The main city we visited was Guayaquil. It is a port city, home to 3.5 million people, and where the Foldens live. This picture was taken from the top of a light house and it gives you a good idea of just how crowded this huge city is.
There are two main places of ministry we focused on during our trip. The one pictured above is an evangelical Christian boys home. The boys in this home range from 4-17 and can come and go as they please. Most, if not all, of these boys have been through some type of abuse. The boys that are academically on grade level can go to school. The other boys stay at the home and receive education from a volunteer. Daryl spent time with some of these boys in their weekly Jujitsu class. I helped one of the mid-term missionaries complete her daily activities with the boys and I had fun playing with them as well.
The second place we focused on is a Catholic girls home. The girls in this home are about the same age and have a lot of the same abuse problems as the boys in the previous home. In both homes we did a whole group craft. We brought foam visors for each kid and Noah's Ark foam stickers to stick on the visor. It was really interesting to watch the kids with this craft. Some of them didn't want to put the stickers on the visor and a lot of them wanted to keep the plastic baggie their stickers came in. We also made chocolate fudge. The kids aren't use to having something so sweet but most seemed to enjoy it.
This is another picture of the girls in the girls home. We did two separate activities with them. The first activity was a trip to McDonalds to play in their play-place and eat dinner. Most of these girls had never been to McDonalds so this was a real treat. We did learn that mayonnaise in Ecuador is a favorite condiment. The second activity was a trip to a local park. The girls home does not have a lot of space for the girls to play so it was a special trip to the park to explore all its features. After playing in the park, we took them to get ice cream.
While in Ecuador we also visited the city of Loja. Loja has about 200,000 residents, it is a mountainous city, but most importantly it is home to the Calvas who are World Venture missionaries. Loja is much different than Guayaquil in its population, its elevation, and its climate. We had a great time exploring the city and getting to know more people.
So what's next for us? We aren't sure yet. We still feel called to full time missions but we want to take some time to pray about where God wants us to serve. I will still continue to take Bible classes and we will both continue to seek God's will.
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