Diego on learning (Aussie) english and life so far

Here is a quick update on how things are going for Diego after being in Sydney for over four months now...

How are you going with your english studies?

I’m going well, about a month ago I gained Certificate 3 in EFS (English for Further Studies). Last week I passed the first level in the new course, EAP (English for Academic Purposes).

What have been some highlights of Australia so far?

I think something interesting about Australia compared to Ecuador is the number of different cultures that you come into contact with, especially people from Asia and the Middle East. 

What is surprising/different about life in Sydney to Loja?

This is a difficult question for me, every time someone asks me, I never know what to say! It’s the first time I am experiencing different seasons. Loja can be every season in one day, but I arrived in a cold Sydney winter!

What is hard about being in Sydney?

My english still presents a problem in terms of developing a ‘normal life’ and deeper relationships with people .

What is coming up over the next few months?

In December I finish classes at TAFE, and my big challenge is the IELTS exam.

What has God been teaching you?

God is showing me his faithfulness and care in many ways while I’ve been here so far.

How can we be praying for you?

To keep on improving my english, especially in my spelling.

Until we meet again

My dear friend Patty died on 17th September. 

In late January Patty found out that she had stomach cancer. Not the prettiest of cancers to be faced with. These past months have been so very tough for her and her family as they sought treatment and healing.

God’s plan was to bring her home to himself. 

I wasn’t able to see Patty much these past months but in one of the conversations we did have I know that she had entrusted herself to her heavenly Father and was ready to go home, even as much as she desired to stay here and keep on looking after her family. 

Patty was my first friend in Loja. 

I remember stopping on the corner of Calle Bolivar and Azuay with Evie and Alfonsina in prams, having a little chat with Toño and Patty and me and John being so excited to have some contact with someone in the middle of us feeling like fish out of water those first few weeks (months…) we were in Loja, trying to navigate a whole new world of life.

And so, slowly a friendship developed. We ended up at their church during our first term and started hanging out. With Patty, I have sat down the back of church as we ran after our little girls, Evie and Alfonsina, watching them play together. We took on youth group together, figuring out what works and doesn’t work in Loja (games that involve taking shoes off really don’t work). With Patty and Toño and their kids we have whiled away Sundays, spent christmas days together, celebrated birthdays, gone on holidays together.

With Patty I have sought advice, worked on figuring out a bit more of how life works here in Loja, where can I get my shoes fixed, where to find tights for Evie, where to buy good fruit and veggies. We laughed together, cried together. Patty was the one who called me after I said goodbye to my mum when she came to help after Mattias was born. That was a pretty quiet conversation as I couldn’t say much through my tears. We cooked together, we spoke about our kids ups and downs together, we encouraged each other in the Lord. They invited us over to their parents house and we got to celebrate family events together with an extended family.

Patty and Toño had lived out of Loja in Spain for a number of years and knew what it was like to be the foreigner, the one on the outside, the one surrounded by so much unfamiliarity.  When were were so new in Loja, when we  were the outsiders, this family welcomed in the foreigner. This family showed us sincere hospitality, incorporating us into their family. I have thanked the Lord often over these past eight and a half years for his gracious provision of a friend here in Loja, and not only a friend, an extended family. What a deep privilege it is to know this beauty of being part of God’s family, that in a town on the other side of the world from home, I can find another home, in him and his people. 

I can only imagine Patty’s deep joy as she was welcomed home by her heavenly Father, the wonder and awe as she began the rest of her life, along with the saints, praising our wonderful Saviour for all his goodness to her.

And so, not goodbye dear friend but rather until we meet again, at Jesus’ feet.