videos del partido...

hey all. here are a couple videos from the ecuador bolivia soccer game i went to a few weeks ago... it was an absolute blast. crazy. but a blast. the section i was in was completely full. there were people sitting in all the aisles too. i was there for a little bit too. so it was pretty impossible to move anywhere. a definite fire hazard...oh well. only in ecuador!

a couple of crazy things i saw:

* a little kid fainted before the game started. not sure why. maybe the heat? posers. trying living in arizona for 22 years..

* almost saw a fight between an adult sitting in the aisle and a youth, who was trying to walk up the aisle. and when i say walk up the aisle i mean like climbing over people. the guy sitting down got mad bc the youth accidentally had his crotch in his face trying to get by.. whats the big deal? he's sitting in the aisle!

* i didn't see, but heard, and saw commotion from a distance that there was a fight that broke out between a lady in the stands (probably drunk) and a lady vendor. apparently the lady in the stands got kicked out.

* ecuadorian men love their beer. and more than that they love to share their beer. i saw literally 8 men share one beer. one dude one buy it, take a swig, and then pass. then the next. then the next. and so on. not sure if its bc they are trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible and save cups or if its just the cool thing to do when you are at a soccer game. whatever it is, im taking this back with me to the states! when im at a game me and my friends are gonna share... one coke. maybe even with one straw too. im totally lying. im not gonna do that. i hate drinking after people.

ok here are some videos..

someone's angel.. (story continued)

so i left off that i had just got the note from martha and had a brief talk with her outside of the church. i told her that i would call her and try and set up a time to meet, bc i really didn't know when i would be able to being that i was still working with the team. the good thing is that she was staying at her uncle's house so it would be easy to meet up...the bad thing about that was that she didn't want her uncle to know that she was meeting to talk to me about this. apparently he doesn't know the situation, and she was very adamant about him remaining in the dark for whatever reason. i didn't argue with her, so i told her maybe we could meet the next night after i was done with the team.

the next night i got done a little later than usual, and the plan was for martha to meet me outside of her uncle's house so we could talk about things without her uncle knowing.. (which i still didn't feel comfortable about keeping her uncle in the dark but i felt it wasn't my call to say anything..) since i was a little later getting back, we really didnt talk but for like 5 minutes. she just gave me the gist of what the problem was, and said she would go into detail later on...

she told me that she had a 19 year old daughter who ran away a few weeks ago and that she hasn't heard from her outside of one email since she left. she told me she wanted to tell me more later on when we had more time to talk, but she just wanted me to know what was going on so that i could be praying...

i walked inside the house completely lost and confused about what i should do or needed to do to help. i didn't know why she came to me, and i don't know why god brought her to me. i still had a few days with the team, and we were planning on meeting for coffee as soon as the team left. but the last night the team was here, i got pretty sick, and i was throwing up most of the night. it took me a few days after that to get my strength back and to fully recover so martha and i had to postpone meeting for a few more days...

i used the time to pray a lot and seek the lords counsel. we finally agreed to meet on a sunday evening at a coffee shop near my house. that sunday, after church i went to eat with ronnie and his family. after i got home i started to feel sick again. i just didn't feel good at all. i felt like i was trying to come down with a cold or soemthing. my head hurt. i was pretty warm too. pretty much i wasnt very excited about meeting with martha bc i was feeling so bad. we were supposed to meet at 6:00ish and i was there pretty much right on time. i got a coffee and went and sat down at a table. i was still feeling pretty bad. and i was extremely nervous. i didn't really know what i was supposed to say. i was really nervous about not having all the words in spanish to clearly express what i should say...if i ever figured out what i needed to say... and, i know i posted this before, but i really do have spanish ADD. it is sooooo hard for me to pay attention for long periods of time in spanish.

amidst me feeling sick...and having fears and doubts about the ensuing coversation...god was giving me such an overwhelming peace about being there. i knew i was there for a reason. i knew this was of god. even though i had no clue what i needed to say, i knew that god would fill my mind with the exact words, and that he would give me wisdom and discerment in that as well.

martha came in about 20 minutes late (in typical ecuadorian fashion no less).. then something amazing happened. the moment that martha walked into the coffee shop, i mean literally the exact moment... my headache went away, and i didn't feel any cold/flu symptoms at all. none. it was almost as if god was telling me, "matt, i told you, im in this..im with you!"

we both sat down at the table i was already at, i was sipping my coffee i had, and martha was eating a piece of cake and drinking some coffee she just bought. she told me how thankful she was that i was able to meet her and help. she reiterated again to me how she knew without a shadow of a doubt that god brought me into her life to help her..she told me that prior to meeting me, she had been praying to god that he would send her an angel to help her through this. then one morning she walks into her uncle's house and sees some random, strange, punk 24 year old drinking coffee (she didn't use those exact adj. but you get the picture)whom shes never seen before in her life. martha told me that when she walked out, she asked god," god, is this him? is this my angel?" she told me that she knew that i was. that i was the angel...

we must have sat for a good hour and a half maybe two hours just talking there in the cafe. well, it was mainly martha spilling her heart. it got pretty emotional at times... she told me all about her daughter inez...who she was.. what she was like as a little girl. how when she was 4 she accpted Christ in her life, and then immediately told her mom that she wanted to put four locks on her heart because she never wanted jesus to leave. how when she was a little girl she would invite her neighbors over for bible study, and how she insisted on always having a snack of some sort. how she made her mom find prizes for her so that she could give those prizes away to the neighbors who memorized the verse of the week...

she went on and on about how her daughter had such a passion for he Lord. i was not expecting to hear that at all. i had this picture of some drug addicted, alcoholic, rule defying teenager who ran away. not someone who loved the lord. martha went on to tell me that inez had been hurt many times by the church. people within the church claiming to be someone they werent. leaders even. martha said inez was fed up by all this. she was tired of "friends" claiming to be christian and not actually living like it... i guess inez couldnt take it anymore, and she just left the church completely. eventually left her family. come to find out that she hadnt been gone for just 3 weeks, but for over 3 months.

at the end i had the opportunity to pray over martha. she gave me her daughters email address and ask me if i could write her an email.. just something. anything. i took the next day to really just pray and seek the lord, and figure out what the email needed to say. i mean what do you say to a runaway girl that you don't even know, that doesn't speak the same heart language as you do? exactly. i didn't know either. God eventually gave me the words and i sent her an email... then i waited. and prayed. and hoped that she would respond. and then waited some more...

one week went by. nothing... another week...nothing. i started to question god at this time.."God if i am this so-called 'angel' why isn't she responding? am i doing something wrong? am i not doing all that i need to be doing? i really want to help this family, but im not sure what to do anymore."

i never did hear from inez.

but something miraculous happened. i got a call from martha a few weeks ago. out of the blue. i wasnt expectig to hear from her.. she just wanted me to know that inez contacted her and that later on that day she was going to meet up with her daughter for the first time in months! i couldn't believe it. i cannot explain to you how excited i was to hear this news. martha said she just wanted me to know bc she knew i had been praying for them...

even when i felt so helpless, god was in control. when i had my doubts that this situation would ever be resolved, god was in control. to be honest, i don't know if my two hour conversation, or my email had anything to do with inez coming back in the end.. but it doesn't really matter. i guess the thing that i took away from all of this is what i can imagine god saying to all of us.. " hey, im about to go do something absolutely amazing over here..something that you couldn't dream up..something that will show how big I really am...do you wanna join me??"

thank you Lord for letting me tag along with you on this one...

im back...

hey everyone. its been absolutely way to long since i last posted a blog. i apologize. but at the urging of mis padres and others, im back and i hope to be more regular with my posts...i wanna share a recent dad story with you guys...(sorry this is gonna be long..)

like i said in my last update, the end of july i worked with a team out in the valley. the missionary i was working with had arranged for me to stay at a local pastor's house who lives out in the valley, near where we were working. this saved me from having to travel close to an hour each way back to my house in north quito. i didn't know the pastor or his wife prior, so i was a little nervous being thrown in a house where there was going to be nothing but spanish being spoken. but to be honest, staying there turned out to be such a huge blessing.

one morning during breakfast (which consisted of freshly squeezed juice, bread, fresh fruit, and coffee) a middle aged lady walked into the kitchen. i didn't know who she was but she quickly introduced herself as being the pastor's niece. (the pastor and his wife both tienen 70 years). her name was martha, and she seemed like a very nice lady...

ok so fast forward a few days... its evening time and i am with the team at the church of the pastor whom i was staying with. the team was talking about purity, and actually this night one of the youth interns from the group was the one speaking. after the guy was done speaking the pastor got up and asked if anyone from the group would like to share a testimony. immediately everyone started to look around, wondering who was gonna be brave enough to get up there. i really didn't wanna speak, just bc i mean i live here, and i really wanted the younger members from the team to have an opportunity to share. anyways.. their youth pastor ended up going up and sharing. after he was done the pastor asked for another volunteer. but this time he didn't wait for anyone to volunteer, he just called me out! at this point i was kinda regretting staying with him at his house, bc had i not, he probably wouldn't have called me out...at least that was my logic...

so anyways the pastor called me out, and im thinking, (sorry dad but i was) "crap, what am i going to say? i got nothing. nada." so i get up there not really sure what im gonna say or where i wanna take this exactly. but then i just felt overwhelmed by the lord telling me just to share my testimony about how i came to ecuador..the process...the struggle of it all...so thats what i did. when i tell that story, or i guess just in general when i share something that the lord has done in my life, i tend to be very transparent. i just lay it all out there. thats kinda how god made me. so i was very very personal up there... i shared from mark 4 three things that the lord so clearly spoke to my soul during a time of desperation.. god cares/ god is in control/ and remember who god is and what he's done.

after i got done sharing i went and sat down, and then one more person got up and shared their testimony. after we were done with the service the lady i met during breakfast, martha approached me and handed me a piece of paper. she took my outside and told me that she really needed to talk to me and that she wanted me to read the piece of paper. but she was very adamant about me not telling her uncle (the pastor) about what the note said. she told me that the lord really spoke to her through my testimony and that she knew that the lord had brought me there to share for a specific reason... the note she gave me pretty much said that she had a problem with her daughter and that she felt like the lord brought me into her life to help her with the problem...

after the brief conversation with martha, and after i read the note, i was floored with so many emotions. i was in awe that God was orchestrating something so much bigger than me. i was afraid that i didnt know what i should do say. i doubted that i was the right one for the task.. but i was also excited for this opportunity to join god on this adventure.


(ok so this is getting kinda long and i am about to leave to go teach english, so i will finish this story in another post soon...hopefully tonight!)

something different...

well, today, at the urging of my gf... i did something different. this afternoon i had a conversation with ginger, and the topic was brought up that i don't seem to do too many things outside of work stuff. i guess she's somewhat right. she said, "if your not doing something work-related, you are planning or studying, or at ronnie's doing something." basically she was telling me that i needed to get out more. see things. do something. something different.

to be honest.. i kinda got a little offended. i was thinking to myself, "i didn't come here to go sightsee or to do 'different things!' i came here to be a missionary! i then went on to tell her that i don't really like going out and doing things by myself. i don't know why, i just don't. i feel weird. like a loner. i could tell that ginger was getting a little frustrated bc i wasn't getting her point. she just was suggesting that maybe i should try and do some new and fun things, not get so bogged down with things, don't be bored in my house. but i took it as, 'my gf is telling me that im boring and i pretty much suck at life bc all i do is work stuff and for fun im always with the same one friend that i have here.'

after thinking about all of this, i figured i should do something...different. i was planning on going to the mall (to the grocery store) and picking up a few things, so i thought i would take a book and just read in the food court for a bit.

and that's what i did... but what's weird about this... is i don't read. i mean outside of the bible and articles on espn.com or goazcats, i don't read. period. i don't know, i've never been much of a reader. but i remember before coming to ecuador while i was at fpo (my training) a speaker challenged us by saying, "who you are 15 years from now is going to be determined by the friends you have and the books you read." i immediately thought, "crap. i hate reading." so i guess since then i've wanted to start reading a little more.

anyways.. someone from the last team i was worked with gave me this book entitled, 'the living church,' one in which i've been meaning to get into for the past couple of weeks. so i took it with me. upon getting to the mall, i'm not sure what happened, but something really really weird happened. i mean, me reading is pretty weird. but.. i for some reason had the urge to drink...coffee. this should shock my mom and the rest of my family, bc i hate coffee. i don't drink it. ever. outside of a few courtesy sips i drank last weekend at a bible study, i can remember the last time i had coffee. it was may of 2006, and my friend and i were up late studying (cramming) for finals, and she made me/us some coffee. it was absolutely disgusting. she even put a bunch of sugar and all that creamy stuff, but it still wasn't drinkable for me...

..but i figured that's what ppl do when they read books, they drink coffee. i had no idea which kind to get, so i thought getting a cold one would be best, kinda ease into the whole coffee drinking thing... i think i ended up getting like an oreo cappuccino or something. it wasn't all that bad.

i love the mall i went to. it sets on the base of a volcano and overlooks the valley of quito. it's a breathtaking view. so there i was with my oreo cappuccino and my book, to the outside eye, looking like i've done this a 1,000 times. so i went to find a seat, one preferably facing out to the view. the only problem is, (here's one of my qwirks) is that i don't like sitting with my back to ppl. is that weird? i think i've become more aware of this since moving to ecuador. i'm always cautious about where i sit, and where i stand, i don't know maybe i'm just paranoid. so i found a table that is facing out the windows, but right behind it is this french fry stand, which i guess would hide me in case someone wanted to come up and kill me or something...

it was really a sweet time. very relaxing. just me. and about 100 other strangers. crying babies. loud tv's. smell of greasy fast food... i read for about 3 hours. which is more than i've read in like the last year. every now and then i would just stop, and ppl watch (this is another one of my favorite things to do) and just pray over the ppl. that God would just reveal himself to them. in some way.

i really enjoyed the book. i will prolly blog about it soon. very basic but yet profound truths... so there you go. that was my afternoon. i did something different for a change. so go ahead and try it sometime. do something different. you may just end up liking it. or may just end up learning to like to coffee... (is this gonna stunt my growth?)

a real post.

so lately a few ppl have been giving me a hard time because "all" i do is just upload videos.. so this post is dedicated to mi novia and ronnie.. i think ronnie is just a hater because he doesn't take the time to actually update his own blog. i helped him set up a blog a couple months ago, and guess how many posts he's done. yup just one!

anyways.. i just thought i'd post a lot of random stuff. just whatever comes to mind. right now i am at the clifton's house (fellow m's). i often go to church with them and then just come back to their house to chill. they are both taking a nap. i'm sitting on their couch using their laptop, and watching the lakers put the smack down on the spurs. by they way, they've showed jack nicholson and one of his famous friends, and can i just say that ppl that wear sunglasses inside really bug me. i just don't get it. cualquier..

i've recently realized that i have spanish ADD... i've been here in ecuador for almost a year, so i feel i am getting a pretty good grasp on spanish. but for the life of me whenever i have to listen to someone speak in spanish, whether it is at church or just with someone, i cannot pay attention. my mind goes else where. i could be understanding 100% of what they are saying, but then i just get bored or something, and my mind just shuts off, and i starting thinking in english. i've yet to sit through an entire sermon in spanish and have been able to follow along for the entire time.

sometimes i have a hard time understanding ppl, whether it be bc of their accent, or how fast they are speaking, or just me being tired.. so then i'm forced to have to think really hard and translate word for word in my mind.. which really takes a lot of energy, so in these instances i usually just sit there (if im with someone like ronnie who is the main person being talked at) and look interested, and every now and then add a 'si' or a 'claro' or maybe an 'interesante.'

ok well i hope this satisfies ginger... back to the game now..

last video..

this video is from our last day in Nayon. we went to this school where there were about 400 kids, and played with them, as well as did the drama for them..

the redeemer drama...

hey guys, here is a little of the drama that the team from fbc weston did all week.. this was i think from last wednesday in Nayon.



Jesse (doing the whippings) Sarah and Sarah holding Jesus (who was played by Regis). this was the most intense part of the drama.. these guys did an amazing job with the drama.

another team...

hey everyone. this past week ronnie and i worked with a team from first baptist church weston, florida. it was an absolute great time. outside of working with the team from my home church, i've never had this much fun with a team. God did so many amazing things this past week.. i can't wait to share with you all. i will keep this short, bc i want to add a couple of videos from this past week. i will share more about the team when i send out my next voyage update... i promise.



we were in a little barrio outside of quito called nayon for 2 and a half days.. we did dramas, street level evangelism, a guy from their team fixed bikes for free, and played soccer. this was from last tuesday. a few of the local kids there brought us to this place to play soccer..




same place, same afternoon... kids gettin' saved!

last set of videos...

this was our last night at the chuch el amor construye. we taught a class on what baptism is/means, and then had a special service that night where we baptized 14 people...


this is pastor david preaching and oliver translating...


pastor david and patricio doing the baptisms...

more videos...

...from the trinity team.


this is rhett participating in an experiment at the mitad del mundo museum...


this was from the missionary appreciation dinner we had at the tambo andino...


this was from our last day...

baptisms...

last wednesday with the trinity team i had the privilege of witnessing and actually being involved with two baptisms. we baptized two ladies from my home church in casa grande at the baptistry at 'mitad del mundo.' its a museum that is right at the center of the earth... it was a very moving event. here are a few videos of what went on...



this is linda...


this is joann...

last tuesday night...

...we were at a church called betania, its a really big church. brother bill lead a study with the men, and miss carrie did one with the women. bill really did an amazing job.. he's a very gifted teacher/speaker. i believe he spoke on james ch 1 (counting all things as joy) he has a great testimony about getting in a bad car accident, and everyone there was just so into what he was saying... it was a great time.

trinity team...

Hey everyone. i have so many things to right about... this past week a team from my home church in casa grande came out for a week long mission trip. i cannot explain to you guys how amazing of a trip this was. I saw the Spirit move in so many ways...it was incredible. i will definitely blog more when i have a little more time. i just wanted to put up a couple of videos. stay tuned this week for more videos, and some insights from the past week...


this was from last monday in santo domingo (about 4 hours north west of quito). we were in a poor bario named laural flores, doing street level evan. and kids clubs.


this was from last tuesday. on our way back to quito we stopped at this indigenous museum/place of living for a people group called the sachulas (sp?)

visit from a friend...

hey guys. i haven't blogged in a while...sorry about that. this past week, one of my old college roommates was here visiting. What an absolute blessing it was to have wes here.. we haven't been able to hang out for a few years, so this was such great time to see a close friend and catch up and life. Wes just left this morning at 6:30. and the blessings keep coming too... tonight a team from my home church (including my dad) will be arriving and will be here for a week doing some mission stuff. i can't wait. i probably won't be able to blog at all this week, but i will definitely have plenty of pictures and videos to share with you all soon!


this is at the volcano puluhua yesterday...


this was from last sunday night.. wes' birthday was last sunday and ronnie's was monday. so we had a little celebration..

jesus el sanador...

from the sunday when the tennessee guys were here...

la iglesia jerusalen...

this is another video from last sunday with the guys from tennessee...

translator's dinner...

this is from last saturday night at the translator's dinner. it was basically a time to reunite with all the translator's from last year, and then a time to see "potential" new translators as well. it was a good night...i think there was about 15-20 translators there..

one more from teleferiqo...

this video is from the top of teleferiqo...enjoy!

teleferiqo videos...

we did the teleferiqo on saturday morning. here are a couple videos. i have a third one, but it was giving my some problems and i couldn't upload it.. i'll try again later on...

WHEW Missions...

Hey guys. man.. where to start. it's been so crazy the last few days. but crazy, good. ronnie and i have been with two guys from tennessee that came here to plan and set things up for their mission trip this may, one in which they are bringing about 60 people( WHEW missions is the name of their ministry). Eddie and Stan came in last friday morning and just left at 5:30 this morning.

i can't even begin to describe how good and refreshing these past few days have been. I met eddie and stan last may so it was good to see a couple of familiar faces. it was good just to have some good fellowship with a couple of solid guys, brothers. we laughed a lot..ate a lot.. oh, and we got some planning done too. i could go on and on about all that we did, but i took a lot of pictures and videos, so i hope to have all those up within the next few days.

These first few videos were from last friday night at the youth night we have at the association. both stan and eddie preached... let me just say, that while here for the past 10 months i've been fortunate to meet a lot of people that come doing missions. but these two guys have with out a doubt the biggest heart for the ecuadorian people that i've met. it was amazing just to see how they interacted and loved on the people here. how they gave hugs to everyone. talked to everyone. shared with everyone. and whats more amazing than that, is that the ecuadorian people genuinely love them as well... i look forward to may when they will be coming back...

another video...

painting...

la fiesta!

I just got back from the association. We had a youth valentine's party. There was about 20 youth that were there. It was a lot of fun. I was asked prior to share about "love" and what it means. This was my first time actually leading anything by myself with this group at the association.. but it went well.. i think! anyways. At the end i taught them a song in english. "People need the Lord." It was short, and it went along with what i talked about. i wrote out the words on a white board and taught it to them... they really enjoyed it..

here's a quick video of us singing some crazy song that i had no idea what it was about. All i know is that there was something about a crocodile in it!

one of my...

favorite songs:

Cerca de ti, yo quiero estar...

de tu presencia no me quiero alejar.

(close to you i want to be, i don't want to be far from your presence)

Feliz Dia de Amor y Amistad!

that's how you say Happy Valentine's Day here in ecuador... just wanted to say happy valentine's day to everyone! especially to someone very special... i miss you ginger!




thanks for another card!


maybe next year we can go here...?? yea?


i miss you...

formarse starts!

Hey guys. last night was the first night of formarse.. this is what we are calling our theology classes and english classes. (it's the spanish verb for "to form yourself"). we had a great turn out, about 50 people showed up! Last night was only informational, and this next week we will start classes. It was really good to be back at the association and see a lot of the youth. I hadn't seen most of them since before Christmas. Here are a couple of videos of us singing...



yesterday ronnie and I went down to the association to help set things up. But when we got there pretty much everything was done. So we were all just hanging out passing the time. A youth i know (Angie) was there playing the piano and I asked her what she was playing. Well, she quickly showed me a song that she loves to play, but can't sing it because it is in English. So this was a first for me... I helped her translate the song "Step by Step" from english to spanish. It was a little tough because i realized that for some of the lyrics in the song there were a few ways to say it in spanish. So i would tell her, "maybe this way...try it like this." Then she would sing it, and we would both figure out which way sounded the best/fit better with the music. It was a cool experience.

Anyways..all that to say.. while everyone was at formarse ronnie came up to me while we were all singing. He said, " hey, we're singing your song!" which what he meant was, we were about sing the song that i helped translate... so here it is. it sounded pretty rough because i think this is the first time probably everyone there had sang it or even heard it before...

otro corte de pelo...

i know most everyone doesn't care about this... but my mama does! hah...

almost...

a missed opportunity.

coming back from arizona for Christmas i had to fly to houston. From houston i flew 5 hours to quito. for some reason i wasn't that tired once the plane got in the air. (which i was really upset about bc i wanted the flight to go by fast). I was sitting in an aisle seat and there was a lady sitting in the same row by the window, with no one in between us. I usually don't talk to people on the planes... i like to sleep or just zone out and watch a movie.

So about an hour into the flight, i decided to get out my ipod (thanks gma) and my nintendo ds (thanks luke) and just waste time and try to get a few more stars on mario 64... i was getting a piece of gum out of my back pack, and i just felt something in me telling me that i needed to ask this lady, whom i haven't talked to yet, if she wanted a piece of gum. So i asked her if she wanted a piece of gum, expecting her to say yes or no, and then get back to my game and music.

well, little did i know but that little action of me asking her if she wanted some gum, opened her up and we talked for the rest of the flight. We talked for at least 3 hours or so about anything and everything. Her name was patricia and she was from colorado, but is now living in quito working with some sort of ngo type of company.

I was able to share with her the truth. We read the bible and talked about a lot of spiritual things. she had a lot of questions. it was a great conversation. i was able to tell her about what im doing here in ecuador, and my passion and my hope to reach the youth here for Christ.

Even though she didn't receive Christ, i knew it was a divine moment planned by God. I was able to plant the seed. It's funny.. i didn't even want to talk to her. i just wanted to sit there and zone out and pass the time with me ipod. And to think.. all it took was offering a total stranger a piece of gum. And to think..

it was almost a missed opportunity.

nanegelito...

Hey guys. I just got back from a team retreat. There are 3 other families that make up the team i am on.. Monday morning all of us went to a little area called Nanegelito, which is about an hour and a half north of quito. It is really the beginning of the rain forest.

It was a nice and relaxing time. We stayed at a place that is run by another missionary couple.. the couple was very nice. here is a quick video of what this place looked like.

super bowl sunday...

Hey guys.. man.. i am getting out of control with my blog now. My dad is probably happy...

Well, i am about to head over to some of my friend's home to watch the super bowl. I'm pretty excited to watch it, even though it will be in spanish. I am kinda bummed that i won't be able to see the same commercials as back home..oh well! My family always has people over and we have a ton of food for the super bowl. but this year most of my family is gone, so it will just be my mom and grandma...all alone... ahh.. my grandma just told me she's gonna be pulling for the giants. I should have made a bet with her...

Anyways.. i wanted to upload a couple of short videos from when my family was here back in october. the videos are from the museum at the center of the world. i think they are pretty much self explanatory. one of them is side-ways..sorry.. ginger likes to take pictures and video like that...

my saturday...

Here are a few videos from where i was at this morning. This bario is called santa rosa, it is in north quito... about a 25-30 minute bus ride from my house. My pastor friend invited me to come check it out. usually there are a lot more kids that come, but this weekend is a big holiday in all of south america. This could become a regular thing for me saturday mornings...

i feel like...

i could go home.

I guess i should restate that. i don't want to go home. I just mean that if i were to leave now, if my term would be ending tomorrow, i would go home on cloud nine knowing that God used me to impact someone's life...

I just got back from bible study with my neighbors. it is usually just myself and a married couple. Susanna, the wife, has an absolute heart for the Lord. she's been saved for quite some time, but i think never really knew what that meant. it's been such an honor and a joy to see her actually apply and take to heart the things that i have been leading/teaching. I guess coming from a teaching background i can really appreciate when "students" get to that point where the light turns on and it all starts to make sense, and they in turn use that knowledge.

One day a few weeks ago i went to their house for bible study and susanna was on the phone (with one of her daughters come to find out). Susanna didn't know i was waiting downstairs and that i could hear her, but what she was saying... was such an affirmation that what i was doing was exactly what i needed to be doing. I remember her saying, "no tengas meido" "Dios siempre es contigo"... she was telling her daughter what we have been reading and studying for the past two months or so.. "do not fear!" God is always with you."

Today Susanna told me that she is so excited bc her daughter is changing her work schedule...and that means that the two of them will be able to study on saturdays. she plans on studying with her daughter what i lead with them on fridays..

It truly is an amazing feeling. knowing that i am able to be apart of something like this. i think a lot of time, christians/missionaries in general, get so caught up with witnessing and evangelizing, and thats all we focus on. We foucs on the numbers. but its not always about that. what it always is about...is investing in people. pouring out your heart to people.

I feel like i could go home.. man.. and to think.. i still have at least a year left of opportunities like these...

a newfound...

respect for my cleaning lady (nadege).

Yes i said it. I do have a cleaning lady, for those that didn't know that. she just had a baby this past weekend so i will be on my own for about a month or so. so this morning i decided to do some laundry and wash some dishes that were piling up.

It took me about 20 minutes to wash all the dishes, and it took me forever to figure out how to use the washing machine! I even had to call the family who's house this is and ask for help. But to my defense, this washing machine is really old and i thought i was going to break it if i "pulled up" on the button to start the water... needless to say... i have clean clothes now and clean dishes...and also a newfound respect for Nadege who does this twice a week for me..

i'm back!

hey everyone. I know it's been quite some time since i've been on here. I apologize.. so much has happened since the last time i've blogged, which was way before Christmas. A lot of cool stuff has happened that i will try to catch you all up on in the future. but for this first one, i just feel like sharing just a bunch of random things that you may or may not care about!

Rain: It has been raining non stop the last few days. i mean literally non stop. today was the first day in a while where it has only rained in the evening. i woke up tuesday morning to a flooded back room where the family who lives here keeps all their ministry stuff. there's a big crack in the ceiling and water was coming in all day, and i hardly ever go back there so i didn't even know. let me tell you.. boy was it fun trying to soak all of the water up with towels, and then rinsing it into a bucket. apparently a worker is supposed to come tomorrow to fix the ceiling.. but who knows if that will happen.

Cereal: I thank God for cereal. i just recently started eating cereal. I didn't eat cereal for the first 8 months here bc i thought the milk here was nasty... but it's growing on me, and now that's all i want to eat is cereal. I'm able to get some kellog's brands like back home...but still haven't found any cinnamon toast crunch!

mi amigo ronaldo: I have been hanging out a lot lately with my friend ronnie and his family. i go over to his house to eat dinner at least 3-4 times a week. i am getting more and more comfortable with his family, and it is also great practice speaking spanish with them. he also has cable so i am able to watch tv... in english too!