We're all here and ready to go!

The students have been here since Monday. It’s been so fun seeing them all get to know each other and watch them as they learn the drama. We have 25 students on my team - they’re from all over the States and between 14 and 18 years old.

As I type this, I’m sitting in the back of one of the ballrooms at the hotel watching my team practice their drama. They are doing such a great job. It was so difficult to cast our group because everyone was so good. But every part in the drama is critical and everyone is giving it their all. I can’t wait to see the finished product - it’s going to look so great. And the drama itself is so impactful. I’m hoping to get a video of it one day during the trip and maybe I’ll be able to post it on here.

Drama try-outs

Working on the drama

It’s been difficult to really get to know them all so far, as they’ve been focused on their drama training and we have other things that need to get done so we’re not always together. But I’m anticipating that our team will grow closer as we get to Ecuador and start our ministry days - we’ll be all together every day.

We have lots of team spirit - at least the leaders do, haha :) There’s been a little competition between our team and team 6. And our leader, Chris, is going all out. Yesterday we made a flag for our team. It’s all pretty crazy.

Our FUAGNEM (Fired Up And Going Nuts Every Minute) evening meetings have been really good so far. I love the worship time and the messages these last two nights have been real good. I'm looking forward to more FUAGNEMs as walls get broken down and we all come together and closer to God. I can already see God at work within our group.

It’s been interesting being on the leader side of everything rather than being a student. There’s much more freedom : ) While they’ve been in drama training we’ve been getting everything together and running to the store. One of our jobs is to pass out lunch to each room - instead of having all the students pick up their own lunch and be in long lines for a while, we’ve been taking food up to each students hotel room. It’s a pretty slick system. 

Our fearless leader, Lia

We head out for Ecuador in the morning. My team is in 5 different flight groups - I'll be leaving the hotel at 3:30 am and arriving in Ecuador at 3:30 pm, with a layover in Colombia. Please pray for safe travel and smooth transitions for everyone!!

Thanks

Amy Lynn

It's Finally Here!

I arrived in Miami, FL a little over 24 hours ago.

And I'm loving it.

I'm on Team 1 and despite what anyone else says about their team - we're the best. Hand's down :P Our leaders have such a great vision and we're all starting to connect already - I can't wait for the students to get here tomorrow too.

Yesterday everyone came in at different times. I got in around 1 from Minneapolis. There were three other LITs on my flight and as I approached the gate before boarding my flight, I introduced myself to Kathryn and Carolyn, two sisters who were on the trip (I recognized them because of the trip t-shirt they were wearing. The one I had stored in my carry-on and never ended up putting on)

courtesy of Rachel

We met up with others in the Miami airport and then drove to Ft. Lauterdale to our hotel. We had free time as everyone else was arriving and I spent time with new friends and roommates as they trickled in.

We had our first team meetings and learned lots of stuff. I'd tell you what I learned, but I can't remember. Oops.

We met with our individual teams for introductions and learned each others' strengths and visions for the trip. I am so excited to be working with these amazing people! I can't wait to get to know them even more!

Afterwards a small group of us went out in search of some late dining - a continued opportunity to get to know different people! I, however, was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel after only having slept about 2 hours on Friday night and not much sleep on the plane.

This morning my team met bright and early and I informed them that, although I may be a "morning person" as far as being awake and alert in the morning, I have more trouble actually getting out of bed on time than a typical "morning person." Hopefully I won't be too late to activities and such.

Susie Shellenberger let our morning meeting with a lesson on Revelation. It was great :) Then we had more meetings/trainings, lunch and started preparing for the teens to come tomorrow by making team signs. My team's is pretty sweet. And pretty "me" - a.k.a. very colorful

Front of our sign

Back of our sign

Sign for my seminar: EIEIOK = Everything I Ever Intend On Knowing

I hope you enjoyed the update. Students start arriving bright and early tomorrow. I have the be at the airport at 7:30 to be helping them. I can't wait (despite the early hour).

I'll hopefully be posting more this week and once we get to Ecuador, but I'm not sure what the internet situation will be (I'm currently sitting in a Panera because I'm not willing to pay $10 to use the internet at the hotel)

I hope you're having a wonderful day!!

Amy Lynn

I scream for ice cream!

I was sitting here working on my Song of Solomon seminar and eating some frozen yogurt.

And then it hit me: In one week, I can eat all the Mora Bars that my little heart desires! Within reason, I suppose.

Eating Mora (and Coco) Bars in Shell during our lunch break

Mora is similar to (if not the same as) blackberry. Last summer everyone told me it was like a blackberry, but they weren't the same thing. So I'm not quite sure. Nevertheless - Mora is my favorite flavor of ice cream.

Last summer, we loved stopping for ice cream. There was a "Pinguino" ice cream cart right outside the hospital every day. While I always checked to see if they had Magnum Bars first (they didn't often have them), my second choice was always the Mora Bar. And it was also my rationalization that Mora Bars were "healthy" because it is frozen fruit (they're at least healthier than magnum bars).

By the end of the summer, we were all hooked on ice cream. When we spent time in the jungle there were days when we'd stop for ice cream at least twice. We sweet talked our bus driver into stopping in random towns more than once so we could have an ice cream break.

I'm hoping to have the chance to get my hands on a Mora bar in a week. And if not a Mora bar, there's a restaurant called Crepes & Waffles right across the street from our hotel. I should know - it was the first place we went out to on our own via taxi last summer. But that's a story for a different day ;)

Crepes & Waffles near the Marriott

Amy Lynn

So close

I leave in less than 48 hours. 41 1/2 hours, actually. Not that I'm counting.

I've been counting down since December - the countdown started at 176 days. I celebrated when it got to double digits. And now I'm down to counting hours.

Last night I was packing (I still can't believe I'm so ahead of my normal travel schedule). When I closed my suitcase up and weighed it for the final time (I had to do a bit of reorganizing), I turned to my roommate and told her I was ready to go and just wanted to leave in the morning - I didn't want to wait another two days.

I'm ready for another adventure. Even though I've been on a Susie Mag/Big World Ventures trip before and know what the general format of the trip, I don't really know what to expect. And part of that is I'm trying to convince myself not to expect too much. My trip to Peru in 2006 with Brio Magazine was such a life-changing experience. I want that again. I know it will happen again. But it will be completely different. I need to be prepared for it.

The problem is that I don't feel prepared. For any of it. I sometimes feel like a failure because I haven't prayed enough in preparation for the trip. I had grand plans of praying for each and every one of the students and leaders on my team (39 people, including myself). That has yet to happen. But I still have 41 hours, right? I know what I want to say in my seminar, but I don't feel qualified. But then I was reminded of the saying "God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called." He's given me the resources, and I've been trying to pray for His wisdom and leadership as I prepare.

But I have the day off from work today (it's too cold for most people to think about swimming in an outdoor pool), so I'm spending some time with God and continuing to prepare for this trip and what He has planned for everyone. And I know that even if I don't necessarily feel as though I'm prepared, I know that He has been working over the past several months to get me ready for what He has planned - even if it doesn't seem like it right now.

Within Reach

One week from today, I will be in Miami, preparing to be a "Leader-In-Training."

One month from today, I will be back in Minnesota after a life-changing 3 1/2 weeks.

I think I've had the most "time" to prepare for this trip, compared to my last few international trips. Last year, I had to focus on getting through the spring semester before I could really think about my summer trips. Once school was done, I had a few days to prepare for a 2 week trip to Scotland. It was only after I got home from Scotland that I could really think about Ecuador. And once I recovered from the jet-lag, I was left with under a week to prepare for 2 months in a different country. Even after returning from Ecuador, I only had a short time at home before moving into the house I am currently renting with my dear friends.

I have been thinking about this trip for almost a year. It was during Susie Mag's Guatemala trip last summer (while I was in Ecuador) that I found out they would be going to Ecuador. But it wasn't until December that I started seriously thinking about the trip.

And I've been counting down ever since I sent in my application.

And now the trip is less than a week away.

About two weeks ago, the reality of the trip hit me. It's the longest "short" trip I've been on. It's 3 1/2 weeks, or 24 days. Too long to bring enough clothes for the entire trip, and not long enough to ever really get settled in one place. It will be a long trip. I'm definitely looking forward to it. But God will need to sustain me. He's given me the last several weeks to recover from a semester with less sleep than I really need. But 3 1/2 weeks straight with a crazy bunch of teens and wanting to spend time with everyone and get to know them in the short time we have together will be taxing on me. I'm an introvert. I need my time alone. And it's on trips like this that I have a difficult time pulling away to take time for myself and time to spend with God when there's always something going on. Prayer for wisdom on when to pass on activities would definitely be welcome.

As far as not being able to pack enough clothes...I always over pack. I don't know if I've ever flown somewhere and not had my suitcase be just barely under 50 lbs. And I'm sure this trip will be no different. The only problem is that I don't currently own a working scale. I may need to invest in one before Saturday morning. I have a stack of clothes sitting in my suitcase right now, along with the peanut butter and jelly and other items I need to bring. I still need to go through that stack of clothes and cut it down to the minimum. And bring laundry detergent along. I'll be doing my laundry in the bathtub of my hotel room. Or maybe I'll call up one of my friends in Quito and ask if I can bring my laundry to their house. However that ends up, there's no way I can fit 3 weeks worth of clothes in ONE 50 lb suitcase...

Precious Little Children

About 2 1/2 years ago, I felt that God was finally prodding me to begin sponsoring a child through Compassion International. I was at a youth conference and they had a table in the lobby. I chose a sweet little girl named Preethi and immediately began writing letters to her. She loves coloring and would always send me pictures back with short notes written by one of the translators at her Center. Along with the opportunity to sponsor Preethi, Compassion sends out newsletters with updates about how the ministry is working around the world.

Last fall, one of the newsletters contained an article about the Waodani Indians of Ecuador. This was just a few months after I spent a week in Shell, Ecuador - near where the Waodani live and missionary station of Nate Saint in the 1950s. To read more about the five missionaries who were killed by the Waodani (Auca) Indians in the 1950s, I found another blog with the story and more links.

This article got me thinking that I would love to sponsor a child in Ecuador, specifically a child from the Waodani tribe. So I began to search Compassion's website but was unable to find anything conclusive about whether a child was from the Waodani tribe or not. I found several near Puyo, which is a few miles from Shell. But then I started looking at children near Quito. And I found a little boy who reminded me of one of the children I worked with in a Quichua community last summer.

This little boy's name is Robinson and he had been on the waiting list for over six months. I couldn't get him off my mind, but I didn't have the money available to sponsor him at the time - I needed to wait until December (it was October at the time) when I withdrew from a different sponsorship program.

But I couldn't get Robinson off my mind. I kept coming back to his picture.

He had been waiting and his birthday was coming up. I decided that I would start sponsoring him in November as a birthday surprise for him.

But I still couldn't get him off my mind. I kept checking the website, making sure he was still there.

After I compulsively checked for probably the third day in a row, I broke down. I decided to use some of my birthday money to begin sponsoring him then.

I wasn't working as many hours as I would have liked and therefore didn't have too much of an income. But God made it possible for me to sponsor two children through Compassion and a persecuted pastor through Voice of the Martyrs until I was able to withdraw from VoM in December. It meant less money for fun stuff and Christmas presents, but I knew it was worth it.

I was saddened to receive a letter in November or December about my precious little Preethi in India - her family was moving out of her Compassion project's area and would moving into an area without a Compassion project. It was hard to say goodbye after I had been sponsoring her for almost two years, but I am so thankful for the chance I had to be a part of her life and learn about life in India for a 7 year old.

They offered to send me a new child in India, but I recognized God's provision in making it possible to support Robinson with my limited resources.

And then after all of this, God led me to the decision to go to Ecuador with Big World Ventures and Susie Magazine (formerly Brio Magazine). And they have worked with Compassion International to set up a day to have some of the sponsored kids come to our hotel for a day of fun with those of us who are sponsoring kids in Ecuador.

I am so excited that I get to meet my little Robinson! I had always heard about people traveling to meet their sponsored children, but I never thought I'd get the chance to meet mine! I am so thankful for where God has been leading me over the last few months and that I have the opportunity to meet and love on Robinson and be someone real to him, rather than just someone he writes letters to (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Please be praying for the children and their families as they travel to Quito (some are coming from outside the city) to meet those who have taken the opportunity and taken advantage of the ministry of Compassion International to "release children from poverty in Jesus' name"

3 weeks!

A good friend mentioned to me today that I hadn't written a blog in a while. I didn't think I had much to say, but now that I actually sit and think about it I have more to say than I realized.

It's been a crazy month or so with school wrapping up and graduation. I took a two week hiatus from doing anything productive and caught up on all the sleep I lost this past semester. I very much enjoyed it. Between final projects and final exams and those weeks of not doing much of anything, everything with Ecuador has started to sneak up on me.

I leave for training in Miami three weeks from today. I'm home in Wisconsin for a few days, but once I get back to the Twin Cities, I work full days all but two of the days leading up to my trip. I'm looking forward to spending my days outside at the pool and hanging out with friends. But in the meantime, I need to be focused on preparing to teach a seminar while we're in Ecuador.

In mid-April, I got an email from the kind folks at Big World Venture asking if I (or any other leaders or LITs) would be interested in teaching a 45 minute seminar/class for the students on one of the nights. My initial reaction was to dismiss the email - that I didn't have anything worth while to talk about, especially for 45 minutes. But then I got another email clarifying something from the previous email - once again, I dismissed the idea. After the third email with more clarification, I stopped and thought that maybe I should consult God about it before completely dismissing the idea. Before I even had time to sit down and pray via my prayer journal, the idea of Song of Solomon popped into my head. This made sense because I took two classes this past semester that studied Song of Solomon and my church is currently in a series on Song of Solomon. So I prayed about it and began to consider teaching a seminar on Song of Solomon, but I still didn't know what the focus of the seminar would be and what "description" I could come up with to send in for the workbook/journals all the students get. So I continued to pray about it. And as I was driving back to MN after being home for Easter, God brought an idea to mind. When I got home, I typed it up and sent it on in, but asked if there would be another adult leader who would be willing to help me prepare and/or be available for the question and answer time.

I was recently contacted by one of the leaders who is willing to help me out. Her offer to help has been a wonderful encouragement and motivation to organize my thoughts in advance and really prepare this seminar to the best of my ability.

While I'm still real nervous about teaching on Song of Solomon and Purity, I'm excited to see how it's coming along. I love how God reveals the necessity of Jesus' death on the Cross in everything. I love that I can bring a talk on purity and relationships full circle to our relationship with God and how He comes first. I love that God has given me the opportunity to attend Hope Community Church, where each week our pastors bring whatever we're talking about and point it all back to the Cross and what Christ did for us when He came to die. And I love seeing where God has brought me through this whole process and I look forward to seeing how I can bring Him glory in sharing my experiences of being a date-less, boyfriend-less college graduate - I am totally okay with that status, and I look forward to encouraging all the girls on this trip that it is okay to NOT have a boyfriend, that there's nothing wrong with them, but that God is preserving and preparing them for their futures.

Please be in prayer for me as I continue to prepare this seminar - there are some topics within the broad idea that I'm not quite sure how to address/approach/work in to everything else, but I know that this is what God wants me to be doing and that He will help me as I work through everything.

Amy Lynn