Wednesday

I will begin by saying that this has been my favorite day of my summer thus far.  Now that you've got ridiculously high expectations I will do my best to reflect my positivity (ever realize how there's some serious persecution to this word but not "negativity," huh. Does it say something about our culture that only the negative noun gets "real word status") about how God is choosing to display Himself.

Today was spent entirely at Pan de Vida, and what a privilege it is to work with an organization that fills itself with servant-minded people!  Oscar wanted me to make sure I had fully connected you all to them, so if you'd like to see how they roll, they blog here.  They also apparently have a youtube video about the very family who's house we began rebuilding the last two days, but I have not found it, so I'll have to check with Oscar and get back to you.

Day recap: We had to start our day a tad earlier than normal so as to be ready to help Pan de Vida make breakfast for the kids coming in for our soccer clinic later, in the afternoon.  The self-acclaimed (though perhaps soon internationally-acclaimed) Kitchen Crew consisting of Wurm, Legs, Botz, Hinkle, and Jonny Rothgeb took charge.  Meanwhile the larger contingent of us were preparing Pan de Vida's property in and out for the kid's time with us including setting up dining places outside and worship and Bible lesson benches inside.  This was also some key time for Dale, Justin, and I to finalize what our mini church service would look like. 

Kitchen Crew

There's more of them, but I'll stop here

And then the kids walked in in droves!  Soap, water, name-tags, bowls of food, and Spanish were flying all over the lawn as kids washed their hands, grabbed breakfast, and grabbed a seat.  We did our best to sit nearby and begin the process of getting to know them, which was especially awkward in light of the fact that the deepest question the majority of us knew to ask in their native tongue was "Como te llamas."  I don't think anyone would argue that we hadn't broken down many barriers by the time we stepped inside to learn about the reason behind Pan de Vida's generosity: Jesus.

This was extremely effective time for a number of reasons.  1) We could sit with the kids without having to talk to them (Wow, that one doesn't read as well as I wanted it to sound).  Proximity was definitely good for giving us an opportunity to show a desire to be near kids without the confusion of us only sitting looking at them once we had taken that step.  2) We got to sing and be loud and active.  We started with a song in English that was our chance to prove our intent to make Christ known and glorified.  From then on we fought our way through several fun Spanish worship songs that included hand motions and confusing rhythm.  Despite our unjustified enthusiasm over songs that we could hardly sing, the kids still didn't really fill in the gaps, which I was very surprised about.  I thought all kids just wanted to sing "waves of mercy, waves of grace..." and wiggle their arms around, hm.  Justin then gave a tight talk on the joy God's glory ought to bring us.  We ended with a song Jordan knew from his missions work in Guatemala that started to get a tiny bit of feedback from the kids.  Still, it wasn't until fútbol was mentioned that some eyes perked up.

The kids got changed quickly and we lined up at the gate in order to walk to our field [Though I did just now have to verify that it was technically a "field" (Google's definition just leaves me more perplexed - "An area of open land, especially one planted with crops or pasture, typically bounded by hedges or fences.")]  We played on some sort of kind-of-field I guess...

We warmed up with some tag-variations that included soccer components and then moved onto some dribbling and passing basics.  Any coaching was done by one of two methods.  The first was by yelling "Mira, mira, mira, ..." (I'll translate since I haven't received any complaints yet: "Look here, look here, look here, ...") as many times as it took to get everyone's attention and then demonstrating the movement.  The second was by saying something ridiculous accidentally and getting some hysterically inquisitive looks. Coach Edwards told everyone to take two tacos instead of two touches ("!Dos tacos!" vs. "!Dos tocas!") and Coach Dreves at one point told everyone to put their hands on their ducks instead of their heads/hair ("Pato" vs. "Pelo") and continually told kids it was nice to meet them whenever they did things right for the first half of practice until heard and corrected by Sharon (""Mucho Gusto" - "Nice to meet you" vs. "Muy bueno" - "Very good").  As funny as such moments were, there was A TON of good Spanish learning that took place throughout the day that was a big part of our growing comfortable trying to speak more with the kids, and the kids becoming more comfortable with us.

After a quick drink break we ended the soccer time with some scrimmaging which was a blast for all parties.  The level of play here is definitely better than kids of the same age in the U.S... It was also just clearly what the kids came for, so they loved it.  After that we returned to Pan de Vida for lunch.

Lunch was completely different than breakfast.  Interactions were everywhere, and it leaves me very excited to return tomorrow and see what kind of new start we get.

After lunch the kids were on their way and we began the work part of our day.  We painted the basement in and hour or two while the Kitchen Crew got back to business preparing for the dinner Pan de Vida was serving to its beneficiary families.

Pan de Vida does an incredible job of offering this blessing to the downcast of Quito.  There is Biblical teaching for adults while their children are taken care of for them, then they are given a meal and in the case of families, some healthy ingredients for the week's cooking.  The team's 3 roles throughout the evening were 1) welcoming party (and boy were we ever!), 2) Horses for horse-racing... & 3) food distributors.

The families got their food as they left which left us some time for two team-building moments.  Janela (I think) asked to take a shot on the basketball hoop that we had congregated around, and we decided she was gonna shoot until she made one.  As we watched intently, the tension built, and as the ball rolled around the rim and dropped in, human explosion took place as everyone on the court left their feet and everyone sitting nearby stormed the court.  It was so spontaneous and so incredible that everyone decided we might as well do it for the rest of the Pan de Vida workers (and Mario, who obviously made his first shot).  The second was much more organized, by Oscar actually, who suggested we talk about what we've learned thus far.  It was a very genuine time where all of us understood the pleasure it was to serve alongside each other.  Everyone was thoroughly appreciated.

For those concerned about Mr. Phillips and Mario, by all accounts, it's undeniably justified, but they have such blessed timing directly from God.  They have settled the 2 concerns that faced them entering Ecuador: Could someone help them get food through customs and was there a Church-web that could effectively store and distribute aid.  They had no idea how/if those things would be met, and those questions have been answered in 4 days, it still blows my mind the number of ways that they receive tangible favor from God.  They are planning on being able to spend a lot more time with us in the coming days, so I'm gonna start praying for a pair of wings and see if I can't get some effective-prayer juice from them.  That's not entirely a joke, but all joking aside, I know I want to get every possible moment I can with them, because they have much to teach me.

Thus, my list-stuffed post ends along with this endlessly ordained day.  We'll have a similar day of soccer tomorrow, but that's all the foreshadowing you'll get.

-Tim