Quito

Since I last wrote, we had conferences in Lima, which M wrote about on her blog.

The last day of meetings, my whole family left for Bolivia with a group of young people, mostly from Peru, but a few traveling back to their homes in Bolivia, as well as a Venezuelan who has been traveling with us from pretty much the beginning of the trip.

They went to the conferences in Montero, Bolivia, and from what I hear from them had a very encouraging time; both for my family, as well as the large group of young people traveling with them.

Dad said that they took up Hebrews 13 (or it maybe 11, but I'm pretty sure I got it right), and a lot of the young people traveling with them told Dad that was exactly what they needed right then.

On Monday they took an all night bus from La Paz I think it was, and arrived Tuesday morning in Cochabamba, where they are now!

That's pretty much all I know from what they're doing!

I left Lima on Thursday evening with Dave, Maricela (from Colombia), Franklin and Daniel (from Peru), Wilmer (from Venezuela), Paulina (from Chile), and Lety (from Mexico). We spent the night, and most of the next day riding the bus until we got to Tumbes, the boarder with Ecuador. We had a really fun time (because I don't have a camera, I don't have pictures, but hopefully I'll be able to get some from the people I'm traveling with). From there we took another night bus to Quito, getting in at 5am.

Since then, we've been helping out at the camp here! It has been so awesome!

The camp is located on one of the flower farms that Dean works with, and consists mainly of the kids of the workers there. They are mostly Catholic, but are really free about having us teach the kids verses, and singing Christian songs. Although the Catholic Bible is used for the verses, the ones memorized have the same words used in our Bible. They do this to present the gospel without being offensive, or making it seem like we're trying to "convert them to our religion". The kids are divided into different groups 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 year-olds. During Bible time, sports, and crafts they are divided to make it easier to relate more closely to the kids' age group.

I took a couple pictures off of facebook. Here is one of the Bible talks with the two younger age groups (the pollitos, and conejos).

The kids just love you to death, and always want to be right next to you. Although I've been switching around quite a bit, I've been helping out in the "music" area with Paulina and Lety. It's so easy to get completely into singing the songs with all the motions having such enthusiastic ladies to work with. And the kids too, they just love it!

Another thing that has been really awesome, is how well our group works together and mixes. There are almost 20 young people here from all different countries; some only speak Spanish, and others only English, but everyone hangs out with everyone else besides that barrier.

Every night we have been getting together and working through a packet of questions that Dean gave us. There are three groups, and we are going through looking up important concepts in the Bible, finding different verses that support what we believe. It has been really neat, both searching the scriptures with other young people, and seeing things in a different light.

I'll have more to write later, but that's all I have for now!