Week 16

This was our last week here in Ecuador before our Christmas break. On Sunday the students put on a Christmas program for two local churches. The first service in the morning was in English and the second (in the evening) was in Spanish. The services included drama, choir, small group ensembles, and puppets. Both services went very well. The students spent most of their free time during the rest of the week studying for mid-term exams and finishing up projects.





We also had Christmas parties at all of the ministry sites. We gave out food and candy and other treats along with playing games and having a special Christmas puppet show. We had a Secret Santa gift exchange this week amongst the students and deans.







All but three of our students will be traveling back to their homes in the United States and Canada over this weekend. The other three are staying with family and friends here in Ecuador. They will be away for the next three weeks getting rest and eating their mom’s food. These postings will also be suspended for the next three weeks. If you have any questions or would like to see more photos please check out the CBC website at www.covenantbiblecollege.com.



I would like to thank all of you that have been faithfully praying for us, you prayers are greatly appreciated. A couple of recent praises: all of our students were able to get their paperwork taken care of to be able to leave and return to Ecuador; Greta Espe is recovering quickly and doing very well. Also, thank you for commenting it has been very helpful. Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. Come back and check us out in 2007!



Student Profiles:

Name: Ross van der Harst
Age: 18
Home Town: Clinton, NJ
Hobbies: Juggling, pool, and ping pong
Favorite thing about CBC: The beauty of the country.
Future Plans: Working for a year.



Name: Cassidy “Cassie” Fightmaster
Age: 18
Home Town: Fort Collins, CO
Hobbies: Soccer, knitting, and swing dancing
Favorite thing about CBC: The community of people here.
Future Plans: Either working and saving money to someday have a ranch or attending (and playing soccer for) Colorado Christian College.



Photos: Our choir at one of the concerts; Laura, Jenni, Karianne, Molly, Ellen and Natalie singing at the concert; the whole group waiting to start; Tess and one of the kids from her ministry site; Michael, Alex and Judson with some of the boys at their site; Ellen, Kira and Tim doing the puppet show; a group of kids playing at our Las Palmeras site; Jenni and a couple of kids at her site; Ross; Cassie

Week 15

This week was a busy week of homework (mainly a big paper for the New Testament class) and rehearsals for our Christmas program. On top of those things most of the class spent hours of the morning on Monday getting Ecuadorian identification called censos (thanks to all of you who were praying about those this week) and then spent the afternoon celebrating Quito Days.







This local holiday involves playing games, climbing a greased poll for prizes, eating traditional Ecuadorian food and a Quito Days Princess (Kira). We went to Otavalo, the largest market town in this area, and went shopping for Christmas on Friday. We also decorated the dorm for Christmas this week and went all out with lights, stockings and a real Christmas tree. This next week will be our last week before our Christmas break!





Student Profiles

Name: Elin Wickstrom
Age: 18
Home Town: North Kingsville, OH
Favorite thing about CBC: The conversations here can be completely fun or completely serious or anything in between.
Interests: Tennis, playing piano, playing card games, and reading
Plans for the future: Tenitivly planning on attending North Park University




Name: Dan Nicholas
Age: 19
Home Town: Syracuse, NY
Favorite thing about CBC: Living in another country.
Interests: Playing guitar, writing, reading
Plans for the future: Probably going to North Park University and majoring in either theology or political science or both.




Prayer Requests: That we have good closure this week on the first half of the year. Safe travels next weekend for most of the students and staff that are traveling to the United States and Canada.

Photos: Quito Days Celebrations: Karen and Caroline in masks that were some of the prizes; Princess Kira; Natalie trying to break clay jars that held candy; Alex in a sack race; Tim and Andrew in the wheelbarrow race; a group of guys climbing the pole; Karianne and Elin in a three-legged race; Elin; Dan

Week 14

This week was another crazy week at CBC Ecuador. On Thursday night we all made cookies for a party on Friday night and for a present for our Ecuadorian staff (we made approximately 400 cookies). Then Friday night we made 2500 sandwiches for a party on Saturday, ate the cookies we had made the night before and drank hot chocolate. On Saturday we participated as volunteers with an organization called Extreme Impact that puts on a Christmas party in the Quito city dump for the people who work and live there. We helped to run carnival games, do face painting, walked around with puppets and helped to distribute food. All of this plus extra rehersals for our Christmas concert and classes and ministries as normal made this a very full week, but it all got done and went well.







Student Profiles:
Name: Laura Faye Prentice
Home Town: Bloomington, MN (Home of the Mall of America)
Age: 20
Favorite thing about CBC: The lack of winter weather and playing with small children on Wednesdays
Future Plans: Finish as an art major at North Park University and then become a “starving artist”


Name: Tyler Lage
Home Town: Sheffield, IA
Age: 18
Favorite thing about CBC: All of the different ministry opportunities
Future Plans: Majoring in engineering at Iowa State University




Prayer Requests: Safety and energy as we finish up this first half of the year. We are doing out Christmas concert this next weekend. With the visas that we have to be able ot live here in Ecuador we need to register with the country and there have been problems with the system for the last few months so that at this point most of the students and a few staff members do not have the proper paperwork to be able to leave and reenter the country. We have attempted a few times and will be continueing that process this week and could use prayer that it would be able to happen sooner than later because we are all leaving within the next two weeks.

Photos (from top to bottom): A group of us carrying boxes of extra food from the party at dump to distribute to more people; Deb, Laura, Baxter, Alex and Kira and the puppets that they carried around at the dump party; Luke and one of the kids at the dump party; Molly, Reid and Jenny making cookies; Dan, Laura, Mandy, Tim, Molly, Kira and Holly making sandwiches; one of the kids at the dump party; Laura; Tyler