Church Planting Conference, Quito Ecuador

This past weekend was quite different than my normal weekend. It consisted of staying in Quito the whole weekend helping out with a conference Compassion Connection/Fuente de Vida put on. Taylor and I went down early to help set up, prep and give support to our friend, Juan Manuel aka Juanma, the director of the conference. It was such a nice change of pace to our normal schedule because for once we were not in charge of making plans to fill our schedule but had people tell us where to be and what to do. Now if that were my normal schedule I wouldn't like it all that much, but it is nice to take the back seat once and while and let other people lead and direct.

The conference was a success and it was great to see what kind of people would come to a Church Planting Conference in Quito. We even had speakers from Honduras and Guatemala come in speak to a reggae-style band from a safe house for street boys play Spanish worship music. I feel blessed to have been a part of this conference!

One thing that was good to witness, along with all the positive aspects, was how much we (CC) are in need of our own Training Center. For example, the conference was held at one church and halfway through the weekend we had to change locations to another church. Also, the crowd that came to the conference was varied and came from all over Ecuador- we had city people (Quitenos), people from Tena, a city in the Jungle and indigenous people attend the seminars. This Spring we hope to start construction on our Cotopaxi Training Center which will be centrally located in Latacunga, Ecuador so that people that travel to our conferences can meet in a more convenient place that is halfway between Quito and Tena. Additionally, at the Cotopaxi Training Center, we will have sustainable/ sustenance farming (that I am planning---ahhh!! :) )so the overhead cost for lodging and food will be dramatically lower than renting a Church and catering food for the conference. If you are interested in donating to the CTC, PLEASE consider sponsoring a walker from the states or Ecuador in our fundraiser "Walk for Ecuador" which will take place on Feb. 19th. Visit http://www.compassionconnection.net/donations/walk-for-ecuador for more information about how to get involved!!

manning the registration table- in Spanish :)

free books for all participants

Introducing the Band:

 

 

 

 

 The youngest member of the band- Phin on the 'tar 

 The Band from Casa Gabriel: a safe house for teenage street boys

Scenes from around the Conference:

The long braid is the traditional way men from Otavalo wear their hair

 

glory.be.to.God.

My Favorite Christmas Gift

My whole family together in Madison was my favorite Christmas gift this year. Lani & Brian (my sister and brother-in-law) and Eric & Samantha (my brother and sis-in-law) all live on the East Coast but sacrificed the warmer weather to come up north to Wisconsin, to share a Christmas with us the way its supposed to be- snowy and with family :)

I love when my family gets together because the main questions of the day are, "Are game are we going to play next?" and "When's/What's the next meal". The schedule for the past week was basically wake up, make breakfast, play games, have lunch, play games, have dinner then watch a movie- it was a perfect way to enjoy each other's company and the holiday season. My family loves playing games and we learned some new ones, Speed Scrabble and the New Yorker, and played some oldies, Pictionary and Imagine If. 

But hands down our favorite game is Nertz. This is a card game that relies on speed and solitare skills- you can play in partners or singles. We all are at about the same level and so to make things interesting we put a punishment for the loser of one game. Well, actually we just put a punishment for my brother, Eric, if he didn't win. The punishment: trim his facial hair- which was going wild, he looked homeless which was what he wanted. We played that in singles and low and behold, I won! For all of you who know my family, you are right in assuming that game was crazy, loud and intense! But thank God someone other than Eric won for know I have a brother that looks like a clean trimmed homeless person... haha

Spending that week with just my family was such a gift to me this year. It was so hard to say goodbye and get on my plane back to Ecuador- thousands of miles away from my loved ones... but God is good and I am so blessed to have a second family here...Now I just have to wait for them to get home! :)

My family is one of my most cherished and important things in my life and I can't wait till we all can get together again :)

{It really was a White Christmas/Winter Wonderland}

but don't worry my dad still feeds the birds- 

its just on our deck and not in their feeders :)

{The Nertz loser}

Sam's excited but Eric is not... 

The full 'homeless look' Eric...

but victory is sweet. 

Sorry bro but its time to trim it down

[See the end to see the finished cleaner homeless look]

Lani and Brian taking charge for the grilled cheese, tomato soup meal- it was so yummy!

I love Christmas decorations, but I think my mom does even more :)

The Christmas cactus bloomed on time and joined in on the decorations :)

My mom also loves nativity scenes and cultures from around the world. Therefore, we have about 12 or so nativity scenes around the house from different countries and cultures. This year she got to add an Ecuadorian one to the collection :) But in some you'll notice that baby Jesus is missing- its tradition at our house that the baby Jesus doesn't appear till Christmas day. Mom hands each of us one figurine to match with its scene- it's like a treasure hunt :)

Yay for all the different cultures in our world and for the fact that Christ came to 

save all peoples from all nations!!

{The Family}

Love you guys so much!