We´re Here!

Last night we arrived in Quito! After months of preparations and hours of travel, we landed safely in Ecuador at seven o´clock last night - January 6th. Special thanks to Danielle, Mr. Hundertmark, Sean, and Marianne, for driving us to Laguardia early in the morning! After a quick flight, we landed in Miami. We had a very short layover and were forced to sprint to the opposite end of the terminal we landed in - 1.3 miles away according to the flight attendants. We just barely caught the airtrain to our gate, but we did so safely and met up with KK, Stephany, and Will - Stephany lives in Florida, and Will and KK were visiting friends from last year´s mission trip in Belize.
The flight from Miami to Quito was pleasantly uneventful. I sat in a window seat on the west side of the plane - I could feel the warm Caribbean sun shining en la ventana the whole trip. By an act of Providence, the seat to my left was unoccupied and the gentleman with whom I shared the row of three, Douglas, was from an area just north of Misahualli. Douglas had moved to New York ten years ago and knew of Adelphi and Hofstra! Sadly, Douglas was returning to Ecuador, something he thought that he would never do, because his mother was sick and in the hospital. I told Douglas that our group would pray for his mother, Lauren, and that I would ask Father Lachlan to offer a mass for her and her family. Please keep them in your prayers.
Douglas was also able to help me practice my Spanish, which to my surprise was quite strong. I felt as though I could say everything that I wanted to, but only with a bit of hesitation. Our quick lesson on the plane boosted my confidence - I was previously a bit nervous regarding the language barrier - and made me look forward even more to the marvellous opportunity that lies ahead of us.
When we landed in Quito, we were met by James and Kevin from Family Missions Company. They brought us to our hostel promptly and after we had settled in, we ate a delicious meal prepared by our new friends Joseph and his wife Brooke. Both are missionaries here in Ecuador and Joseph is a son of the founders of FMC. We sang songs of praise and prayed for success and safety on our trip.
After dinner, Julie, Jonathan, Danielle, and I learned several Spanish songs on the guitar with the help of Joseph, Kevin, Brooke, and James. This made us more and more excited for our time with the children of Misahualli and helped me to recall even more of the language!
Today we are heading into the jungle to our destination of Misahualli in the province of Napo. Napo is the third smallest mainland province of Ecuador in population and is located to the east and southeast of the province of Pichincha - home to Quito. According to Joseph, the ride from Quito to Misahualli offers some of the most spectacular views in Ecuador! This is good because our ride will be almost six hours long! This bus trip will give us a great opportunity to reflect on all that has happened so far and to make our final preparations for our service.

I want to close today´s entry with something that I read recently. Graham Greene is a famous 20th Century British author who had a tremendous conversion experience to Catholicism. As a journalist he travelled all over the world, especially to developing natios in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In arguably his most powerful book, The Power and the Glory, Greene tells the story of the persecution of Catholics in southern Mexico. In one exchange in the book between a father and his son regarding martyred saints of Mexico, the father asks, ¨Who tells about them?¨ The sons responds, ¨We all of us play them.¨

Though I misread this passage and later realized that the son and his friends have simply made a game out of portraying the martyrs, the meaning for me is still resounding. ¨We all of us play them.¨ While we are not all asked to martyr ourselves for Christ, we have been called to give of ourselves to serve him and his people. This is especially prevalent for our mission team. We have been called to Misahualli to sacrifice our time, our energy, and our gifts to lift up our brothers and sisters and to be Christ´s love.

I will expand on this later, but I am late for morning prayer! Be well everyone, and keep praying for us, for Douglas and his mother Lauren, and for the people of Ecuador.
God Bless

-Kyle Blackmer