So sometime near the end of 2010, maybe November, I drove up to Colorado Springs and met my Dad for lunch during his lunch break. It was a wonderful lunch at a very nice restaurant filled with business men. After lunch, I said goodbye to him and then headed to a starbucks on Tejon Street. It was chilly and starbucks had all its neat holiday flavors so I decided to try something new. While I was there, I decided to pick up my step Mom her favorite starbucks drink. Then I could stop and see her on my way out of town. I left Starbucks and was feeling like a great daughter for getting Patti her favorite drink. I was also excited to drink my coffee which I decided I wouldn't try until I was in my car. I was walking down the sidewalk and I noticed a lonely looking homeless man in his forties maybe. It's not unual to see homeless people in downtown Springs, but this guy stuck out to me for some reason. A thought suddenly came to my mind, "You should really say hi to that guy and offer him your coffee, you haven't even touched it yet." I thought about this for a second, but then fear and selfishness started to fill my mind. "What if he doesn't say hi back?" "What if he doesn't want my coffee?" "I'm too shy to talk to a stranger." "I really want this coffee!" So, I let fear and selfishness take control and I kept walking to my car.
I still feel guilt for not listening to God in this situation. And it turns out I didn't even like my coffee. I've noticed in my lifetime that this situation has actually come up a lot. Not exactly the same way, but how God has very clearly told me to do something and I just let myself get in the way of Gods words and I choose to do what makes me the most comfortable. It's time for me to change this. I need to make myself uncomfortable sometimes. Maybe situations won't turn out exactly like I thought they would, maybe I'll be rejected, maybe I'll be embarressed or hurt, but who cares? If I listen to God then he will bless me so much more than I can even imagine. I'm done with my homeless man attitude.
"Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word." Jeremiah 26:2
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Mindo
So on Friday afternoon, four young adults and I boarded a bus in Quito and headed two hours towards the coast to a little town named Mindo.
The bus ride there made me feel quite car sick, and although it wasn't too long of a drive, I was happy to reach our destination. Mindo is kind of a tourist town, which means it's pretty safe, unlike Quito. We stayed in a super nice hotel while we were there. It included a pool, breakfast, a room with a bed for each of us and a nice bathroom and it was only $15! The first night we were there we just walked around town a little bit and got something to eat.
The next day, we had breakfast and then headed into town to start all the activities we had planned for the day. We started the day with a hike. A couple of us rode in the back of a truck to get to the trail. I will never get tired of riding in the back of trucks in Ecuador. The scenery is so beautiful everywhere and it's nice that the cops don't care if you're in the back ;) It was a really nice hike and it ended at a beautiful waterfall with little pools around it. We hung out there for a little bit and then headed back to the beginning of the trail to continue on to the ziplines.
The last time I went on a zipline was when I was 12. I was hyperventilating the whole time, and it really wasn't even that high off the ground so I figured ziplining above the rainforest was going to kill me. I decided I needed to get over this fear though, so I hopped on the first zipline and hoped for the best. I ended up loving it! Even when one of the workers was bouncing the line! There were ten ziplines in all and the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen.
After the ziplines, we headed down the mountain a little bit to go tubing. It definately wasn't what I expected. There were a bunch of tubes tied together with ropes for us to hang on to. We all climbed onto the tube raft and started heading down the river. There were some decent rapids and we got soaking wet. I definately think that this was my favorite part of the day.
After that, we headed back to the hotel so we could shower and pack everything up. We then walked around town a little more, ate some lunch and then headed back to Quito.
During the day, I had gotten a TON of bug bites on my legs. I didn't realize how bad they were until I was home and I showed Julianna and Katelyn. There's more bug bites on my legs than actual skin, but after that amazing trip, it was worth it (:
The bus ride there made me feel quite car sick, and although it wasn't too long of a drive, I was happy to reach our destination. Mindo is kind of a tourist town, which means it's pretty safe, unlike Quito. We stayed in a super nice hotel while we were there. It included a pool, breakfast, a room with a bed for each of us and a nice bathroom and it was only $15! The first night we were there we just walked around town a little bit and got something to eat.
The next day, we had breakfast and then headed into town to start all the activities we had planned for the day. We started the day with a hike. A couple of us rode in the back of a truck to get to the trail. I will never get tired of riding in the back of trucks in Ecuador. The scenery is so beautiful everywhere and it's nice that the cops don't care if you're in the back ;) It was a really nice hike and it ended at a beautiful waterfall with little pools around it. We hung out there for a little bit and then headed back to the beginning of the trail to continue on to the ziplines.
The last time I went on a zipline was when I was 12. I was hyperventilating the whole time, and it really wasn't even that high off the ground so I figured ziplining above the rainforest was going to kill me. I decided I needed to get over this fear though, so I hopped on the first zipline and hoped for the best. I ended up loving it! Even when one of the workers was bouncing the line! There were ten ziplines in all and the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen.
After the ziplines, we headed down the mountain a little bit to go tubing. It definately wasn't what I expected. There were a bunch of tubes tied together with ropes for us to hang on to. We all climbed onto the tube raft and started heading down the river. There were some decent rapids and we got soaking wet. I definately think that this was my favorite part of the day.
After that, we headed back to the hotel so we could shower and pack everything up. We then walked around town a little more, ate some lunch and then headed back to Quito.
During the day, I had gotten a TON of bug bites on my legs. I didn't realize how bad they were until I was home and I showed Julianna and Katelyn. There's more bug bites on my legs than actual skin, but after that amazing trip, it was worth it (:
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Life right now
So on Monday, I started the Daniel's Fast. You can't have dairy, meat, sugar (or any sweeteners), anything deep fried, white flour, white rice, or anything to drink besides water. I'm doing it so I can develop better eating habits, feel better, take my focus off of food, and I won't lie, if I lose a few pounds, that would be nice too. It seems like usually, everytime I eat, I feel a little sick afterwards. Since starting the Daniel's fast, I've felt great. I have a lot more energy, I don't feel sick and I've made some great meals so far. I'll be doing it until March 21, the day before I leave Ecuador. I want to be able to share one last meal with the Shedd family, and I want to make them a BTS cake that I'm able to enjoy too ;) So that means that I have about 35 more days to go. I have faith in myself that I can do it (:
It's really crazy that I only have a little over a month left in Ecuador. After learning I was going to Ecuador, figuring out how I was going to get there, where I was going to stay, and what I was going to do there, working hard and saving up money to get here, stressing out a lot about if this was really what God wanted me to do, and if three months was going to be too long, my time here is coming to an end.
I know for sure now that this is whar God wanted me to do. I feel like this was also the perfect time in my life to do it. I feel it helped me go from being a highschooler to being an adult. I've learned so much here (maybe not as much Spanish as I would have liked to) and I've got to experience so much. I'm so thankful that I'm also able to live in a beautiful house with a wondeful family. God is so great.
In other news, Riley and I have slowly been going through the book of Jeremiah since I arrived in Ecuador on December 28th. It's really great to have someone that I can do this with considering the church I attend here is in Spanish. I enjoy going there, and trying to figure out what they're talking about, but I really miss going to an English speaking church, helping with Surge youth group and having bible study with Riley more often. So the times that we are able to go through a couple chapters are a huge blessing to me.
Also is Ecuador, I've had more time to read, which has been wonderful! I read a couple books when I first got here but they were poorly written and filled with wordly morals that I don't agree with. When we went to Quininde last week, I was able to borrow Passion and Purity from someone so I read that while I was there. I had started reading it last April, But I only got about half way through it. It was great actually finishing it. It's a great book that I think everyone searching for a God based relationship needs to read. After I finished that, I started reading I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which is a more recent book and was actually written after the author read Passion and Purity. Since it's more recent, it's a little easier to read for younger teens and it's written by a young guy so it's very enjoyable to read. I haven't finished it yet but I would still recommend it.
Well that's my life as of right now (:
It's really crazy that I only have a little over a month left in Ecuador. After learning I was going to Ecuador, figuring out how I was going to get there, where I was going to stay, and what I was going to do there, working hard and saving up money to get here, stressing out a lot about if this was really what God wanted me to do, and if three months was going to be too long, my time here is coming to an end.
I know for sure now that this is whar God wanted me to do. I feel like this was also the perfect time in my life to do it. I feel it helped me go from being a highschooler to being an adult. I've learned so much here (maybe not as much Spanish as I would have liked to) and I've got to experience so much. I'm so thankful that I'm also able to live in a beautiful house with a wondeful family. God is so great.
In other news, Riley and I have slowly been going through the book of Jeremiah since I arrived in Ecuador on December 28th. It's really great to have someone that I can do this with considering the church I attend here is in Spanish. I enjoy going there, and trying to figure out what they're talking about, but I really miss going to an English speaking church, helping with Surge youth group and having bible study with Riley more often. So the times that we are able to go through a couple chapters are a huge blessing to me.
Also is Ecuador, I've had more time to read, which has been wonderful! I read a couple books when I first got here but they were poorly written and filled with wordly morals that I don't agree with. When we went to Quininde last week, I was able to borrow Passion and Purity from someone so I read that while I was there. I had started reading it last April, But I only got about half way through it. It was great actually finishing it. It's a great book that I think everyone searching for a God based relationship needs to read. After I finished that, I started reading I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which is a more recent book and was actually written after the author read Passion and Purity. Since it's more recent, it's a little easier to read for younger teens and it's written by a young guy so it's very enjoyable to read. I haven't finished it yet but I would still recommend it.
Well that's my life as of right now (:
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Quininde Part 2
Sorry this took so long Kyla and Nichole!
Well last week Doctor Jenny, Missy, Julianna, Anabel and I headed back to Quininde. We went to the project as soon as we got there. It was great seeing all the kids again and they were so happy to see us. We spent the rest of the week, eating with the kids, teaching them English, and playing with them. The time spent with them was one of the best times I've had in my life. They're all so loving and happy even though they come from either poor or abusive homes, or both. It really made me think about my life and how ungrateful I am some times. I've been so spoiled in life by an amazing family, friends, always having food to eat, never really having to worry about money, always having clean clothes to wear, etc, etc, but I still find things to complain about. That's something I'm really going to try to work on.
Well besides having an amazing time with the kids, there were some hard times on the trip. We stayed in Doctor Jenny's beautiful house that was located on a beautiful palm tree plantation. The bad thing was, there were many creatures inside the house and we found a lot of them during our stay there. During my two weeks there, I found 4 frogs. All of them were in the bathroom and I surprised myself with how calm I was each time I found one. One night, Julianna found one on my bed. I really didn't sleep too well that night. We also had bats in the ceiling. We never say them, but we could hear them all night, which was kind of freaky. There were also lizards in the house. I was hoping that doctor Jenny would kill them, but she said that they eat other bugs so she leaves them. One of the things that scared me the most was using the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was always afraid that I was going to step on some bug or lizard with m barefeet or a frog would jump out of the toilet at me. Thankfully, that never happened. Doctor Jenny's house only has cold water. So that means, cold showers. It wasn't too bad considering it was incredibly hot there but the first minute in the shower was always the worst, especially since I feared some kind of bug jumping down from the top of the shower while I was in it.
One day while we were there, on our way to the project, Anabel and Julianna were riding in the back of the truck. We were making a U turn and Anabel fell out of the truck. It looked like she had hit her head and then rolled. As soon as she fell, she stood right up and got in the car. She was a little out of it and couldn't remember what happened at first and I think we were all in shock. God protected her though, and she ended up being completely fine. It was definately a miracle.
On our last night there, the power went out. This put me in a bad mood because I had been looking forward to a shower all day. Since we didn't want the food in the fridge to go bad, we had a candlelit dinner of yogurt, milk, cereal, and some kind of corn stuff that we had picked up in town. Since the power was out and we had nothing to do, we ended up going to bed extremely early. Since there was no power, that meant no ceiling fan, which meant an extremely hot night and a horrible night of sleep for me.
The next day, the power was still out so we headed into town at around 6:45 to go get some breakfast. We went to a restaurant that we had gone to lunch at a few times. The food there was super cheap and each meal we had was about $2 for a huge amount of food. We then went to the office and did a quick bible study. I decided to take a shower there, but since the power was out, it was only a small trickle of water, but it felt so good after a hot day and night with no shower. Everyone else waited until we went to a friend of doctor Jenny's house. He had a generator so everyone else was able to have a normal shower. We hung out there for a few hours and napped, read, relaxed and had an amazing lunch. We then headed to the project for our last day with the kids. It was a wonderful day.
Sheryl, Katelyn and Erin then met us at a gas station in Quininde so all of us girls could have a nice relaxing weekend at the beach. It was the perfect ending the week. We all had a great time swimming in the pool, swimming in the ocean, finally finding some good coffee, getting a little burnt, getting a little tan, eating good food and just relaxing.
(:
Well last week Doctor Jenny, Missy, Julianna, Anabel and I headed back to Quininde. We went to the project as soon as we got there. It was great seeing all the kids again and they were so happy to see us. We spent the rest of the week, eating with the kids, teaching them English, and playing with them. The time spent with them was one of the best times I've had in my life. They're all so loving and happy even though they come from either poor or abusive homes, or both. It really made me think about my life and how ungrateful I am some times. I've been so spoiled in life by an amazing family, friends, always having food to eat, never really having to worry about money, always having clean clothes to wear, etc, etc, but I still find things to complain about. That's something I'm really going to try to work on.
Well besides having an amazing time with the kids, there were some hard times on the trip. We stayed in Doctor Jenny's beautiful house that was located on a beautiful palm tree plantation. The bad thing was, there were many creatures inside the house and we found a lot of them during our stay there. During my two weeks there, I found 4 frogs. All of them were in the bathroom and I surprised myself with how calm I was each time I found one. One night, Julianna found one on my bed. I really didn't sleep too well that night. We also had bats in the ceiling. We never say them, but we could hear them all night, which was kind of freaky. There were also lizards in the house. I was hoping that doctor Jenny would kill them, but she said that they eat other bugs so she leaves them. One of the things that scared me the most was using the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was always afraid that I was going to step on some bug or lizard with m barefeet or a frog would jump out of the toilet at me. Thankfully, that never happened. Doctor Jenny's house only has cold water. So that means, cold showers. It wasn't too bad considering it was incredibly hot there but the first minute in the shower was always the worst, especially since I feared some kind of bug jumping down from the top of the shower while I was in it.
One day while we were there, on our way to the project, Anabel and Julianna were riding in the back of the truck. We were making a U turn and Anabel fell out of the truck. It looked like she had hit her head and then rolled. As soon as she fell, she stood right up and got in the car. She was a little out of it and couldn't remember what happened at first and I think we were all in shock. God protected her though, and she ended up being completely fine. It was definately a miracle.
On our last night there, the power went out. This put me in a bad mood because I had been looking forward to a shower all day. Since we didn't want the food in the fridge to go bad, we had a candlelit dinner of yogurt, milk, cereal, and some kind of corn stuff that we had picked up in town. Since the power was out and we had nothing to do, we ended up going to bed extremely early. Since there was no power, that meant no ceiling fan, which meant an extremely hot night and a horrible night of sleep for me.
Sheryl, Katelyn and Erin then met us at a gas station in Quininde so all of us girls could have a nice relaxing weekend at the beach. It was the perfect ending the week. We all had a great time swimming in the pool, swimming in the ocean, finally finding some good coffee, getting a little burnt, getting a little tan, eating good food and just relaxing.
(:
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Quininde
I haven't made an actual post in a while, so i'm going to try to make one now. I'm sick right now so this might come out completely horrible, but oh well. I feel the need to tell you about my trip.
We headed to Quininde on Tuesday and stayed there until Friday. While we were there we helped with a program for kids in a neighborhood in the town. Right now the kids are on Summer vacation because it's the rainy season. While we were at "the project" We helped teach the kids some basic English, like greetings, numbers, colors, fruits, days of the week, ect. and we were also able to spend a lot of time just hanging out with the kids and playing with them which was awesome.
It makes me sad that I didn't take the time to learn Spanish before coming here because I want to communicate with the kids so bad and I just can't. We can ask each other our names but that's about it. I took a year of Spanish in high school, but I just knew that I wouldn't be spending much time in a Spanish speaking country so I did very poorly in the class. I definately know that God has a sense of humor because of course, the first place he sends me is a Spanish speaking country.
Anyways, while we were in Quininde we stayed at Dr. Jenny's house. She is a woman from our church, she helps out with the project and she was the one who drove us to Quininde. She lives on a beautiful palm tree plantation in a beautiful house. The only problem was the creatures that were inside the house. There were some openings in the house, which isn't a big deal when you live in the coast because it's always hot, but openings tend to let things in the house, like frogs, bats, lizards, and a number of bugs, and we got to experience all of these things. Thankfully, we all had bug nets to cover our beds and I think by the last night we had all calmed down a lot about all of the creatures in the house.
One of the better parts of the trip, besides the amazing kids was the great food. We went out to eat a few times and it was delicious, filling, and super cheap! We ate lunch at one place a couple times and a coke, bowl of soup, plate of rice, fried plantains, meat and veggies, and a cup of fruit was $2.25! It's crazy. I think America needs to try this out lol
On the last day of the trip I ended up getting really sick. Thankfully it didn't hit too hard until the drive home so all I had to do what sit for a few hours. By the time we got back to the house in Quito, I could barely walk. My duffel bad felt like it weight 50lbs and I had to stop about three times on the way from the car to my bedroom. I had a horrible headache, I had the worst muscle pains I've ever had, I wasn't able to eat anything and anything I did eat went straight through me (sorry for the tmi). It was not fun. By the next day I was still feeling just as bad, maybe even worse, so the Shedd's took me to the hospital, just to make sure I didn't have Malaria. Thankfully I didn't, and I just have some kind of infection, which is fine with me. It gave me an excuse to be in a hospital and I got some sweet meds that made me feel almost completely better! Now I just kind of feel like I'm gonna throw up. But that's way better than the previous stated stuff.
Well I'm headed back to Quininde tomorrow and I'll be there until friday. It'll be nice to be able to spend more time with the kids and get to know them a little better. Hopefully I won't get sick again! Then Sheryl will most likely be picking us up friday and us girls we head to the beach to stay in there new condo!
It's gonna be a great week!
Honestly though, every week here has been amazing. God is so so good.
(:
We headed to Quininde on Tuesday and stayed there until Friday. While we were there we helped with a program for kids in a neighborhood in the town. Right now the kids are on Summer vacation because it's the rainy season. While we were at "the project" We helped teach the kids some basic English, like greetings, numbers, colors, fruits, days of the week, ect. and we were also able to spend a lot of time just hanging out with the kids and playing with them which was awesome.
It makes me sad that I didn't take the time to learn Spanish before coming here because I want to communicate with the kids so bad and I just can't. We can ask each other our names but that's about it. I took a year of Spanish in high school, but I just knew that I wouldn't be spending much time in a Spanish speaking country so I did very poorly in the class. I definately know that God has a sense of humor because of course, the first place he sends me is a Spanish speaking country.
Anyways, while we were in Quininde we stayed at Dr. Jenny's house. She is a woman from our church, she helps out with the project and she was the one who drove us to Quininde. She lives on a beautiful palm tree plantation in a beautiful house. The only problem was the creatures that were inside the house. There were some openings in the house, which isn't a big deal when you live in the coast because it's always hot, but openings tend to let things in the house, like frogs, bats, lizards, and a number of bugs, and we got to experience all of these things. Thankfully, we all had bug nets to cover our beds and I think by the last night we had all calmed down a lot about all of the creatures in the house.
One of the better parts of the trip, besides the amazing kids was the great food. We went out to eat a few times and it was delicious, filling, and super cheap! We ate lunch at one place a couple times and a coke, bowl of soup, plate of rice, fried plantains, meat and veggies, and a cup of fruit was $2.25! It's crazy. I think America needs to try this out lol
On the last day of the trip I ended up getting really sick. Thankfully it didn't hit too hard until the drive home so all I had to do what sit for a few hours. By the time we got back to the house in Quito, I could barely walk. My duffel bad felt like it weight 50lbs and I had to stop about three times on the way from the car to my bedroom. I had a horrible headache, I had the worst muscle pains I've ever had, I wasn't able to eat anything and anything I did eat went straight through me (sorry for the tmi). It was not fun. By the next day I was still feeling just as bad, maybe even worse, so the Shedd's took me to the hospital, just to make sure I didn't have Malaria. Thankfully I didn't, and I just have some kind of infection, which is fine with me. It gave me an excuse to be in a hospital and I got some sweet meds that made me feel almost completely better! Now I just kind of feel like I'm gonna throw up. But that's way better than the previous stated stuff.
Well I'm headed back to Quininde tomorrow and I'll be there until friday. It'll be nice to be able to spend more time with the kids and get to know them a little better. Hopefully I won't get sick again! Then Sheryl will most likely be picking us up friday and us girls we head to the beach to stay in there new condo!
It's gonna be a great week!
Honestly though, every week here has been amazing. God is so so good.
(:
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
On the road again
I got that gigantic 1.5 liter water bottle for 46 cents. Oh how I love Ecuador.
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