Kumanii

Jake and I returned on Saturday from a week long construction mission trip in the Jungle. We were working at a "camp" called Kumanii Christian Center near the village of San Miguel on the Cayapas River. Kumanii is the brain-child of Kent Marcum, founder of Operation Ecuador and the Quito School of Biblical Studies. He is also the father of one of our partners in crime, Jauna Reeger.

This part of the jungle is very remote and still fairly primitive. It has only been in the past couple of years that the villages have had electricity. Although it is fairly ironic because we saw many DirectTV satellite dishes in many of the villages. Our power was very spotty and we had to rely heavily on generators. It still is, however, difficult to get clean water. Even at Kumanii, our shower water came from the river. They do have water filters to clean the kitchen water but this is a very large luxury.

If you click on the picture, you can see that Kumanii is out in the middle of nowhere. 

We joined a group of about 22 people. This group hailed from several different congregations; Lawton, & OKC, OK, Western Hills in Sherman, TX, Lamesa, TX, and a large portion from our home congregation, Woodland West in Arlington, TX. 

We took a 4 hours bus ride from Camp Bellevue to Borbón.

A quick stop in the mountains to take pictures on a suspension bridge.

Team Jungle Hats

 From there we jumped on motorized canoes for a 3 1/2 hour ride to Kumanii. The only way to get into this part of the jungle is by boat. You will not see any cars once you get out of Borbón. Everyone out in the jungle uses canoes, some motorized but most paddle. You will also see young kids, even as young as 6, out on the canoe by themselves paddling to somewhere.

Kumanii is beautiful place. You can see how tropical it is… but I wish you could feel it! In 5 minutes you are dripping in sweat. Plus, throwing in doing hard labor and you are soaking all day long. 

 We working on various projects around the camp. One of the sleeping lodges needed renovation, so on the first day we worked on gutting the place. A group of guys, including Jake, then worked on making sure the structure was sound and started laying flooring. There was another group who built a new electrical building. I spent some time helping build the new kitchen area. I also got put on hole duty. On the last day we starting digging a hole for the new septic tank. (The hole digging crew liked to call our hole the Ecuadorian Hot Tub crew)

We spent many hours working hard. We did however, find some time to have some fun. On Thursday a few of us headed on a boat ride to the river's head waters. There was saw a fairly large python doing a little sunbathing. After a little bit of hiking on the rocks we headed to a nearby village to check out their new church plant and to purchase some beautiful hand-woven baskets. In the village we saw an Ocelot and a Kinkajou (I learned about those on Dora the Explorer!) and I was able to capture some amazing pictures of the locals.

Kent Marcum, our tour guide.

Kinkajou

Baby Ocelot

This village is one that Kumanii serves during medical campaigns. They desperately need help with things like hygiene and parasites. Currently there is another construction crew in Kumanii, finishing up the work we started. The week after that there will be a medical campaign with doctors, nurses and vets to work with the villages on the river.

The little girl in the front has a swollen belly probably due to an intestinal parasite.

We had a wonderful time in Kumanii. It was a physically grueling week but it was also spiritually uplifting to spend time with our Christian brothers and sisters, sings songs (IN ENGLISH!) of praise and help serve this seemingly untouched part of the world. 

For me, it helps to put into perspective (yet again) that our lives here on the mountain are very blessed. We grumble about out hot water being out (which it currently is) and out internet being spotty but we have so many blessings and need to be thankful for them. 

We enjoy it here on our mountain. Our lives are so much slower and simpler than they were in the states and that is a wonderful feeling. But being in the jungle it was even more so. We had no worries of internet and cell-phones, car troubles or anything else we stress about. It was all about physical work, fellowship with others and being one with God.

So now we need to take this feeling and keep it within us for those frustrating times. Because if these people on the Cayapas River can be joyful and thankful for their beautifully simple lives, we too should be thankful. 

Happy (belated) New Year

I feel like every time there is a large gap of time between our blog posts, "we have been busy the past… weeks..." is how I begin the post. And this time is no exception.

It has been busy the past 3 weeks!

The beginning of January, Jake's parents came to visit us for a week. We took a trip to Mindo, the "cloud-forest". There we visited a butterfly garden with hummingbirds and orchids. We also visited Mitad del Mundo, the Middle of the World, and went shopping in Otavalo. We had fun, having family visit and being able to show them around. I think they understand better what we do around here and how we live. It was also nice because Karen brought homemade fudge and millionaires! Yum!

Jake's parents also brought down gifts for the orphan kids from Woodland West church of Christ, our home congregation. The children's ministry had been collecting donations through "Coins for Christ" for Christmas presents. After collecting, the WW kids were assigned an orphan kid and got to go shopping for them. Our Hacienda kids ended up with some pretty awesome gifts! The HOH kids also received a letter from the WW kids saying that God loved them and they were praying for them. It was great to watch the HOH kids read their letters and open their gifts! Thank you Woodland West for loving on these kids!

We are ending our first semester here at school so it has been a crazy place! Kids have been taking exams the last couple weeks and report cards are coming out soon. Kids have been in school only until noon this week, while the teachers stay until 3pm doing prep work for the end of the semester. Thursday is the first day of our 2 week vacation. 

Friday night there is a group flying in from Woodland West to join a construction team going to Kumanii. Jake and I will be joining the group on Saturday. Kumanii is about 7-8 hours northwest of where we live. We have to drive to Borbón (3 hours) and then take a 4 hour boat ride up river to Kumanii. The work being done in Kumanii is directly related to the Quito School of Biblical Studies. Kent Marcum, the director of the school, is leading our group. We are excited to be able to serve in Kumanii along side some members of our home congregation!

We will definitely be posting pictures soon!

This last week we had some surprise visitors at school. There was a mama and baby cat sitting on some furniture inside the auditorium. We I went in to check on them the mama ran away leaving her baby behind. I put the baby outside hoping mama would come back, but she never did. So to Jake's dismay, we adopted a cat. He is about 7 weeks old. I named him Chanco (pig), because I find the word fun to say (and because it hadn't been very long since I watched Nacho Libre… "Chanco! I need to borrow some sweats."). Well, the next day we had another visitor. We found another kitty, about the same age and coloring as Chanco. So we found ourselves with two cats! Well… the day after that, Rusty Cambell at Camp Bellevue found another kitten about the same size and coloring. So we took her in too. So for the past couple of days we have had a farm… Chanco (pig), Pata (duck) and Pollo (chicken). But three is a bit much for us, especially since we still plan on Soup coming down soon. One of our cooks talked about wanting a cat so we are going to let her adopt Pollo. 

Jake has never been a "cat person" but somehow I found myself being a cat lady! 

End of the Year Report

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Wilsons!

It is hard to believe that as we go into the New Year, we will begin our 6^th month living and serving here in Ecuador. It has been a whirlwind as we started hitting the ground running when we arrived in July. We have been constantly working on improving the school, interacting with the Hacienda kids and growing in our own spiritual life. 
Words cannot express how much we appreciate all of you and how you have been a part of God’s work here. We are truly blessed by so many individuals, families and churches who have loved on us, prayed over and for us, sent us monetary support and words of encouragement. Since you have been involved in the work here, we wanted to briefly remind you of how God has worked at the Hacienda of Hope Christian Academy and in our lives over the past 5 months and about our plans for the future.

• Since we began school, we have been teaching our teachers classroom management skills and to be better equipped to deal with discipline problems. We are trying to create an atmosphere of involvement and investment among our teachers because when our staff is fully invested in our school and our kids, the students will learn and grow. 
• We, as administrators, are also trying to show investment in our staff. We have been working on balancing the school budget. With careful planning and lots of work, we have been able to give all of our employees raises. This will make us more competitive with the surrounding schools and help us keep turnover low. 
• We are working on creating more programs and avenues for the students to grow in their spiritual walk with God. A couple new programs include our students learning about serving others by volunteering at Camp Bellevue working with the kids at the after school programs and our high school students gaining leadership skills and roles by leading school chapel once a week.
• During the month of December, students collected non-perishable food to donate to needy families. On the 19th we broke up into groups (9 total) and went out into the community. The students sang Christmas songs, prayed over the families and delivered the food. Students and staff were able to see and serve the poor in their communities. We were also able to use this time to learn about how people, rich and poor, need God in their lives and that we need to be in constant prayer for others.
• For Christmas, we had the privilege of hosting the Hacienda’s Christmas party. We had our 17 Hacienda kids, plus 3 more kids and 6 adults sleeping in our house! Justin and Jauna Reeger (Directors of the orphanage) along with Courtney Hard (Case Manager) planned a spectacular 24 hour extravaganza that involved: hide and seek in the school building, Christmas cookie and gingerbread house decorating contest, hot cocoa and movies, Christmas morning with full breakfast, Christmas stockings and presents after breakfast, games outside and a Christmas luncheon. It was amazing to see the joy in the kids’ faces as we spent time together and as they opened so many Christmas presents that were donated by you.

God has blessed us enormously by leading us here to Ecuador. We couldn’t imagine being anywhere else at this point in our lives. We pray that God can continue to use us in growing His kingdom here in Ecuador. 
Here are some things that we are looking forward in the coming years and some hopes/dreams we have for the Hacienda of Hope Christian Academy. Please join us in prayer for these things.

• We are still in need of personal support. We are short about $1,000 a month. We continue to work knowing that God bought us here and He will provide for us so we are always looking for more people to partner with us.
• One day we would love to be able to raise enough money ($150,000) to expand and update the school. We currently are in need of a gymnasium for large events and to have a place for the students to have recess when it rains. We currently have them cram into classrooms if it rains during recess. This gets to be a bit chaotic for our students and teachers. 
• We would also like to tile all of our classrooms. All our classrooms currently have old carpet in them. To try to preserve the life of the carpet, students have been taking off their shoes before entering any classroom. This takes up time and space and caused a lot of inconvenience. 
• We have recently updated our internet capabilities and bandwidth. We have dreams that our school can become more up to date in technology. Currently we have a lab with about 20 nice computers, however we really need our teachers to have technology available to them in their classrooms.  Laptops or Ipads would be ideal.
• Right now we are in need teachers for our English curriculum, Ecuadorian or volunteers from the States, to help out. Both of us have been helping teach class because we are so short staffed. This has kept us so busy that we have not been able to take Spanish classes yet. We are actively seeking English speakers- preferably Christian volunteers to join in our efforts.
• With more staff, we would like to start offering elective classes and focus on building skills students can use later in life. Horticulture, agriculture, art and technology are among the list. With more staff we also would like to be able to plan more service projects and afterschool clubs and groups for our students to be a part of.
• We are trying to grow our school. Our total enrollment for this school year is about 170 students, many of them come from Tabacundo or neighboring Cayambe. However, we have a large community just up the mountain from us in San Jose Chico that we haven’t really touched. We dream the school being able to reach out to this poorer village and be a light into their community.
• We sometimes can be so caught up in the whole school aspect of our work here, but we are always striving to focus more on God in everything we do with our students and staff. Please continue to pray that we can be a light to those around us.

Thank you for all your love and support,

Jake and Tanya Wilson

The Hands and Feet...

Sometimes I feel like Jake and I get caught up sometimes… caught up in "school" and all that it involves. We can get to the point of wondering that if anything we are doing actually means something. And I'm not talking about making changes to the school and improving our curriculum. I am talking about truly affecting our students for Christ. However, today I saw something in our students that made me remember that God is working here at HOH Christian Academy.

Over the past couple of weeks our kids have been collecting non-perishable food to donate to some needy families. This afternoon the students split into groups and went to deliver the packages. I had the privilege of joining the 8th graders. We visited an elderly woman by the name of Maria Torres.

 Maria has a house in a barrio of Tabacundo. However, she sleeps in a small shack just outside her house (in the background of the photo) because she is afraid of robbers. Both her sons and her husband have passed away and she is very lonely. However, when she saw us, a large group of kids and a couple of gringos, she gave us a huge smile.

The students sang a few Christmas songs, we listened to her story and then we prayed over her.

On the bus ride home Courtney and I decided to deepen our visit with Maria. Courtney told the kids more about Maria and about all the other people like her: the needy, the hungry, the lonely. We talked about how we can serve those people, to meet their physical and emotional needs. Courtney then asked what else we could do to help Maria. One of the students shouted out, "She needs Jesus!" and another said "we can pray for her!" Courtney then asked HOW do we pray for her. A student replied, "with faith". We then challenged the kids to pray, with faith, for Maria and those who are like her… everyday for the next week. They all accepted the challenge. We also agreed to try to visit Maria again sometime in January and see how we can continue to serve her.

Today I saw how the school, the teachers, the Christians in this area and you…. yes you who support the work here in Ecuador… are changing these kids. We are teaching these kids about Jesus and how to become more like him. We are teaching them to be the hands and the feet.

I ate a bug…on purpose!

We know its also been pretty exciting for a lot of you in the States lately, with the crazy weather and all. Many of you have been out of school/work because of such bad road conditions. 

Well, we've had our own excitement here. Actually, things are always exciting here. 

We have gone, once again, about 4 days without water. However, this time we were not able to hook up a hose to our outside tap because there was no water in the outside tap. So on friday we had a half day of school (since our bathrooms are out of commission along with our kitchen). 

We found it fairly ironic that many in people in Texas and Oregon were also out of school that day too. 

Thankfully the water returned Monday and we are back to "normal" operating conditions. 

The School of Hope is gearing up for the Christmas season! It is an exciting time around here. Each of our 6 Learning Centers are decorating a Christmas tree. The Learning Center with the most creative ornaments receives and cookie and hot chocolate party! The traditional Ecuadorian curriculum teachers are working with their students to create skits for our Christmas program on December 20th. I cannot wait to see our kids in action and post pictures for all of you guys!

We also are getting in the Christmas spirit at home with our own tree. I know quite a few people who will appreciate our sense of style!

We recently had a large PTA meeting to talk about Christmas time and also our procedures manual. There was a large turn out! We are blessed to have parents who want to get involved in the school and in their kids' futures.

 Jake and I have been spending some time down at the Haciendas in the afternoons. We have a lot going on on the property (school and orphanage) so we try to help out when needed. Last week we were with the boys, playing foosball and watching movies. These kids are so sweet and fun to be around!

Since the Directors of the orphanage are in the States for a quick visit, we have been spending a lot of time with the orphanage's volunteer case manager, Courtney Hard. She has been a lot of fun and also very adventurous. We were eating lunch in Cayambe after church on Sunday and ran across a street vendor selling fried and seasoned Catzos. These are bugs that come out once a year and are common snacks in Ecuador. So of course, we all had to try some!

Yipes!

 The mountain peaked out this morning for a few minutes.  The sunlight was hitting on the clouds and hills so beautifully, I couldn't be but in awe of our wonderful Lord's creation. Unfortunately, photographs just don't do it justice!

"The whole earth if filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy."

Psalm 65:8