Wrapping up a three year adventure

How do you sum up three wonderful years in few short words?

 Ecuador has been a place of great beauty, fun adventures, interesting cultures, delightful friends, fascinating history, breathtaking art, and so much more.

    I've worked with young people from around the world. I've delighted in their      learning, anguished over their troubles and prayed for their journey. I've also been able to participate in the birth of a new church and worked on Christian school conferences.
     It has been so good to work in a very well run school. The schedule often left this "youth impaired" gal tired to the bone and taking deep breaths to keep going in the high altitude, but the purpose of our mission and occasional R&R would refresh the body and give energy to the soul. I thank God for the honor of finishing out my missionary career in this delightful place. I am most blessed.
     Where to from here? In June I plan to return to Garner, NC  and resume teaching ESL classes at Wake Tech. My plan is to buy a home and perhaps take in international students from time to time. No matter where God takes me, I find there is beauty to find and enjoy. There are fears to conquer, difficulties to endure, and disappointments to sort through. Most of all there are people to love and encourage.
           Hope your adventure these last three years has been as fulfilling.

Full speed ahead

The hardest part of being in Quito is being away from family. Summer gave fun opportunities to make Little House on the Prairie costumes for the granddaughters and to prepare for Hannah's arrival in August. God has blessed me with 6 delightful little girls to enjoy. Facebook, emails and Skype help keep in touch but there is nothing like a warm hug and princess kisses to keep a grandma's heart a pumping!

Cataract surgery left me with odd as well as peculiar vision all summer. With some last minute adjustments, the new glasses were ready the night before I returned to Ecuador. Unfortunately, I am still having some problems with the eye and may have to cut short my time in Ecuador if further surgery is necessary.

I am back teaching home ec and scrapbooking. We continue to torment the other classes with the smell of baking goodies.  :)  New groups of students fill the classrooms with questions, comments, joys and sorrows. It has been good to spend time with individual students and parents. The Mom's Bible study has resumed. I am part of the teaching team. Next week my home ec students will make 120 Christmas cookies for the Mom's Party. I try to teach that cooking is a beautiful way to minister to others.

Although at times I had my doubts, you can teach 13 year old boys to sew! We've finished our stitches and embroidery, have sewed and stuffed our neck pillows and are now doing individual projects from a hand puppet to a flowing cape. I love to see them grow in confidence and skill.

Camera crazies have made it hard to download pictures for my blog. Pardon the long pause.
I continue to enjoy the beauty of this Andean country. One Saturday a friend and I took a scenic train ride along the mountain range. Another long weekend my pastor and his family took me to the beach.
As always, it is great fun to have Ecuadorians friends over for a meal or to visit a beautiful historic building with one them and learn more about this country's long, illustrious story. I pray that my short stay will have added some blessing to these wonderful people as they journey in their walk with God. They have surely enriched my life with their love and kindness.

Finishing strong

The school year is drawing to a close. The girls' formals are back in closet after the Junior Senior. The Seniors have left on their big trip. Teachers are cramming in their last minute exam preps and projects are keeping kids up late at night. In home ec we are preparing a turkey dinner for our final project. Sewing students are scurrying to finish stuffed animals, pajama bottoms and pillows. A few still fight with the knitting needles. "Could you show me again, Ms. Ruth???" " How long does it take to make a scarf?" " I can't, Ms. Ruth." To which I reply, "I can't never did anything. Keep knitting."

My pastor and his wife, Dr. Gonzalo and Viviana Suarez keep me encouraged. I so appreciate their love and friendship. Gonzalo is a clinical psychologist as well as a pastor and Vivi is the head of the Spanish Department at Alliance Academy. We are planting a church in a neighborhood called Pusuqui in the northern part of Quito. We are still looking for a permanent locale. For now we meet in living rooms. Rental property is very difficult to find. Our legal papers should be done in a few months so we have to find a permanent address before the final draft is filed. The government will check to make sure we are a real church.

In two weeks I will be landing in Raleigh-Durham Airport for summer vacation. Besides visiting family and friends, I hope to have the cataract removed from the eye that was injured in Venezuela. It will be nice to be able to thread a needle again.  :) Thank you for your prayers during this school year. God has blessed. I wish you could have sat with me during a mothers' outing where different ones expressed how much the school means to them and how they have grown in their understanding of our great God.

 My return ticket is bought for August 25th. It will be good to recharge the batteries before heading full speed ahead into the 2012-2013 school year. Hope you have a great summer.

Vacation in Otavalo

Otavalo is a prosprous Kichwa town that is bustling with commerse and tradition, new ways and old.

My friend and fellow teacher Brenda Brennan and I spent a delightful Easter break soaking in the beauty of this lovely mountain town. Sixty-two years ago my family moved to Guatemala where the Cachiquel and the Sutujil in their colorful dress and charming ways fill the memories of my childhood. It feels like home among these folks. The women wear long dark skirts and brightly embroidered blouses. Their beautiful faces and breathtaking hair bring back warm recuerdos as we call it here. Everywhere I turned I heard  Christian radio, heard talk about church or saw someone doing a Bible study at their market stall. Curious, I asked our taxi driver, who was a converted drug addict, what percent of the town were believers. Much to my delight he said about fifty percent. It showed  on every street corner as people politely helped you find your way, where civic pride and a spirit of honesty permiated the place. I came home much refreshed.

Carnaval

It was Carnaval weekend. School was out the following Monday and Tuesday so my friends the Cascantes and I piled into their car and headed for Riobamba. Janett's parents have a lovely tourist center they built on an old hacienda where we could enjoy a night's sleep with no airplanes, no barking dogs, no construction going on half the the night, no traffic, no car alarms...ah, peace and quiet. I slept like a baby. I didn't even hear tree frogs clacking about rainy season.
Carnaval is a big deal in the Riobamba area. People in colorful costumes danced in the streets as town bands played the familiar tunes used often for celebrations. People milled around the city with cans that sprayed white form to see who they could catch off guard. Kids with buckets of water, garden hose or water balloons hid on roof tops or in doorways facing the street splashing those who didn't duck soon enough. We drove with the windows up and often had to turn the wipers on after giggles kids drenched the car on the way by.

That of course, was the fun part of Carnaval, but as evening approached, red faced men who had spent money they didn't have to spare on liquor they didn't need, staggered home, some leaning on their wife's shoulder, others simply sprawled out on the sidewalk to sleep it off. I was told they save all year to blow it on Carnaval parties. It broke my heart to go by their homes that stood in dire need of paint and upkeep knowing that the money had gone for such excess.


The new semester is in full swing. First semester kids finished up their projects (like this teddy bear) and a new set of middle schoolers are learning the art of cooking and sewing. I guess as a grandmother, kid nonsense bothers me less and less and I find myself just enjoying their youthful exuberance. "What are we making today, Ms. Ruth?" greets me at each cooking class. The room fills with a scurry of hand washing and apron tying. "Is this a teaspoon or a tablespoon? Where's the sugar? Can I break the eggs this time?" I love the excitement in their eyes as they carry home a piece of aluminum foil filled with their latest culinary conquest. Mom's also thank me for having the patience to teach their children to cook. It's great to hear that one of my kids made a pizza for the family or a batch of biscuits, or brownies or whatever they just learned. My eighth graders are trying to master needle and thread. We've gone from basic stitches to embroidery. Next nine weeks we'll tackle the sewing machines and projects like neck pillows and stuffed animals and maybe even white knuckled knitting. :) It takes them about a week to relax holding the needles.

The big Christian School Conference is March 17th. All is coming together. Keep us in your prayers. I'll try to post more often. A computer crash complicated life for a while but we are back on track. My Ecuadorian pictures were still in my camera. Woo Hoo. Until next time...

A Busy Fall

The rains have come to Quito and the cold has set in . The heater at my feet is a welcome companion. The school year has gone well. I enjoy my classes. The kids are enthusiastic learners. I have four equipped kitchen plus a large sewing and scrapbooking lab. My seventh grade cooking classes and eighth grade sewing classes have turned out to be a lot of fun. The seventh graders amuse me with their enthusiasm about the mysteries of cooking. The boys try to out macho each other with hot sauce in their spaghetti sauce. (It didn't last long) :) We had a week where we went around campus sharing our goodies to bless others. I want them to see cooking as a way to show kindness to others.

It was such a blessing to be able to fly up to North Carolina for my daughter Tammy's wedding. She had asked me to arrange the beautiful Ecuadorian roses she had ordered as well as other lavender and purple flowers. The few short days were a flurry of delightful activities as friends and family helped celebrated Bryan and Tammy's marriage. All five nieces were dressed like princesses and stood up front just like they were supposed to. It was a lovely, lovely time.

I'm back in full swing in Quito. The ACSI office is almost finished. I have already been working on organizing materials and planning a spring conference. The English classes after school are fun great. How do you explain to a confused language learner why THAT and WHAT don't rhyme??? The church plant I'm involved in is looking for a permanent location. Our legal papers have been turned into the government. October 24th I joined the "third age" as they call it here. Some may call it old turning 65 but I call it blessed! Hope your fall is also going well.

Summer's Over-School Starts Tomorrow

What a great summer! I had good visits with my kids, and fun times with grandkids as well as siblings, and friends. Sorry the US was so hot. I glowed quite copiously among my compatriots. Life in the Us may be a lot more orderly than Quito but the weather here has you beat hands down. It was wonderful to have Judy and John and the girls with me in Kansas spending time with Mom. We crowded into her room at Kidron Village and livened up the place immensely. Great grandmothers are fascinating to little folks. Brooke told me after her visit to Kansas that she was going to get old and walk with a stick too!

The trip back was long and luggage scrambling but finally all of us reached our destination with a sigh of relief. It's so good to be back. Places look familiar and inviting. I don't shake at the thought of getting lost or forgetting how to tell the taxi driver where I live. Friendly smiles and warm hugs welcomed me home. The little church plant where I attend received me with open arms. Pastor's detached retina is much improved. It was good to have him in the service.

This year I'll be back in the class room. I'll teach Home Ec and scrapbooking part time and the rest of the time work on opening an office for ACSI Latinamerica in Quito. They have also asked me to serve as interim department head for the Fine and Manual Arts Department.

Soon after returning I had the fun of doing the flowers for a young missionary couple's wedding. With roses cheap in Ecuador, we had flowers and petals everywhere. We even showered the couple with armloads of rose petals as they left for their honeymoon.

Tammy and Bryan had Chip, Beth, Brooke and I over for the 4th of July. We were working on their wedding plans for November 5th in Greenville, NC. All. five nieces look forward to being in Aunt Tammy's wedding. I will be doing flowers again, but not with so many roses to throw around with abandon. Some how the price of roses rises sharply when it leaves Ecuador.

Hope your summer was as refreshing and that your battery is as recharged as is mine for a new year of ministry.