Week 5

Another week down...
This week was another great week of ministries, classes and hanging out.



After a week of reading and paper writing the weekend was spent playing (or catching up on more reading). One group went out get Jenni and sushi fix (she grew up in Japan). Another group spent the day walking around Quito exploring the old city and one of the local markets. Another group went up the Teliferico, a gandala that goes up Pinchincha (one of the mountains that sounds Quito). Most went to church on Sunday morning and then came back to campus for our weekend ultimate frizbee that has become a Sunday afternoon staple.




Student Perspective: La Montana Ministry Site

Imagine a small child covered in dirt looking up at you with big brown eyes raising their arms and saying “carca me.” It is nearly impossible to resist. This is why we love la mountana, a dusty school with a rusty playground, a cement basketball court, and children craving attention. Driving up in our twelve passenger vans, bringing legos, balls, a jump rope, bible verse, craft, and sandwiches, children run out to meet us. The pure joy on the faces of the children run out to meet us. The pure joy on the faces of the children is a reason enough to visit these amazing children. Our single hope is that these children would see God through our actions and very few Spanish words. We also go to have a blast, get amazing hugs, and feel God’s love in the simplest form. After all Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
Elin Wickstrom















Photos (from top to bottom) : Girls hanging out in the dorm, part of the group at the top of the Teliferico (I know that it just looks dark but we really were very high up on a mountain), a group of girls at La Basilica in Quito, and the bottom 6 are all from this week at La Montana playing with kids and preforming with puppets (the puppet group went to all of the different sites).

Week 4

Some of the highlights of this week…
This week was our first week of going to each of our ministry sites and actually working with the children there. It went really well and between the three sites we had approximately 160 kids. At each site we played games, told a story about being heroes of the faith, did a craft and gave out a snack.





On Saturday all of us here at CBC volunteered to help with kids in wheel chairs that were to attend a program called Festininos. This was the children’s portion of the Franklin Graham Crusade that was going on in Quito all weekend. In the end, only one child in a wheelchair came but there were 60,000 other children there.















This weekend in the main weekend of La Merced Days. This is an annual festival that take place in the little town where we live. This is a combo of a fair/carnival/block party including food, rides, music and much more.





Prayer: We are getting out of the honeymoon period and are transitioning into getting used to living here in Ecuador. Continued prayer health - one of the students, Reid, has been not feeling right for a while so he has been having some tests done to figure out what is going on (so far eveything has come back normal, which is great!).

Photos (from top to bottom): Caroline sitting with kids and Trevor playing soccer at Las Palmeras, one of our weekly ministry sites (there will be photos of all of the sites over the next few weeks), some of our girlplayingng handclap games with children that they met at Festininos, thousands of children going down for the alter-call at the end of the program, a groups of our students (Kylene, Holly, Natalie, Anna, and Michael) ready to go into the festival, the festival was held in the national soccer stadium and children filled all of the stands and the overflow were sitting on the field, our whole group, we had one child in a wheelchair show up and a group of our students went to sit with her family (Kylene is there sitting next to the little girl), and La Merced Days dancers and Ferris Wheel

Week 3

First Paper Due
This week students madly tried to find computers, printers and someone to edit their first papers. The power went out at dinner the night before and screams were heard from all over the cafeteria of "my paper"! The power quickly returned and everyone lived.
Some other things going on this week: Students were able to see their ministry sites this week and pass out invitations to the local children in their area. Another group went hiking (note: Karianne would like me to mention that this is an 8 mile hike and that is really long!) and people continued to explore new restaurants and places around the area.












We had our first "girl's night" and the boys have been figuring out how to get their football fix (a special thanks goes out to their waitress at TGI Fridays where they watched 1.5 football games on Saturday).








For the most part this was just a weekend of hanging out watching movies, reading, soccer and ultimate Frisbee. We have a tough life!









Photos (from top to bottom): Out to lunch at Magic Bean, Peter, Reid and Trevor enjoying pancakes, a group with the purchases from one of the markets in Quito, Laura and El, Jenni and Elle, girls at "girl's night," Nicki, playing cards, puzzle time, and Kira

Student Perspectives:
Futbol vs Soccer
One sweet wicked way us CBCers join in the culture here in Ecuador is by challenging the local Ecuadorians in a little Futbol. Every Monday, Thursday, and any day between, our soccer skills are put to the test. Thanks to our awesome goalie, Micah Rude from Minnesota, we have kept a pretty good reputation and a reason for the locals to keep coming back to play us. With players like Trevor Hazen, Peter Johnson, Alex Melin, and Judson McLaren all from Minnesota, Jacob Dybzinski and Cassie Fightmaster from Colorado, Shane Hoffbeck from Alaska, Michael Bachman from Kentucky, and our deans Luke and Andrew, we have a pretty functional and exciting team that is willing to take on any challenge in our little pick-up games. Jacob Dybzinski, in the front striker line, says that playing soccer in Ecuador “has been one of my favorite things.” Because our lack of language skills and American soccer fundamentals, I’m sure the locals find playing soccer with us pretty entertaining. Most of the guys we play against have been playing soccer since they could crawl, so I think they have been quite impressed by the fight we put up every game! I would have to say that playing soccer with these guys has been ‘a dream come true’ for me (and I’m sure others). To experience this game with such finesse, strength, speed, and flair from these guys has been more than fun, it has been a blessing.
Natalie Rush








Prayer for our community: One of the guys (Michael) found out that his grandfather passed away suddenly this week. Many of the students are or have been sick and injured (minor things) as well. The Franklin Graham crusade is coming to Quito this weekend (Sept 22-24). Our students will be helping on Saturday with kiwheelchair'schairs for the children's program.

(Note: Micah is not actually sick, he is just sitting in a funny position and demonstrating what it looks like to be sick)

Week 2

First week of classes...
Real life, or something close to it, started this week. Classes began and everyone is starting to get used to what the schedule will look like from week to week. There was still time for fun things like movies, a pizza party, hiking and trips to the store for the last minute notebooks and other school supplies. Photos: (From top to bottom) Ross on his first day of class, the classroom just before the first class started, Laura and the group dancing at the pizza party, a group hiking to the "big cross" in the early morning, the "big cross," Heidi walking a slack line



We will be doing ministry with children together every Wednesday at three different locations in and near La Merced and this week we learned some songs and games that can be used.


Student Perspectives

The Gloves Aren’t the Only things Coming Off!!!
The air blows a little cooler on some of the faces of this years CBCE males. A strange phenomena has manifested itself in the form of the first ever “Beard-Off”. The point of this exercise, is rooted heavily in the pure necessity for males to compete, and is to see who can grow the longest possible facial hair by the day before the Christmas concert. Due to a condition of the competition set in place by Professor Bob Auger, the competition must end the night before the concert and all participants must shave themselves back to respectability. While the idea was first conceived on the first-term retreat, the full potential of this exercise was not fulfilled until every male who had previously sported any facial hair, was clean-shaven and baby faced on Sunday morning the 3rd of September. Some competitors have taken this competition in stride; others have had a hard time dealing with the initial shock and loss. Where will this madness end? Nobody knows, but getting there might get a little hairy.

--Tim Prikkel

Week 1

This last week was an orientation to life at CBC and in Ecuador.
The theme for the week was Survivor Pichincha. The students and deans were divided into four “tribes” and spent the week learning about La Merced (where we live), San Rafael (the next closest town) and CBC through a series of competitions and activities.
These included an “Amazing Race,” “Iron Chef” and an “Extreme Makeover: Lounge Edition.” The week ended with the entire CBC community going away for a retreat at a camp with high and low ropes courses. It as a packed but fun week of getting to know each other and our surroundings.