In the midst of it all

Who would have thought that student life would be this busy? My life has been non stop the past couple of months. Between classes, my job in the church, my family and friends, and the many responsibilities I have taken on, I haven't had much time to make a new post.

Here is what I have been up to lately:

Cursillo #1

For those of you who haven´t heard about Cursillo, this is a movement that helps Christians to discover their gifts, to use them and to give life to the church. It all starts with a weekend retreat but it is a life commitment of getting to know yourself better and understanding what God wants from you, your family and your community.

The Episcopal church of Ecuador didn´t have a Cursillo ministry but thanks to the initiative of the Happening committee, the Vivanco family, the support of our Bishop and help from the Dioceses of Upper South Carolina, USA. We were able to bring Cursillo to Ecuador.

I had the amazing opportunity to serve as a staff member, worked side by side with some of my favorite people, we had an awesome group of people that came down from South Carolina to help us out too and everything worked just fine. What a blessing was for me to be part of it and enjoyed it with my dad (he went to Cursillo as a candidate) I didn´t think my dad was gonna go since he is not really involved in church programs but I think the Holy Spirit lead him there just as he did with the rest of the candidates.

I saw God during that weekend, I saw his love and kindness for his people, I saw him breaking walls, walls of resentment and loftiness that were built years ago. Maybe you have experience that feeling, the feeling of God breaking everything inside you so you can grow and become a whole new person, the feeling of Him taking down all of your covers, that exasperating feeling of not knowing what is going to happen next. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it really going to to help? a lot of questions go through our minds 
when we feel exposed and afraid of the future right? 
I´m sure the candidates of Cursillo felt the same way, exposed and afraid of not knowing what to expect of a new live in Christ.

Having opportunities like this one fills my heart, sharing experiences and being a witness of God’s wonderful love moving and transforming lives is pure joy.

New Beginning #1

 New Beginning is a weekend retreat for youth aged eleven to fifteen designed to address spiritual and social needs in this age group.

Just as we didn’t have Cursillo in Ecuador we didn’t have New Beginning but thanks to the initiative of the some of the leaders of my church and one of our dear friends Dina Burns we are going to make it happen. I’m going to be part of the Staff and will have the chance to give a talk about self-esteem (praying for God giving me words of wisdom)

We are starting this amazing life changing experience for the youth only in my church (Cristo Liberador) for now but our hope is that we can have a solid fund that can help us share this experience with youth of other local churches and make it an official Episcopal youth event here in Ecuador.

We saw the need of the youth of our community for a retreat program like this couple months ago when we first started having a Junior group (youth 11-15years) it was out of our budget to make it happen of course and what do you do when something is out of your hands?…… yeah that’s right, you PRAY. So we prayed about it and God answered our prayers. Only a couple of kids are having the chance to go this time but we will continue praying for more opportunities like this one for other kids.

Holy Cross summer team

We had the blessing to receive our brothers and sisters from South Carolina, they were a team of 34 that came to Cristo Liberador church to help us out with some projects, 21 of them went to Esmeraldas,  a beautiful town in the coast of Ecuador 6 hours away from Quito, where Martha one of our loved ones has been volunteering for a couple of months now in Santa Maria Episcopal Church.

I love how interesting it is to see people from two different countries getting along so well, learning about their cultures, languages, customs, etc. The most important thing of having a team from the USA is the time you get to spend with every single person of the team and how you see God working in them. It is definitely not easy not adjust a different culture, the are a lot of differences but we like to think that is nor right, it's not wrong it's just different. 

The last 2 years I was able to work with Youth World and serve as a team leader with Quito Quest, I actually hosted the same team 2 years ago. I thank God every single day for it, they have been a blessing since then. Sadly this year I couldn't do it because of my studies but I was able to help as a site host with Education Equals Hope. WHAT AN AMAZING TEAM ...!! (every single time I have had the opportunity to host is amazing of course) they did a lot of hard work, a lot of cement, a lot of paint, a lot of wood and tons of laughs.

Clinicals

I think you would like to know that I will be done with my freshman year of college in two weeks What can I say? Being a college student has been incredibly awesome, hard at times because you know it's not that fun having to do a lot of homework, not getting that much sleep, not being able to hang out with friends and not having much time to spend helping in the church but friend it is all so worthy. Just a couple of weeks ago I started doing my  clinicals in a local Hospital of Quito and I never thought I will be this lucky, I get to spend time doing with I love, helping people and trying to make them feel better. of course I don't know everything about nursing yet, I'm still learning, still making little mistakes but I mean that is how we learn right?

Something to think about…..

The social security healthcare here in Ecuador is administered by the social security system (IESS) people who want to use this system must pay a monthly fee of  $65.00, it may not seem like a lot of money for some people but most of the people of Ecuador don't have access to this security system. Sometimes even paying the fee people have to wait months for a medical check up. There is always the option to choose private health insurance which is nicer but more expensive and middle-low class people cannot afford it.

If you don’t know this yet one of the reasons I want to become a nurse is to help people that don't access to essential healthcare services here in Ecuador and all around the world. I think people of Ecuador and people of every single country deserve to be treated with respect, we all have rights to receive an education and to receive a good healthcare service.

While doing my clinicals I came to better understand how people actually feel. They are physically sick but there is a lot more going on (emotionally, mentally, spiritually, financially) I thank God for opened my eyes and let me see what is beyond the scenes, for letting me understand what people are trying to hide and are afraid to tell. My family think this is a great opportunity for me to show them love, respect and care  but what I think is that is not me but God using me to show HIS love, respect, care and His greatness to His people.

That is it friends… that is what I have been doing the past couple of months. Thank you for take some of your time to read it, I know you have plenty of things to do but just a couple more thoughts. I happen to be thinking in where will I be if it weren’t for God? I shared with you a couple of activities I am doing in my church, college and others. If it weren’t for God I wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t be part of that community and part of those amazing activities. Have you ever thought about that? Where will you be if it weren’t for God? I think we all know the answer, if it weren’t for God’s grace we couldn’t live one more minute

 I challenge you to reflect about it during this week, think about why you are still here on earth and of what God wants from you and remember that He made us for a reason; He placed us in this world to live and to love one another. Just as a father wants the best for his children our heavenly father wants the best for us. We are surrounded by the everlasting love of the Father, the one who never fails the one who never leaves us alone and fights for us every single day.......

Let's show those around us the same love we receive from HIM. 

SOMETHING YOU CAN PRAY FOR:

* Please pray for the people that went to Cursillo, for their experience so they can give life to the church and renew their spirit every day

* Please pray for each one of the 34 people from the Holy Cross team as they go back to their normal lives and for the fruit they are gonna bear

*Please pray for my studies, pray that I can be able to raise enough money for my sophomore year of nursing college

*Please pray for New Beginning #1 (July 21-22) for the kids who will be part of this amazing experience, for God opening their eyes to a new live in Christ

*Please pray for my August visit to South Carolina and for the churches I will be visiting 

*Please pray for the Cristo Liberador Community

If you want to contribute to my education you can click the link below and follow the easy steps to make a donation. 
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http://educationequalshope.org/