Speading the night in a Quichua Community

 

This past weekend I stayed in a Quichua Community to understand the Quichuas more.  All I can say is that it was COLD!  Haha But I loved the experience and was amazed how these people LIVE.  I respect the Quichuas and I really saw and experience what it is like to live in Poverty.  These people are considered in the poverty category and they live on only 2 dollars a day. 

Tilivi the Quichua Community

The Quichuas are farmers that farm on the muddy cold soil in the Highlands of the Andes Mountains.  Far from civilization and live in small groups called Communities.  I met my friend in Ambato which is a big city about the size of Charlotte and we took this car filled with people up to the community! 

When we got to the community it is rainy season and very cold!  During the day it is about 40 degrees and at night 35 degrees and it rains 24/7.  The roads are nothing but mud and we had to walk 1 mile and ½ to her house.  We got to the house and we stared cooking in the fire pit, the kitchen floor was a dirt floor and the kitchen was filled with smoke from the fire pit. 

To go upstairs you had to climb the ladder from the kitchen to the 2^nd floor thru a little hole.  The animals stayed in the house as well to keep away from the cold.  When we went to bed I slept in a sleeping bag and 5 blankets and still was cold the room didn’t have a door but used a blanket as the “door”. 

I wasn’t able to sleep at all from being so cold and hearing the pigs under my room.  The family woke up and we walked 2 miles to go to church and I was asked to speak and I talked about the Numbers 6 Blessing.  After church the pastor took us back to Ambato and I was so happy to go back home. 

 I really learned a lot while being there and how much we Americans do have and how the Quichuas live and how far apart our cultures are yet we serve the same God.  The Quichua people are some of the sweetest people I have ever met.  And I love them so much and have so much respect for them. 

I was so happy to be able to have this experience that not many people are able to have.

 Golden Street Church of God

The Toilet

Downtown Tilivi

Little Lives Changing Mine...

After living here in Ecuador for about 5 months now God has really changed my life in so many ways. But the one thing I am so blessed is that God allowed me to work with the wonderful kids here in Ecuador. While working with kids here in the Daycare, English Classes, and now Kids Church.

Living I have been able to meeting the parents and I have gotten to listen to their stories and see where they live. It breaks my heart that these little sweethearts have to deal with the problems there parents put them through... Some children have to go thru separation from their parents, abuse, neglect, malnutrition, and many many many more problems. There is a generation of children who don't know what hope, love, and joy is; they are so emotionally scarred.

Trying to show these children the love of God isn't an easy thing to do but I am so glad that we have a God who whenever I am weak, I know I can always lean on him. The Kids Church has defiantly been a tough thing for me trying to teach these children in a different language about God and the Bible also trying to have these kids committed to coming and developing “student leaders” within the children. We started off with 3 kids that came then grew to 6 children. I was really discouraged and asked God, “Why are there only 6 kids coming?”  Then I prayed a lot then the NEXT week 23 kids came to Kids Church! PRAISE THE LORD! Then the week after 10 kids gave their heart to the Lord. God is showing me how faithful He is and all I have to do is ask and I shall receive. I am so blessed to work with the children here in Ecuador and every single one will be in my heart. :)

Changing little lives with your help!

Thank you so much for your prayers, love, and donations for these kids here at the daycare in Riobamba, Ecuador.  With your help we were able to supply these children with toys and objects for the teachers to teach with and interact with the children!  Here are a couple pictures giving the toys to the children and they love these toys soooo much!

Maitae with her new drum

Francisca with new dishes to play with

Ella loves her new toy

Passing out the new toys for the kids

They were sooo excited

Elvis is ready to build

  



The kids are playing so nice!



Couldn't stop looking at her new toy







Thank you so much again for your help! :D

Semila: The Latin American Intercultural Seminary

MISSION: To educate and equip Pastors and Leaders Spanish and Quichuas alike.

This is my wonderful home for 6 months and the only reason everything is here.  This is Semila Seminary located in Riobamba, Ecuador.  Here we have over 100 students in our Bachelor and Certificate Classes.  They come 2 weeks out of the month to do an intense week of studying to become Pastors or Leaders in their churches.  This is just like any other seminary in the United States! J  The Seminary has came a long way sense Pastor Nestor and Donata took over and still growing Praise be to God!  Please help support the Seminary to help educate and equip these Pastors and Leaders to go share the gospel in their Communities and churches.

Highlight: The Daycare

So this is the infamous daycare among many churches in America and Shabbach.  Here we have 45 Quichua and poor Spanish children and 6 Quichua workers.  What here at the daycare deals with is dirty, smelly, sick, the outcome of poverty, and most are unloved children.  The workers here provide 2 meals and a snack, as much love as they can, and a somewhat safe place. The thing is these women don’t get payed a single penny by the parents, they are payed only by donations.  There are so many needs here at the daycare but we simply don’t have the money. 

(What the kitchen looked like before and it was infected with ants and nats.  But now they have new cabnets, Praise the Lord!)

Lucky and thanks to Pastor Glenn and Shabbach Youth Conferences we are getting a new daycare soon!  But still there is a lot of needs still for example the children sleep on a huge mat, they hardly have any toys, and we just got running water and a new shelf for their food. 

What we are trying to do is to show the parents of the children how to keep a “clean house” and at the end of the day we clean all the children (brush their hair, wipe their faces, tie their shoes, etc.)  and hopefully the parents will take notice.  There is also 2 buildings.  The building on the left is for the older children from the ages 3 to 5 and the building on the right is for the younger children from 0 to 2 years.

I hope these pictures will give you a good idea what it is like here at the daycare in Riobamba, Ecuador.

   "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for such them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not recieve the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Mark 10:14-16

 

  

 "Out of the mouth of infants and babes, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger."

Psalms 8:2

                  "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

 

If you have any questions or if you want to come down to Ecuador and work with the daycare and Semila Seminary Ministry just add me on facebook the link is on the left side of the blog.   What you can do is pray for these children and if you want a profile of a children so you can pray for them just let me know as well. 

Love yall :)

Highlight: Rosario Guambo

This is Rosario Guambo! I know she is every much loved by many people in Fort Mill COG and now living here we have formed a very deep relationship.  She is my "Quichua Mama" and I am her "Gringa Hija".  She is such a sweet and tiny woman and has so much patience it amazes me sometimes!  I love the whole Guambo family and hang out with them quite a lot.  This is a little bit about Rosario a lot of yall don’t know about. When she was 13, she and Segundo (her husband) were married.  At age 14 she had her first child!  She is now 30 with 7 children.  Now it is really tough to have 7 children here in Ecuador and while she is the cook for the Daycare on the Semila Campus and Segundo does a lot of odd jobs. Their house is what a lot of families houses look like here in Ecuador.

The Guambo Family with our group from FMCOG



9 people sleep in there.



This is their bathroom and sink.

4 people sleep on that bed





The 3 girls sleep on top and the 2 boys sleep on the bottom.



The Kitchen



The inside of their kitchen with dirt floors



The Quichuas of Chimborazo

The people I serve here in Ecuador are the Indigenous people called the Quichuas.  The Quichuas have been around since the Mayans and Incas living as farmers in the Andes Mountains.  When the Spanish came over to South America in the 1540's they made the Quichua people wear different clothes to show which person is Quichuas.  They still wear the same clothes to this day.  In the different Providences or Communities the Quichuas have a different color skirts, ponchos, or a different style hat to show that they come from that providence.  From the very begging the Quichuas have been discriminated against.  Missionaries started their work with the Quichuas during the 1950’s and slowly started to reach these misunderstood Indigenous people. 

Now in 2011 working with the Quichua I have learned so much from these people I love dearly.  Their "issues" isn't really that they don’t have water, starving, or millions dying from diseases.  Yet these may be some issues in some communities.  The problems are more social than anything else. 

• Machoism
• Domestic violence
• Lack of hygiene
• Child labor
•  Blending of their Old Ways with Christianity
• Lack of education

These are some issues that we missionaries are faced here in Ecuador.  I can tell you so many stories that these wonderful people have told me about their lives.  But I will tell you a little bit in each issue to help you better understand the Quichuas.

Machoism & Domestic Violence

Young Quichua Couple

Machoism is where the men are in control of very thing and the women are downgraded.  The women are only supposed to only cook, clean, and have children.  The men are very rude to their wives and abuse them.  One woman that attends the church is now handicapped from her husband's abuse.  She cannot take care of her children and now stays with her parents and stays in bed all day.  But we and other missionaries here are now teaching the Quichuas to love their wives and what the bible says.  We are seeing some changes!

Lack of Hygiene



Chosas

The people here are not up to date with the rest of the world when it comes to hygiene.  It is more important to work or take care of other things.  For example:  The people here farm the land all day and are very dirty and the next day they have to farm again.  They see it as there is no point of showering if they are going to get dirty the next day.  Also very one else in their community does the same thing.  The children are sick all the time because they do not wash their hands before they eat.  The water is not safe most of the time and has bacteria that may harm them.  Their houses as well are not clean or they may live in a Chosas.  But we and other missionaries here are to educating them in the correct way of hygiene!

Child Labor



Me and the girl who was hitt while selling

Here because most Quichua families are poor they need their children to work as well.  There is ALOT of shoe-shine boys here or girls who sell candy or fruit on the street.  You see a lot of mothers who bring their young children with them while they sell.  There was a young girl in our church who was selling candy with her sister and did not see a car coming and was hit.  She broke her arm and was bruised up pretty badly.  Praise the Lord, now she is fine and is walking around!  But she had to have pins put into her arm and will live with that the rest of her life.  She is also only 6 years old.  The Susongs are directly working with these children all around Ecuador.  Most children are socially and emotionally affected for the rest of their lives. 

Blending of their Old Ways with Christianity

Mama Negra



This happens with Quichua people all over Ecuador.  Most of them don't talk about it but it is practiced to this day.  Along with following their Christian ways they still follow their pagan beliefs.  For example:  When a child is born they put garlic to keep evil spirits away, when someone becomes sick they go to a medicine man, or if someone wants to get revenge with another person they go to a "Witch Doctor" and basically perform "Voo Doo."  There is a huge Festival in Latacunga called Mama Negra or "Black Mother" with is celebrating their old pagan beliefs.  We and other missionaries are fighting against this and teaching them that in the Bible  it is wrong to still follow their old pagan ways.



The Quichua people are very much discriminated against and very low in society here in Ecuador.  But God loves them just as much as He loves us.  The Quichuas are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met.  They are so humble, loving, curious, helpful, and just awesome people.  I have never seen someone pray as long as these people pray!  I am so blessed that I have the opportunity to live and work with these people.  To laugh, cry, joke, and learn with them as well.  Please pray as us missionaries who work with the Indigenous people and teach them the ways of the Lord and reach the unreached.

Love yall :)