Friday in Esmeraldas

You know that connection that you have with people in the Body of Christ? It transcends culture and location. It lasts for years; kind of like meeting an old friend and just picking up where you left off.This is how I feel about the people in Ecuador.We’ve been here almost two weeks already and, still, one of my favorite memories was seeing the smiling faces of my Ecuadorian friends waiting to greet us in the airport as we exited the baggage claim. These people are some of the same people who have been with us throughout this trip as our translators. They are so giving and we would not be able to teach anything without them. They have been a wonderful part of the team!We were blessed with a whole group of youth to translate for us the first week - Roberto and Sam were the Amazing Craft Team 2 translators :-) A whole team of them came with us to Esmeraldas and have become near and dear to all of us.One of our translators, Andreita, had to go back to Quito today because of her work. She is less then 5 feet tall and has the most sparkly face and eyes. I have so enjoyed sitting and talking with her on the bus, or when we get ice cream. She will be very missed.The last day of the kids program was a little different because many of the school children had “examines” that morning. I hope they all did well - sometimes we wonder how the kids learn anything in this learning environment. Some of the same kids came to see us that night at the evening program. All week we have been “encouraging” the kids to sit quietly and listen (and the parents not to talk) and tonight they were really quiet (by Esmeraldas Standards). We told them about how God is Eternal and never changes and that the things they’d learned about Him this week were things they could count on forever.“Is this the last day?”“When are you coming back?”“Look, He’s crying because he doesn’t want you to go”These were some of the phrases we heard as we ended both the morning and the evening programs. Sometimes it is hard to see the fruit of what we are doing - but I do know that there were many kids who felt loved this last week. I pray that the seeds of God-Love that were planted in their hearts would grow and that when a team comes here next time they will be able to see how God has worked in the people here.- Amanda, for the team