Week 13 - Part B

Part B
Most of the community left at midnight on Wednesday night to start the 6 hour drive to the beach. They stayed in cabins on the beach and had a wonderful time. They went body surfing, skim-boarding, went for long walks and collected shells, built sand castles, played cards and other games as well as having a bonfire a couple of the nights. Some of them were also frantically reading the Old Testament because it had to be finished by the time they got back. They came back sleepy, sun burnt and (hopefully) ready to finish up their time here before Christmas!






Student Profile
Name: Jacob (Jake) Dybzinski
Age: 19
Home Town: Fort Collins, CO
Favorite thing about CBC: Being able to be in a different country and being apart of a community that it real with each other and how it has helped me grow in my walk with Christ
Future Plans: Work and finish up a bachelors degree in elementary education


Photos: Everyone praying before cooking their dinner over the nightly bonfire; Tess playing in the waves; Heidi doing a handstand in the water; everyone on the bus; Ross, Jenni, Judson, and Nicki; Jake

Week 13 - Part A

Part A
Due to the fact that this has been a very busy week I have decided to do two different blog entries for this week.
Natalie Rush and Cassie Fightmaster have started playing soccer regularly on an English-speaking team that participates in a girls soccer league in Quito. They have been having a great time and their team is doing good as well. A large group of us went to watch them at their last couple games.



The boys felt lonely for the states at Thanksgiving time and put together a game of touch football in our field. There were not quite enough of them, so Micah Rude played on both teams…I am not quite sure how that works but they made it work.



On Monday and Tuesday night groups of deans and students made pies for Thanksgiving and then Wednesday the real work of cooking the whole meal was done by our wonderful cooking staff. We had a huge Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night before most of the class and staff left to go to the beach for the weekend. There will be more to come about the weekend….



Student Profile:
Name: Greta Espe
Age: 18
Home Town: Roseau, MN
Favorite thing about CBC: The people
Plans for after CBC: Probably school in Colorado for elementary/special education


Prayer Requests: This past week Greta Epse hurt her back in an accident and was hospitalized for a few days. Everyone was excited to welcome her back to campus and she will be continuing to rest and heal here until she goes home for Christmas break. She could use prayer for a pain free and quick healing process.

Photos: Trevor, Dan, Reid, and Ross at a local hotel pool; the crowd cheering and then Cassie and Natalie playing in their game; Trevor, Jake, Luke, Alex, Michael and Andrew playing football; all the girls and all of the boys at our Thanksgiving dinner; Greta

Week 12

We had our last normal week here before everything get crazy with Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations. Students had classes, went to their ministry sites and hung out in the evenings. It was nice to be able to just have things on a regular schedule. We have a lot going on in the next few weeks. We will be heading to the beach for Thanksgiving and then preparing for our Christmas production, then midterm exams and then heading home for a few weeks.






Student Profiles
Name: Caroline Elia
Age: 18
Home Town: Stow.OH
Favorite thing about CBC: The people
Future Plans: Attending North Park University next year.



Student Profiles
Name: Michael Bachman
Age: 23
Home Town: Berea, KY
Favorite thing about CBC: Getting to work with local children during out ministry days each week.
Future Plans: Finishing up bachelors degree.



Photos: (from top to bottom) moving our basketball hoop onto our new basketball court; Baxter and Margie Swenson team-teaching one of the second term classes; Trevor and Dan ready for the down pour of rain that we have been getting every afternoon this week; Caroline; Michael

Week 11

This was a crazy week at CBCE. We had final exams and projects presented on Monday and Tuesday followed by celebration dinners. The new term and new classes started on Wednesday morning.



Thursday was another day of new classes but then Friday was a free day to have a long weekend. The students all took full advantage of the long weekend. Quite a few students traveled. One group to Guayaquil (the largest city in Ecuador) and another to Mindo (this is a small town in a cloud forest). A group of 19 students and deans climbed Cotopaxi (the tallest active volcano in the world) on Saturday morning. They came home to a home-cooked meal made by some of the students that stayed behind on campus. Still other students stayed closer to campus or spent the night at a hotel in Quito to be able to spend a bit of time away and a group spent Sunday at a hot springs called Papallacta. It was a great weekend and everyone came back safe and sound.













One of the mothers that regularly reads this blog suggested that we do student profiles so that you can get to know the students a bit. I am going to do a couple each week, in no particular order.

Student Profiles
Name: Alex Melin
Home Town: Cambridge, MN
Age: 19
Interests: Hunting, long walks on the beach, drawing, reading and sports, playing, and his Bible
Favorite thing about CBC: The people and breakfast
Future Plans: Retiring for life

Name: Mary Elmstrand
Home Town: North Branch, MN
Age: 19
Interests: berry picking, sudoku, ultimate frizbee, meeting new people
Favorite thing about CBC: E4 group (her small group) and learning dances with the other girls
Future Plans: Probably attending the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire

Side note: While we have 12 students from Minnesota Alex and Mary are fighting for the role of “strongest Minnesota accent.”


Prayer requests: Bob Auger (the director of CBCE) is traveling in the states right now, the students are starting new classes and continued prayer for health and safety.

Photos: (From top to bottom) A group out to dinner after finals; the group that went to Papallacta (Holly, Tess, Andrew, Kira, Azurlee and Alexis); Jake, Micah, Luke and Judson at the summit of Cotopaxi; Heidi, Hannah, Mary, Greta, Alexis and Azurlee climbing up the mountain; Kira, Tess, Michael and Kylene in Guayaquil; Natalie cooking for the troops; Elin Wickstrom, Karianne, Molly and Laura on their way out to Mindo; Alex and Mary

Week 10

We are finishing up our first term here at CBC Ecuador and everyone is scrambling to do final projects and study for final exams that take place early next week. After all of the projects are done and the tests are written, then we get a long weekend! Keep all of the students in your prayers this week they could use focus and good health.
On Tuesday we took a break and had a night was filled with screaming and laughter. We had a two part Halloween party. First, a group of the boys put together a haunted house in some of the buildings on our property. These buildings are some what creepy on their own and the boys added a story (that they made up about the previous property owner) and jumped out from the shadows and made it scary! They did a great job. Then we all changed into costumes and had a party. There was a costume contest, bobbing for apples, a dance performance of Thriller, watermelon carving (there are not a lot of pumpkins in Ecuador) and lots of great snacks. It was a fun night.








Photos: above - a couple of photos from this week at La Montana (one of our weekly ministry sites); Kira as Puss in Boots; Molly, Shane, Tyler and Jenni as The Flinstones and Aladin and Jasmine; Reid as Batman; Alexis as Caroline (her roommate); Mary as a Greek woman and Hannah as Little Red Riding Hood