Health Promotores: receiving their medicines... That´s me, the gringa on the left in the Nurse Shirt. haha.

OK... I know Holloween has been over for a while. And I DON´t celebrate this holiday. But how funny is it that the day of Holloween this chicken lost it´s foot in my kitchen.. hahhaaa. Now that´s creepy. lol.

My beloved family in Huambi. From left to right: Wilmer, Priscilla, William, Teolinda,Me, Mellina, Andrea (pastor´s wife), Pastor Angel, Rosie.
Second row starting with the little boy: Nataniel, Ida, A cousin, and Susana.

Update on Lusmila and Brigida

In the last post I asked for prayer about two girls who ran away from the Hope House. Well.... Here´s the update. They have both been found. In the bus terminal waiting to go to Cuenca, they ran into one of the girls´dad. If that´s not Providence, tell me. One of the girls was repentant and now is back home with her parents. The other young lady refused to go back home to her family but no longer under our control. She is working in Macas, a neighboring town. Praise the Lord that nothing tragic happened to these girls. Please continue to pray for them, as they both need to learn to submit. First, to submit to God, and secondly, to submit to authority, whether it be their parents or the house mom at the Hope House. Thanks for keeping these girls in prayer!!!!

Thought it would be nice to show some pictures from the Family with Purpose Seminar we just finished. Lezlie and I took family pictures of about fifteen families. The beautiful scenic background is thanks to Children´s Pastor Chuck Tidd, from KY. He painted it in only FOUR days. GREAT JOB Pastor Chuck!!!!!!

The Hope House Girls... and Daniel, who would NOT look at the camera.

Lezlie Shipman and I..

Alex, Kevin, Cindy, Nimfa (the mom) and Keli. They attend the church in Huambi.

HINT: Click on the picture to see it full sized.

So many things have changed in the past month. Leah has had some problems with the baby girl, so she and the boys went to the states a couple of weeks ago so she could get the counsel of an American doctor. They are planning to take the baby in the second weeek of November and have an emergancy surgery as soon as she is born. She has a tumor on her liver. We are all praying for God to do a miracle. Jonathon moved into Joil and Leah´s house, as Joil will be leaving at the end of this month to be with his wife in the United States. Lezlie is gearing up to leave at the end of this month to return to Texas. She is a talented young lady who will be working with children in her church to motivate them in missions. May God bless her as she takes this next step in her life. This week is the "Familia con Proposito" campaign at the church. It is sermons every night focusing on families. They´re talking about Couples, Children, and Teens. Sunday Lezlie and I will be taking family portraits (free!) at the church.

So.... What´s actually been going on around here in Sucúa??

7 exciting things you can find me doing at any given time

1. Relationship building.
I was invited to join the "Prayer/Evangelism/Home Visiting Team." Last week we were at homes almost every night of the week, praying with people, visiting them, and just loving on them. We had Bible Studies, drank coffee and ate crackers, and prayed. It was a great time in the Lord together with my Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Also, there is always a place to sit outside of our door on the sidewalk and an abundance of people who just want to talk and get to know you... That´s how the culture is here, they love to just talk and talk and conversate.

Me and my friend Javier

2. Children´s Church, Children´s Church, Children´s Church!!!!!!!!!! I love it!
Sucúa Children´s church has been growing as the kids and families settle into the rythm of school and habits again. And, the Children´s Church in Huambi has been crazy... The kids are tired of sitting alll day long at school so we have quite a time in Children´s Church. This week I invited my friend Amelia to come with me. She impressed me so much with the kids that I am going to ask here to help me co-lead every Sunday and eventually take charge of the ministry in 4 mos when I have to leave. She does a great job with the kids. I have been praying for someone to help train to lead the ministry and I am thrilled to have her with me. A game in Children´s Church where you have to freeze and if you laugh, you´re out. Me and Alex.

3. A lot of eating out in restauraunts....
We ran out of gas the other day and just now have the tanks filled up......lol...
I almost starved of starvation. lol... and of hunger...

4. River outings.... getting sunburnt and enjoying every minute of it!!
Jonathan, Me, and our friend Luci

5. HOMEWORK TIME!!! lol
Twice a week, 2 hours at the Girl´s Home whipping up on that math and english. The girls have a really hard time at school because the levels in their communities are below what they are learning here. So they have a lot of catching up to do.

5. Church, every night, more than you can imagine..

If we don´t have church in Sucúa, it´s somewhere else... Ok not really.. just this week..... lol... :) Last Friday I went to Logroño and helped with the worship there... As well as the evangelism home group stuff almost every night.

6. Music Practice
Pablo, (the worship leader and a friend of mine) is relieved to have someone else to help lead the worship so he won´t have to every week. So he´s put me on the schedule a lot lately.

7. Going to the Gym..
Yes people, I know it´s a shocker, but I have gained weight in Ecuador on my diet of All Starch Only Diet of plantains, rice, rice, rice, pizza, yucca, and rice. and pizza.
So me and some friends are going every day at 5 am.. I actually enjoy it a lot..

A poor little bat that just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time... Jaime is the vicious hunter who caught him and is pulling him apart by his wings.

Three Great things that have happened in the past month

1. I got to pray with my land lady the other night. Her husband is in bad health and doesn´t leave the house. She is worried about herself and her son, who drinks a lot. Lezlie and I have been inviting her son to church every time we go. The other night I was walking through the hallway and she was there so I stopped to talk to her. She was crying and the Lord opened up the opportunity to encourage her and to pray with her. She didn´t pray the salvation prayer, but is one step closer to doing that.

2. A good friend of mine who attends church with us is still making steps towards God but still hasn´t surrendered completely to the Lord. The other night I stayed in his restaurant until eleven thirty talking to him about the Lord and about the Holy Spirit. He was FULL of questions. Finally I just pulled my Bible out and we read out of Acts. It was a great conversation.

3. Spending time at the Gym has enabled me to meet more ladies and young women. It´s good to know people in the community who aren´t necesarily church attenders. That´s what Jesus did!!!

Three things that you can pray about!!!
1. Wisdom, humility and the attitude of Jesus to show up more in my life.

2. Two girls ran away from the Hope House this weekend. They stole the grand sum of $37 and disappeared out the window Sunday night. We think they went to Guayaquil, but no one knows for sure. The only place they have to go is the streets. May God protect them and have grace on them.

3. Pray for all of the ministry team here. We are undergoing some big changes as Leah and Joil will be in the states for several months. Also pray for Leah and the baby girl that she is carrying.

9-11

Yesterday was Drew´s birthday, so we´re having a pool party this afternoon for him. He is turning five. I can´t believe how fast he´s grown, just in the short months that I´ve been here.. He is into Sponge Bob Square Pants, so Leah is throwing him a SpongeBob party. I´m sure it will be a hoorah. hahaha. I spent the morning at the church, first at the prayer meeting, and then helping out with the ongoing organization of the Children´s Church building... Many teams have donated things like puppets, prizes, and costumes to the work in Sucúa. SO, this means that it all needs to be sorted out and organized so we can actually use it. The whole building is chaos.. organized chaos, but chaos none the less. Ricky is building another wall towards the back of the children´s church so that we have a storage area.. The construction is taking place amid the organization. I have a feeling that I will find myself there again tomorrow... We ate lunch at a chinese restaurant here in town. I had no idea how hungry I was until I realized I had eaten the entire plate!! I´ve been trying to get my Global University online classes straightened out but it´s frusterating.. So instead of being frusterated and getting nothing done, I just emailed them. Hopefully I can get that started up SOON. :)
Have a GREAT day!!
bekah

We took all of the girls from the Hope House on a retreat to Cuenca at the end of August. It was soo fun!! The first day we went to Cajas, a national park up in the mountains. It was freezing!! The picture on the left is us unsuccessfully trying to light a fire. We took them all to a mall for the first time. Their eyes were as big as plates. hahaha... Some of them are from VERY far out in the
jungle, two girls from as far as six days walking. We had a blast. We took them to an arcade and stayed for almost two hours. The next day we went shopping and bought nine sets of everything imaginable. We welcomed five new girls at the beginning of August into the home. So right now all nine of them and the house mom and her kids are all crammed in a four bedroom house. Thankfully, the construction on the new site of the Hope House is getting closer to being finished. Thanks to the hard work of SO many dedicated construction teams that have spent their vacation time working here for the girls. It´s been great to get to know the girls. They are each one different and each one has her own personality. The last team for August left last week, totalling nine teams since June. It´s been a busy summer with little spare time, but it´s been a good time too. It´s been really neat to meet so many new people and get to see how each church functions differently. We´re all different, but we´re all brothers and sisters in Jesus.
The pictures are of: Me, Luci, and Ela trying to light a fire in Cajas; Brigida, Daniel, Johnathan, and Leah at the arcade; Lusmila, Valeria, and me in the cabins in Cuenca; and a picture of me in Quito that I cannot delete off of here. ???

Me and Ricky in San José.
The girls from the Hope House getting warm in the sun when we went to Cajas.. It was COLD!!
Lucilla´s first Burger King hamburger and fries
Me "...improving my look..."
hahaha

It´s About TIME!!!

WEll i know all of you faithful fans and blogreaders have been sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting, expecting, and even becoming tearful in anticipation of another post..
Well I have good news for you.
I am POSTING!!!!!
(applause please!)
I always say that my spiritual gift is not email or blogspots. I think that has been confirmed by more than one witness. hahaha..
But...
Let me give you a quick (or not so quick) rundown of the last month.. And wow will it not be quick.
Since I last posted, we have hosted FIVE teams in (six and a half weeks!), went to Cuenca on a retreat with girls from the Hope House, received FIVE new girls into the Hope House, and provided hundreds of people with free medical care. Try saying all that with 3 marshmellows in your mouth.. and get your laundry done too. Not to mention that my mom (YAY!) came to visit me for two weeks of that time. We had an absolute FAB time...
She worked with the medical clinics for a week and the next week
we spent in Baños and Quito, having some much needed rest and Mom/Bekah time. It was great to get to spend time with my mom.. The day after taking mom to the airport I picked up another team and we headed back down to Sucúa. I packed my jungle-bag THAT NIGHT and early the next morning we hiked up into the jungle to do medical clinics and spend a few nights. The team of medical personell was wonderful. They were from National Community Church in Washington, DC. It was nice to have such a diverse team of people since almost none of them were originally from the DC area. It was a good experience to be with this team although I was sick most of the time in the jungle (again.. wats up with that??).
Hate to cut this post short but the internet will be closing in exactly 8 minutes.. SO..
TO BE CONTINUED AT A LATER DATE...
hopefully sooner than later... hahaha

The pictures are of some of my new friends from NCC. They are as following: Me and Dr. Reneésa; Me, Joseph, and Lezlie; and Rachel on the bus.

Day Number SIX

7-17

Woke up early and packed up camp. We had a kid´s service at 7:30 again. The kids are sooo precious. Then we just waited around for our planes to arrive. I was on the third flight. While we were waiting, my friend Graciani (a little boy about eight) came and sat beside me on the luggage. He had a small Gospel of John, but he couldn´t read it. So I opened it up and started reading it to him. Then about 3 or 4 other people gathered around. It was soo soo cool reading the Bible to them. I think that it was probably the first time that anyone has ever read from the Bible to Graciani. God spoke to my heart so much through all of these kids. It was so sad telling the people goodbye. Over the week, I made good friends with a lady named Carlita. She must have given me five hugs and kisses before I left. When I climbed into the airplane, she came up to the window and kissed the window. I was crying like a baby. There is just something special about these people. I think that God is breaking my heart for them. There´s just something about people who have never heard of Jesus before. We took off and of course I was crying and sniffling. It was Me, Whitney, Seth, and Caleb. Whit and I were in the back seats with luggage crammed in front of us. The flight back was WOOOWW. Seth is working on getting a pilot´s license, and the pilot let him fly. All of the sudden, the nose dipped down and we were heading straight for the river. I looked over and Whitney was throwing up into a bag. At the right second, he straightened it out and there we were, flying about five feet over the river. It was so cool. Everything was rushing by so fast. There was a wall of trees in front of us. It got closer, and closer, and closer, and then in the nick of time we shot straight up. It was so scary but exciting. The pilot had told him to do it the whole time. Lol.. Whitney liked it after she realized she wasn´t going to die. hahaha.. I was so glad to walk on solid ground again though. When we arrived in Shell, we took a taxi to Puyo and then from Puyo took a public bus home to Macas.The whole 2 1/2 hour bus ride I was thinking, "Oh Bekah.... don´t throw up, don´t throw up." It was so hot and stuffy. From Macas we went to Sucúa in a taxi. It was SOO good to be home. The first thing I did was to take a cold shower. I was so hot in the bus. Then we went to eat somewhere. I ordered a huge chicken salad. IT was WONDERFUL to eat fresh vegetables after having eaten only boiled or grilled meat and boiled yucca, platano, and papachina all week. Then I got to talk to my dad for a long time on the phone. It was great to get to talk to him. I´m looking forward to my mom visiting in a week.

Fotos: Me and Graciani, Me and some of my new friends.

L-R The kids who lived next door to where we stayed, The Runway in Paantim, and the shadow of our little airplane.

Day Number Five

7-16

Woke up at five thirty waiting for the sun to rise. Had a children´s service again at 7:30 like we have every other day. Then I went back to the Pharmacy, telling people how to take their prescriptions and how to use Ibuprofen. After lunch I ended up talking forever with Pastor Horacio and Pastor Jairo. Pastor Jairo misses his kids and wife a lot. But he is driven to tell people who have never heard the truth the Gospel of Jesus. IT was a great conversation. His son Jairo was in VBS with us, in the group a year older than my group. He was such a good kid. It was great conversation to get to know the both of them better. I have known them since the first week I was here but never really had the chance to sit down and talk. It is a very important thing in Shuar culture to just sit and listen. Then they wanted to know all about my family in the US. It was so cool. Too soon it was time to get back to work in the Pharmacy. Kathryn showed me how to give shots. I was too nervous to do it though. SO Whitney jumped in and wanted to do it. The kid who received the shot was only six years old. When he walked in he looked so scared. His name is Domingo. THen he bent over and they gave him the shot. And do you know who started crying? ME!! I couldn´t believe I was crying! Shots are not my thing. I can get shots but to GIVE them?? No way José. We finished up the clinic pretty early, about 4 or 4:30. We saw over 400 people in all. We had three doctors and a dentist, not to mention the ppl who worked in the pharmacy and did other stuff. After we finished up, they invited us to go to the river again. We went a different way but it was still a MUDDY hike. I had SO much fun though. Joil, Seth, Me, and Jonathan went on ahead with the rest of the Shuar kids and people who were going. Joil was so much fun. We played king of the rock. The river was swift moving but pretty shallow all of the way across. There is a huge rock right in the middle that we all swam to and piled on. It was a blast. All of the kids were screaming and laughing in Shuar and we of course couldn´t understand a thing but had a great time anyway. After a while, the guys went on a head and left, but I stayed and hung out with the kids. It was so much fun. One of them caught a tiny caracha and was throwing it at me. Above the river was a basket set on lines to cross the river. We swam across and then crossed over the river in the basket. It was amazing. Then I whipped out my soap again. Everyone of course used it. We hightailed it back to Paantim as fast as possible. There was a Despidida Service for us. (Goodbye Service) THe cheif and I think his sister did a dance for us in their traditional clothing. It was so neat. I videod it. Afterwards, everyone wanted their picture taken. It was so much fun.

L-R the pharmacy, Pastor Jairo. Up- Down Some of my friends from the river, the cheif and his family, and me and the cheif and his family.

Day Four

7-15

Today has been a good day even though I have been sick and sleeping the majority of it. I started out working in the Pharmacy but Kathryn (a nurse also working in the pharmacy) loaded me up with medicine and sent me to bed. I´ve spent a lot of time thinking and journaling. Sometimes we are so busy running around that I don´t have time to let what i´m doing at the moment soak in. Spent a lot of time thinking about my mom´s upcoming visit. Here is the list of things I want my mom to bring me: Starburst Jelly Beans, fig newtons, m&m´s, picof her and dad, candles, and granola. About one o´clock we all took the team of doctors back to Horacio´s Suegro´s hut for them to see it. They passed around Chicha again. I took a lot of pictures with them and their family. I can´t wait for my family to see all of the pictures. They would love it, especially Papaw Jackson.

PS It´s my dad´s birthday today. I wish I could call him.

The kid on the right is weaving a fish trap. It´s pretty cool. His name is Marcelo.

Day Three

7-14
Up at the crack of dawn once again thanks to the roosters and the speaker system installed about a half a yard from my head. But I didn´t really mind because I went to bed so early. The doctors and medical team started arriving in planes about nine. Met a really nice gentleman named Carl and several doctors and medical personel. The team is all very nice. Looks like we´re going to have a good week. We were served yucca, platano, papachina, and ARMADILLO for lunch. It actually was very good. I think it tastes like pork. We opened the clinic about 1:30 or so. We started with a short church service. It was very good. After the day was almost over, Pastor Horacio and his wife invited us to come to his father in law´s house. So the team from Sucúa went to his hut. Pastor Horacio and his family are very special to me. His father in law made me a special belt just like the Shuar ladies wear when they dance. I was so touched. It was SOO cool. They passed around chicha and we visited for a long time. IT was sooo sooo soo cool to be in a hut and meet people who still live the old traditional way. It was amazing. After we got back, it was of course dark, and Whitney and I took showers in the pump. Ricky had fixed up a shower head. It was sooo nice.

Day Number Two

7-13

Awakened at the crack of dawn by a rooster crowing about a yard from my head and music blaring. Did I mention it was only about 6:00?

Breakfast was Pineapple and tuna fish. Seth is posing cutting the pineapple. What a smile. :)

LOL... We had a children´s service abour nine and then Pastor Jairo preached a message. Spent the rest of the morning getting acclamated to Paantim and getting to know the kids. Just hanging out with them and each other as a group. We ate lunch of platanos and yucca and papachinos again. Then we were invited to go to the river to ride in a canoe. So we all started down, me sticking my soap and shampoo in my pocket just in case. lol. I luckily was wearing my rubber rainboots. It was a steep hike of about 20 minutes down, all downhill and almost all muddy. It was a hard hike but well worth it. About halfway down, the terrain changed to straight down. We were climbing with hands and feet to get there. It was so much fun. When we got htere, I immediatly changed and jumped in. The water was freezing but felt SOOO good. We had a blast at the river. It was so much fun. All of the kids were speaking in shuar and I couldn´t understand a word but we still had so much fun. I passed around the soap and shampoo. It was so funny because I passed it to about ten people. Then I helped a little girl wash her hair. They were used to just using soap. We had a good time. By the time we got back, Jonathan and the Shuar pastors had arrived. They had left Sucúa at 5 am and caught a bus for two and ahalf hours to Macuma, as far as the pavement would go. Then from there, they walked about 5 or 5 1/2 hours to Paantim. Now our team consisted of ME, Whitney, Brianna, Caleb, Seth, Ricky, Jonathan, Pastor Efren, and Pastor Jairo. Jonathan was so tired. We ate dinner of yucca, platano, papa china, and a sucker fish called Caracha. It was so good. Then we went to sleep about eight o´clock.

7-12 Day One

Arrived in Paantim, Ecuador. I flew for the first time in a 3 passenger avioneta as we call them here. It was so scary but SO exciting all at the same time. I held on to Caleb who was sitting beside me the whole time. We flew out at 9:00 and got there around 9:30 or 9:40. When we landed, all of these kids came swarming up to us lookin in the windows and staring at us. It was so cool. After we got out, we set up camp in the upstairs of a house. It only has the planks up and no walls so it seemed a lot like a treehouse. The guys had hammocks and we girls slept in mosquito tents on mats. After we had been there a while, the pastor came and took us to meet the elders of the village and the president of the village. There is a Community President and a Cheif. We walked in and there was about 20 people already seated, all speaking in Shuar. We sat down as everyone stared at us. They greeted us in Shuar and Pastor Horacio translated for us. Then he introduced us to the group. First Ricky and his son, then me, and then Seth and Whitney and Bri. When they introduced us, we walked around and shook everyone in the room´s hand. It´s customary to shake everyone´s hand. It was so cool. Then we went and ate what they had prepared for us. While we were setting up camp, they had went out and killed a pig. We ate yucca, potato, platano (plantains), and chancho (pork). It was cool because they had banana leaves spread out over the table like a table cloth. They all sat and watched us eat. It was exciting. Later on Ricky and I went to some people´s campfire and sat there, getting to knw the people. Actually, they mainly talked in Shuar and every now and then talked to us in spanish. While we were sitting around the campfire, a little girl came up. We had made friends earlier in the day and she came and sat in my lap. She started calling me Mamita, which means Mama. She told me that she wished I was her mom. It was so heart touching. Her name is Melida. Her picture is to the far right. We went to bed tired but having a great time.

Rodeo Roundup! Yeehaw!

WOW!!! So today was the first day of EBV (Escuela Biblica Vacacional) (aka... VBS!!!)
So far, it has been awesome! The entire theme is Avalanche Ranch, everythin is cowboy and western style. All of the leaders and team members have to wear cowboy hats. We took the drums and everything from the front of the church and decorated it to look like a scene from a western movie. Ricky and some guys built a fence to put at the front of the church. It´s really cool. I have been working hard all week getting all of the songs ready for EBV. I am the one leading the songs. We do all of it to a CD and there is really no singing involved. THe thing is the handmotions. One song is a line dance almost the whole song. Lezlie (Texas Girl!!!) helped us out with that. IT is a blast. I am a troop leader. I lead the eight year olds. I think we have about sixty eight year olds. Fifty or sixty. We rented a bus to pick up the kids from Huambi. When we came, we had about 35 kids, when we left, we carried about 50 kids back to Huambi. The reason is that we accidently missed picking up a group of kids and they had to come in taxi. It was a blast. All the leaders have whistles and cowboy hats and handkercheifs. It is so fun. But seriously though, my whole body is SO tired. Even the soles of my feet hurt. We were at the church all day yesterday getting everything ready. Yesterday I rode in the back of a pickup all over Sucúa helping invite kids to EBV. We had clowns and a speaker sysytem playing a commercial for it. It was fun, we also got to throw candy to the kids. We´re expecting to see over 600 kids by the end of the week. Each day we´re expecting more. It´s pretty exciting. Also this week I ran into an american girl at a restaurant. It was fun to meet her and her friend. We´re going to try and hang out sometime if there´s time. She is volunteering in a neighboring town.
I´ve been having a lot of fun with everyone here. Whitney keeps me laughing all of the time. It´s great to have somebody who is so crazy to lighten the attitude sometimes. :) I´m gonna miss her when she has to leave. We went shopping the other day and bought some shirts and stuff to wear to church. By the way. The team is gearing up to head into the interior next week. We originally were going to go by boat but plans have changed and now we´re going to a different place. So we´re going in little ittybity airplanes now. It is going to be SOOO cool. there can´t be over 50 pounds of weight per person and we have to bring in extra stuff too. So it´s going to be exciting. We´ll be there five or six days. I am verrry excited about it. I am SO exhausted right now. But it´s been a great day. Kids are so much fun to work with.

PRAY FOR:
Children´s Church in Huambi
The trip into the interior of the Jungle
EBV to go smoothly
That I would have some times this week to be alone and to pray

So today we said goodbye to yet another person. I didn´t realize how it would be to connect with so many people but continually be saying goodbye to them. It´s kind of a sad feeling. I guess I´m learning to cope with it though. I mean, it´s not goodbye forever for everyone. I am glad that I´m making relationships work out though. Everett left last Friday. It was so sad. We had such a good friendship relationship. He and his wife are both amazing people. It was good to get to know them and hard to say goodbye. It´s sad because we have such a strong sense of family here that whenever someone leaves it´s like they´re your brother or uncle. But the sense of family is very important to me. Don´t get me wrong, there is NO REPLACEMENT for your real family. But here I´m a part of another family too. It´s been a huge blessing to have my missionary family (and national family too!!) Friday a team comes in and we will have teams nonstop until August. So it should be an exciting time full of wonder and amazement. lol. It´s great to get to know so many people. It´s sad to say goodbye but worth it when you build friendships.

Wow.. ok... So we are all settled into our new apartment. Me, Whitney Len, and Lezlie. Whitney is a girl from Jacksonville who is here for two months. She is staying with us in our apartment. I have good news, small but a big accomplishment in my eyes. The kids from my church in Huambi are grasping the idea of memorizing the scriptures each week. It is so exciting to see them tell their verse to me. Today at a church service in Sucúa one of my kids was there and he ran up to me and told me this weeks, last weeks, and the week before´s. It was so great. He was beaming and smiling like he had just won a hundred bucks. His name is Patricio (Patrick). This week we have been working with teams going into schools and communities doing little programs and sharing the plan of salvation in a simple way that is easy for kids to understand. We´ve been taking puppets, clowns, and lots of fun stuff for the kids. Tomorrow we´re going to hike up into the jungle and do more of the same in Utunkus norte, sur, and another community that I can´t remember the name of. This week we´ve been doing special youth services at church in Sucúa. The turnout has been great. It´s been a great week for the whole team and for the youth group. Ok I am so tired I am staring into the computer without thinking or typing. I´m gong to call it a night. But some of you should email me or at least comment on something.
Goodnight! God bless! bye.
bekah

Me with an Ayampaco.. Delicious!!!!!
The view from Utunkus Norte!!! You can see the city of Sucúa.
A cute kid!

Me jumping off the bridge!!!!!!!!

Hey so sorry for lying about posting pictures... lol. I didn´t mean to. the internet connection here is a little faulty. This past week has been amazing. A team came on Sunday and then we started going hard the next day. We did medical clinics in many villages including Yampas, Utunkus Norte, San Jose Sur, and more. It was so cool. The last two communities that we went to were San Jose Sur and Utunkus Norte. To get to these communities we had to hike up into the mountains. The first day we went to San Jose Sur. This picture is of me and a precious kid named Orlin in Sah Jose Sur. He hiked down with us the whole way and went swimming. This hike was uphill a lot of the way and we went through grass higher than my head and mud who knows how deep. It is impossible to get to this community in a vehicle, even if it is four wheel drive. A motorcycle won´t even make it. As soon as we reached the village, everything evened out into a flat place with a soccer field. We brought a dentist and a regular doctor with us. We saw about 150 people that day in San Jose. There are sooo many problems with people´s teeth. They have NO dental care at all in these communities. On the hike back home, we stopped at a river and went swimming. A lot of us jumped off of the bridge into the water. I did it once and then climbed up to do it a second time but almost couldn´t do it.. ? Eventually i got up enough guts to do it a second time. It wasn´t scary the first time but the second time I almost couldn´t do it. It was fun though. Then the next day I lead the group up to Utunkus Norte. This hike was uphill the WHOLE way. No even-ing out here.. lol. We set up and did the medical clinic. Another team from Sucua arrived as we were finishing up. After we were finished seeing almost everyone in the whole village, the pastor´s wife fed us lunch. We had chicken ayampacos which are DELICIOUS!! It is chicken and heart of palm wrapped up in a palm leaf and cooked over a fire. They are so good. It is my favorite Shuar food. She served us boiled yucca and platanos (plantains) too. Probably the best food I ate all month. After lunch we had a special service. I really enjoyed this trip. I took Everett´s picture with a baby that is named after his wife.. (Everett and Marci are missionaries here too. Marci and the girls are already back in the states and Everett is returning this month.. :( ....) When the weekend came all of the Missionary wived and Lezlie and I rode up to Baños with the team and then took them to Quito. We stayed an extra day in Quito, enjoying the big city, and then came back. I was so glad to be in a big city. It was the first time to be out of Sucúa (besides going to communities) for a couple of months. We went and say a movie and went shopping at Super Maxi (a supercenter like a superwalmart). We also got manicures and pedicures. For very cheap I might add. It was nice to have a change of scenery but I was glad to come back home to Sucúa. By the way, on Monday I am moving apartments. A friend of mine found Lezlie and I a new apartment. It is SOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOO nice!!!!! I am so excited about moving. This means that I will not have to share the bathroom with three other people!!!YAY! We will each have our own bathroom and shower and a big kitchen to share and a nice sized living room. And it´s not much more to rent than the other two room apartment we were in. I am sooo happy to be moving from there. THe other night I woke up with a roach crawling on me. And believe me, I am a clean freak. I mop all of the time and sweep a million times a week and do all in my power to not have bugs but my neighbors have them and therefore I have them. Not to mention the inch and a half crack under my door. I am so relieved to be moving.. However, I will miss my landlord and landlady. And their nine year old son Andrés. He always plays with me when I´m bored. lol... :) The new apartment is brand new and is very private. And is much safer too. No one can come into our hallway without a key. And the hallway is on the bottom floor and we are on the third floor. It is very nice and very pretty. I am so happy to be moving.

Sunday went by in another whirlwind. We had a mother´s day celebration in Huambi. There were a LOT of people there. I think there were almost thirty kids. At least twenty-five. We had up a huge cake and the kids gave their moms balloons that had mother´s day messages printed on them. We also gave away presents to the moms with the most kids, the youngest child, etc... They loved it. Last week on Mothér´s day there was a woman who had 17 children!!!!! WOAH!!! She wins my respect.. lol. For Children´s Church this week we´re going to talk about Noah and the ark. I´m bringing paper to make paper boats. The kids are so beautiful. Tonight is the midweek service in Huambi at seven. This is only the second midweek service that we´ve had. Last week there was about 25 people there. So it´s not going too bad. I´m glad to be a part of this ministry. I PROMISE I will put pictures up tomorrow.

Hey you guys.. wow. A lot has happened since my last post. Bible School went by in a whirlwind. Wednesday night we had the Graduation Service for the people who had graduated from the Health Promotors course. They were all smiling and SO happy looking. It was really hard for some of them because there were tests and a lot of studying and stuff that was not east for them. But they did it!!!!! Bible School was great to get to meet new pastors and hang out with the ones who I had already met. They are intent on teaching me Shuar and I am more than happy to let them give me lessons. A funny example of a lesson is this: they'll all be standing around and I say a word in Spanish and ask for the translation into Shuar. Then three people tell me three different things. Then the one guy who finished high school tells me the correct meaning but I have no idea for sure if it's correct or not. It's hilarious. These guys never went to school in Shuar, they were taught in Spanish. So they don't speak exactly correct. Today I am going to buy a dictionary from the Shuar Federation in town so that I can figure out if I'm memorizing the right words. In my notebook I have Shuar words, then the Spanish translation, and then the English translation. There's no direct translation from Shuar to English. It's rather fun really. I'm working hard at Spanish, mostly by trial and error. Teaching Children's Church each week has definitely helped a lot. Speaking of the church in Huambi. The big service went great. There were almost fifty people there. Granted, probably over half of them are kids, but still it was a great service. Pastor Jaime from  Centro Cristiano Sucua preached. Afterwards we had rice and chicken and french fries that the pastor's wife prepared for us. It is such an honor to serve with Pastor Angel and his wife Andrea. They are such sweet people. This week I worked on getting the last of the ESL stuff ordered. Hopefully it will go through. On Mother's Day I sent my mom flowers but I really missed her a lot. Saturday I called and we talked for a long time. Then Sunday night I called and talked to my Grandma  Kay and Papaw Jackson for a couple of minutes. It was so great just to hear their voices. When I called the Gordon house (grandma gordon) no one answered. And I was REALLY surprised. But no one answered so I guess I'll try them again next time. Usually there's at least a million people there and someone will answer the phone... So this past week I have been house sitting (again!!) for Joil and Leah. It has been nice.  Tonight we have a service in Huambi and I am sharing for a few minutes. I am excited to see who will be there. Pastor Efren and his brother, Gitler, will be there as well to help us out. Gitler plays the guitar and will lead worship. I am SO glad that he has started helping us with the worship. The service starts at seven on the dot. (That means 7:20). I'm excited.

PRAYER REQUESTS

That the Lord would help me focus on Him

AND

That I would have a thankful and forgiving heart.

Back to Work!!!!!!!!! :)

Saturday the vacation was over. lol. Mike and Pat came back on Friday and I am back in my little room. Sunday the children´s church went very smoothly. I think that each week it gets better. It is a challenge for me but I like it. I think that at first it was difficult primarily because I have had basically no real experience teaching kid´s church on a weekly basis. But things are going very good at the church in Huambi. This week we talked about creation and the seven days that it took. It was fun because there are a large number of kids under 6 years old. So it´s challenging also because there were 6 teenagers there and I am basically with no help. Next week is going to be our big kick-off service for the adult church service and the pastor from Sucua is going to come as a guest and preach. He will preach and we will have refreshments afterwards. It will be the first service with adults and kids. And we will meet in our kid´s church next door. It will be exciting. The following week I get to have a youth servcice after the kid´s service. (I´m excited!!!) We are still planificando (planning) how to work out a teen service and a kids service and an adult service because there is only one of me and one Pastor Angel and our nights are limited...... oh, and a million things to do. :) But I am so blessed to be a part of this new church... SOO blessed. This week we are having Health Promoters at the church. This is a class that meets for a week and teaches Shuar pastors and leaders basic health facts. It is five weeks total and this is the fifth week. The weeks are spread out over a few months. I helped today to read the material in Spanish. Some words are hard enough in English!!!!! The classes are from 8:30-5;00 with a break for lunch and a break before and after. Next week we will have Bible School classes begining also. So it will be a great time to get to know the Shuar pastors better and really build relationships with them.

PRAYER REQUESTS
A friend told me that a friend of many at Campbellsville University passed away on Saturday. She is a MK who went home during Christmas to Africa and contracted Malaria. She died on Saturday from Malaria. Her name is Lori Morrison. Please pray for the Morrison family.

ALSO
Please pray that God would give me creative ideas for Kid´s Church and that I would be able to meet the challenges of having 4 and 5 year olds in the same class with 12 and 13 year olds

AND
That everything would come together for the ESL classes to begin in May. (ESL=English as a Second Language)

RATS!!!????

Since the last team left, you can find me continually thinking about Chilren's Church. Sunday was the best service that we have had at Centro Cristiano Huambi. The group of children was smaller, but it was one of the best kid's services by far. I talked about returning our offerings and tithes to God. I made some really big bills out of green construction paper and markers. The kids really liked it and I got some volunteers to hold them up for the rest of the church to see. Then we sang some songs with hand motions. The girls especially are good with the hand motions. I make all of the signs and all of the scriptures or illustrations on posterboard and have two kids hold them up so all can see. All of the songs we sing are written out on posters. It's so much fun to watch the kids do the motions as we sing the songs. Sometimes I grab a volunteer to help the rest of the kids learn the motions. I think that this week we are going to learn some more songs. The church is a small building that has an open feel to it. Really it reminds me of a brick picnic shelter. The walls only go up about to my elbows so there is quite about a five or six foot space in between the walls and the roof. Our benches are stumps that are positioned in rows with planks over them to make benches. We are hoping to have a construction team come and build a complete back wall going from the floor to the roof so that when the kids move to Children's Church, we won't be a distraction to the big service.
Yes, we have our own Children's Church building! It will be an exact duplicate of the Big Church, but at the moment is only a concrete floor and a roof. Right now, because we're the biggest service, the kids meet in the bigger building. It will be a blessing to the kids to have their own church building. I think that it will help them know that they are an important part of the church.

On a funny note, right now I am staying at Mike and Pat's house because they are gone for the week, and just now I was outside standing at the pila scrubbing out some laundry. I decided to grab a shirt from a pile of clothes on the floor. When I picked up the shirt, a HUGE RAT ran ACROSS MY FOOT. It was HUMONGOUS!!!!!!! It had been in my pile of laundry, which had been on the ground about a total of 3 minutes. I screamed so loud!!! lol... and then I started laughing. There is a big pit bull dog that they keep as a watchdog. She just stood there and then when I screamed, she ran away. Some watchdog... That rat must have weighed as much as a sack of sugar. It was huge. It was as long as my foot is (which is big because I'm a size nine) and very heavy. I marched into the house and rummaged in closets until I found Mike's big shoes. Then I finished doing my laundry wearing his shoes and staning with a broom nearby in case I saw it again. No monster rat will run across my feet again today. lol.. :)
I think it had been in the dogfood because the lid was open. So I will make sure to NEVER do that again.. lol.

Please pray for a young lady named Nimfa. Nimfa is thirteen and has an eight month old baby. She was abused against her will and it resulted in a pregnancy. She is living in a nearby village and needs a lot of guidance and wisdom about caring for the baby. The name of the baby is Estefania. Please pray that the Lord would give her wisdom and that she would come to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Medical Clinics and the Shuar Language

Well it has been a rushed week let me tell you. We started on Friday morning, going hard. Over all, we saw over 800 patients free in our clinics. It was wonderful to be a part of something so beneficial and practical to the people. My job was translating. Initially, I was a little afraid that my spanish wouldn´t be good enough, but everything worked out fine. Aside from translating for doctors, I also had the opportunity to translate for several Spiritual Counselors. It was such a joy to lead people to the Lord and share the Gospel of Hope to them. There was such a spirit of religion over so many people but I know that God broke those chains for many. It was a lot of fun to translate, especially when we had people speaking only shuar. Then we would go from shuar to spanish to english. What an experience!! Today the medical team is vacationing in Baños. And it´s a much needed vacation too. The construction part of the team finished the foundation for the Girl´s home. They worked very hard too. So everyone is gone now and I am getting caught up on some housework and emails. Sunday was my first official service as the Children´s Ministry leader at Centro Cristiano Huambi. There were already over 25 children there. I am expecting to have a lot more as time goes on and the word gets out. The church is starting from the beginning, at ground zero. The main service that they have is the Children´s Church. So working as a kid´s minister with the kid´s ministry is really going to help get things going. The service will help get the word out to the community that there is a new church just beginning in Huambi. God has blessed me to be working with Pastor Angel. He and his wife Andrea are very sweet and have been in ministry longer than I have been alive. It is an honor to be partnering with him to reach children and adults for Christ in evangilism and discipleship. They are teaching me Shuar. The words are very dificult to pronounce. A "w" is pronouced like a "v." It is very interesting to hear people speak it- it reminds me of Native American languages like Cherokee or something.

Hey Everyone!!!

Hey Everyone!!!
OK so I am going to start updating my blog finally!!! The trip has been wonderful and I love Ecuador. Today we just got back from a trip into a little town called Huambi. We did a medical clinic that I worked translating for the triage. It was a busy day as we were short on interpretors so I had to go double time. Tomorrow we are going to a little place called Cumbatza. The roads are rough so we are taking 4-wheel drive trucks to get there. We are hoping to see a lot of people. Sunday I will be teaching Children´s Church at hte early service in Sucua and then after the second service go to a service in Huambi where I will be teaching children´s church for an houar and then talking to the moms for another houir. I am interning at this church in Huambi. The pastor´s name is Pastor Angel (pronounced on-hel). He and his wife are Shuar and they are teaching me Shuar. Slowly but surely.
Please pray for my friend who´s wife recently lost a baby. She carried it to full term but lost it right before birth. They are suffering a tragic loss. Pray that God would give them grace right now. I miss you all but am having a blast. Shoot me an email or comment on my blog!!
Bekah

Hey Everyone!!!
I'm FINALLY in Ecuador!! It's AMAzING here!!
I love it!!
I will add to this later!!
bekah

First Post!!!

Hi! My name is Rebekah Gordon. This is my first post for this blogspot. I hope that this will help me keep in contact with the wonderful people from many churches who have helped support and sponsor me, and also with my loving family and friends. If anyone has Skype, then look me up. My Skype name is rebekah.gordon. Well, here goes!!! :)