Friends spying out Ecuador

One of the steps when one is considering expanding our ministry in a foreign land is spying out the country. We did, and mostly every need greater we know has. It gives you a chance to meet the brothers, experience field service, the weather, try the food, etc. 

Earlier this month, we had the privilege to receive some friends from Portugal. We originally met through email, but after exchanging emails for some time, they booked their flight and came for a visit to "spy out" Ecuador...

After staying at the brand office in Guayaquil for a couple of days, they came to Cuenca. We were their "tour guides" for a couple of days. They joined us for field service and meeting. Heber, one of the brothers visiting, was our speaker that night. He did a very nice Discourse in Spanish, it was about young ones making the right decisions when it comes to Education. 
Ben and I showed them around the city, mercados, souvenir shops, and hangout spots. Monday early morning we took them to one of our favorite places, Baños de Cuenca. A section of the city surrounded by mountains, with several thermal volcanic water pools. Monday morning the pool water is changed, so it was perfect timing to get fresh steaming hot water straight from the volcano. This baths are supposed to be very relaxing, therapeutic and some even claim they have some healing properties... 

Their trip was very short, we only had them for a few days but we sure enjoyed the time we spent with them. It is so nice to meet brothers with the goal to serve Jehovah more fully.  
If you also have this desire to serve where the need is greater, and Ecuador is one of your options, write to us with any questions or plans you may have. This is how we started...we'll do our best to help you in any way we could.

Here are some helpful articles when considering moving where the need is greater: 

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/202011294?q=serving+where+the+need+is+greater&p=par

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2009286?q=serving+where+the+need+is+greater&p=par

       

 

Stuck in the States

While Preaching in Florida

After the refreshing assembly program, and beautiful activities as delegates, we were eager to get back to Ecuador. So much to tell our friends about our amazing experience. They had to see pictures and videos for this historical international convention.
Just a couple of days before our scheduled flight, we took a trip to Miami. Main reason was to say goodbye to my Grandma and other family members. We had no clue how much this visit would change our plans. While at Miami Beach, we parked our car at a usual parking lot, we just wanted to jump in the beach for a few minutes. After all, we live high up in the mountains and rarely see the beach. As we get back to our car, we noticed something was wrong. I see a mess through-out the car and the small window of the passenger seat is broken. We had been broken into. The thieves took our wallets, phones, some shopping bags and, most important, our documents and passports! It seemed unreal, but it was happening. We immediately called 911 to file a police report. Trying to make me feel better, the cop mentions he comes to this very same "city paid parking lot" every day, a few times a day to write reports about robberies. Still, the city can't afford to have a police man watching, neither can't they afford to put up signs advising tourist of the organized crime that's going on everyday in their own parking lot at Miami Beach. 

As soon as we got to my grandma's place, we tried tracking our phones. To our surprise, we are able to track one of them. We were so excited! After such a disappointment, we now had a little hope we could get some our stuff back, or at least the most important, our documents. After getting an exact address, name, and a few other details about the phone location, we called the police department. The excitement didn't  last long. One police department said the phone was located outside their jurisdiction area. The other said they didn't file the report, it was not their responsibility...After talking to supervisors, on-call detectives and a few other people in charge, we soon realized they were not going to help. We even started to consider the possibility of going ourselves. But was it really worth it? Just a couple of months ago a classmate from elementary school was shot to death because he claimed his dog. If they went that far for a dog dispute, what could be expected for valuable stuff?!? We decided our life and well being was far more important that anything material. After all, everything they took was replaceable.  I believe it was the wisest decision to let go. This meant loosing our flight and staying with family until we got all the necessary documents, including our passports.

We immediately made arrangements for responsibilities in Ecuador and decided to make the best of our extra days in the states.  Even had the opportunity to participate in RBC during a remodeling project in a nearby city. We enjoyed very much the company of friends, days in the ministry and family dinners. 

After spending almost 3 months in the states, we are now back in Ecuador. Our brothers in Ecuador made us feel welcome, and appreciated . We have gotten back into our routine, and even though our family is very much missed, we are enjoying this unique opportunity to serve in Ecuador.

Buckhead Theater Entertainment Evening Program

After many auditions for dancers, performers and singers from all over the city, Atlanta brothers put together this program for 15 nights of entertainment for the delegates. It took a lot of time, preparations and many rehearsals, but we witnessed Jehovah's music being performed at a very high level by professional musicians. As one of the brothers said, the whole purpose of this evening program was to bring us together and to bring us all closer to our god, Jehovah, and it sure did. As some brothers described it, the show was incomparable, breathless, outstanding, just a spiritual beauty.

International Convention Atlanta Georgia

We have been in the states now for a little over a month. After one and a half years in Ecuador we have been able to come for a visit twice. I know...maybe that's more often than we probably should. Well, the first visit was only 7 months after arriving in Ecuador. It was during October 2013, we were invited to the annual meeting, how can we miss that right?!? 

This time around we got accepted as delegates for the international convention in Atlanta Georgia. Couldn't miss that either...

On both occasions we have taken advantage of the trip to visit family and friends. After being away for so long, we truly missed them and we appreciate the time we are able to spend with them. Also, one of my best friends had a baby, I'm so glad I was around for this important moment in her life. 

 

The highlight of our trip has been the international convention, and what an amazing, unforgettable experience that was!

We arrived to Georgia a couple of days before the convention. We stayed with our friends, Michi and Rob, who live in the outskirts of Atlanta. It was very nice to spend time with them. Besides treating us like royalty and pampering us with treats everyday,  we were truly encouraged by them. 

Everyday was full of surprises. First scheduled tour was preaching day. Being our first international we thought we would get to the kingdom hall, get assigned to a group and get going to the territory. It was a big surprise when the bus drove into the kingdom hall parking and there was over 100 brothers and sisters standing with beautiful banners welcoming us. 

That morning we got assigned to go out in service with a missionary sister serving in West Africa. She shared a lot of experiences from 45 plus years in the missionary work. As she mentioned, it hasn't been an easy assignment due to all the conflicts in the area, but Jehovah has always taken care of her, and she's helped a lot for the advancement of the good news in Guinea. 

Brothers Welcoming the delegates

 

Preaching with the sister from West Africa

After Service the Brothers Made This Lovely Lunch Arrangement for the Delegates

 

The three day convention went by so quick. This was definitely a historical assembly. We were connected to 17 conventions, some outside the US. Total attendance was over 190 thousand and 528 were baptized in the Atlanta GA location. All the videos, and interviews added a lot of emotion to the program. I particularly remember the video from Friday morning, it really took my imagination to that day, when all we'll have from the past will be pictures and some memories of what it used to be like...

We had brother Sanderson from the governing body. On his talk Sunday he read a letter from the Atlanta city mayor thanking us for the visit. It said: "on behalf of all the members and residents of Atlanta, we are thankful for your visit and we hope you leave some of Jehovah's holy spirit in the city of Atlanta and in the Dome". Also a Dome employee said: "This is the finest organization that the Georgia Dome has ever worked with". What a great testimony for Jehovah's name!

                                           Here are some pics for the convention

Our Ecuadorian outfits for Friday

It was beautiful to meet, interact and share experiences with brothers from different parts of the world. Many of them made lots of sacrifices to be there.
So Monday after the convention we were scheduled for the Conyers Assembly Hall Tour. As the bus entered the assembly hall parking lot, all we could see was the brothers and sisters with the big signs, singing, dancing, clapping for our arrival. As we got down from the bus it got very emotional. It was beautiful to see people from different nations, different colors and even different languages hugging with tears in their eyes and exchanging gifts. The assembly hall was turned into a museum, showing the delegates a little bit of the JWs history. Also some of the events that took place right there in Atlanta in the 1900s. For lunch the brothers prepared an outdoor picnic with live music and dance. Right after lunch, we enjoy kingdom melodies played beautifully by brothers. I put some pictures and short clips together for this tour. If you will like to see them click here. 
 

 

 

Wednesday our tour was for "Modern Atlanta". (Pictures and videos). This tour visited Coca Cola, CNN, and the Aquarium where we enjoyed a beautiful  dolphin show for the finale. The nice thing about the tours was sharing with the brothers. That's what its all about... The Korean congregation was hosting us for lunch at a typical southern restaurant. They looked beautiful with their typical Korean customs. Lunch was very emotional as everyone is saying their goodbyes. This was the last of 3 international conventions in Atlanta. For the previous months brothers from all over Atlanta worked together on every detail to take care of delegates. It was really hard for them to see this beautiful event come to an ending. To see a short clip and photos click here.
 

 

The brothers from Atlanta went all out to make delegates feel special.  It gave us a good preview of what the new world its going to be like. 

Getting Ready for the International

As a lot of you know, a few months ago we got invited to attend the international assembly at Atlanta Georgia. We are both really excited, its going to be our first international (can't wait). We are also going to visit some good old friends from Georgia and of course, we are also spending time with our family in Florida.
So, a lot of running around the last few weeks getting everything ready for our trip. Our studies will be taken care of, a few brothers/sisters in our congregation will take care of them while we are gone. Also, I've been busy with a couple of projects, like some handmade souvenirs for the international assembly and gifts for family and friends.

Below are some picture while some sisters were helping with little gifts for the international...

Making decorative hair pins (Pinterest idea lol)

Finished Card & Decorative hair pins

Also, a friend here in Ecuador taught  me how to make jewelry and here it is....my newest hobby...I made this as a gift for my family. They are the first few but my i think they look pretty nice.

So, this time next week we'll be with our lovely family and friends, can't wait, we've missed them a lot. 

I'll try to post a little bit about the international experience. 

Tchau, till next time :) 

Service Experience

We've had big privilege to participate often in Metropolitan witnessing were  we've had some awesome experiences. There are several locations in Cuenca; the bus terminal, Parque Paraiso and we recently started participating at the newest location, Cuenca's biggest market, Feria Libre. As a result, we have been able to start a few extra studies. Just last week we started a study with a man, and, as he said himself, he wants everyone in his family, including kids, to study the bible with us.

Field Service is really productive as well. Said just plain and simple, there's just not enough time to dedicate to "everyone" that shows interest. As soon as i arrived to Ecuador I was eager to have studies, and a sister told me: "just wait, you will have as many studies as you want".

We have a few studies that are progressing very well and even coming to meetings. But there's one very special to me. Her name is Viviana, i found her as a result of metropolitan witnessing. From the very first time I came to her house she asked me to come in. I offered to study and she agreed right away to whatever time was convenient for me. That same day I invited her to the meetings, she asked the time and said she will be ready. The time for the meeting came, I called expecting to have an excuse from her, but to my surprise she tells me: "I'm ready, just waiting for you". I could not believe it! She loved the meeting. During the Watchtower she noticed that everyone had their study article highlighted, she said "that's why everyone is able to comment soo nicely, of course, everyone got the answers already highlighted...can I have my copy so I can get ready for next week?". So I gave her a copy of the study Watchtower and the following week she was ready to answer, raised her hand about 5 times (I counted them haha). She's been coming to the meeting with her young daughter ever since (about 3 months already) and about a month ago her husband started coming too. Oh and after 3 meetings she started wearing a skirt, dressing just like a sister. She prepares for every study reading every single bible scripture, reads the public watchtower and awake pretty much the same day she receives them, and has been reading frequently the family happiness book and the bible. She's so eager to learn more that she's asked me to study twice a week. I can see that shine in her eyes whenever she learns something new as she's already discovered that a lot of what she has been taught all her life has been lies.
I'm so grateful to Jehovah for using me to teach people like her about the truth.
Anyway, this is my favorite latest experience. This is a great place to preach and have the joy of helping others learn the truth. Come, spend some time and experience it for yourselves....:) It is the best life ever!!!

Viviana and her family

Visitors in April

Ben's parents come for a visit in April. They came throught the Guayaquil airport and came straight to Cuenca to spend a few days at our place. My mom sent a few things I really missed like my favorite oatmeal from Trader Joe's, Coconut oil, some of my favorite creams and a few other things...we do miss a lot of things from back home, but definitely the one thing we miss the most is family and friends.
While in Cuenca we took my in laws to a few nice places like Parque Paraiso, Parque Calderon, Huma-Pungo (one of the nicest museums in the city) and lots of street markets which my mother in law loved.

Parque Paraiso by the River

We were determined to spend as much time with them as possible so we all went together to Crucita, where they owned a beautiful little apartment in a beach front community. While there we visited Monte Cristi, the place known to make the famous Panama Hats. We also got to visit Manta and Porto Viejo.

Monte Cristi

Panama Hats from Monte Cristi

                

After spending 3 days in Crucita we went our separate ways for just a few days. My in laws went to see the rest of their family in Santo Domingo and we started heading back to Cuenca. Since its a long trip we decided to take it slow and enjoy it. We stopped at out favorite beach, Los Frailes, spent a few hours there. Then we arrived at Salinas and spent the night with friends. The next day we stop at Guayaquil for some shopping. Finally arrived at Cuenca late at night. 

After visiting the rest of their family my parents in law came back to Cuenca. We really enjoyed their stay. It went by really fast. Below I'll post some picture with some of the things we did with them...

Plaza de la Palomas, Cuenca

Amazon Trip

One of the biggest holidays in Ecuador its Carnaval. Every city has parties, concerts, parades, shows, etc. They also have the custom of throwing water at everyone walking by. They use water balloons, buckets full of water, water guns or even a hose to soak everyone that passes by. This is one of the reasons why during Carnival all the preaching groups are cancelled and mostly everyone goes away for the long weekend. 

We had been thinking about going to "Oriente" since we arrived to Ecuador, so we took advantage of the Carnaval holidays back in March for this little get away.
We took a route by Gualaceo. Drove on dirt roads for 2-3 hours. As we came down the Andes, we witnessed several land slides due to the heavy rain. One of them we had to wait 30 minutes to get through. With the help of specialized equipment we made it. Once on the paved road the road trip was very nice.  

On our way... 

As we got closer to the amazon we felt the weather changing. The heat and humidity kept on getting worst per minute, and we kept on taking off layers of clothes. The vegetation, the views and even the bugs were different. We drove by Macas, Suqua and Puyo. Finally made it to Tena at 10pm. Thankfully we had already made reservations cause every single hotel was booked due to the holiday.

Our first official day in Tena was a Sunday. Right after breakfast we attended a meeting at a local congregation. Right after the talk was done, they started speaking a language i didn't recognize, quichua from Oriente (sounds like Chinese)....the watchtower conductor? An American brother that has learned the language to help out there. Since there's not a lot of brothers to help out, two young sisters were in charge of the sound system.



Watchtower conductor

Sisters in charge of the sound system

After meeting we headed to Jumandi, a cavern with beautiful formations and an underground river that goes on for miles. The water was anywhere from a couple of feet to 16 feet deep. Once in the cavern its hard to go back. A lady in our group had a panic attack, she started crying asking the tour guide to take her in his back across a deep water hole. It was a bit scary, it was dark, one couldn't see what was under and the whole place its surrounded by bats. The cave was amazingly beautiful! Sadly we don't have any pictures, we couldn't take our cameras since we had to swim through several swimming holes. 

Our second day in Tena we got to visit Misahualli, a beautiful little town hidden in the forest, close to Tena. This was my favorite place. Not that i didn't like Tena, but it was too much of a big city and i didn't expect that in the Amazon. I wanted to see pure nature, woods, forrest and Misahualli's got all of this. 
There we went to see the "Huaorani", an indigenous tribe that lives deep in the Amazon. They speak "Wao", only the kids understand a little bit of Spanish. After making a typical tribe dance for us, they showed us their little hut and painted our face. They really liked our clothes, our hair, hats and even our sandals asking to leave them. Now I know what to bring next time... lots of sandals and chocolate cookies (They even licked the wrapping paper)

Ben was able to show them the JW video about the creation. By the end of it, all the girls had gathered up to look at it. They were impressed and astonished. 

The Huaorani tribe was very nice and friendly. Nothing like other tribes that are aggressive and even dangerous. 

Huaorani Tribe

   

After visiting the tribe, our tour guide took us around the river on a canoe. Out of the whole trip, this was the scariest part for me. As he rows, the canoe moves giving the feeling its going to flip. The water was so dark one can't see nothing under. We did know there was a Cayman near by and probably a lot of snakes too. It was beautiful but I was terrified just thinking about all the snakes and weird creatures that could be right under me. I was relieved after it was over. 

Oh we also got to taste, "Chicha" an indigenous Amazonian drink. It used to be made with saliva fermented Cassava. According to the lady preparing it, now its fermented a different way (lets hope its true). Anyway, Ben thought it needed sugar, I also though it was really bad, but we had to try it just for the experience lol.  

                 

At last, we visited Cascadas de Latas", also in Misahualli. After walking next to the river in knee high mud for about an hour, we got to this breath taking waterfall hidden in the forest.  The waterfall was so strong it hurt to be under it. The water temperature was cold just like any river, but perfect. It felt refreshing since the weather was so hot and humid. Later on we found out there were snakes all over the place, we just didn't see any because they tent to hide when its rainy and muddy like it was. 

           

Below I'll post a video, just a quick summary of the things we did. This video contains graphic images from the Huaorani Indian Tribe. Some people might find some of this images offensive.

Memorial 2014

This was our second memorial in Ecuador. The first one was just a few weeks after arriving to Ecuador.
This year we rented the City's Hall, its very nice, clean and it sits over 400 people. A beautiful place for our most special event of the year. Its right in front of "Parque Calderon", the beautiful park in the center of the city with the big Cathedral right in front of it. There's usually a lot of people walking by so it was a great idea to put a big banner announcing the Memorial and inviting anyone that would walk by to come in. The brothers managed to set up a table with lots of books, bibles and welcoming booklets with songs we would sing.

                          

Ben's got the talk this year, (first time) which made both of us a little nervous. But as he started I was able to calm down, he did really good!
So our congregation did really well with those invites. We are only about 100 publishers and we had an attendance of 329, that's more than triple. We were all very happy with the results. I'll post some picture below with some of my studies.

Pamela with her sister and daughter

Veronica with her 3 kids

Some of the friends...

Dinner after the Memorial