Loja at the beginning of the school year

It's like a city-wide treasure hunt....the race is on to get all your children's school utilities according to the whim and fancy of each individual school. The list is exhaustive - folders, wax paper (colour blue, red, green and yellow), metal pencil sharpener, pencil case, exercise books with lines, exercise books with grids, A4 paper, cardboard, thick wool, thin wool, erasers, glitter (any colour), toilet paper, whiteboard markers (colour red, blue and black), age appropriate board game, textas, pencils, lead pencils (the triangular shaped ones), rubbish bags, chalk, plasticine, plastic storage box (colour blue), masking tape (or if you will 'masky'), tooth brush, tooth paste and cup, balloons et cetera ad infinitum. The lines snake out of all the stationary shops, the fight to get in front of the line, or maybe to establish that there is a line and hence one's place in the line. People dashing into shops, 'do you have a size 5 sharpener?' or 'do you have a spiral notebook with 50 pages?', overheard conversations about the cost of everything, different school lists compared, dazed parents walking around lugging bags, wielding their rolled up cardboard like modern day swords, finally able to bring everything home to then put the child's name on every item bought (yes, including the 'masky'). There is a certain sense of satisfaction in being able to whittle down the list of still required items (I have only 5 to go!) and the joy in being able to hand it all over, the treasure hunt over, the city scoured, discovered new stationary shops with shorter lines receiving heartfelt gratitude, and the hope that the teacher uses all her school supplies well.

What you miss out on in Australia where all you do is hand over your school fees, it sort of sounds mundane somehow?

Fun in the sun

We grabbed the moment of sunshine on the weekend and went down to the park. I think we all had fun...

Spiritual Life Conference 2011

In August we got to go away for a week with our SIM team. For us in Loja, we didn't wander too far, only to Vilcabamba, 40 minutes further south. Bit of a hike for those in Quito, Guayaquil and those from the US that came to help with kids and to speak!

It was a good week, despite the freezing temperature of the pool. It was good to hear from God's word and be challenged again to be a servant of the gospel in many varied ways. It was good to see the kids playing together. It was good to go for a walk along the river and a bike ride. It was good to chat with fellow team mates and have a laugh.

The make up of missionary teams change rapidly, and our SIM team here in Ecuador is no exception. There is great diversity in our team - stage of life, past careers, nationality, thought patterns, energy levels, interests - you name it! Thought we’d give you a picture of what our team currently looks like.

Our director is from Virginia, and is married to a Paraguayan. We have a Californian/Brazilian family who formerly served in Africa with SIM. We have a Mexican/Californian family who arrived earlier this year, A family from Colorado, people from Virginia, from western Sydney, from Canberra, Switzerland, QLD, Illinois, Quito, Guayaquil and Bolivia.

And what do we do as SIM Ecuador?

We seek to help people encounter the living Lord Jesus Christ and submit to Him and to make progress in their walk with Him. That being said, there are lots of ways that actually happens in the day to day activities of our team mates.

People on our team are involved in marriage counseling, running a christian radio station, teaching english at the local public university, training children’s workers in churches, evangelism in small towns through kids’ clubs, diet clubs and craft clubs, running english conversation classes, running outreach events in english, bible studies for couples, bible studies for women, bible studies for youth, bible studies for city folk and for country folk, church planting, medical ministry, discipleship, running a youth cafe, home schooling, organising preaching conferences, running a bookshop and library, mobilising Ecuadorians into missions, seeking to influence and encourage pastor’s wives, teaching english to Ecuadorians who are training to be missionaries, teaching carpentry in a local high school, mountain biking, talking to people whom you bump into, inviting people to read the bible with us, befriend exchange students and Peace Corp workers, opening our homes to families, helping single mums make a living, crisis counseling, being parents of toddlers, learning language and culture, navigating local bureaucracy, cooking and sharing food and recipes with neighbours.

It’s a pretty diverse crew, involved in many different areas in Loja, the province and nationally, but under God, we pray that his kingdom will grow and his name will be glorified in and through us. And that is what makes up SIM Ecuador, for now anyways!