A Series of Coincidental Events

Where did I leave off anyway...

The past couple of weeks I have been going to Salva una Vida. I never know what is going to happen or who I will meet. A few weeks back Patti, and employee at SUV who has a twleve year old and a 15 year old daughter, asked me if I could talk about abstinence to the youth group at her church. It is a very small church but they still manage to have about 12-15 regular youth attendees. I was a bit nervous about how this was going to go b-c I was to talk to both the boys and the girls together. That´s different from the way I grew up and I struggled with what to share. Another guy talked a few weeks before me, the son of the doctor at SUV, 24. I wanted to call him and talk for just a minute about what he talked about but the ladies here at SUV told me he was in Argentina for the week.

A couple Saturdays ago I went with Dani and her father to this sky car thing called Teleferiqo that takes you up the mountain, actually volcano, that is by the city. It is actually the volcano the province is named for, Pichincha. This is the day I was to talk to the kids about sex and relationships in the afternoon. I still did not know exactly what I wanted to say. I prayed about it but nothing really solid stuck. Anyway, There I was, atop Pichincha, and I hear a familiar voice and recognize the back of this one guy´s head. It was the doctor´s son from SUV! I thought, really God?, no way! so I was able to talk to Benjamin for about five or so minutes and I felt alot more comfortable though still not knowing what I was going to say.

Atop Pichincha I also saw a girl with a small group of white people wearing a Trinity College soccer shirt. A friend from highschool plays there so I said, ¨Hey, I know a girl who plays for Trinity, too...¨  We chatted for a second, ironic, but end of story.

So, talking at the youth group was a little nerve wracking but hey, I´m just a Gringa learning Spanish so No importa that I said some funny stuff that might not have made sense. The kicker here is that JUST as I was beginning my talk two tall, dark, and handsome Ecuadorians my age-ish come in the room to give a camp promotion. The leader of the group, Patti, says they can go ahead and give the promotion first instead of waiting until the end but NOOOOO, they decided they would be polite, since I had just started, and wait till after to talk about the camp. (Yes, I told Andrew the story) So now, Not only am I about to tell teenage boys about my past relationships, I am about to tell two Ecuadorian guys as well... ha ha. Im pretty sure this was some kind of joke God was playing, not for his sake, but for mine b-c I´m sure God knows I think its hilarious that these two guys had to listen to me ramble in Spanish for an hour+. To make things a little funnier, one of them said they could help me translate but some of the stuff he translated for me was wrong so when I heard it said back in spanish I had to say...thanks, but ummm, no, thats not what I said, or at least not what I meant. One example is this: I asked him what the word lust was in spanish and he told me the word for lost. so without thinking, clearly, b-c i know the word for lost, I said ¨The big enemy in relationships is lost¨and they all just stared really confused. Eventually Patti´s 15 year old helped me translate. Her english is good.

So, the theme of what I said was very appropriate for both sexes. The theme was relationships and your goal entering into a relationship, that it should be to try to help the other person become more and more like Jesus as possible. We want God to use us as a tool to help our partner grow more like Jesus, soo, if we aid in their sin, for example, sexual sin, then it is not helping them become more like Jesus and therefore not loving them. She also asked me if I regret dating so young and I said yes. Then she asked me what the right age to start dating was and I got out easy by saying ¨You are ready to start dating when you are ready to prepare yourselves for marriage¨ha ha, that leaves it pretty open but it also makes them think about why they would date a jerk or and air head if they know they would not marry them.

On Fridays I have a singles group I go to with a church other than my own, but there is a girl from my church who goes too. I really like this group b-c it is actually adults, not teenagers all the time, but i do like the teens too! We get together and do something fun on Sunday nights too, which is after the Bible study for my church consisting of college age. There is about 6 or 7 from my church and about 6 or seven from my other group as well. So, Sundays are long and late for me-- Sunday school, church, lunch, Bible Study, Hang out group from other church.

During the week I taught more jewelry and stuff. Today I made a powerpoint of pictures for tomorrow´s big SUV meeting. Last week I hung out with Patti´s daugthers a lot. They are really, really fun. I went to their house and learned how to make Chulpi. Its like popcorn but bigger kernals and it does not pop open, just puffs slightly, we ate tres leches cake, and watched journey to the center of the earth. I´ll probably make more chulpi tonight. Its healthy.... corn.... Its a super crunchy and a tiny bit sweet too so pretty much perfection puffed in a pressure pot. I went with them to Patti´s siter´s house to surprise her on her birthday. While I was there I talked to Patti´s nephew, who in a engineer in economics, about what I will be studying. He helped me out a lot by clarifying about why Ecuadorians don´t save money and why the marginalized communities were hurt more in the economic crisis of the 90´s and the change of currency in 2000. I learned a lot that day. They even offered for me to conduct my study in the country where they run a hotel type thing (but still very poor region). They said Atucucho was too dangerous for me and that I should go live with their family at this place so I´d be safer. But don´t worry b-c I won´t be doing any research alone. I am going to primarily use focus groups. This limits the amount of door to door i have to do, and what I do door to door i will be with a church member volunteer or the pastor.

Patti´s girls wanted me to do something on Saturday but Melbi asked me if I could come to the church and help clean and prepare for VBS. She said there would be a small work group of north Americans working as well. When I saw them I thought...Wow, they look familiar. It was the same group that I saw atop Pichincha. Apperantly Pichincha is the place to be really early on Saturday mornings!!! REALLY Ironic. And one of the guys went to highschool with several of my friends from college, and my roomate´s husband. There were 8 of them and all were super nice. We talked about random stuff and my perfect braces-less teeth. Not of my choosing but hey, whatever. Anj, I told your story and they give you their sympathy.

I just now found out that I will be going to a Quichua Village next week. I think from Wednesday until Sunday. I am not positive but will find out later today the days. This will be quite different for me. I am going with the National MTW missionaries. They have been working with them on church leadership stuff. 

The End.

Update!!! The Pastor from the church in the south came up last week with two pregnant ladies. One preg with twins, and two other kids and no man and super poor, the other with two kids and a husband but really poor. I enjoyed talking to the pastor for a good hour. Life is really not that different. (YES, CULTURE VARIES... I KNOW CDV professors) but I am learning that people are people with families, with decisions, with families, are people just the same. (that sentence made sense to me...you?) He used to work for a travel agency that had him traveling for a week every other week so he quit to go into the ministry and be able to spend more time with his family even thought it pays a lot less. Sound familiar? My dad quit his job that had him traveling a lot too so that he could be at home with his family even though it pays a lot less what he does now. We talked a bit about this. It was nice to relate on something even though our lives have been very different.  He is a 30 year old with two young girls and a wife. I like him b-c he cares a lot about helping the pregnant ladies in his community get to the center for help and he wants to help SUV with promotion too. Jorge is his name and his church is Palabra Viva. (Living Word)

The plan is to do a community health day at the church along with education and to continue to spread the word about SUV in the south and to help the girls who need to come be able to come since the utra sound machine can´t move south all the time.

PRAYER: 

Please pray for Salva Una Vida. Its crazy right now trying to transfer the leadership b-c the old leader is suuuuupppper busy and seems to be difficult to work with. 

Please pray for my Spanish. I really want to understand my new community in Atucucho, the couple, and the church members. I will be spending a lot of time with the church since our apartment is in it. 

Safety 

You can pray that I will listen to God since there are so many activities I have to choose from in the following weeks.