Si Señor

Johanna and Debby are writing this blog and it is now very late at night! Please forgive us for writing such a short blog but we feel that we need to get to bed quickly as there is another full day planned for us tomorrow. We have been “roomies” during this Quito Mission trip and have developed a wonderful friendship which we both treasure immensely.

We feel like we need to digress back to Sunday when our team went to church at Dios es Fiel (God is Faithful). It was an amazing service for all of us on the team. Because she is from Colombia, Johanna understood every single word and song during this 2 hour service. “Si Señor” were about the only words that Debby recognized during the church service; this phrase was repeated a number of times. In English that phrase is translated as “yes sir” but Johanna explained that in the Latin culture it is understood as Yes Lord! That was quite profound for me (Debby) as those two words are so powerful in Spanish and as believers in Jesus it should be our response to God. So Si Señor!

All of us continue to work on our two projects at the school in the mornings with much enthusiasm. The teacher’s lounge had major progress today; we finished painting the walls and the results were very exciting. Not only was it satisfying to see the results but the four women in that room enjoyed a sweet fellowship and a time of getting to know each other better. The change in the patio was dramatic also. At the beginning of the week, it was a little overwhelming to see the amount of landscaping that needed to be accomplished in just four days but with so many eager hands it tends to help make the work easy. It is such a privilege and joy to do this for the school and for the Lord. SO Si Señor!






Everyday during Vacation Bible School the Lord continues to touch our hearts through the children. We don’t see just the physical necessities of the children but we also see the spiritual hunger. Today the story was about how Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with God. John 3:16 was the verse used for the story lesson. There were several responses from the children that our team shared tonight with one another. A sweet little girl named Genesis told Cindy that today she understood the meaning of having Jesus in her heart. Another little girl named Ashley requested a Spanish Bible. During our Team Time tonight the ladies prayed for individual children by name and for different situations and responses that occurred during the VBS time. It was very apparent to us that God is at work in these precious little lives. Si Señor! Si Señor!

















We are wondering if any of our family members are keeping track of this blog. If so, we would love for you to write a post and let us hear from you!
To end this blog our whole team wants to tell Debbie Guinn’s daughter, Rachel to have a great big Happy Birthday (Feliz Cumpleaños)today. Si Señor!

We serve a great and mighty God! It's the same God that is Fort Worth and is in Quito!
Praise God! Buenos Noches! And Si Señor!

Para usted. Jesus te ama

It's been another fast paced God filled day. Our work projects are coming along. We have a strong group of women who are not afraid of getting dirty. This was proven as they shoveled two large mounds of dirt into a wheelbarrow and moved it out of the garden. The garden area is looking good. Pot after pot has been replanted, plants are trimmed and vegetables are planted. There are some tired bodies tonight for sure. The lounge got a first coat of paint. The teachers who are teaching summer school are excited about the changes being made.




VBS today went very smoothly. We arrived at the school and were soon greeted with smiles, hugs, and excitement. The staff was very welcoming and were glad we were there. Throughout the day the children began warming up to us and by the time the day was over a bond had definitely been formed. One of the highlights of VBS is the worship time. It has truly blessed our hearts to hear the children singing praises to our God who loves us. They are singing with much enthusiasm. It's hard to keep dry eyes when we see children arm in arm swaying to the songs, arms outstretched and one little girl on her knees. A point that has really been driven home to us is that God doesn't have boundaries. He is the same here in Ecuador as He is in Texas. The children are very attentive and responsive, especially during Bible time. Before the children left our whole team gathered with the children in the play yard to spend time just hanging out. This was a great time to get to know the kids.


After returning to the dorms we quickly had 30 brown bags assembled and we headed out. What an experience! As we were walking through the streets we prayed that God would show us who to give the lunches to. We soon found children in need. As we handed out the lunches we told them "Para usted. Jesus te ama." For you. Jesus loves you. The gratitude on their faces brought one team member to tears. This experience merits more than one time and we are looking forward to doing this again tomorrow.



Since fun is one of our team values, we enjoyed two rounds of Catch Phrase with the Tutens. Tie breaker will come later as we had much work to do to prepare for tomorrow.

We are thankful for your prayers and know you will continue to pray for us.

Debbie and Janet

Our God is Greater

Wow! What a day this has been. We were up early and eager to begin our day. After a fabulous breakfast we started on our work projects. We have two work projects going on. One is the redo of a teacher's lounge here at the school where we are staying. We were excited when we found out that part of the task included demolition. The other one is overhauling the school's learning garden. It was hard to escape getting dirty this morning especially since it has rained every day for the past 2 weeks. In the midst of the mud we were able to be in awe of the beautiful flowers that grow here year round. What a neat tie in to our VBS lesson on how God created the earth and everything in it. Even though the work is not finished we have already received several thank you's from the teachers.




After a hurried lunch we packed the bus and headed out to the VBS. We had a very memorable bus ride as the driver did not know where we were! We arrived at the school ready to go but the school was not expecting us due to a lack of communication on their director's part!!!! The director was on vacation and none of the staff knew we were coming. We quickly assembled in prayer with our hearts poured out to God looking for His wisdom and direction. God did only what He can do and in 15 minutes we had 37 eager, open hearted and energetic children before us to hear about our Awesome God!




Flexibility being key we were able to present our planned lesson for the day. We got to feed their hearts, souls and stomachs with so much goodness from the Lord. Language was not a barrier when it came to showing the Love of God and our love for each one of them. We were blessed by an abundance of hugs from the children at the end of the day.








Please lift us up in prayer for the VBS tomorrow as we are unsure of what to expect.
We love and miss you all.
Barbara & Janet

Sunday, July 11

If you are reading this on Sunday you get two posts for the price of one! The internet became available to us after dinner tonight. We've had an exciting day with an early start after arriving so late last night. We had a wonderful breakfast and then took the short walk over to the church. It is one of only a few Bible believing/teaching churches in Quito. It was wonderful to see people truly coming into His courts with praise! It was an exciting, joy filled time of worship and again, every girl's dream, a rose was presented to each of us as we were first time visitors. To some of the team it was a revelation of sorts that God is alive and working here in Ecuador. We tend to confine God to America which is certainly not the case!

After a brief tour of the school we had lunch and headed out to the equator! We had a great time exploring the mysteries of the earth God has created for us, and yes.........there really is a red line on the ground with a blue wire above it that denotes the exact location of the equator!

Driving through Quito we were awakened to the many needs that are here. Right now we are making the last minute preparations for VBS which begins tomorrow. Please pray for us, first of all thanking God for safe passsage and good health, and end by praying that we will become invisible tomorrow and that only Christ be seen in our lives as we do what HE has called us to do.

Cindy Griswold

We Arrived!!!!

Hello friends and family, We safely made it to Quito late last night without any problems. We want to thank the families that got up before the crack of dawn to see us off and prayed for us. It was touching to see so many kids get up early to say goodbye to their moms.

We are sorry this is a day late. We are alive and well. We arrived with all 23 bags, one brief delay, a smooth air ride, and miraculously we went through customs with Johanna in hand. It was a concern that Johanna would be delayed because she is a Columbian citizen. Praise God through prayer and Johanna's knowledge of international travel she went through with absolutely no issues. Funny story (sort of), when Johanna went to the customs counter a young girl behind her collapsed and she went to help her up. In the chaos of the situation the customs lady stamped her passport without asking questions and sent her through. We were all amazed that she went through in the same time as the rest of the team. Oh and just in case you were wondering the young lady was fine. Thank you Lord!!!!

We are staying in a school that is safely guarded and right next to the hospital, just in case something happens LOL. We had to lug 23 pieces of luggage up 2 flights of stairs after traveling 16 hours on multiple modes of transportation and not to mention we are 9,000 ft above sea level. Hello to being so out of breath. We were to happy to have nice beds and warm running water. The Tutens are so hospitable and made sure that we had towels, clean sheets, snacks, an encouraging note, and every girl's dream... a rose on her pillow. Certainly brought smiles to all of our faces. We are so excited to see what God has in store for us the rest of the week. Please check back for more updates and pictures.

Love Kelly Karr and Michele Meador

We are READY!!

front row: Debby Jones, Amy Russell, Asha Kilmer, Sharon Reeves, Johanna Calderon, Kelly Karr

back row: Jen Lipp, Mary Alice Brumley, Barbara Tutone, Kim Cosgrove, Jane Moughon, Michele Meador, Cindy Griswold, Janet Johnson, Debbie Guinn

Wednesday night was "packing night". 22 suitcases later, we have everything we need. We each have a personal suitcase, and the rest contain the supplies for our VBS, Operation Brown Bag, the teacher's lounge makeover project, and gifts. If the packing night was any indication, the team operates very efficiently when given a task. Those supply bags were packed quickly!

Currently, of our 15 member team, we have 13 ladies traveling to Ecuador bright and early in the morning. Last week we received news that Amy Russell is needed at home to care for her mother who is recovering from a heart attack a few weeks ago. We will definitely miss her and we are praying for her mom's full recovery.

We know that God is in control of all of the details of our trip, but we've listed a few ways you can pray for us as we depart tomorrow.

• Pray that our team will faithfully display to the world that Jesus was sent to reconcile us to the Father Who loves us. Tomorrow, our world will consist of bus drivers, ticket agents, flight attendants, passengers on planes, and customs agents... along with a lot of other people who will be watching.
• We fly from DFW to Miami to Quito. Pray for safe travel, connections to be made, and bags to arrive with us.
• Pray that Johanna is allowed to enter Ecuador. She is a citizen of Columbia and we've heard that there may be some difficulty there. We are trusting God. She is our only Spanish speaker and our Bible story leader.
• Pray for Jen and Amy, our two team members staying behind.

Thank you so much for your prayers, love and support. The next post will be from Quito!!!

Let's Get This Party Started

Welcome to the official blog of the Quito Team 2010. This blog has been a little boring so far, but it's about to heat up. First, let me introduce the Quito Team for 2010. They are:

Amy Russell, Asha Kilmer, Barbara Tutone, Cindy Griswold, Debbie Guinn, Debby Jones, Jane Moughon, Janet Johnson, Jennifer Lipp, Johanna Calderon, Kelly Karr, Kim Cosgrove, Mary Alice Brumley, Michele Meador, and Sharon Reeves.

God has gathered a great team of 15 women, 14 of which are leaving for Quito, Ecuador in less than two weeks!! Who's not going, you ask? =) Unfortunately for the team, one of the leaders, Jen Lipp, is staying behind this time. Jen believes God has called her to stay home, and that this is not her time for overseas ministry. The team has definitely been blessed by her extensive missions experience, and we are thankful she has been a part of this whole process. She'll be with us in every way except bodily.

The planning for this mission has been happening since the last team returned in August 2009. (See their blog, lasmujeres09.blogspot.com, for what God did last year.) The impact that going to Quito had on that team of women has been nothing short of amazing. We've definitely witnessed how God bonded that team together and we desire that for our team as well. They have definitely set the bar high, and this team is anxious to pick up where they left off.

The mission for the 2010 team is to display to the world that Jesus was sent to reconcile us to the Father Who loves us. We get our mission statement directly from John 17:22-23, which says,

"The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."

Like last year's team, we will be joining Ben and Mari Tuten and their family in Quito. The Tutens serve at the Alliance Academy International, which offers Christian education to more than 400 children in grades K-12. Almost half the students come from Hispanic or Asian families, and many of these come from non-Christian homes. There are three groups of people in Quito our team is specifically targeting to bless. We want to bless the community, bless the missionaries, and bless the street kids. This team will bless the community by running a VBS program at Amor Y Esperanza in the projects of Quito. The VBS will probably have 50-65 kids attend. The team will bless the missionaries by coming alongside the Tuten's in their work and giving a facelift to the teacher's lounge at the Alliance Academy. Finally, we will bless the street kids by passing out lunches through "Operation Brown Bag".

We are anxious to get started, but these last two weeks will be vital as we prepare to go. Please pray for us as you can imagine that there are many details to be finalized and distractions to try to steal our joy. There have been evidences of spiritual battle as our enemy seeks to disrupt things. No big surprise there, and it only makes us more excited to see what God's going to do. If you are reading this, you are probably supporting this mission through your gifts and your prayers. I know I speak for the entire team when I say thank you SO much! We appreciate all the support and we are representing you as well in Quito!