Lavishing Love

In the past I've talked about God's FURIOUS love, but how about His LAVISHING love?
Here is a picture of me at an incredible waterfall in Baños, Ecuador.

My youth Pastor, Shane, last night gave a depiction to us high-schoolers about how God's love pours, or lavishes, on us as if standing under a rushing waterfall.  Now, I didn't stand directly under this waterfall; its force was so powerful I would have lost my life;) but I love thinking about how fast that waterfall's water was rushing and how God's deep concern, care and love for us is even stronger than that.  Google defines lavish as to "bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities upon".  God demonstrates just that in His love for us.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us."  Ephesians 1:7-8 

One Week Left!

This past week I've been sick, along with Tate, and my dad. My mom has been a wonderful mother and a good sport through all of satan's attacks. Please continue praying that God will heal our bodies! Due to illness we have not done anything exciting lately. Or anything for that matter. Haha :D
Since I have all this down time I've had a chance to think, WOW only 6 days to go! I can't wait to see all my friends and family! Then again I'm going to miss this beautiful country. I just tell myself to stay strong. Well, other people do anyways.

Philippians 4:13
I can't wait to see you all in California!!!!

The Zoo

Hey everyone!  Can you believe it's already been almost 4 weeks since I arrived in Ecuador?!
      Well we finally went to the "zoo" (an animal reserve / campsite way behind the military base).  We drove through the gate of the military base, parked, then walked about 2 miles to arrive at the "zoo". It was beautiful! We saw a puma, 3 gorgeous cheetah like cats, 2 parrots, a toucan, a boa constrictor all in cages. Then we spotted 4 monkeys on top of the cages, and in the trees. One came about 1 ft away from me! I screamed :D. Haha, because, Hello there was a monkey by my foot!!!  Next time we go we'll need to bring food to feed the monkeys! How cool!!!
    Currently I am sick and  have no energy.  Not fun.  So PLEASE be praying that my dad, me, and many others on the team to feel better!!!  
I'm sure you would all like to see a few pictures of what I've been up to, am I right?

The monkey that came up to me, and made me scream.

  

The puma

It was really pretty!

The parrots! <3

On the way to Shell we stopped at the equator and had a fantastic tour

The mountians we literally covered with houses!
How on earth do you get to your house?!

The bus we rode in from Quito to Shell

We had the privilege of seeing a beautiful rainbow!

Keisi, one of the little girls that I've been watching.

Hannah, Keisi's sister, she's 6.

The wonderful house that we've been living in.
Thank you Williams!!!

     

     

God is so Amazing!!!

I really can never stop saying that.  And yesterday He proved it.
     On the weekends we have free time so a few of us decided to take a bus to a nearby city, Banos.  (Which means baths).  Once at Rio Verde, we took a hike up to this waterfall.  Just a little glimpse of God's majesty.  We also had the chance to go behind the waterfall itself! We literally had to crawl through caves to reach it.  So amazing!!! Sorry it was way to wet back there to take pictures.
And as if the hike wasn't awesome enough, we drove 10 minutes up the road to a cable car that goes across a canyon 1000 feet in the air.  Beautiful!!!

Hiking

I don't know who these people are, but they crawled through it too.

So pretty!

The Cable car was so scary, this wasn't us.
 Thank God, because look at all those people.

This is us, 1000 ft in the air.

Differences

I know some of you are wondering what here is different. Am I right?
Different well, the people here are extremely friendly!  We'll just be walking to the store and every person that you pass will say, depending on what time of day it is, Buenas Dias (Good morning), Buenas Tardes (good afternoon), or Buenas Noches (Good Night)(used as a greeting though).  The food, well I've eaten rice and soup everyday  and many delicious types of fruit juices.  Orange(different type), tomato (different type), today tamarin (yuck), pineapple, peach and many fruits that I have never heard of before.  I've also eaten yummy Italian pizza and scrumptious Chinese food.  Houses are made out of cement.  One day the weather will be hot, and the next pouring rain, but for most of the time, perfect temperature   The time difference is two hours ahead
Today I visited the Nate Saint house, and tomorrow I am visiting the "zoo".  (An animal exhibit behind the military base.)  Supposedly the monkeys jump on your head.  Visit my blog tomorrow to hear all about it!
   

Ecuadorian Food

So yesterday my family and I went to a city called Puyo and went grocery shopping for the team.  Grocery shopping here in Ecuador is WAY different than shopping in California, because here there is only one brand of each item, whereas in CA there are about 12.  For example, when choosing granola bars at Albertsons, in Temecula, there are no grain, whole grain, nut, no nuts, you get the idea, and here there is only fresca (strawberry) or mora (it's like blackberry mixed with raspberry).  It's a lot different.
This is what I ate for a snack today. (It's an ant)
It had the texture of popcorn, and had the flavor of barbecue chicken.  A leg got stuck in my mom's teeth and the abdomen got stuck on my tooth.  The hard part was just getting it into my mouth, I refused to pick it up so my mom placed it in my mouth for me.  Hehe :b

The ant...

In my mom's mouth

Compared to a pencil, It was really big!!!!

Ewwww it still has legs and antennas!!!

We made it!!!

--> Please, take the time to read this!  

My parents are a part of a mission organization called Global Recordings Network (GRN).  In some countries people and natives have no written language; they’re oral. (They have no alphabet).  How can these people hear the wonderful news of Jesus if they can’t read the Bible?  GRN has the solution.  There must be a way that these people can hear the gospel without having to read… this is where GRN comes in.  They send “recordists” to different parts of the world to record Bible stories, in these languages, onto CDs and give them out to the people who speak it.  For example:  Let’s say GRN sends a recordist to Spain; the recordist will then search for a person who speaks both Spanish and English and then asks this person if they would mind being recorded.  Once they have the recording, the GRN staff will then edit it and make it into a CD.  So now the recording is on a CD; how does this CD get distributed to people who speak Spanish?  This is my dad’s job; he is the Director of Distribution for the U.S.  He travels with small teams to countries, such as Spain, and hands the CDs out for free. 

I’m sure your still wondering why I came to Ecuador, right?  Well, GRN is holding a training seminar for recordists, teaching them how to use the newest and latest recording equipment.  My job here: to help out with little things: leading worship, labeling cords, making snack, babysitting a recordist’s two little girls (Hannah- 6, Casey-1 ½); anything anyone needs help with.  Now your probably wondering what have I done yet?

Well, bright and early Wednesday morning (September 26, 2012) my family (Emil- Dad, Stacy-Mom, Tatum- little sister -10, and me, Becca -13), Matt Haide (the GRN intern from Oregon) and David and Gerry Gutierrez (a couple who also work with GRN) all drove up to the LAX airport.  At the airport we met up with 3 men recordists, 2 from Australia (Noal and Kim), and 1 from Thailand (John). Our 5 hr flight took off at 10:40am heading to Miami, Florida.  We later boarded the plane once again this time for Quito, Ecuador. A while back I heard a story about Gerry on a plane.  First let me tell you something; she is a doctor.  Before the plane even took off a man had a heart attack, luckily Gerry was there to help.  The man recovered and Gerry was bumped up to first class.  What a God thing!  Knowing this story, I had a strange feeling that something like this would happen on the plane.  On this 4 hr flight something did happen, not as drastic as the first, but still a medical emergency.  There was a 6 yr old girl in the row of seats in front of me who had a fever and her hands were shaking.  Fortunately, my dad could tell that the little girl was having a seizure, and quickly called Gerry over.  Gerry gave the little girl some medicine and calmed down her hysterical mother.  The girl was fine and the stewardess gave Gerry a bottle of champagne.  Praise God!( About the little girl being alright, not about the champagne).  Once arriving in Quito, we located our luggage, got our passport stamped and went and stood in line for customs (where they x-ray our bags once again).  As our suitcases were exiting the machine, the woman looking at the x-ray, started asking us what in the world the equipment was for.  Having no clue what we were trying to say, (she spoke Spanish), she decided to go through our suitcases for herself.  As the lady began looking at the equipment, my mom remembered that in her bag was a paper saying what the equipment was.  She gave it to the woman, she read it, nodded her head and released us. Thank you Lord!  Later my family found out that there were two planes that arrived that night, we were scheduled to land first, but instead landed second.  We also discovered that the first plane that had arrived had gotten ALL of their luggage checked, that could have been us.  All glory to you, God! 

At the airport there was a man named Gustavo, who is a recordist with GRN, came and picked us up in a bus that he had rented.  The bus driver took us to a hostel used for teams on short-term mission trips.  We stayed there for the night and left for the scenic, 5-hour drive to Shell, Ecuador.  Wow, and when I say scenic, I mean it; tons of pretty rivers, beautiful house and tree covered mountains, gorgeous turquoise skies, big fluffy, white clouds, and the best part; a glorious, perfect rainbow.  Trust me, I have plenty of pictures to prove it.  When we arrived in Shell, we stopped at I-Tec the location the training course will be held.  We sorted through our bags and headed for our houses.  My family is staying at the Williams’ house.  The Williams are missionaries with Youth World, and are on a visit to California.  No, they’re not staying at my house, but in Orange County.  Their house is such a blessing!  Internet access, warm showers, and on the roof there are 6, yes 6, hammocks!!!!!!!!!  Pure Awesomeness!!!

This afternoon, after church, my family, Noal, Kim, and John, were walking to my house when all of a sudden it started pouring rain, we quick ran toward shelter, a bus stop, where many others were also sitting, avoiding the rain.  We stood there shivering, holding our umbrellas, trying to block the wind from blowing rain and soaking us, for about 10 -15 minutes.  Besides this ordeal, the weather has been beautiful no humidity, and clear skies.  

So far I have been on a suspension bridge, eaten new and old foods, learned a ton of new Spanish words, gotten the opportunity to lead worship (I play the guitar), and met lots of new people.  This morning the team attended a Spanish speaking church.  For worship we sang Your Love Endures Forever, How Great is Our God, and a few other songs that I have never heard before, all in Spanish.  I just clapped and hummed along.  Thank you so much all of you who have been praying for my family and I, it really makes a difference.        

Ecuador!!!

My family is going to Ecuador!!!   For information about the trip look at this blog:    http://meyerministry.blogspot.com/