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!

What is that?

Another day of driving in Ecuador finding a good place to sleep and food that our kids will enjoy. We are fortunate that Mattias loves rice as every meal can come with rice, be it spaghetti, soup or just a hunk of meat .

However today as we were driving along we were confronted with a problem of numerous cultures converging on us. I looked at this lady deep frying something (and I always have a taste for things deep fried), I thought to myself, "Beer battered fish" and "Croquets", oh yum, and any Australian born to Dutch parents will agree that although a strange combination to find together, they would be well worth eating, if that's what they really were.

And that is exactly what went wrong, as you look at the photo you can imagine my surprise to find the croquet really being fish covered in mashed banana, and the beer battered fish as a beer battered banana. Ha ha ha, oh to be from a Dutch background, growing up in Australia and trying to live in Ecuador where everything is made to look like things you love, but just end up being banana.