So this week is our last week in Cuenca!!! We don’t have a lot planned just the first two days we shopped around for stuff and then on Wednesday we planned or chapel service and the stuff we were doing on Saturday and Sunday with the missionaries…. They have a church so we were planning the services!! SO Wednesday we planned all day and we practiced the drama that we are doing on Sunday!!! The drama is about a girl that has a relationship with God but then all this sin come in between her and God and the struggles the girl had!!! I was going to play the main part but didn’t feel up to it!! Cause I had not felt the best and I was the director telling everyone else what to do so that was good enough!! Haha So that was all the 3 days not that eventful but good for us!!
So for the weekend we went to this city about 3 hours away from Cuenca…. It is a little city that is one of the sister churches of the church we have been working with… On Thursday we meet the Pastor of the church and she tells us that we have 3 services to do in the next 3 days we all look at each other with fear in our eyes and say ok… so we get there on Friday she said when we get there that we don’t really have anything planned so we eat and then she say ok we have dance practice yall are going to do a dance for the church on Saturday… Again we look at each other with big eyes and say ok, well me of course I am like heck yes I said before I leave south america I was going to do a dance in church it was so exciting to me… So we learn this dance that her daughter had made up it was pretty cool I liked it and I had a blast!!! So that was about 2 hours then we go back to the house and start making these little things to give away to the children at the ninos service that next afternoon…. So then finally we go to sleep or TRY!!! Just when I was almost asleep we hear all this yelling and windows breaking and throwing stuff… so I finally am about to sleep thought that so we wake up and have breakfast and we ask them what happened in the middle of the night…. They were like oooo just some riots/protests and I am think just some??? So this morning we are going to this market to talk to kids and tell them to come to church well the market is an hour and half walk away….. Well we thought so we start walking then she sees someone from the church that has a Pepsi truck so she tells his we are going to ride with him… so we try to drive around the protest to get to the market but that doesn’t really happened… come to find out the mountain people are made at the president cause they have bad water and they want good water… so in the middle of the night that dig huge hole in the across the whole rode like 3-4 feet deep and 4 feet wide… and that is the only way for people to go through to this other little city…. Also there were huge rocks and all kinds of stuff to make sure no one driving could get though!!!! So we start walking to get to this market place and we never make it cause by the time we go around all the craziness it was so late that we eat lunch at this mans house and leaves to go back to the church for the children’s service,…. It was so crazy to see all this stuff that these people had done out of angry towards the government!!!! So we try to go back to the church and it takes like an hour to get back and we get back right in time for the children’s service…. So we help with that doing all kind of games and crazy fun stuff… the kids service was about 2 and half hours of craziness…. But then after that we had the adults service that night we had learned that dance for and we get practice the Dance one last time and we go and get ready for the service…. So star preached that night she did awesome… so we did the dance and sang like 100 songs and it was fun… I am so glad I could understand that was the good thing about it…. So we had the service and then we get out like late and go have dinner and go to sleep cause we have a early morning… So now it is Sunday they don’t have service on Sunday so we are going to go to this market so we get to the market and we start talk about God and how he died for us and not really anyone is listening and the pastor gets kindda discouraged but then we get tracks and we go and had them out it is not my favorite thing to hand out tracks cause it is so so impersonal but I know maybe we planned a seed and so someone else could water it later but it is still not my favorite…. So we do that for a little bit then we go to this Inca museums and look around and it was cool to see all this stuff they have found that are year and year old…. So then we went back to the house and ate and go ready to leave… during lunch they told us that no buses where leaving cause of the protests there was no rode’s open… so we are like well we need to get back so we are like great so they are like we will go see if anything is going to happened… so we get to the bus stop and they had one bus leaving but instead if 3 hours it was going to be 5 but and twice as much so 3 dollars….. Haha but they went all these back rode’s that were really small so that was kindda scary… but we finally get back to Cuenca and we didn’t die!!! Haha it was a very eventful weekend that is the best way to describe it!!! hahah
So Saturday and Sunday we went to Paute it is a little city outside of Cuenca about 1 hour away. In Paute is a sister church of the big church that we are working with it is a very little church it has only been around for about a year so it is super small still. So we went there just looked around at the little city it is a super quite little town or I thought so on Saturday. We had a church service thing that was suppose to start at 4 but the pastor showed up around 5:40 so he started and it is soooo hard to sit through a service when you are no idea what is going on… It just sounds like someone is yelling at you, but then after he finished we went to this other church where it was a 2 year anniversary. So it in another little town, so we get there about 7ish and we go in and sit down. I am thinking anniversary means like a party nope!!!! Another service I hate not knowing Spanish for this reason not being able to listen to the pastor… cause I am add so not being able to understand is so so so not good for me!!! But we were there and listened to like 3 pastor till like 10 ish and finally we left but not cause it was over but we just need to get home!!! So the next we go back to the same town and me, Bethany, and star work with the children cause it is so much easier to work with kids then try and understand a service. It was fun we talked about the armor of God. The kids really seemed to like it and we taught them father Abraham. But Sundays are crazy busy days in the city it is like the day everyone comes and buys food and stuff so the market is full of people…. Anyways we get home and we celebrate Bethany’s birthday with the family we are staying with. They are awesome they sang forever this birthday song and then they always eat cake before they eat dinner and it is kindda weird. Cause we have cake then we have dinner weird…. But it was really sweet the mom was like betany cause that is how she says it with no H we love you and she had tears and it was so so sweet this family really cares so much about us….. Then they took us to this look out place that you can see the whole city and it was sooo pretty!! But it was a really wonderful day….
Today is the day we catch up on our laundry which I am sooo happy about we don’t really have anything planned so we are doing laundry and just spending the day together.. Good and relaxing day cause the past week we have had to be up early so today we got to sleep and then go do laundry… FUN FUN!!
And that night we meet up with Jeff and Crystal Martin and had dinner and Ice cream…. It was so much fun hanging out with other Americans and not try so hard for them to understand me…. But then that night in the center of the city there was like a little festival thing like and there were people everywhere and I caught 2 roses cause they through them out into the crowd… me and crystal got a little crazy cause we had too much ice cream and brownies!!! But it was so so much fun this little drunk man tried to dance with us and we laughed and laughed at him and I thought Bethany was going to fall on the floor cause she was laughing so much!! Hehehe
Chapel/ medical missions
So for the next 2 days we did almost the exact same thing, first in the morning we preached at chapel for the high school and jr. high. It was really good and we think that it touched some people well we hope so.
But after that we went down to Parke de Madre, this is where Unison television was holding a medical missions thing for the city it was all free and it was just different things to give them like glasses and they had doctors there to look at the people. But I worked at the ninos tent. We did face painting and gave them lots of candy and free stuff they loved every minute and it was really cool to give back to the city in that kind of way. Then we got to go and eat Mexican food and it was sooooo good I wanted good Mexican really bad but they have nothing here well we thought but we went to this place and I think I ate enough to feed a cow cause it was sooo good. Well then the next day we thought we were going to do chapel for the little kids but we got there and they were like ooo well we already have something planned so we helped them but it was fun and then we had the rest of the day to chill so it was really a good few days with chapel and medical missions.
So today is Sunday and we helped with the little kids today we at church… So we have to get to the church at 8:00 and we are told we are going to help with the little kids like 3-5 year old. So we are sitting there waiting for someone to tells us what to do but no one does so we just sit there till about 9 ish and someone comes and says ooo are you helping with the kids today and we are like yup we think so…. So finally we go back and just get ready for the children cause they stay in service for worship and then come, so they come and we just do crafts and try to talk to them but that doesn’t really work. So we do it for all 3 morning services and there is a service at night so we are suppose to come back. So we leave church around 1:30 and it is one of the kids birthday of the host home we are staying with so we go to the mall with the family and eat burger king it is was soooo awesome…. I love American food. So when we walk around with the family and shop for the kid his name is Patrizo and he turned 16. So he got some new tennis shoes for his birthday so we were at the mall looking for the right pair. Then we have to be back at the church at 6 for church so we go back to church for the 4th time that day but only me and Bethany go to the service and Star and lukus work with the kids cause there was not as many for the night service. So when we go home and sing happy birthday to patrizo so we start and they keep singing I mean for like a good 7 mins for real….. The longest birthday song in the world the Collins has nothing on them. But it was really cool cause then he went around and told everyone thank you and told us that we were like family and he couldn’t imagine his birthday with out us, it was really awesome..
Today we came to the school that is apart of the church and helped in the pre-school we all went to a different class and helped out with the teachers. It was really fun but it is so crazy to me that all this little 4 year olds can talk so fast and I cant understand anything that is coming out of there mouth it was fun but super hard to understand them.
So when you see my title you are prolly thinking ok she did not going climbing a mountain…. Well think again!!! So the day before we were talking to the youth pastor Victor and he said what are yall doing tomorrow and we were like I don’t think we have anything he said well me and the some of the youth are going to climb the mountain and all you need to bring is a big rock!!! So we are like ok that sounds awesome… so we get to the church around noon and we big our big rock… but when we get to the church all these kids have like little rocks like tiny and I had this bolder in my backpack so I am like I am going to die!!! So we finally leave and take to bus for about 25 mins and get to the bottom of the mountain that we are about to climb. I look up and I am like there is no way I am going to climb this thing it is a real like huge mountain!!! And I have this huge rock… so I look around and find a smaller rock and switch it so it was a little better…. Soo we start to climb and remember we are 10,000 feet about sea level, and that is just the city itself not when we are climbing this huge mountain. So we start and I am dying I mean I think I am about to float up to heaven I cause I am huffing and puffing…. Trying to not look up cause there is so so much further to go… Finally we get to the stop that we needed the rocks for we had this white sheet and they ripped it and we spelled out Jesus on the mountain and the rock held it in place it was really cool…. But it was not over yet, they say ok lets go to the top and I look up and it is like a whole lot further to go but I was like I am going to get to the top cause I can do it, so I get in the front and I am killing it I am going so fast and I look up and I am like 2 steps away from the top and I am so excited….. So I get up there and I look up and we are not at the top yet it was the fake top like a trick so I fall to the ground and wait for the others to get up then I start again. So 2 ½ hours later we are on the top of the MOUNTAIN!!! I made it… So we stay on the top for about 20 mins and head down but instead of going back the same way we go this over way and get lost for about 2 hours it was so crazy but it was lots of fun!!!
Coming to Cuenca!!
So we get to Cuenca and we meet the family that we are going to stay with for a month it is a family of 6, mom, dad, 3 boy and a girl… No one really knows English the young’s two can somewhat speak English… but every moment is a culture experience for sure. So the first day we get too there house and all kids get home from school and we eat dinner and then start playing games and we had a lot of fun… trying to talk to them but not really knowing any Spanish and them not any English… so that was interesting… Just everything about the first night was awesome, very different and still missing everyone a whole lot but good!!!
So the 3rd night we where told we didn’t have anything until about 7 at nigh but around 10 we get a call and we get up to the church and helped set up for a concert it is this old Spanish man about 57 that sings Mexican Christian music…. So we go and help set up not knowing how big this concert was they had been planning it for over a year… omg that is stupid… but we show up at the concert at like 530 and it started at 7 but there was a line so so so long to get into the building we finally get into the building at 645 and the building is sooo full like as full as it could be for people to see the stage…. There were even people on the sides that could not see very well!!! I was like what is so special about this old man!!! Haha
Well it is suppose to start at 7 but it didn’t start till 745 and so he comes out on stage and the whole crowd goes crazy!!! He comes out and starts to dance and stuff it was so so funny to see this old man dancing around and everyone love him so so much!!! But he started to sing and he was really fun to watch and sounding good to me!!! Hehe tiff I know that doesn’t say much!!! Hahah but it was fun and it was really cool to see around 7,000 people singing and dancing around to Christian music…. It just something you don’t see everyday!!!
Well this day was the day of rest cause they had been planning the concert for over a year it was a day for them to rest so for us it was a day to visit the center of the city…. We took lot of pictures and just went around and it was a good day too look at the city and find a lot of things to buy but I didn’t but anything for me!!! But we walked around for hours I mean hours cause we were with some people that were showing us around and these girls walked and walked and walked I didn’t know I could walk that much without dying…. Haha but then we went to church and back to home for the night!!!
So we got to start off or day all together at stars hosue just together and doing devotionals and just talking and just really making sure everyone is doing ok and it was a really good bonding time for the team!!! So went to the center of the city again and really crazy thing happened…. So we were walking and all the sudden this man ran by us running really fast but with this smirk on his face and then we hear all these people yelling and of course I have no idea that the heck they are saying but then we see this police man like grab him cause he was looking back at the people and then this lady is saying that he stole her earrings and I only know that cause we had someone that told star that told us!!! Haha and then all these people get around him and start hitting him in the face and with shoes…. It was CRAZY!!!! But that police came and took him away!!! So I know now if I see anyone run by me really fast with a smirk and everyone yelling I am going to trip him so then they can beat him!!! Haha jk But we went on a tour of the city it was awesome and heard about everything… then we took a tour of this old catholic cathedral it was really cool and then we got to see the underground where they burry people and no one really gets to go down there but they let us cause we are sooo cool!!! But it was a good eventful day!!! Woot woot
But don’t forget that I miss all yall so so much and I hope yall are all doing awesome cause I know that it is hard for me still cause I am still really emotional and I am NOT emotional every… but star told me maybe it is a good thing for me but I don’t like it!!! So I miss and love yall all so so much!! Big HUG for yall all!!!
So I figured I need to blog or my family would yell at me!!! So here is goes….
Goodbyes!!!
Ooo saying goodbyes are defiantly not one of my favorite things to do and there were lots of people I had to say goodbye too, and will miss so so much (family and friends). But one time someone smart told me that like a King or something “to focus on the growth to take place, and focus on the times we will have in the future.” So that made thing about want someone else told me “You only have one life live it out”. So that is what I am going to do, this is an opportunity that so many people dream about, and I am have the chance to live it. Even though I am sure the first week is going to be a hard one cause of my family and friends I am going to miss, I need to look past that and get the best out of this opportunity.
Travel Day!!!
Ok so this is day number one and it has been a crazy travel day… we were late coming into Miami and we only had 50 mins before our connecting flight and we didn’t get off the plane till 7 mins before our plane left, and of course the next flight was forever away like I mean forever so I ran out of the plane and ran and ran and ran, which the guy said it was down the corner to the right ok his down must mean like 3 miles cause it was DOWN the corner…. So I had flip flops on and running like a retard we finally got there and we were like 2 mins late… but for some crazy reason there were mechanical issues and they did leave on time. And Star said it was casue we prayed and so it was just wanting on us…. Hahah I believe it….
Your welcome Family!!! Haha
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