Ecuador Day 1: We’ve arrived!
17 adults. 7 duffel bags of VBS and medical supplies. Countless smiles.
We are on our way to Quito!
What are we doing?
¡buen viaje! to our missionaries and pilgrims!
We are going on mission through Education = Hope, an organization founded by a former youth minister of our diocese! Education Equals Hope believes that holistic education is a fundamental part of the equation that empowers children and communities around the globe to break the cycle of poverty and impact the next generation. They provide educational support for children, teens, and adults, and work to provide educational resources for entire communities in regions of our world that have suffered from poverty, crisis and natural disaster.
Our time will be a 10 day combination mission and pilgrimage. We’ll spend the first 5 days in Quito partnering with the Episcopal Church of Buen Pastor. (Fun fact: the Diocese of Ecuador is part of the Episcopal Church in the US. We share the same presiding bishop!) While on mission, we’ll be doing relationship-based ministries through the church — some Bible day camps and some youth group time with school children, meals, and pastoral visits to shut-in people up in the mountains. When we visit folks in their homes, we’ll be helping with a bit of cleaning, odd jobs, and will cook and share meals together.
Because we have the blessing of two nurses and a doctor on our team, we will also get to partner with e=h Medical Missionary Brenda Martinez to host a holistic medical clinic at the church. Many of you will remember her from when she visited St. Martin’s last year. Thank you to everyone who helped provide and collect the medical supplies on Brenda’s wishlist - 7 duffel bags of creams, vitamins, tinctures, bandaids, condoms, COVID tests, and even the hand-sewed reusable menstrual pads you all made. Thank you!!!
Then we’ll take two of our new Buen Pastor friends with us and board a plane to go to San Cristobal in the Galapagos for an eco-theology & creation care pilgrimage! We’ll be spending four days in theological reflection, prayer, and exploration before returning to Quito for one final day of debrief and goodbyes.
Follow along in our daily blogs to see what we’re up to and hear the stories from “in the field.”
