing through this monster-of-a-freshet (look it up).  After the lifejackets were fastened, we were assigned our steeds of water travel.  Each pirogue was manned by a tour guide who fearlessly directed us through the wild rapids and pointy rocks.  Everyone in each pirogue had close encounters with death.  All four boats made it out alive, which began our wild jungle extravaganza. 

We broke up into two groups and followed our machete-carrying-guides into the thick of the unknown.  Equipped with our sturdy rain boots and the clothes on our backs (PS there were also clothes on the other appropriate parts of our bodies), we charged through mud just like animals!!!!!!!!!  (Tim hates tons of exclamation points.) Then we ate animals.  Some of us got the wild opportunity to eat ants and swing like monkeys on the vines.  After continuing on through the rest of the trail, we finally arrived at our destination, Cascada Hola Vida (Hello Life Waterfall).  This wild waterfall had a medium-sized catch pool with perfectly clear water.  Our tour guide said that if you stood directly under this monster, the force of this wild thing could break your neck.  After some fun play time in the pool, we took some pictures and got out to dry off with the one towel that was brought.  The girls decided that rather than getting our jeans wet, we would wear our rain boots and ponchos/rain jackets over our suits.  So on the trek back to the busses, the girls wore suits, rain boots, and ponchos while carrying our jeans and t-shirts.

(This is where Tim and Sydney abruptly fell asleep while writing this blog post and stellar heroes Julie and Zach took over control--the next morning-- of this important informational message)

We took some time to dry off and change in some wasp infested bathrooms where the doors didn’t stay shut. We were really roughing it. We all piled into vans and were driven to the Kichwa tribe sector again, but this time we actually went over the rickety bridge into the settlement. Lunch was in a large grass hut and consisted of big banana leaves as plates and no silverware. We were given the choice between a whole fish or chicken. But some of us were forced to eat fish because there was not enough chicken... And when we say fish, we mean the whole fish wrapped in leaves including the head, eyes, gills, fins, tail, and all the bones. There was also yuca, cucumber, rice, a tomato and onion mixture, and lemonade to drink. To say the least, we were really enjoying the messiness of eating rice with our fingers. Josh made a friend during lunch, a lovely parrot by the name of Johnny that tried to eat him. He literally would not leave Josh alone.
 

After eating, our guide did a little bit of an informational session about the Kichwa tribe and other tribes in Ecuador, like those that cut off people’s heads and make the famous shrunken heads. Then he introduced some adorable children that proceeded to dance a traditional dance for us. The guide explained that the tribe was trying to revive old customs by teaching them to their children. They were totes cutsies. We were then encouraged to go into another hut to shop for homemade souvenirs like jewelry, weapons, and bowls. They also offered free tribal face painting. Each design meant a different thing. Sadly, it was then time to be done with our wild jungle extravaganza. So we headed back to Shell and the compound, returned our fashionable boots (Tim was pretty beat up about it), and then walked back to the hostería.

We had a little bit of downtime before Renee Fogg came over with our supper. We had tamale type things, chips, rolls, fruit, chocolate cake, and blackberry Tang for a drink. Soon it was time for us chicos to head off to an Ecuadorian Young Life meeting. The Foggs introduced us, but then had to leave, leaving us gringos to fend for ourselves. There wasn’t a ton of people at first, and it was a little awkward, but after the first hour people trickled in and we began to get to know Ecuadorians our age. We got a nice frisbee game going during the free time. At about 8 the meeting started and we had fun games, a couple singing times, a conga line, and a short lesson. All in all, it was a pretty great experience and a lot of us made new friends that we will be Facebook friending soon.

We made it back to the hostería about 9:30 and then had devotions. During our reflections of the day, it was hard for us to decide on a favorite part because it was all so fricken awesome and magical. Our devotional time consisted of the sharing of Brad, Josh, and Sydney’s testimonies. It was pretty neat to see where each person was in their faith walk.

We were all REALLY tired by the time things wrapped up, so we put on our jammies, brushed our teefers, and hopped into bed. 

That’s all for our awesome Friday! Things are cool here, but are definitely wrapping up.

So we guess that’s it. Over and out, Zach and Julie. 

Day 6 and 7 - Work Day 3&4

  
WEDNESDAY:
 Hola! Sorry for the late update! We got to sleep in a little bit, so we took advantage of the extra sleep last night.
    Today was another big day of work on the houses. We woke up this morning and had a great Ecuadorian breakfast of rolls, eggs, pineapple, and tomate de arbol juice (tree tomato that does that does not taste like a tomato at all!) When we finished breakfast we made our way over to the houses that we are painting. We got right to work on painting and doing the many other working projects that we had to do for the house.
    We had a bunch of fun memories to make the long day of work move along. For instance, part of our project is to paint the metal security grates over the windows with an oil based black paint. It smells like tar, it looks like tar, and it’s super sticky and thick, so we can tell that it tastes like tar too. ;) To clean it off our hands before eating and after the day is over we use gasoline because it is the only thing that will wash off this oil based paint. A lot of times the paint gets on places of our bodies other than our hands. This was seen just today when Zach jabbed Sydney in the face with his paint brushed covered in black tar. Needless to say, the facial expression and scream all made our day! Another great memory of today was the many down pours of rain that we had. In Ecuador it is very common for it to rain and then 5 minutes it to be sunny. Totally unpredictable! We all get so excited for our lunch break of the day.
    For lunch today we had a lot of great food, but the best was the amazing animal crackers. These animal crackers were delicious and fun treat; they even had owls and turtles! We were all ready to crash after this long day. One of the workers from maintenance invited us to his church ceremony tonight. We were all so excited to go! We stopped on the way to a delicious outdoor restaurant where they served us amazing meats, fish, and so much more. Most of us loved the food, but some did not (uhgmhmmmmm...JOSH--not a big fan of seafood or meat). We could even watch them make our food over the grill! Rafael met us at the restaurant around 7:30ish and by 7:45 we were packed in the van on our way to church. (Rafael is a maintenance worker who invited us to church with him). He was so excited for us to come worship with this community of believers. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but most of us were excited.
    We arrived at a small brightly lit building in the middle of a part of the jungle. Loud music filled our ears as we filed into the room. There were no more than 20-25 Ecuadorians there! We found our seats in the back and began to sing along. It was an experience that we will never forget! EVERYONE was singing, dancing, crying, and praising with such a great passion for the Lord. The pastor invited us forward to share a bit about why we are here. Guille talked about why we are here and what we have been doing the past couple days. He also shared Psalm 1 because he felt like God had placed it on his heart. Next, our group sang “Father, I Adore You” and “This is the Day” in english and spanish. The congregation asked for 2 members of our group to share their testimonies. Sydney and Zach each shared; each of their stories deeply touched everyone there. The pastor asked each of the members of the congregation to match up with someone from our team to pray with us. Once we each were matched up with others, our partner prayed for blessings on our family, our trip, and our future. We then got a chance to pray for them (even though most of us prayed in English). Overall, it was a really powerful experience and each of us grew from it.
    Even though we just prayed with this person, it was still an opportunity to make a connection and form a relationship with a Christ Follower here in Ecuador. After the service, we mingled and took pictures with the people from the congregation. We headed back, did reflections and devotions, then we crashed. It was a long (but good) day and we were exhausted!

THURSDAY:

Hello once again a todos!
    With our last day of work under the belt, we are looking forward to a fun weekend! Today was yet another good, but exhausting day. We slept an extra hour and started work late today. Once we got to the houses, we went right to work because we had a big day ahead of us. No cafecito today because of our later start. We were quickly assigned jobs and went to work priming and painting to finish the houses today! Over the course of the week we have been working on painting the outside of 2 different missionary homes. We scraped, primed, and painted to finish one and 1/2 houses! :) We felt accomplished by the end of the day. It was crazy because this morning, it was HOT and sunny up until after lunch. Then, a huge storm cloud rolled in and it began to pour on and off the rest of the afternoon. By about 5:15ish when we finished up, it was a constant downpour.
    We had empanadas for dinner that an Ecuadorian maid worked all morning to prepare for us. These are breaded pouches (sorta like a calzone) with chicken and veggies inside. They were delicious!!
    We came back to Hosteria and cleaned up after getting filthy and sopping wet from the rain and mud. 
    For our reflections and testimonies, Tim and Mary shared. They both did a really nice job and encouraged all of us in our walk in faith. It was awesome to hear more snippets of how God has been working in the lives of each and every person in our group.

    Thanks once again for the prayers and support! We really appreciate everything. God is working in amazing ways that are still being revealed to us. Our group is building a strong relationship with each other and in Christ. We can’t wait to see everyone Monday morning again!! Thanks!

With tons of love,
    Mallory, Erica, and Mariah

PS: Notes to family from...

Mallory--I think you had said that Lindsay was going to Papallacta. We are headed there Saturday! Maybe see her? I hope she has a great trip. Comment please! Love you and miss you!

Erica--Hey Everyone! I have been having such an amazing time on this trip! It has been life changing and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. I miss you tons! I can’t wait to see you on Monday morning. I hope everyone is doing well-say hi to everyone for me. Love you!

Mariah--Thank you so much Mom, Dad, Levi, and Gabe for your notes. They really made my WHOLE week and I really loved hearing from you. Thanks for encouraging me in everything I do. I can’t wait to tell you all about Ecuador! Love you!

Mallory and her prayer partner

Erica's Prayer Partner

Some of the girls after a big day of painting

A finished house!

Day 5: Work day two

Buenos días from beautiful Ecuador!

Today's blog post will be a little shorter because we worked again and didn't do a whole lot of new stuff. But it was still an amazing, touching, and hilarious day. Once everyone was up, we all tried some blackberry juice, papaya, roll, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. We then headed out back to the compound to continue working on our house projects.

Before starting work, we got to have some devotions with some of the local maintenance workers, which turned out to be a pretty cool experience. One of the guys got out a guitar and taught us a short Spanish worship song and we, in return, taught them “Father I Adore You”. Then, at the wondering if one of us young people's stories, Kendra shared why she decided to come on this trip and a little bit of her faith story. It was a neat time of fellowship with God.

Work was very similar to yesterday. We continued brushing window bars and painting them and moved on to finishing priming and putting a first coat of paint on the first missionary house. We took our first cafecito, or coffee break that everyone takes around 10:30, where we got to relax, talk, and eat a roll and drink coffee, milk, or tea in the hospital. We got to walk to a restaurant for lunch, and we all had a chicken rice soup for an appetizer, then a meal of chicken, rice, and pasta salad.

After working and showering, we all had some free time to go and wander about Shell before meeting for supper. We were given a challenge to buy the most unique thing and to have the most interesting Spanish conversation. Obviously both went to me, with getting some tea that was titled “Instant Legz” and having to struggle to communicate to a pharmacist for Mallory to buy some cough drops. I didn't really win anything though :(

For supper we got to go to a Chinese restaurant for our supper, and it was very similar to Chinese food that you could find in the States. After sitting and talking for a bit after supper, we headed back to the hostería and did our daily reflections and devotions ritual. After sharing great memories and God moments, we went into some more testimonies, this time through the braveness of Emily, Mariah, and Mallory. They were fantastic and were pretty amazing to hear about.

Before we knew it, it was time for bed so that we could prepare ourselves for another day of work tomorrow.

-Zach
PS sorry we don't have pictures.  We took a ton of great shots, but the Internet here is REALLY slow and it takes over one hour to upload a picture.  

Day 4: First day of working

 

Hola familia y amigos :)

Today was a very successfully fun day! Most of us were fortunate enough to wake up around 7, however there were a few (Kendra and Julie) who didn't realize their alarm clock didn't switch time zones and woke up at 5:30. To say the least, they walked to breakfast to find literally everybody else sleeping (except for Mary, only because they woke her up when they got up). Other than that, we started with an amazing breakfast of pineapple, rolls, and scrambled eggs with sausage.

After that scrumptious breakfast, we went to the Fogg's house to bring them the items we brought with us from home. While there, we met their 3 week old kitten and their two birds that really like to bite. We then strolled to the job site and met the maintenance workers that were going to work with (Ken Wynia: Rafael says “hi”) . After a quick hello and many welcomes, we took a short tour of the hospital because it started to rain. It was interesting to find out that a doctor's appointment was only $8, a full body MRI is $80, and it is cheaper to fly down here and have a surgery and then fly home than it is to have a surgery in the United States. It was also interesting to see their snakes, caterpillars, and worms in the formaldehyde from the lab.

Following that, we got to work bringing all the supplies to the work sites (Sydney got stuck in a ladder), scrubbing the metal bars on the windows with wire brushes, and painting primer where the roof met the house. According to some people, the window bars were impossible to clean and the ladders were a bit shifty. As the morning went on, people were still scrubbing bars, others were putting up scaffolding in the pouring rain, and yet others were still priming the walls. We took a break for lunch and had yummy sandwiches, plátano chips, pork rinds, and really good cookie cracker thingies.

After we all had our fill of cookies, we went back to work to start painting the window bars, scraping the bars on the second house, digging to the foundation all around the house, tearing out plants, and filling in holes with putty and cement.

When our workday was done, we headed back to the hostería but had some free time to roam around the town on our way back and buy some super cool stuff. It was mostly snacks :). For our final meal of the day, we went to the a pizza place and ordered 6 medium pizzas for our group. They had almost everything on them from pineapple, to chicken and mushrooms, to ultimate supreme, to cheese, pepperoni, and some other cool stuff. We all had some free time to relax and walk about the town (shout-out to Mariah, Emily, and Erica for using their sweet spanish skillz by talking to a woman about fruit!).

To completely end the day, we had some amazing devotions where three people (Zach, Erica, and Sra. Cisneros) were sharing their testimonies. Their stories really struck everyone deeply and helped us understand more about them individually. They shed some light onto some personal things and really opened up to the group. Overall, it was a very fun and successful day!

- Kendra, Julie, and Zach

Day 3: The Tim and Josh Experience

Hola padres y amigos,

Today us guys were awoken from a slumber interrupted by a man known to us as Eric Fogg. By the yanking of ankles, us men were dragged to the floor in order to bring us to a state of awakeness. We as a group had our first mission at HCJB Global. We loaded items from Quito into our bus to transfer to the hospital of Shell. We had pancakes for breakfast. I ate 3. After our hunger was satisfied we loaded the bus and started our five hour journey to Shell. On the way to our destination, we stopped multiple times including a stop to a restaurant serving rotisserie chicken. One issue many of us found ourselves facing was a lack of running water in the bathrooms. After some of us used the restroom we attempted to us the sink that was not in use. In replacement for the running water there was a single bucket filled with water in the center of the counter. Such a replacement seemed to make some nervous but definitely brought us face to face with yet another third world experience. Also, we stopped at a town to treat ourselves to frozen goodies in a town known as Ice Cream Town. After our delicious treats many found themselves extremely high. This could have been caused by the serious increase in elevation. Then we traveled along the mountains to Baños. Yes, I used the baños in Baños (don't judge me). After our bladders were relieved, we visited the waterfall of holy water. This waterfall has historical value in the city of Baños which is illustrated in the cathedral. This opened many or our eyes as we gazed at the many statues, paintings, and even experienced a small portion of a Mass service. Once our visitation of Baños was complete, we went on our way to the many waterfalls just minutes outside of the city. We spent time at two of the waterfalls that we saw on our way to Shell. At the first waterfall seen, we came in contact with a group of seemingly local people that strangely asked for our picture. Once our picture was taken we learned that these people were Christian artists. They gave us a couple CDs in gratitude for our picture.  Random Fun fact: one minute of flight time on an airplane over the jungle in Ecuador equals one hour of walking on foot. Once arriving in Shell, our first stop was to the hospital where we unloaded the items we picked up in Quito. The hospital is located only steps away from the house of Eric Fogg. We helped drop the groceries that we had also brought along from Quito for the Fogg family. After the groceries were given, we ate as a group in some nearby picnic tables. Once all of our eating, planning for the next day, and cleaning was completed, we walked ourselves back to our hosteria where we unloaded our luggage from the bus and began with devotions. We discussed the outstanding moments of the day and in the end, Guillermo explained his own testimony which was seen as powerful for many of us. After prayer and explanations for  tomorrow, we found ourselves blogging. #bloggersforlife

Thanks for the prayers and support. Holla atcha boii in Ecuado'.

-Tim and Josh

The ice cream was delish

Group pic in front of the Cathedral from Baños

The waterfall in Baños

Another waterfall pic

Tim enjoying the water

Erica's friends perched like eagles beside her in a strangely symmetrical pose.

Unloading the bus at Shell

Picnic for dinner with the Foggs

Our four-legged friend we met along the way (the black spot is a beetle)

#bloggersforlife