Sunday, July 11

We made it to Quito safely on Saturday night at 8:00PM and were met at the airport by Juan Carlos and an Ecuadorian family that we will be working alongside this week. Praise to God that all of our luggage arrived safely as well. We rode by bus to El Refugio and were shown to our rooms. The camp is lovely and the setting is in a beautiful valley surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Our rooms have six bunk beds and an attached bathroom. We are being looked after very well.

Breakfast this morning was at 8:00 and we had yummy scrambled eggs and rolls with butter and jelly, juice and coffee and bananas. During breakfast we met a group of Ecuadorian campers who are staying on the property. We had a great time talking to them and trying out our Spanish.

After breakfast we had an orientation meeting with all of the staff here at the camp. We found out that our project will be to help build a climbing wall for the campers. We were also challenged to deepen our relationship with Christ as we work together the next 10 days.

One of our primary focuses this week will be towards the Ecuadorian family that we met at the airport. Like many Ecuadorian families, this family lives in a small house where the entire family lives without many of the commodities that we would expect. Though they are believers in Christ, the father fell into alcoholism some time ago and just came out of a rehabilitation program one week ago. He has a fresh fire for the Lord, and it is our desire to be an encouragement to him as he tries to put the pieces back together and be a strong father for his family.

Then we traveled to Quito to church and afterwards ate pizza at Courtney and Juan Carlos' house. We watched the World Cup Finals in soccer and got to know each other better.

We came back to camp for a free time and will be having supper soon. We hope to put up some pictures soon to show you this beautiful spot and some of the people here. Thanks for your prayers and support. We couldn't be here without you.