Pledge of Allegiance to the Ecuadorian Flag Ceremony

All over the country of Ecuador 6th graders and 12th graders are required to pledge allegiance to the Ecuadorian flag. If you're not an Ecuadorian but are in this country, you have the option to grab the flag and put a rose in a vase as a sign of respect.

Here's a non- Ecuadorian showing respect.
Ethan was asked to escort some important people to their seat during the ceremony This is a very serious and important event in the lives of Ecuadorian students. They have been practicing for this event for months.

Bens 6th graders after the ceremony

FEBRUARYS HIGHLIGHT: MINISTRY TO THE STREET CHILDREN

Thanks to God we have received about 150 bags for Operation Brown Bag that were colored and decorated from kids in Claxton, GA, Columbia, SC and Ft. Worth, TX. Thanks to all of you kids and adults who made sure these bags made it from your little corner of the world to ours! We got these at the beginning of January so we have lots of work ahead of us in passing these out.

Our family goes out and passes the lunch bags out on our walks to the park or grocery store. I can't explain in words the joy I get from seeing these kids appease their hunger and to see my kids, your kids being used by God. Isn't it awesome that God can use us no matter how small we are!

Ministry Highlight Video

See below for pictures and blog of this month's ministry highlight

MINISTRY HIGHLIGHT: BEN'S 6TH GRADE CLASS

As many of you know, Ben's main student ministry here is teaching Math, Science and Bible to 6th graders.

One of the things Ben loves about teaching is seeing the look on the kids face when they finally get it, when the light comes on. Doing hands-on activities to get them to grasp things is the best way to see that light come on. Here is his class working on their Bubble Project. Another thing that Ben loves about teaching here at Alliance is the freedom he gets to share Christ throughout his classes, in his curriculum, in the hall, at recess, etc..... He has some students who are atheists, come from buddhist homes, catholic and christian. This is such a freedom because he oftens gets challenging questions from these little curious minds as they try to put together what they believe.

Missions is not just for the poor

When you hear the word missions or missionary you may think of a person who leaves to a third world country/overseas to go serve the poor, needy, hurting and unsaved people. But that is not always the case. The heart and driving force behind a missionary is to give people the opportunity to hear about Gods salvation, His love, His forgiveness and their need for a Savior.
As missionaries we are able to share this love and salvation through providing a direct need and being Jesus in the flesh. Which than can look like a person in Tanzania helping bring a water to a village for the first time, or a person in China teaching English, or a person in Kansas leading a small bible study with moms, or a person in Guatemala working in an orphanage helping street children. We missionaries come in many colors, shapes, skills, giftedness and geographic location. So if your reading this and you have Gods salvation, His love, His forgiveness and you believe in Him than we are missionaries.
Our family has the priviledge of being missionaries in Ecuador working with the spiritually and emotionally needy. We have the opportunity to serve international, missionary and Ecuadorian students. A lot of these students need to see Jesus lived out, hear about Jesus and His salvation and His freedom. We also have the opportunity to work with the physically needy at a government hospital for low income families and to work with street children by providing lunches for them. Before this we were missionaries in Ft. Worth being Jesus in the flesh to those around us at school, at work and at home. Discipling and teaching as the opportunities arose.

Please don't let the misconception that to be a missionary you need to be in another country, working with the poor keep you from doing missions right where your at. The opportunities are boundless, really! Pray with me that we may see them and arise to the occasion.

desires of our heart

We spent the last couple of weeks meeting up with friends and family. And also, speaking in churches. Having to share with so many people our ministry it made me think of how gracious the Lord has been to give us the desires of our heart. We had no idea what this school was going to be like and if we would like it. We just knew that this was where the Lord was leading us. Having been here 6mos. I can say that our whole famiy is very happy here.

This little piggy went to the market

This little piggy never made it home.

This is a typical Ecuadorian meal that was served for our Christmas meal

Getting ready for the big night

Here we are getting ready for our big Christmas Party at the Hospital.
As I have shared before I have the joy of visiting a government hospital here in Ecuador that is for children who are low income. Today we got to be Santa Claus. We did a very simple role play of the story of Christmas and then we would sing (we sounded horrible) and finally we passed out gifts to the children w/ homemade cookies and left tracts with them. It was so much fun to see them light up when they opened up their gifts. Some of them weren't to excited about their gifts b/c some of the gifts weren't that great but we had no say in that. Either way many kids were happy to recieve a little something.

Here's a happy camper!

How do you pack for xmas when your moving to another country you have never been to?

We had no idea what Ecuador was going to be like so when we were packing in the states to come Christmas stuff was not a priority so we packed lightly. I manage to squeeze in a small fiber optic Christmas tree b/c I thought it would be very sad if we didn't have one at all. No ornaments though I figured I could make them. I also packed 3 toys and 1 gift for Ben that we could give to each other for Christmas. That was it. We had no idea if they would have toy stores nearby. They do have toy stores but they are triple the price so I was glad I brought gifts for them. And we packed our family tradition Interactive Nativity set that we do with the boys to tell the story of Christmas. Well we were delightfully surprise to find out that they sell real Christmas trees. That was a real treat b/c our tradition is to go to a farm and cut our own tree. We didn't get to cut our own tree this year but the guy swore that he just cut it that morning. So if you remember we don't have a car but were out buying this huge tree. We got a van to go get this and it was the 2nd time I was out driving. The parking here was horrible it took me 30min to park my car not b/c I didn't have a spot but b/c they try to squeeze in 75 cars into a parking lot that was made for 25 cars. After much sweating and backing in and backing out I was ready to get our tree. This has been our prettiest fresh tree ever. Last years tree was a disaster (that story made it to our blog). If you look closely you will see that Ethan is digging into his Xmas mitten not stocking. That was interesting to discover that they do mittens here. We did our own little xmas celebration here yesterday morning, it was sweet. Notice our kids don't match thats b/c Ben dressed them!

Quito Days

I am still not totally positive on why we have Quito days but I think it has to do with the independence of Quito??? Well it's a month long celebration and there are festivities through out the city. We were able to go to a parade and they are great fun here. They have dance shows and everything. They don't just walk by and wave they stop and do performances. They last for at least 3hrs.

Our school does a little celebration where all the Ecuadorian staff run typical Ecuadorian games for the students and at the end you get to ride a Chiva (just secondary). You may be asking what is a CHIVA! Chivas are very popular here during this time of the year. They are packed with people and they ride around town dancing, singing and some drinking. Our schools chivas were the same minus the alcohol. They gave us whistles(very annoying) and flags instead of alcohol. It was a blast I got to ride with the Seniors. We had tons of fun. Here's brief video footage, its really loud.

Operation Brown Bag

Kids Helping Kids Around the World! Have you underestimated the power of the brown bag? I'll bet you didn’t know that a brown bag could help in the fight to end hunger, or that it could bring God's love in a very real way, or that it could be the first time a child gets a message of care from another child.
Just as we underestimate the power of a brown bag, we sometimes underestimate how God can move through our children. Join us and see how God uses your child's work across continents!
"Every year, thousands of children are pulled into life on the street due to financial difficulties at home, problematic relationships, commercial exploitation and poor access to schools. This group of children become unprotected working children who are extremely vulnerable to exploitation. There is a significant problem of street children in Ecuador, particularly in Quito, the capital city. Hundreds of children work daily on the streets selling cigarettes, chewing gum and sweets to passersby, or juggle in front of cars stopped at the traffic lights. Many shine shoes for 10 hours a day to buy food each day." Mashi Foundation




We are looking for adult facilitators who can help get this going in their classroom (teachers or parents), daycare, preschool, church, homeschool or school. If your establishment is not Christian they can still do this and God can still use them!
So what do you need to do to become a part of Operation Brown Bag?
- Have the children draw a picture on the bags & a message and put $1 in it. (attach a verse if applicable)
- Have one adult collect all the bags from the group and mail them to us in Ecuador.
- Contact me for specific instructions and details: tutensinecuador@yahoo.com
The dollar will pay for one child’s lunch, which consists of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, milk and yogurt.
Once the bags arrive in Ecuador they will be distributed to:
-Street kids in the city of Quito
-children in a low income children’s hospital

This project was started because, as a mother, my heart hurts for the children who are sprawled out on the concrete sidewalk everyday waiting for their parents to make some money to feed them. Kids as young as three years old are out selling fruit or candy to make ends meet. We see little ones on their mother's backs as they dig through the trash. Also, it bothered me that my children walk past these children everyday slowly becoming numb to this. So I wanted to find a way to help them be Jesus to these little ones.

Oh my gosh she said YES! What do I do now?

I walked into the hospital room and I was greeted by an older woman and her son. Her son Francisco was quite the little ham full of energy and smiles. I quickly got acquainted with this little family and they were very greatful for our visit. As I moved into reading a story of how Christ healed the Centurions servant she listened attentively for this story was very real because her son needed healing so he could walk. At the end of the story I felt like she was open to hearing the gospel and that I should share it with her. I asked her if I could pray with her and I did. Then I thanked her for her time and walked out the door. I felt terrible that I just walked out of there ignoring the Holy Spirits prompt to share the gospel with her. I continued visiting in the other rooms with the other patients but still feeling horrible about Francisco and his mother. So I went back to the room to share a tract with her but the moment was lost. The room was now full of company and she was busy. So I handed her the tract and I walked away disappointed. So I continued pressing on doing what I came to do: encourage these families and share Christ in deed and words. There was a lady standing against the door outside of a room and we began a conversation. Our conversation quickly turned into me sharing the Gospel and before I knew I was asking her if she wanted to know how to have Christ be a part of her life. Once I shared that I said "well would you like to pray with me to ask Christ into your life. You can pray this with me know or I can show you how so you can do it at another time if your not ready." She said yes, now. Than I thought oh my gosh she just said YES! So I began thinking really fast the important steps to pray for in the sinners prayer. I remembered something simple and profound I learned in school: ABC Admit, Believe, Confess. So we prayed and it was truly beautiful to see and to be reminded of how the Lord opens our eyes to the truth. The truth of our sin, His love and forgiveness. She was crying and I was getting choked up because in that little corner in the hall in that hospital the power of the Lords salvation was coming through to His child. I felt priviledged to be a vessel used by Him. It was amazing only because it was all HIM! I went back by Francisco's room and took a peek through the window and the mom was reading the tract. I was thankful that God continued to use me inspite of what I would consider disobedience to his prompting. He uses us in spite of us, Praise God for His grace!