Desert Sunrises to City Sunsets

videos del partido...

2008-09-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-08-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-04-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-04-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

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..

2008-04-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-04-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-04-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-03-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

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...

baptisms...

2008-03-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-03-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

...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...

2008-03-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-03-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-03-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

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

la iglesia jerusalen...

2008-03-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

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

translator's dinner...

2008-03-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-29T07:36:00.000-08:00

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

teleferiqo videos...

2008-02-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

painting...

2008-02-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

la fiesta!

2008-02-15T19:44:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-02-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

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

almost...

2008-02-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-03T12:56:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-02-02T11:33:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-02-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-01-31T12:37:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-30T15:37:00.000-08:00

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!

pictures from el viaje de mi familia...

2007-12-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

here are some pics from my parents and ginger's trip here abut a month or so ago.. sorry it's taken me so long for me to upload! lo siento..yo trato de hacer mucho mejor en el futuro!

my dad lead a study at a ch called el amor construye (the love he is building) and my mom translated. they both did an amazing job... i was real proud of my mama for stepping out of her comfort zone..

me gustaria casarme esta chica... : )

this was on monday night at english class.. we broke up into 5 groups and just spoke basic english with the youth. my dad and ginger did great! I'm pretty sure one guy gave ginger his number...hah!

this is at the entrance of my school where i studied spanish. this was the first day of my study at my school..

mi amigovia.. as they would call it here.. if you don't know what that means...sorry!

at the study.. we had 13 people show up! we had pizza at the end...

after the study we stopped by this little tienda and got some chocolate..nice break from the rain..

after the chocolate break we went to this indigenous market. en esta lugar es posible para regatear, pero con frecuencia yo no tenia exito!

on our way to quicentro mall to eat..

but first i had to get a haricut! for those that don't know, i made a "deal" with my little brother that i wouldn't cut my hair until i was conversational in spanish. i went almost 6 months without getting it cut!

all cleaned up.. i promise i really don't wear ARIZONA stuff often! i try to fit in as much as possible..

the best picture ever!

2007-12-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

this is my little cousin robert.. aka bobby.. showing a little love to his older cousin while my fam was in disneyland during thanksgiving. i know i have a lot of pics to upload, but i had to put this one up first. Go Cats! (sorry, mom, mark, shelley, and ginger) i truly am a proud cousin... hah! (not really sure who that little kid beside him is..maybe some random kid who just wanted a hug or something..)

geocaching...

2007-11-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

hey everyone! yeah i know, it's been awhile since i've posted. but i promise i will make up for the long absence. i have a lot of pictures to post (mainly from when my family was here about a month ago). before i start to post those, i wanted to post some pictures from when i went geocaching last friday. i've never been geocaching prior to last friday, so i was kinda skeptical about it. for those who don't know what it is, basically its a new "sport" in which you have a gps and you have coordinates of a hidden treasure (cache) and you punch in the coordinates and it leads you to the general area where the cache is...

our geocaching group..just about to head out..

on our way to our first cache...

still on our way. this was my partner, bob..a fellow m..

this is where our gps led us to the first cache.. needless to say we were unable to find it. i was a little bummed that we couldn't find it. call it pride, but i just wanted to say i found the first cache i tried to find!

on our way to the second cache...

we found it!

this is what the cahce looks like. inside there is a notebook to record your name, instructions on what to do once you find it, and usually some "swag" items (random things you can take, but your supposed to leave something if you take something).

another trail...

me!

group shot...

feliz cumpleanos!

2007-11-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

i know its a little late... i love you guys! i wish i could have been there with you all this weekend to celebrate... miss you both..

Puerto Quito...

2007-10-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is at puerto quito on our way back to quito... just thought i'd take a litle video and show you all a little more..

more pics from guayaquil...

2007-10-17T17:15:00.001-07:00

these are from sunday again.. on our way home. last set of pics. I promise!

on our way home we stopped at this little watermelon tienda.. it was very good! muy jugoso!

this place really made me think of my mom and little brother luke because they both love watermelon..

this place also had lots of bananas as well.. this is Patricio, Ricardo, and our bus driver. (don't know his name)

dentro del bus!

this one is mainly for my boys overseas.. brought back a lot of memories! "that water is as cold as san franciso water!" this is at a place called Puerto Quito.. about 3 hours outside of Quito..

this is jose.. he is a really nice guy.. he's actually one of the few youth who went that I could always understand! he doesn't talk that fast..

another of me..i didn't realize those two guys were in the background!

some of the guys.. notice the guy in the red shorts giving the thumbs up.. everyone here does that! its really weird bc nobody really still does that back home.. unless your name is peyton..

guayaquil once more...

2007-10-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

some more pictures! these are all from sunday, the day we left. we went to this area near the malecon to sightsee.. it was pretty cool. enjoy!

I'm really not sure what the name of this area is. but we had to walk up i think 530 stairs! and this was first thing in the morning, like around 7:00ish!

everyone walking up the stairs... this is right at the beginning, but im pretty sure everyone was already tired!

a view of guayaquil while ascending up the stairs...

another view...

this is for all my family..i had to take a picture with this cannon.. it reminded me being on mainstreet u.s.a. in disneyland! (this was on top of the place where we were climbing to)

also on top, there was this nice, but small catholic church..

inside the church...

we had a brief impromptu time of worship/devotional here.. it was amazing. Pastor Patricio read some scripture and we all sang "How Great Thou Art" and ""Because He Lives." it was in spanish, but i just sang along in english...but it was a powerful time of worship.

after singing we met these two jewish type ppl.. i say that bc they weren't exactly fully jewish. it was a weird encounter.. i couldn't really understand everything they were saying..

one more for mommy! (ginger, don't you love my hair?!)

more guayaquil...

2007-10-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

i just felt compelled to take this random picture of this street.. this is near the malecon..

on saturday afternoon i went with patricio to this market place. there were so many things it was so crazy! he was looking for a gift for his kids.. it was fun watching him barter with ppl..

this is right outside where the conference was. this man made keychains with inscriptions on them.. here he is making me one for someone special..

there was a cultural night on saturday where every group was supposed to do something to represent their country.. our group decided to do a little drama. this is them practicing on the malecon.. they didn't get to finish because a police officer wasn't to happy we were there..

a parade honoring the fire department...(me and patricio)

at the conference.. an altar call..

this was during the cultural night.. not sure what group this was or where they were from, but they did this loooooooooong skit/play and apparently there was a witch in it. i couldn't really understand what they were saying, so i took a little snooze!

this picture is a little unclear, sorry. this is our group doing their drama thingy..

our group that came from the surrounding quito area..

guayaquil again...

2007-10-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

some more pics...

this is ricardo again.. instead of cleaning this time, he took it upon himself to make everyone a snack..

this was saturday afternoon when our bus driver was trying to park, and there wasn't enough room. these fellas' helped out and pushed about 6 cars out of the way! only in ecuador!

just a random sidewalk..this is where those guys moved those cars..

while everyone else was eating me and two other guys who werent hungry went walking around sightseeing.. we stopped by this grocery store first. thought i'd add it just for my dad..grocery stores remind me of my dad..

this is called the malecon.. it's a boardwalk that has tons of activities, games, restaurants, and other things..

not really sure why i took this picture.. i think it was peer pressure..

these are two guys from the youth group.. carlitos on the left and reuben on the right. reuben is the kid who likes to act..

this was right after we took the last picture.. carlitos and reuben insisted for some reason that i take a pic on the back of this train with these kids who were already there.. kinda random!

this is a statue/monument of two military leaders who lead the rebellion against the spainards way back in the day.. one of their names is simon bolivar, don't remember the other, sorry! look it up!

another pic of the malecon..

Guayaquil pics!

2007-10-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I have so many pictures from this past weekend when i went to guayaquil for the youth rally. stay tuned for a lot more pics over the next few days. i even have a short video coming too! enjoy!

we left at about 12:30 friday morning... this is us pulling out of the parking lot

this was friday morning at the university of guayaquil (where the conference was). this is a pier that had a lot of places to eat..

on our way to go eat breakfast!

this is the view right out from where we ate breakfast..

this is on a bridge that leads to where we ate. i think this is one of the main roads in guayaquil in the back..

this is at the house we stayed at. this is Ricardo. he has such a servant's heart. there were lots of dirty dishes in the sink, and he immediately went and cleaned them all. when i asked him why he was cleaning he said, "because it's a way to serve everyone."

friday afternoon we went swimming at this pool.. we pretty much had it all to ourselves...

i went wondering around while ppl were swimming, and came across this ostrich! i thought it was a pretty funny pet..if it is a pet, could be dinner in the future!

this kid in the middle is really big into acting and drama.. he put on an a little drama and improvised everything. from what i could understand, it looked pretty funny..

this is a river that was behind where we were swimming..

one of the youth pointed out this iguana.. i'm pretty sure i've never seen one in person before. this was at the pool still..

and again...

2007-10-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

some more pics from last thursday...mainly from carolina park..

this is a little mexican food joint that my teacher spotted. he insisted that i try something to see if it compares to back home...

this was the burrito i had, which to me, looks more like a taco...oh well..it wasn't bad... but it's really no ochoa's or little sombrero's!

a walkway in carolina park. prior to this day i had only been here once, and that was just to play basketball so i really didn't see anything.. this park is really big..and nice..

a little "lagoon," that has paddle boats...

can't wait to try these with you nin ner! (and mom)

this is a statue of a condor..its the ecuadorian national symbol..

another walkway...thought it looked cool..

ok, so lately there have been a lot of pics of me.. the reason is, peyton told me he wanted more of me.. so, here u go pey pey!

another angle of the lagoon...

you can see here some of the running trails that go throughout the park...

more sightseeing...

2007-09-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

Hey all.. every week my teacher and I usually take a day to go sightseeing. this past thursday we visited a little barrio with a nice iglesia... it was a nice little hike down to it though. we also visited a big park here in Quito, Carolina Park. I took a lot of pics so I think i will probably post a couple more times with pics from this day...enjoy!

this one's for you mom... we randomly went by this place.. maybe has potential after retirement?!

this is looking down at where we went. pretty nice view..you can see the church where we went..

an even better view...

this is the church we went to. sorry, but i don't remember the name!

so i'm pretty sure i wasn't supposed to take this.. but i had a moment alone, and i felt a little brave... the things i do for you guys.

this is one of the paintings.. the caption said something like, "the ppl in the fire interceding to the saints." it reminded me of the story of the rich man and lazarus..

this is us walking up the long...long...long...hill

i wasn't to happy that we had to walk up this big hill bc there was about 5,000 taxis just chillin there..

this was about half way up the dumb hill.. i was soooo tired.

and once again...

2007-09-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

more pictures! these ones are mainly from last week. the first couple are from our monday night english class/ bible study. also, there are pics from this past thursday when my teacher and I went sightseeing around centro historico. there are also a few random ones, but you guys can guess which ones those are...disfrute!

this is monday night at the english class im helping to teach. we were playing, "im going to school and in my bag im going to take..." everyone had to think of a item in english, and then repeat everyone else's items...they had fun with this game.

this is patricio villacis. he is the president of the baptist association here in quito. he's a real good guy... he's trying to learn english with the rest of the youth.

this is the mariscal sucre theatre in centro historico... maybe we can go here mom when you guys come..yeah??

this is in the same plaza as the theatre...

just for more perspective...the same plaza

this is at the city museum. it was all about the history of quito...pretty cool. will definitely will take you here los padres y ginger...

a road that i thought looked cool...

this is a spaniard street nearby where we were. we actually got to go into an old style spaniard home and check it out...

and again...it looked cool...

this little guy was in plaza grande, and i just had to get a picture... not sure why..

this was my breakfast i made last saturday...just thought you all would be interested..

I forgot to upload this at the appropriate time... thanks nin ner! love u sugar!

Futbol Partido...

2007-09-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

These next pics came from last saturday night. I was invited by another m and his family to go to an Ecuadorian National team game against El Salvador. Apparently, El Salvador is horrible (think asu in basketball and u get the picture!) It was definitely a fun experience.. we sat in the cheap seats, where the beer and cigarettes were a constant throughout... Ecuador won i believe 5-1.

la cancha...this was the first game between two club teams.

a little scuffle...

el salvador getting warmed up before the slaughter...

kick off...

me at el partido...

the 2nd half...

la cancha desocupada

ok so last week i look out my window and i see this rabbit and i think, "que chevere, mis vecinos compraron un conejo." but come to find out the rabbit isn't theirs. so no one knows where it came from! i took liberty of naming it peter.. aunque hay una arana en mi bano, i named it charlotte...hah!

Mitad Del Mundo...

2007-09-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! here are some pics from last friday when my teacher Ivan and I went to a museum in Mitad Del Mundo (Center of the World). I've been there before... a few times. I actually lived near there for a month. but it was cool going this time as a language student. It was fun. there are lots of interactive activities that ppl are able to do to see the different effects the earth's forces have on different things..

apparently these things live in the jungle here in ecuador... don't plan on going there anytime soon. this is only a baby one too..

another reason why i like living in a big city...

this is my teacher Ivan... just thought i'd give him some face time on here!

we were able to try an authentic blow gun thingy... since i was a little sick, i opted to pass...

this is the target... he missed badly on both attempts..

a sundial.. crazy how accurate these are..

ok see there was this thing where you can try to balance an egg on a nail.. it's possible bc of the forces of the earth doing something crazy to it.. i don't know, google it. anyways.. i struggled for like 5 mins and couldnt do it. then my teacher literally did it in 5 seconds...

another experiment showing the effects of the earth's forces... she put a leaf in the bowl, and pulled the plug and we watched how the leaf moved. she did it in 3 different places, and each time the leaf moved a different direction.. it was crazy!

the leaf...

this is looking down at where all the activities were... this place really reminded me of back home bc of all the cactus and it was also really hot that day..

papallacta

2007-09-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

hey guys! this past thursday I went with my school to a town called papallacta, which is about 2 hours away from Quito. in papallacta there are natural hot springs, which honestly was the honest water i've ever been in that i could bare somewhat... it was fun, so here are some pics. the first two were from yesterday, when my roommate and fellow m Ronnie got married! it was a very long day... they actually had the wedding in the living room of the house im staying in.

at ronnies wedding...this is in my living room

this was at a restaurant we ate at last night on the panecillo... thought it looked cool

this is on our way to papallacta. this hill was pretty steep and muddy, so everyone had to get out and walk to the top of the hill!

this is the entrance where the hot springs are...

one of the pathways there...

the pool in the back is where i stayed the whole time.. bc our bags were just sitting out under some patio, and i didnt really trust ppl there!

alright, now pey pey and j lank, don't look at this one.. i don't want to cause you two to stumble..

this one was extremely cold! i was told that if you get in this pool, then immediately get in one of the hot ones, do that three times, its apparently good for your body (circulation or something?) but i only did it once...too cold!

another pool...

and another... i'll probably have some more pics coming of papallacta soon... stay tuned!

just trying to...

2007-08-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

chase the sun..this is what dad told me while i had an amazing qt right at sunset on the beach. Dad told me, “matt, chase me. That’s all you need to do in this life. Just chase after me. Chase my son." here are some pics from this wonderful time...

mi fruta presentacion...

2007-08-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

hey again.. last week at my language school all of the students were given a fruit to research and then on friday we all got together and presented our findings...in spanish. here are some pictures from it... and against my discretion i even posted some video of me!! so bear with me, im still learning...i hope you all need a good laugh..heh..

here is the table of all the fruit we had..

here is my fruit...its called a taxo, its similiar to a passion fruit.

and the end of all the presentations, the teachers played some music, and one at a time they called out our fruits and we had to join the kongo line and dance... ya.. interesting. we didn't do it once, or twice,but about 4 times!

more las penas...

2007-08-19T17:03:00.001-07:00

hey all! here are some more pictures from last weekend at the beach...

some kids out early in the morning fishing... as you can imagine, there were a lot fishermen..

this is a pic of a stream that i found. as you can see it flowed into the ocean, and right at the point where it met up with the ocean the water was warm..it was like a natural hot spring.. i spent a lot of time here just relaxing and hanging out.

this was kinda random so i thought i would post it! this is the same stream...

Las Penas Fotos!

2007-08-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hey all! This past weekend I went to Las Penas, which is a little beach town about 5 hours away from Quito. It was a lot of fun... i spent a lot of time by myself prayer walking the beach..it was an awesome time. it was also good to get out of the highly polluted city and be able to breathe some fresh air! anways...here are some pics.. i'll have more coming soon..

one of the cars in our group had some car troubles on the way there...

guess where this is...Las Penas?? nope! this is at a gas station on the way there...

ronaldo y yo a la playa..

our lovely hotel.. theres a reason this place is a "secret"...

this is where we had dinner our first night.

all the restaurants on the beach look like these...

The mosquitos were so nasty..this was my first time having to sleep with a mosquito net..kinda comforting knowing that none of the many spiders could get me while i was asleep too!

this is a typical coastal breakfast here in ecuador..acutally, this is a pretty typical meal in general (fish and fried bananas)...tons of pescado! (and i ate it all, aren't you proud mama?!)

one of the main streets in Las Penas..

some of the shops selling random cosas...

im not sure what these are, but they reminded me of churros from disneyland!

fotos, otra vez...

2007-08-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hey all...more pics from my little bro's last week here. these are all from Teleferiqo, which in Spanish means 'cable cars.' this is a popular tourist attraction here in quito, as the cable cars take you up the volcano Pichincha.

this is an amusement park called 'volcano park.' its the entrance to teleferiqo.

this is mery... she was luke's spanish teacher.

this is what the cable cars look like.

this is the view out of the cable car as it leaves the boarding area...

view from the top of teleferiqo, on pichincha..

just the two of us!...ahhh...how sweet...

the thinking man...something he doesn't do all that often...j/k

our favorite movie store that we visited frequentemente...

just thought i'd throw this one in here.. this is a picture of my house. my room is the window with the american flag...(that was there before i moved in!)

mas fotos...

2007-08-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

As promised, more pics from my brothers stay here in ecuador. there are some random ones, and a few from Plaza Grande, which is in central Quito.

this is right after Luke and I were playing this soccer game we invented in my front yard... ya, it was raining a little bit.

doing some homework at one of our frequently visited spots..

these are two security guards in plaza grande. i thought it was really random this guy had a sword..

this is some sort of government building. i think maybe congress... ya that sounds right!

a cool church, not sure the name of it.. its also in plaza grande.

i do know this one! this is the presidential palace. if you look closely you can see protestors in the back. im not sure what they were protesting, but it was very interesting to see...

not sure again on this one..sorry!! im so bad at this. but, underneath this building there are shops and cafes. pretty cool. this is also where luke went in to use the el bano, and forgot to pay the required .25! im pretty sure he didn't know what was going on, but the look on this ladies face was pricless, she had her hand out....but he just walked on by! i guess maybe i should have paid it...oops!

the same church in plaza grande...

walking down a road near plaza grande...

this is iglesia compania. it s beautiful church in centro historico. inside everything is gold plated.. its very cool. we weren't supposed to take any pictures inside (not sure why) but my heathen brother attempted to take one, but he rushed it (you know how if you shake/move the camera as it takes, it comes out all blurry??) and it didn't turn out..

some pics...

2007-08-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Over the next few days I'm going to be posting pictures from my little brother's last two weeks here.. These pictures are from 3 weeks ago. Luke and I were invited to a house church one sunday out in carapunga. (which is about a 45 min bus ride from my house). Upon arriving, we found out the baptistry needed to be filled up bc a man wanted to be baptized that day (usually the church knows before hand and has plenty of time to fill it up, but this guy just came ready this sunday without telling anyone...) So these are pics of luke and I trying desperately to help fill the baptistry in time.

This is on the wall outside of the house church...

my desire...

2007-07-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

I long to reach heaven's joys.. I run the race so that i may receive the prize..

how to say goodbye..again.

2007-07-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

Its early. My brother just left this morning. I just got back from taking him to the airport. I remember back in va, ppl saying that with this career/job, be prepared to say plenty of goodbyes.. within the past few months i've had to say so many painful goodbyes. im beginning to realize how true it is what i heard back in va. but its ok though.. i know as tough as these goodbyes are and will continue to be, the joy of seeing each of you all again will be even greater. so even though ive had to say goodbyes to lots of loved ones back home, and to new lifelong friends, i long for the day when the goodbyes turn into hellos. by no means do i wish i was home. i am fully committed to what i am doing here...its just that sometimes i dont know how to say goodbye.

Futbol fotos... y mas!

2007-07-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend there was a sports day, with 10 Baptist churches here in Quito competing against each other in soccer, basketball, and ecuavolley. My brother and I played soccer and basketball for Iglesia Bautista El Amor Construye (The Love He is Building Church..cool name huh?) There were about 300 youth there, so it was a wonderful opportunity for me meet lots of ppl. within my target focus group, as well as practice some Spanish.

Here are a few pics from the sports day as well as some from earlier in the week in central quito...the first few are from centro historico. my brother and I went to a part that is reffered to as "soccer jersey row." there are about 40-50 stores all selling practically the same stuff..

this is a sign to a soccer store in centro historico..cool name if you ask me..

not sure what this plaza is called...but it looks cool.

we actually saw a robbber running down this road being chased by the police..

this is in south quito at the youth sports day. if you look closely you can make out my little bro...

ok, so this one here confused my brother and I. This is right at the beginning of the day, and we think we are about to play soccer, then all the sudden these girls come out of no where all dressed up, and a beauty pagant breaks out! really random...maybe this is normal before soccer games here..

i taught him everything he knows...

apparently ppl here at agm think we look like twins, and a few couldnt believe i was the jman and luke was the younger brother..even with my name tag! i actually don't know why i just revealed that.

Champs! we may have lost in soccer, but we won the bball tournament..this is the youth group from el amor construye. their pastor is in the middle with the yellow hat..

this is my dog sugar...its a fact, she's the best dog in the world! (thx ginger!)

untitled...

2007-07-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hey all.. has it already been over week since i've updated?? man, where does the time go. well, my brother has been in Quito 10 days and i've enjoyed every minute of it so far. we've spent a lot of time sight seeing around Quito, (which is interesting being that we both do not speak Spanish that well) watching plenty of soccer, and finding random things to pass our time with. there is a tournament going on now called the Copa Cup, which is a tournament between south america teams and the u.s. It's been fun watching the games with the nationals here. Imagine watching a soccer game with about 50-75 Graham michaels, and thats about what it is like...crazy (some of you might not get that, but those that do will laugh, go Kentucky!)

It's funny what two brothers will come up with to pass some time. having Luke here brings me back to my childhood, where you would just find random things in the house and make a toy out of it. Luke bought a little pelot gun the other day, and we had a shoot out in our kitchen...which im not proud to say that i got dominated at. then luke found some chalk outside and drew some boxes on the wall, and we played the soccer equivalent to "horse" or "pig" (or in our case "imb"), by trying to call your shot into one of the boxes. representing my company like a proud m should, i got revenge on the little guy..ha! anyways here are a few pics...

This is me at "el bosque" mall watching Ecuador lose to Chile

Finally getting my debit card to work!!

My brother and I cooked lunch last saturday. This was definitely a first for me...

The women in my family would be proud..

There is a ton of architecture like this in Quito that just makes you scratch your head... i thought my dad would get a kick out of this..

Cuicocho...

2007-06-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Today my brother and I went with a group to a town called Cuicocho to see a lake within a volcano crater, Cochocho. It was absolutely amazing. these pictures do not come close to doing it justice. We actually got to take a 30 min boat ride on the lake around the two islands...What an amazing way to start my brothers visit! enjoy the pics...

This isn't Cuicocho, this is the lake in San Pablo...which is on the way to cuicocho.

this is my street i live on..this is a normal thing here in quito..j/k. this is still in san pablo. i guess this could be normal here, very random though..

Cuicocho lake, inside the crater of the volcano Cococho. Amazing right??

another view inside..

yet another...

yours truly..just for you mama!

The snow-capped volcano Cucocho. I took this through the window of the restuarant we ate at. The clouds literally let up for 5 mins, if that. so everyone in the restaurant at once stopped eating and got their cameras out..i felt like such a tourist.. the things i do just for you all!

Brothers! (Me and Luke) I promise I really am older..wish you were here gbb..

my roommie and fellow m ronnie.. Don't those glasses make him look like bono?? (yes, he did wear those all day too..)

mucho susto?!

2007-06-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

Hey guys...yours truly again. I'm back, and I come bearing pictures!
So last night I met my neighbor. A fellow m came by to pick something up last night and i thought he was only going to stay for a minute so i left the garage door open. We got to talking and soon up comes an unfamiliar ecuadorian man..on my carport. He's rambling on and on very fast in espanol, and he doesn't seem to realize that im white and cannnot understand him! Actually, i picked up a few words, and got the gist of what he was complaining about. I heard, "puerta," "cerrar," and "abrer". (door, closed, and open) Apparently he was mad bc i left the door open for a whole 5 minutes, and he made it known that he is not supposed to be my babysitter! I told my lang. tutor this morning this story, and i said that I told my neighbor, "lo siento, mucho gusto!'" (which means im sorry, oh and by the way im your new neighbor its very nice to meet you!) He told me i should have said...mucho susto..which means instead of nice to meet you, im scared and frightened! (i guess you had to have been there this morning, it was funnier then that it is now that im actually typing this.)

Well, the last few weeks have been crazy..but fun at the same time. Here are some brief updates:

* Working with the teams from tennesse was an absolute blessing.
* I'm absolutely enjoying language school (is that weird?) God truly has blessed me with a great tutor. Everyday I'm learning so much, yet everyday I realize how little I know..
* Three Sundays ago I preached my very first sermon at Iglesia Bautista Central.. (I hope to blog about that later)
* I'm so excited...My little brother Luke is flying into Quito to stay with me for a month! He will be attending the same language school as me, im so excited...Im leaving to get him at the airport in 30 mins..

Prayer Needs:
* That I will daily walk worthy...
* My lang. acuistion...
* That God will bring a good national friend into my life..someone that i can invest in while im here..

This is what a typical carnival looked like. Lots of games and stuff going on..

This is how the team ended every carnival..they would do this dance...yea, i know..they arent true southern baptists..its ok God still loves them.

drama the team did to share the Gospel...pic should explain it..

Im pretty sure the team used thousands of ballons during the two weeks here..

This is one of the guys I had to privilige of leading to the Lord. He is a security guard, and he was working near one of the carnivals one day... this pic is taken after he chased us down, so we could sign his bible we just gave him.

This is a kid i met at a church a few weeks ago. We played soccer for a bit, just the two of us, but that ended once i kicked his ball over a fence! i felt really bad bc i couldn't really apologize since i dont know spanish! (Yes, he ended up getting it back the next day)

the juices here just aren't the same as back home...

a volcano here in quito. I forget the name...lo siento.

This is Phil (my sc) and his family.. they will be stateside for the next 6 months or so..

matame por favor....

2007-06-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

hey all... I learned this cool little phrase today while waiting hours upon hours at the Ecuadorian Immagration Building. As of today, I am an official resident of Ecuador! Ronnie and I both got our "censos" today... not really sure what that means, but its pretty much an id card. I've come to realize today that when it comes to taking pictures for an important document/id/etc. i am no bueno! On the way to the immigration place, ronnie and I were laughing at my passport picture i took when i was about 17...I really wish I could change it but oh well, gives it character.. Im really not trying to sound this vain.... ha! Anyways.. i say this bc today when i took my censo picture it was another classic one. Im wearing my north face back pack (thanks dad) my hair is looking crazy from wearing a hat all day long, and right as he takes the picture, for some reason I blink and turn away at the same time... its a really funny picture.. just imagine and laugh with me..
As you can probably tell, im really tired.. and sick.. I've been working with teams the last two weeks, and this past week i started language school. Something is going around here, as it seems like a lot of the m's are getting sick.
I promise i will post again soon, with pictures from the last two weeks with the teams.. as well as some other random pics!
Oh ya... most importantly. The last two weeks, the teams were involved in street evan. and they did carnivals in the afternoons. The unofficial numbers from the past two week are insane... upwards of 450 sal. and about 40 potential new works... God is good, amen? Hasta.

(Congrads mi amigo mejor juan y his lovely new bride... wish i could have been there.. love you guys..i promise the video is coming..)

Here we go...

2007-05-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

More Pics!

These were the people working on the trail (Pululuah)...I can't imagine hiking uphill with that equipment!

Thought this looked cool...this is still in the crater of Pululuah.

Thought it would look even cooler if I was standing there...

These were the dogs that came running towards us... They definitely looked scarier in person..

This is from the bottom of the crater looking up... the trail meanders up towards the left of the volcano.

This one is for my dad... I was shocked to see this guy ride down on a mountain bike.. looked like so much fun.. at least going down!

This store is in San Antonio..i bought my first Ecuadorian soccer jersey here for only $5.50! (i'll take you here luke when you come down!)

Who said we don't have Wendy's in Ecuador?! (Actually I've heard to never, ever eat there..)

This is my new favorite food here in Ecuador. It's called 'Planchitas'...it is very delicious. Its like a pastry, desert type thing...just bought some more tonight!

This was on sunday at Santa Isabella.. We were playing a game where you have to pass the soccer ball around, and yell out a color and explain what it means (its a salvation soccer ball for those who haven't seen them!)

Another pic of me, my dad, and phil (my sc)

Corazon de Jesus

2007-05-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hey again... Yesterday Ronnie and I had planned on being with the team, but plans changed and we had to take care of some things in Quito. The team went and did street evangelism in a neighborhood called Corazon de Jesus. God moved in mighty ways yesterday... 16 salvations! And whats also incredible is that 12 homes said they would be willing to have a bible study! My sc said thats almost unheard of to find that many in one day! God is good, amen? Thats 12 potential new works in one area! We are going to a different neighborhood this afternoon, so i'll keep you all posted.... i know i promised some pics, and they are coming...soon hopefully. The connection here is so slow, it takes forever to upload. A friend told me i can probably downsize the image, and that would make it go faster...so maybe i'll try and figure out how to do that!

Salami Shortage....

2007-05-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a few updates...and some more pictures... just for your enjoyment!

Ronnie and I hiked down Pululahua again last saturday. We had bibles with us, and we had the intentions of giving them to Rolando, the man who accepted Christ while hiking last week. On the way down there were about 20 ecuadorians hiking up the volcano all with shovels, picks, and other various tools.. i guess today was their day to maintain the trails. It was nuts, there were even ladies (older looking) that were out there working away...

As we approached his gate, we started walking uphill to his house/restaurant. All of a sudden we see four dogs jetting right for us! We were trapped, with no where to go... no tree to climb, no fence to hop, no stick to beat them with... All I was thinking was, "God, ok here we are just trying to give some bibles out, and your gonna let us be attacked and mutilated by some dogs?!" luckily Ronnie is good with dogs and he calmed them down..all was good... Just kidding God, I knew it would be ok! heh..Rolando wasn't there, so we left the bibles with a couple workers who were there.

After we came out we were both starving! Oh yeah, i found out since i got there that I really like salami! Weird huh? Mom, im trying new things...anyways... we were both craving some salami so we could make sandwiches.. i think we went to about 6 or 7 stores and no one had any salami! How could there be a salami shortage in Ecuador?? Defeated, we trekked back to the house, and we decided to check one last store... and praise the Lord...Salami! heh... it truly was a great sandwich.

This week I will be working with a team from Charlotte, NC, who will primarily be doing street evangelism here in North Quito. Yesterday we had 3 salvations and 1 re-dedication! It rained a lot yesterday in the afternoon...man did it come down hard. So instead of letting mother nature ruin our plans, we had an impromptu worship time. There was about 20 of us who all got together in one room, with no power, singing and praising God, all the while it was raining and thundering outside... it was an amazing time. Afterwards, Phil (my SC) had a very timely message/devotion for us...

Another amazing thing happend last night. Our Evening worship service was about to start at 6:00, but right before, the neighboring Quechaua church, inviting the whole team to come over and hear them sing. I was excited bc i heard from Phil how amazing and powerful it is to hear them sing praises in their heart language. So the whole team files into this church, the room is dark bc the power is still out, and there are a couple hundred Quechua sitting down. What was weird is that they made us all go up to the front of the church, and stand in front of some high risers, as if we were the ones who were gonna be singing! We were all looking around like," I thought they were gonna sing for us!" So with the help of a dinky little cd player, about 15 of us sang ( i forget the title but it goes, 'faithfuness, faithfulness is what i long for..') for the congregation. Afterwards they sang for us two songs, that were absolutely beautiful. Even though I could not understand anything they were saying, i knew they were praising our Lord. It truly was a rich time of worship...in the dark.. with ppl we all just met...singing in another language... i will never forget that feeling... the feeling that God was right there soaking it all up.

Well, the pictures are taking forever again to upload... they will be up soon...stay tuned!

Pictures...

2007-05-17T16:36:00.001-07:00

Hey guys. Here are those pictures I promised....

Here is looking inside the volcano Pululahua, it´s the world´s only inhabited volcano crater

Me and Ronnie at the bottom (my roommie and fellow M)

Me in front of Pichincha... The volcano I would later conquer!

Top of Pichincha. Quito is in the distant background...

Me and my dad at the top of Pichincha...Did I mention this at 15,000 feet?!

Monument at Mitad Del Mundo...otherwise known as the center of the world. (This is right down the street from where I live!)

North Quito in the background. If you look really close you can make out the Catholic Bascilica (just above my right shoulder)

South Quito...

The gutless wonder I learned to drive stick in. (Its no hello kitty!) I had a pretty good teacher...(thanks dad!) Since most cars here are manual, i needed to learn to drive one... It was frustrating at times, but I think i got the hang of it...

My first bus ride... Headed to Quito! (For those that don´t know, for the next month I´m actually living in San Antonio. It´s about an hour or so bus ride into Quito)

This is at La Merced, during the leadership conference. It´s really weird having to use a translator!

This is Centro Historico (It´s in South Quito)

Well I hope you guys enjoy the pictures! You better they took forever to upload...I hope I don´t get mugged on the way home... pray for me! (Im joking...kinda)

...

2007-05-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

"If you could see me now
I’m walking in the streets of gold
If you could see me now
I’m standing tall and whole
If you could see me now
You’d know I’ve seen His face
If you could see me now
You’d know the pain is erased"....

Happy Birthday Gpa! I love you and miss you mucho...

Greetings....From Quito

2007-05-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hola mis amigos! I know it's been awhile since I've updated...my apologies. But I arrived safely in Quito last Friday May 4th. It worked out for me to arrive on the field the same week a team from my home church in az was doing a mission trip here in Quito. Among the 6 ppl that came down was my dad. So needless to say it was very cool to have familiar faces the first week here... kinda eased the transition a bit.
This past week was so crazy... constantly on the go from one place to another. Bc I dont want this entry to be super long (im so considerate!) i'll just touch on the highlights from week:

I met a few of the m's in the city last saturday... there are some really pasionate and genuine m's here.

On tuesday i hiked down Pululahua into the world's only inhabitated volcano (inside the crater). But conquering that puppy at 9,000 ft of elevation wasnt the most exciting part... I witnessed my first salvation experience! His name was Rolando, and he happend to be hiking down the same time as us. We found out he used to be a world class marathoner. Anyways, I had the privilige of seeing my dad lead him to Christ!

Friday morning I hiked up Pichincha (another volcano, but this one is 15,000 feet!) The view from the top was amazing... It took us 4 hours to get up and down. I've never been at that high of an altitude. I didn't think I could do it, but it's all about pace! (right dad?)

Friday night through Saturday night was the leaders conference in la merced. This was a huge success. The message that was brought was adapted from one Erwin Mcmanus did. I highly recomend it. I believe its titled break, shake, and illuminate. Truly Powerful. I hope to have some pictures up soon... hasta leugo!

Random Thoughts...

2007-04-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a little while...Due to the massive amount of requests (mainly you teach), I thought it was about time to update. A lot has happened these past couple of weeks. I'll do my best to keep this brief....

How to say goodbye...
I really wanted to post something as soon as I got back, but I just didn't have the words...I didn't know how to describe what I felt after leaving. After reading everyone's posts, the overwhelming theme is that of feeling "bitter sweet", and I guess that's how I felt. God divinely placed so many people in my life these past few months. I think saying goodbye to my friends i made will probably end up being tougher for me than saying goodbye to my family, mainly because I know I will see my family again... I miss my boys!! (Don't take that the wrong way, you guys know what I mean)

The Dentist...
So I woke up early one morning last week, and found out I had a dentist appointment later that day. Talk about the worst possible start of a day... Anyways, I haven't been to the dentist in literally years, and ended up having to get a root canal done. yeah, it was pretty awesome...on opposite day. heh... To top it off I'm going today to get all four wisdom teeth pulled! I guess they are coming in crooked, so I have to go to an oral surgeon to do it. Your prayers would be much appreciated! Til next time...

D.C.

2007-03-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

This past week everyone here at fpo went to Washington D.C. for the day. The whole week we were told that the buses were leaving at 8:00 AM sharp, and don't be late or they will leave us. Thursday morning comes, Grahamuel comes in at 7:52 to see if im up, which im not, and then tells me i have less than five minutes to get ready! I seriously think that was the fastest i have ever gotten ready in my life (some of my friends can attest to that...) we ran down to where the buses were loading, and had the amazingly humiliating experience of seeing four buses drive by, seeing the only two losers who woke up late, miss their bus...however we knew the fifth and final bus was going to stop and pick us up. Nevertheless we made the bus and were on our way...(By the way Ephesians chapter 2 is pretty awesome....just ask sharon)

All day I was 'that guy' with the camera. always looking for a good photo opportunity! This was in a metro station.

Were trekking uphill to an episcopalian cathedral...everyone's tired..

Group picture...everyone's stinky and sweaty but we're still showing love!

Grahamuel looks so cool here....fyi...he's my hero

Me in a tree.... seemed kinda cool at the time.

roomies...how cute...

Date Night!

2007-03-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

Every Friday night (Except this week bc I'll be gone), Grahamuel, J Lank, Pey Pey, and myslef take 'hello kitty' into town for date night.....or is it savage night?....or man night? Me, I prefer date night. We go to Friday's for some good food, and some even better fellowship. We even have our own waitress! (she's particularly fond of two of us, but I'm not saying who....lets just say its not me and pey pey!) Sometimes we may get a little crazy and hit up the local lifeway store (where I spend way to much money on books I probably won't read any time soon!) The best part of the night, besides all the good food, the laugher,and all the times we 'almost die' while someone is driving; is just being with each other....

River Fun

2007-03-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

So me and a few of my closest compadres went on a little adventure today. I thought we were just going to go hike around the nearby lake, but much to my surprise we were headed to a creek, in search of a yellow rope on a tree used for swinging into the icy abyss. I was not prepared to swim, but I went anyways. We trekked through fields that seemed to come up to my knees (ok maybe not that tall, but still...) following our fearless leader Grahamuel. I even broke out in song singing the 'following the leader' tune from peter pan, but no one had my back on that! (Wheres J Lank when I need him??) Anyways.... We found the mysterious yellow rope, and for a couple hours this afternoon, we were one with nature....(David a little more than us three...just ask him)

Pey Pey, Me, Grahamuel, David......(Everyone is sucking in their stomachs but me!)

I'm New to this whole thing.....

2007-03-09T18:13:00.000-08:00

Where to start? Well, like the title says, I am definitely new to this. If you can believe I have never had my own web page, I don't have a myspace account, or even facebook. Why you may ask? Well, I guess the answer is twofold. first, I'm one that tends to be a little reserve and quiet (unless you are of a select few that really know me!) so the thought of me spilling my guts so pretty much anyone can come stalk me doesn't quite appeal to me. Second, I've heard that myspace and facebook are very addicting, which wouldn't work well with me because I already spend too much time online! So this is definitely very foreign to me.....so bare with me.
I spent the last six months serving as interim youth pastor at my home church in Casa Grande, Arizona. That was definitely a God thing how that all came about ( I might get into that later in future posts!). That reminds me, my youth always gave me a hard time for not having a myspace page.....if they could only see me now!
I am currently in Rockville, Virginia for FPO, preparing to go to Quito, Ecuador as a Journeyman. I am very excited about what lies ahead for the next two years.
The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the work I will be doing for the next couple of years in Quito. I hope that through the highs and the lows that are sure to come, you all will be encouraged and blessed by what God is doing among the people in Quito, and also at what He will be revealing to me throughout this endeavor. I hope that you all will join me in prayer as I start this new and exciting chapter in my life. God Bless.