LDP, Women's luncheon and a special surprise!

Sorry for the delay in posting an update last night....to be honest I was emotionally spent yesterday evening and the thought of having to write on the blog was just too much for me yesterday.

We started our morning off yesterday with having lunch with the LDP, Leadership Development Program, students. Each of these students were Compassion sponsored children that applied to the LDP program. The LDP program allows for them to go to college. In order to be chosen they must have exceptional grades, leaders in their church and have the potential to be future leaders in their country. There are 203 LDP students in Ecuador. They take about 40 each year with over 200 applying each year. Compassion would love to expand this program but it cost a sponsor $300 a month...but this provides their tution, books and housing. One day I hope we will be in a place financially to do this as a family.

The morning ended very emotionally as the LDP students were asked to speak to us as if we were their Compassion sponsors....what would you say to someone that sponsored you as a Compassion child....here is some of the statements

• You believed in me when I did not believe in myself
• You made me never doubt God loved me.
• You gave me hope when I had none.
• You made me believe that I could have a different life.
• Thank you for your letters...they changed my life.
• I will make you proud. I will change my country. I will help break the cycle of proverty.
• Thank you so, so, so much....You made me believe my dreams were possible.

Now you see why yesterday was emotional. Then we were asked to speak to them as if they were our sponsor child...such life giving words spoken over these 2 men and one women. Lots of tears shed....but the most powerful for me personally was Cailtin Whitefield who said "You have challenged me. You have shown me I can do more. I will join you in changing the world. I can't be silent anymore. I will stand with you in breaking this cycle of poverty. I will take your stories to my friends and to my family. Together we can change the world." Powerful!!!

After this breakfast we headed to do a ladies luncheon event for the CSP moms. There were three different minsitries going on at once yeasterday morning. One group was cooking, one carrying for the kids and one with the moms doing Bible study. I had the great privelage of being with the moms. Donna, from Paramount Baptist, shared her testimony of being left by her husband and struggeles with his many affairs. THere were many tears by the ladies as this a common story among them. Then Cathy Childers shared her testimony in Spainish....so don't ask me what she said. :) Finally, I closed with the story of Hannah and how as women we need to worship the Lord no matter what, give him our dreams for our children and to go to the Lord in prayer with our hurts. Then we had a special time of prayer with our ladies...to give you an idea of the magnitude of their pain and struggles...my group had 4 women and here were their request

• I don't feel close to the Lord. I can't feel him.
• My husband left me and my 2 children last week. I don't know what I am going to do.
• My son who is 16 is violent. His dad left many years ago. I need wisedom to show him what a real man is.
• I need a roof. Every time it rains we get wet and so do all of our things. (It rained last night and all I could think of those babies in the rain all night). This is the mom that is in pictures with Beth Shearon from Monday and one of the children is seen with Cathy Childers.

As we were doing this ladies Angie and Deanna were leading the kitchen crew making a special lunch for the ladies! They were MANY hiccups in this process. But an hour after we had planned...we sat the ladies down to a great lunch of pulled pork, rice, tortillas and pecan pies!!!! They were so overwhelmed many looked at their food without eating it because it was so special. Many packed it up because they wanted to be able to share such a special meal with their family. Nothing is wasted here....there are always clean plates because they don't know when they will eat next. We also gave each lady a gift bags with many goodies but some included: a bible, a scarf, earrings, toothbrushes, toothpaste, lip gloss, reading glasses, and our favorite scriptures on cards with our pictures. The scripture cards were the favorite and the Compassion staff even wants them. Despite this being hard to pull off the Compassion staff were so excited and overwhelmed by what had been done for the ladies. Many of them will not get this type of treatment or a meal without wrestling babies until another group comes.

After the lunch we said our goodbyes....which were very sweet. Then for the surprise....they took us back to the site were Christa Mason and Jane Mouhot worked last year. They got time to reconnect with their babies and mom. It was a short visit but Jane's favorite!!!

Today our ladies will meet their sponsor children and have a day with them. They will get a personal translator and will go to the amusement park...and then take the kids to McDonalds. Because just like our children they love it but it is way too expensive for them to ever go there.

Then this evening we will start our journey home with a late night flight. We should get to Lakeside around 11 or 12. We will not have internet between now and then. So this is so long from Ecuador....time to check out of the hotel, eat breakfast and head out for the day. Thank you for your prayers....please excuse any typos as I am on a time crunch!

Shelley

P.S. Happy Anniversary to my husband! Thanks for letting me be in Ecuador on this day....and for caring for the baby so I could do this!

Pampering the Moms and Home Visits

 What an incredible day we have had....today we spent the first part of the day with the mothers who are part of the Child Survivor Program. We were able to give them a "spa" day. We had ladies doing their make up and nails. After they were done with their makeovers they were able to step into our "photo" booth and have their pictures made. The ladies loved having their pictures done....many of us were invited into the pictures despite not being part of the makeovers! While the mothers were upstairs getting their spa treatments several of us were downstairs taking care of the 40 plus children. You are always a rock star with them when you bring out the bubbles, crayons and sparkling beads!!!

After this we went to homes of the mothers in the Child Survivor Program. We were able to do a day in the life with these ladies. We were able to do chores with them and see what their daily lives are like each day. Our ladies helped recycle bottles, cut potatoes to be sold, clean a back area for kids to play and  

Finally we ended our day with going to the market to get ready for a ladies luncheon tomorrow. I am so excited to see their faces when they get their gift bags. I hope you enjoy all of the pictures....I tried to capture everyone! We have picture of a little bit of everything from feeding the children to us at a local restaurant to some of the people at the project. Enjoy!!!!

Today has been an enjoyable day for us...we were able to worship at the church who hosts our compassion project. It was a great day for us...and the children blessed us with another song today. The sermon was on Nehemiah 12.

After church we headed off to a great buffet meal with traditional Ecuadorian food and to the Equator. We got to put our feet in both hemispheres which was pretty cool and fun. After that we went shopping and got some traditional handicrafts at the market.

No pictures from me today but you will probably get pictures later today from Judith! Thanks for praying for us. Tomorrow we get to do facials and makeovers for the moms. Then we get to take pictures in our photo booth. After that we will spend the day at the home of one of the women. We will get to do a day in the life with them. I am really looking forward to seeing what living here is like. Continue to pray for us!!!!