Bible verses and books that are currently inspiring the Murrays . . .
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the spirit is LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for WHOLENESS and not for evil, to give you a future and HOPE.
Philipians 4:8
Finally brothers, whatever is TRUE, whatever is PURE, whatever is RIGHT, whatever is LOVELY, whatever is ADMIRABLE, if anything is EXCELLENT or PRAISEWORTHY think about such things.
We're also really enjoying the daily devotional “Life on Purpose” by JM Farro. Each day has a two-page reflection on a bible verse. Even in Ecuador, working as missionaries, it is a challenge not to get too busy to make time to read the Bible, and there is always so much to learn from it!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Monday, November 28, 2011
More details about camp life
Camp life
Today is a camp day (Saturday). It is fun and noisy. It begins and end with piles of dishes to wash and dry.
Most camps are weekend camps. This weekend is a kids camp. The campers here came with youth leaders from a large evangelical camp in Guayaquil. Last weekend's camp was a teen camp, the youth from Guayaquil. You might not find Pallatanga on a map of Ecuador, as the nearest town is small. But Camp Pallatanga is about three hours drive from Guayaquil, on a highway that runs through past camp, through Pallatanga, then onto Riobamba, before continuing another four hours onto Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The 14 acres of camp property borders a steep hill at the back and the highway at the front.
It is the end of the dry season, so the grass is brown. There are lots of bugs trying to live with us. The “coffee flies” relentlessly rise from the brown grass and bite our feet, ankles, and legs. Our children's legs are covered in bites that both bleed and itch (but there's neither malaria or yellow fever here, due to our altitude = 4,000ft). The camp is virtually on the equator; so the sun rises and sets close to 6 each day. At mid-day, today, it was hot. Above 30 degrees. By evening it is cool again, as low as 17 degrees (we're thinking of you, as winter begins back in Alberta!!). Soon the rainy season will begin here. I am not looking forward to the increased number of bugs!!!!
The pace of the weekend is almost slower than the weekdays. Though the camp kitchen feels frantic just before meals, and is blaringly hot all day long. Lunch is the larger meal here. No sandwiches! Lunch and dinner are two-course cooked meals: soup first, then rice and likely potatoes too, served with meat, other vegetables are rarities. The snack shop is ahive of activity throughout the day, especially just before and after meals. The campers buy drinks (coffee for the adults, pop or bottled water for the kids), candies, chips, etc. With last year's snack shop money, the camp built a zip-line. I am signed up for zip-line suiting-up duty, tomorrow morning after breakfast.
Over the course of the weekend, we run around supplying the campers with anything they need: a projector, audio equipment, water-balloons, gym equipment (yes, there is a big open gym at the camp – which is lovely in the evenings when the fields are pitch black, and it will be such a blessing during the rainy season!!), field equipment (the go-carts need constant repair), etc. As well, we feed and clean-up after the campers. Our children have picked-up bags of garbage already this weekend. All the while, we know that God is at work, using this camp as a blessing to its campers. There is so much room to play here; it is so different from the city, where these children live.
Camp Pallatanga is working toward hosting more family camps and couple's retreats. Don has begun building bunks that will sleep couples on the bottom, as one step toward this goal. The camp has three dorm buildings. Each has six dorm rooms and bathrooms for girls and boys. The dorm rooms have bunks for as many as ten campers and as few as seven. We have a full camp this weekend.
When the campers leave tomorrow, the work really begins. Laundry, hundreds of sheets, as well as towels and wash-cloths from the kitchen. The camp has three washers and dryers, and it takes the week to get through washing and folding all of the laundry. Workers are here helping in the kitchen on the weekends. They come from town, beginning on Thursday, to help fold the clean laundry and prepare the dorms and kitchen. They bring their youngsters to work with them. This gives me lots of time to work on my spanish, cuddle babies while working, and help the local workers learn some english. In town too, through the week, we run run errands, replenishing the snack shop supplies, and buying a camp's worth of groceries in a spanish-only environment. Kim Orellana is a marvel in town, with her fantastic grasp of spanish, her efficient manner, and her patience for nothing ever being straightforward or on time.
Many town's people have asked for english language lessons. So more and more classes are being fitted into the week's schedule. One group of young single mom's are due to begin coming from town to the camp each Tuesday and Thursday morning for english classes. Other moms are looking for english classes for their children, on weekends. I am going to be as busy as I am able!
Then there is the camp to-do list. Three years ago, the camp began to build “the new house”. Simply stated, it needs to be completed. This is one of the projects that OMS hoped Don and I could help accomplish in our year here. The concrete structure is built, the roof is on, and some windows are in on the main floor. Otherwise, the house needs work. The “little house” that we are in now, is needed for the staff that come on weekends. So the plan is for us to complete the big house as soon as possible, then we would move into there for the remainder of the year.
The big house would be marvellous for homeschooling! Right now, I have three children working in the tiny kitchen, one in the livingroom (working on a folding table), and two in bedrooms (one at a desk and one working on a bed). Not ideal school circumstances. With five (sometimes six) students, ranging in grades kindergarten to grade seven, some need space, all need help, the big house would provide a much more suitable space for homeschooling. The big house is also being designed to be used a a couple's retreat spot. The four upstairs bedrooms will have double beds. There is a real need for instruction in marital faithfulness in the culture here; so the house has been designed with couple's retreats in mind for the future.
It will take discipline to make time to work on the big house, as there is so much maintenance begging attention around camp. Don's workshop days are long and laborious. He's begun to eat like a youth and sleep solidly. He comes back from the shop filthy each day, usually the dark forces him in, even though he's trying to keep his hours from 7am to 4pm. His main challenges lie in compromising and make-shifting using the tools he has to work with, to manufacture the things we could readily buy at home, like angle brackets, and go-cart axels. He's is really missing his own tools, especially his drill press, and some solid drill bits. Keeping the current tools working is a challenge too. The camp has an older tractor that does work. There's a broken ride-a-mower. There are two additional washing-machines at the camp that don't work. A large freezer in the camp kitchen that quit a week after its warranty ended. The camp has enough windows, screens, doors, toilets, showers, and roofs in need of a bit of love, to keep a gaggle of handy-men overwhelmed. All of this gives Don lots of time to work alongside, Julio, an 18 year-old camp worker who is eager to learn english, and interested in learning more about Christian faith, and Guido, full-time OMS missionary, and the camp manager.
Then there is the horse. The Orellanas purchased a young filly, the morning after we arrived at camp. So Don and I fit in horse-care morning and evening, and horse-training in our spare time. We've got her leading, and we're about to start her lunging. The Orellanas don't have experience with horses, but the girls are eager to learn.
Now the camp bell is being wrung, and the singing is about to begin in the dininghall/meeting-room. The over 100 kids are nearly exhausted from a full day of running around camp. The church leaders have been looking forward to this 6pm dusk, that will chase all of the campers into their devotional time. We know some of the campers will be dreaming about their chance to zip-line, tomorrow. So our work here is really all about supporting this thirty year-old ministry in Ecuador. Praying for the upcoming and ongoing camps, workers, and campers. Being witnesses to the locals that we work alongside. Thank you for praying for us and with us, as we pour ourselves into our work here. Please do let us know your questions and ideas, so we can keep you informed about our work here! And let us know how we can pray for you!
=) the Murrays
Today is a camp day (Saturday). It is fun and noisy. It begins and end with piles of dishes to wash and dry.
Most camps are weekend camps. This weekend is a kids camp. The campers here came with youth leaders from a large evangelical camp in Guayaquil. Last weekend's camp was a teen camp, the youth from Guayaquil. You might not find Pallatanga on a map of Ecuador, as the nearest town is small. But Camp Pallatanga is about three hours drive from Guayaquil, on a highway that runs through past camp, through Pallatanga, then onto Riobamba, before continuing another four hours onto Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The 14 acres of camp property borders a steep hill at the back and the highway at the front.
It is the end of the dry season, so the grass is brown. There are lots of bugs trying to live with us. The “coffee flies” relentlessly rise from the brown grass and bite our feet, ankles, and legs. Our children's legs are covered in bites that both bleed and itch (but there's neither malaria or yellow fever here, due to our altitude = 4,000ft). The camp is virtually on the equator; so the sun rises and sets close to 6 each day. At mid-day, today, it was hot. Above 30 degrees. By evening it is cool again, as low as 17 degrees (we're thinking of you, as winter begins back in Alberta!!). Soon the rainy season will begin here. I am not looking forward to the increased number of bugs!!!!
The pace of the weekend is almost slower than the weekdays. Though the camp kitchen feels frantic just before meals, and is blaringly hot all day long. Lunch is the larger meal here. No sandwiches! Lunch and dinner are two-course cooked meals: soup first, then rice and likely potatoes too, served with meat, other vegetables are rarities. The snack shop is ahive of activity throughout the day, especially just before and after meals. The campers buy drinks (coffee for the adults, pop or bottled water for the kids), candies, chips, etc. With last year's snack shop money, the camp built a zip-line. I am signed up for zip-line suiting-up duty, tomorrow morning after breakfast.
Over the course of the weekend, we run around supplying the campers with anything they need: a projector, audio equipment, water-balloons, gym equipment (yes, there is a big open gym at the camp – which is lovely in the evenings when the fields are pitch black, and it will be such a blessing during the rainy season!!), field equipment (the go-carts need constant repair), etc. As well, we feed and clean-up after the campers. Our children have picked-up bags of garbage already this weekend. All the while, we know that God is at work, using this camp as a blessing to its campers. There is so much room to play here; it is so different from the city, where these children live.
Camp Pallatanga is working toward hosting more family camps and couple's retreats. Don has begun building bunks that will sleep couples on the bottom, as one step toward this goal. The camp has three dorm buildings. Each has six dorm rooms and bathrooms for girls and boys. The dorm rooms have bunks for as many as ten campers and as few as seven. We have a full camp this weekend.
When the campers leave tomorrow, the work really begins. Laundry, hundreds of sheets, as well as towels and wash-cloths from the kitchen. The camp has three washers and dryers, and it takes the week to get through washing and folding all of the laundry. Workers are here helping in the kitchen on the weekends. They come from town, beginning on Thursday, to help fold the clean laundry and prepare the dorms and kitchen. They bring their youngsters to work with them. This gives me lots of time to work on my spanish, cuddle babies while working, and help the local workers learn some english. In town too, through the week, we run run errands, replenishing the snack shop supplies, and buying a camp's worth of groceries in a spanish-only environment. Kim Orellana is a marvel in town, with her fantastic grasp of spanish, her efficient manner, and her patience for nothing ever being straightforward or on time.
Many town's people have asked for english language lessons. So more and more classes are being fitted into the week's schedule. One group of young single mom's are due to begin coming from town to the camp each Tuesday and Thursday morning for english classes. Other moms are looking for english classes for their children, on weekends. I am going to be as busy as I am able!
Then there is the camp to-do list. Three years ago, the camp began to build “the new house”. Simply stated, it needs to be completed. This is one of the projects that OMS hoped Don and I could help accomplish in our year here. The concrete structure is built, the roof is on, and some windows are in on the main floor. Otherwise, the house needs work. The “little house” that we are in now, is needed for the staff that come on weekends. So the plan is for us to complete the big house as soon as possible, then we would move into there for the remainder of the year.
The big house would be marvellous for homeschooling! Right now, I have three children working in the tiny kitchen, one in the livingroom (working on a folding table), and two in bedrooms (one at a desk and one working on a bed). Not ideal school circumstances. With five (sometimes six) students, ranging in grades kindergarten to grade seven, some need space, all need help, the big house would provide a much more suitable space for homeschooling. The big house is also being designed to be used a a couple's retreat spot. The four upstairs bedrooms will have double beds. There is a real need for instruction in marital faithfulness in the culture here; so the house has been designed with couple's retreats in mind for the future.
It will take discipline to make time to work on the big house, as there is so much maintenance begging attention around camp. Don's workshop days are long and laborious. He's begun to eat like a youth and sleep solidly. He comes back from the shop filthy each day, usually the dark forces him in, even though he's trying to keep his hours from 7am to 4pm. His main challenges lie in compromising and make-shifting using the tools he has to work with, to manufacture the things we could readily buy at home, like angle brackets, and go-cart axels. He's is really missing his own tools, especially his drill press, and some solid drill bits. Keeping the current tools working is a challenge too. The camp has an older tractor that does work. There's a broken ride-a-mower. There are two additional washing-machines at the camp that don't work. A large freezer in the camp kitchen that quit a week after its warranty ended. The camp has enough windows, screens, doors, toilets, showers, and roofs in need of a bit of love, to keep a gaggle of handy-men overwhelmed. All of this gives Don lots of time to work alongside, Julio, an 18 year-old camp worker who is eager to learn english, and interested in learning more about Christian faith, and Guido, full-time OMS missionary, and the camp manager.
Then there is the horse. The Orellanas purchased a young filly, the morning after we arrived at camp. So Don and I fit in horse-care morning and evening, and horse-training in our spare time. We've got her leading, and we're about to start her lunging. The Orellanas don't have experience with horses, but the girls are eager to learn.
Now the camp bell is being wrung, and the singing is about to begin in the dininghall/meeting-room. The over 100 kids are nearly exhausted from a full day of running around camp. The church leaders have been looking forward to this 6pm dusk, that will chase all of the campers into their devotional time. We know some of the campers will be dreaming about their chance to zip-line, tomorrow. So our work here is really all about supporting this thirty year-old ministry in Ecuador. Praying for the upcoming and ongoing camps, workers, and campers. Being witnesses to the locals that we work alongside. Thank you for praying for us and with us, as we pour ourselves into our work here. Please do let us know your questions and ideas, so we can keep you informed about our work here! And let us know how we can pray for you!
=) the Murrays
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)