A group of about thirteen of us from all phases of life had the amazing opportunity to visit nearby towns in Quito, Ecuador.   We were sent to assist missionaries involved in a dump ministry with the group called Extreme Response International.  In Quito there are several thousand people who live in the local garbage dumps that are on the outskirts of the city.  Entire families rely on the garbage that is thrown into the dump on a daily basis as their sole means of survival.  We were to spend a week in the dumps holding Christmas parties for those who live in them.  We knew our task would not be an easy one – only thirteen of us serving and spending time with a mission to throw Christmas parties and spend time with over 6,000 people and unconditionally show them the love of Christ. We were challenged to look through the eyes of Jesus and see them how He sees them…just as He sees you and me. To love all; no matter what they looked like, what they smelled like, or how dirty or disease-ridden they were.

And so we arrived in Ecuador and prepared for our upcoming Christmas parties. Each party consisted of carnival games, a short cartoon film in Spanish about Jesus called an Adventure in Odyssey, face painting, nail painting, and their favorite – caramelos (the candy!). The first day we made about 6,000 gift bags to prepare for the upcoming week. Each child was able to go home with a bag full of treats such as crayons, toy rings and bracelets, tops, a beanie baby, or a McDonald toy; what we would throw in our attics to collect dust or just throw away, they treasured.  Each family was able to take home a big bag of staple food to last them about a month.  It was such a blessing to give these people who have nothing, who are living off of garbage, a small gift that put the biggest smile on their faces.  Despite their living conditions, these people were some of the warmest and friendliest people filled with gratitude for our small offerings.

 But in the end, it wasn’t the gift bags that were the most important thing to them.  We were able to give them a sense of hope by sharing with them the most permanent, life-touching entity; Christ’s love.  More people than were anticipated showed up to our parties.  It was such a joy to see all these additional people coming, but my heart was soon broken when I knew we weren’t going to be able to supply gift bags to everyone. After struggling with that fact, the Lord blessed me by placing a woman in my life the next day.  He knew just what my broken heart needed.  This Ecuadorian woman told me that it wasn’t just the gift bags that made an impact in these people’s lives, but it was our smiles and our desire to simply spend time with them, hug them, and love on them.  It didn’t just bless them, but it blessed us and dramatically impacted our lives and sent us home with so many lessons learned.  We are all so blessed with what we have here in the States, things we simply take for granted everyday. But God’s people in those Ecuadorian dumps are no different from us.  Why did God allow us to live in the United States of America as opposed to a disease-ridden dump in a South American country?  We came home with a new look on life; so grateful for what we have, and ready to listen to the Lord so that He can show us what to do with the resources we have been given and bless others in return.  Going on a mission like this I feel is worth all of the minor sacrifices made, so the next time you see a trip coming up…I pray that you will plunge head first into God’s world and be privileged to see people through His eyes…you’ll never be the same again.

PERU MEDICAL/DENTAL TRIP REPORT

We are so grateful to have had the chance to come here and partner with Ale’s team. The week of clinic ended, with over 900 people seen, and over 2000 prescriptions filled in the pharmacy

The local clinic was a few blocks away, and set up with clinic workers, who mainly served for crowd control, and Quechua translators with the triage tents, and with the Dr's. and nurses who saw patients, and in the pharmacy. Some people who came spoke Spanish. Most were very poor and sad looking... dirty, wind-burned, sniffily, with many sick-looking children being carried on backs in shawls and pulled along by tired looking mothers. So many had dirty, cracked sore-looking skin - so dirty that sometimes it was impossible to clean a spot with alcohol to do a blood sample. There were many elderly who came, mostly women, having walked hours over the mountains to come. Ale’s team had gone to various areas to ask people to come on certain days so they could be seen. The elderly women came in bright skirts and shirts of pink, orange, red and green and blue, with plastic flowers perched in the bands of their wool hats...faces wrinkled like a shrunken apple.

It was humbling to see so many elderly being half- carried in or helped by their children.  My translator helped me to learn to ask the intro questions in Quechua, much to the amusement of the people who came. Many of the med students and nurses got stretched a lot by doing consultations and exams on their own, with Dr. backup by Dave and Scott - they did great... always with at least 2 translators assisting. There were many sad cases, people quite disabled by things that we’d just get taken care of by our health services here. This time there seemed to be many emergency cases - dehydrated children, wounds to be stitched, people who had fallen, severe pneumonia, people who needed IV´s, and so many who had great pain and no ability to get any medicine. There were also many really funny moments, when the Lord would bring someone in with a joyful face despite the poverty, or we had translation errors that kept them amused.

The spiritual part of the outreach came more at night, when Ale’s team would set up in the town square in front of where we slept, and showed the Jesus film in Quechua, did worship and preaching. There were also so many opportunities to touch, pray for and show love in action towards the people who came to the clinic. I was proud of the quality of love and care that people on the team showed, especially in loving touch and kind words.

One highlight of the week was a few of us being asked to attend a single 17 year old who came in partway through labor... she was without any visible family support, and had not had classes or any preparation for the delivery, and they give no meds during labor here. We stayed with her and coached her thru her hours of contractions, and attended the baby afterwards. It was really a wonderful experience! Later, when she’d recovered a bit and the baby was nursing, she told the Dr. she wanted 2 of us to be her "madrinas" or godmothers. We accepted on behalf of Grace, and prayed over her and the baby girl, whom she named Gracia (Grace). It was a sweet time.