The Living City

It’s strange waking up early every morning. No matter how early or how late I go to bed, I’m up at 7:30. That doesn’t mean I’m not a lot happier with coffee. But I am at least mostly ready to roll. Each day the sun comes over the volcano (and into our window) sometime about 6:45. It’s like God just instantly cranking up a natural dimmer switch and saying “Here’s a new day, use it!”

Quito is completely alive by the time I’m moving. I think what usually makes me aware that it’s morning first, even before the light and the honking cars (this country uses horns like no other) is the planes coming and going. Maybe 747s make a different noise than C-130s, but I’m surprised I’m not used to that over my head all the time.

At any rate, it’s like being part of an organism with all kinds of functioning parts. There are twice as many people in Atlanta as there are here, but the way the city is stretched out, you just can’t look at it and fathom a bigger place. There are people moving everywhere, walking, driving, biking, piling into pickup trucks like a bunch of gringos (yeah we do).

There is activity outside as people go to work and school. They walk their dogs, they sell food and phone cards and everything else imaginable on the street. Guards or policía can be found at most corners. There are just always people around.

There is activity inside the house as well. Someone is making coffee while until about 8:15 there are constantly two showers going. Adam is heading off for Alliance and the rest are preparing for QQ training and morning worship and Mr. Bagel (mmmm).

Everyone has something to do. The interns, the staff, the people around us in Quito. Those planes flying over are bringing people like us in and out of the country. The guards in the neighborhood are keeping us safe. The street vendors are keeping those around them fed and supplied and making their living. It’s like 1 Corinthians 13 about the Body of Christ. Each of us is different, each of us has a job to do, and every one is important.

That was actually the scripture for Cameron’s morning worship yesterday. And I can’t think about that verse without thinking of Mason’s exercise where we literally pick body parts that other people in discussion group seem to be. Although I feel like something vestigial many days (an appendix, perhaps, or the left pinky toenail) I know that God has a unique plan for me. That ought to be really evident today as we find out our parejas.

Each of us interns are different, with different gifts and strengths and abilities and perspectives. I pray that we’ll be able to mold those all together to compliment each other and be great leaders this summer and great hosts for our teams. Please pray for us all as we finish our (formal part of) training today and prepare for the jungle. Just three days, I can’t believe it.

A Day in Reverse

Just for kicks, I’m going to do the day in reverse today.

We’re back at Adam and Sara’s now, and Teddy, Lane and I have been practicing music for tomorrow. The three of us and Jerry (on djembe) will be playing for the morning worship for the interns at the Parque de Carolina. Pretty cool. We’ve each got our own little musical niche and it’s awesome playing with them. We also got a verbal dissertation from Roberto this morning (as much of a dissertation as you get from Roberto) about using your gifts to worship God. My guitar-playing “gift” has got nothing on Roberto’s or Teddy’s, but it’s still a sweet way to express myself. Yay God.

Before that was Chifa. Chifa Lung Wah’s to be exact. I was hoping to put off eating Ecuadorian Chinese a little longer, but it was pretty good. And we learned how to order for our teams, which was really good. I also learned why we ate so much Chifa last year when considering the budget with team money. Just warning you guys, if you’re on my team: Chifa. Laura, Jorge, Dario, and Christy joined (most of) the interns and Maestros for that and it was pretty fun. Probably also due to us being a little slap-happy of exhaustion.

That would be due to the Basillica visit before dinner. Bryan and Dana dragged me into the ticket office and I actually requested the tickets (diez personas y tres guías por favor…. I think I can handle that one with a team). We also totally lucked out. The tour guide that was there today is friends with Cameron so he’s very familiar with Youth World, and since we will be guides the rest of the summer, he took us into the catacombs. For those who have been to the Basillica, you know those stairs that go down below the courtyard outside with the HUGE locked doors at the bottom. That’s where we went. There are only three people important enough to have been buried there, but it’s a pretty large space. Pretty cool, though kinda weird. I’ve never been big on going to places where dead people are stored.

Catacombs

We climbed the inside and the first tower, but skipped the second for lack of time. It was pretty fun, and not as nerve-wracking the second time around. I’ll be an expert by the time I’ve taken all my teams there. It was also funny to be back climbing up that chicken-wire-filled staircase and thinking about my first full day in Ecuador last year, how I’m different, how I’m the same, and how well that climb still sums up so much. (PS, Deborah, if you are reading this, you’re totally busted on the missing hair last year. I’ve seen the anklet.)

The afternoon was lunch from Yaro’s and staff meeting at the Mundo Juvenil office. We did conflict training that I hope doesn’t need to be put to use this summer. We also had worship and prayer time together. Our table (Teddy, me, Lane, Nicole and Jerry) was totally lost during one of the activities, so we just did a mumble prayer. It was awesome. Totally using that with my teams (thanks, Teddy). We also ate WAY to much food. Yaro’s is a cheese steak place that’s a little pricey, but very worth it. Not even Matt could finish two whole ones.

Morning activities were training on the final part of the life of a short term mission at Matt and Marlo’s. It’s a little scary (and by a little scary, I mean totally terrifying) that we theoretically know everything we are supposed to to host teams. We did a couple of case studies (though we’re saving most for tomorrow) on real-life teams and problems that can come up. One of our topics was even “How to save a VBS.” It made me realize how well-prepared the Christ Church team is in general, even when we thought we were crashing and burning last year. (“I don’t sing!” “I don’t speak Spanish!”)

And finally, the very first thing was breakfast and worship and Chet and Katie’s. Breakfast burritos and cinnamon buns. Even though I’m totally wiped out right now, it makes me want to do today over again just for those.

Danny on the tower

Pope Jerry

Refueled

Today, training continued. The PLAN was: Part 1 (of 3) of Short-Term Host orientation, Carmen Bajo orientation with Pastor Fabian, Hostal Bosque visit, Debrief, Dinner, game night.

STM training was good, if intense. Julie, the CFO of Youth World, said she had a lot of blank stares at the end of her presentation. Not that we didn’t all take everything in, I think it just hit us all the incredible responsibility we will have for each team, even with a pareja. Even the interns who were here last year had questions, and we really needed the chocolate chip cookies by the end. I think we are going through a year’s worth of the long-termers’ North American chocolate stockpile.

Off to Carmen Bajo. The CB site hosts and Laura were already there, so we managed to pile into two cars, Cameron’s and Chet’s. Teddy and Sarah and some of the others had been to CB before, but for me it was a first. Much like Emaus and Argelia Alta, it is an ever-growing church in both the sense of the physical building and the ministries and programs there. Even as we were having (an incredibly delicious home-cooked) lunch upstairs, a (non-YW) mission team was getting back to work on some major construction outside. We got a tour of the place and met a lot of the kids, who were there for the Compassion program. Grace and Rosa gave their testimonies and told us the history of CB. It is always amazing to me how people will just open up about anything to us, no matter how painful a memory or personal a story might be, just because they know we are fellow Christians.

Jerry, Alejandro, y Bryan

That’s especially true considering how hard it was for me to talk about my experience so far in Debrief when we got to Hostal Bosque (home sweet home for Teddy, Emily, a couple others and me). We played a game and then discussed how to go about Debrief with a team… and then we did it. What was really cool was doing both the “single word to describe your experience” thing and splitting into pairs with a two minutes to talk and 30 seconds for your partner to give your answer back to you, and then a switch for the other person to do the same thing. It gave us all a chance to get out whatever we wanted without interruption and without taking up the whole Debrief, but it was definitely hard for me to fill up two minutes with my experience. Even though it’s been incredible, I do a lot better writing (as you can tell) than verbally processing my experience, but my partner for the exercise, Nicole, was awesome in pointing me in the perfect direction to continue, even though we broke the rules (only one person talking). I think that’s going to be a theme of the summer, Interns breaking rules. We cheat in every game.

At any rate, my word for the day was “refueled.” Initially I was thinking something along the lines of “overwhelmed” or “intense,” but I realized in listening to everyone else and in really thinking about today especially that Carmen Bajo reminded me why I’m even here. To see all the construction, and to see what God is doing there through the children’s and medical ministries and the teams that are working was definitely what I needed today. Not that we’ve really put any of our STM training into action, but it’s refreshing to see accomplishment because of faith and hard work and knowing that that’s what gave me such a growing experience last year that I hope to continue. Not to mention that very faith being so evident in the trust of the children who crawled all over us and the women who told us their stories. Just going over that was a learning experience. I love Debrief, even though it stretches me a lot. Or maybe because it stretches me a lot. And this one was definitely a deboxer (for the CEC crew that knows what that is).

When we left Debrief, we walked to Pincho’s. First off, it was great to know where I was going. If there’s one place in Quito to which I can make it from a certain start point, it’s Pincho’s from Bosque. And Pincho’s is probably my favorite place to eat here. I say probably because I’m possibly biased, having been there twice as much as the next-most familiar Ecuadorian restaurant to me and because it’s really easy to order there (“Pincho de Pollo y agua sin gas por favor”). It was pretty cool to continue some of the topics from Debrief with Christy, Matt and Jerry and to talk and get to know each other more over delicious food. As we said last year, I feel like we just bounce from one meal to another with a little missionary work in between. I have no idea how I consume so much food at EACH meal and am still ready for the next. Good thing I’m working it off with all the hiking. I forgot how winded you can be just strolling down the street at 10,000 feet above sea level.

Originally we were going to have game night at Matt and Marlo’s. Christy even invited us over to watch the big game (one of the Ecuadorian teams is playing for the league title… or something like that. Nobody can really explain it to us except that it’s a huge deal). But we actually hit Adam and Sara’s (home for the guys) for dance lessons with Sarah. (It’s just slightly hard to keep my Sara/Sarah’s straight). Laura and her “hot, good-smelling” boyfriend Jorge even came for a while and were amazing and hilarious. Some of the rest of us were hilarious just because we’re terrible at Salsa and Meringue. And by some of the rest of us I mean me. And by Salsa and Meringue I mean dancing in general. I’m the epitome of a gringo.

Cameron figures I was growing because of my love of the zip line. I figured I grew just a little because I did at least attempt it. Jerry pretty much had to drag me out of our room though and pulled his dad’s “disappointed” line. I need to tell him that that is going to work really well when he has kids. Jerry Drew IV is definitely getting that one. Tomorrow is STM Part 2 and Casa Gabriel. I can’t wait.

PS- Thanks for the prayers, I think everyone is over their altitude sickness now.
PPS- Billy says he wonders what we are doing down here. I promise we’re not just playing around. We’ll be so ready for our teams when they arrive if our brains haven’t exploded first.

Anya (sp?), Danny y Matt

El Refugio

Today we did training at El Refugio, a camp/division of Youth World outside the city. It’s a beautiful place where they do nature adventures and high/low ropes courses and leadership/teambuilding training. Fantastic!

We started out with some general teambuilding games, the kind of stuff you do at camp. We totally managed to cheat. I think at this point all the Interns have got it figured out that nobody cares who wins. Which is a good thing because we tend to end all our training games by everyone breaking every rule rather than someone winning. We did come up with a strategy they’d never seen to get out of a “burning building” with 15 people. It involved jump-roping. Both the game and our strategy.

Then we did the zip line.

Danny, Jerry and Matt in harnesses

Wow. I tagged along with Colin on the NHS band trip to King’s Dominion last week. We did the Drop Zone, the thing that just shoots you straight down from a gazillion feet in the air. You have so much more protection in that thing than a zip line. And for some reason I was so much less terrified on the zip line. And I was unanimously voted as having the most graceful landing.

Jerry getting his harness on

Jerry on the zip line
After lunch (Ecuadorian goodness) all the Interns and Maestros and most of the QQ Staff went through our personality tests and talked about them and ourselves and got to know each other a lot better. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but it was a ton of fun. Apparently I’m exactly the same person as Sara DeVries on paper. High five. It was really amazing some of the deep stuff, the trust issues, and the strengths and weaknesses that we talked about all afternoon considering that for the most part we’ve only known each other for a few days.

We finished off the main part of training with conflict resolution. Another thing I was not looking forward to, but got a lot out of and was actually kinda fun. I realized a lot about myself (I think we all did) and how to look at conflict from a Biblical perspective and to learn and grow from it. And it went along really well after having just done the personality conversation and led nicely into our quiet time this afternoon. We did about an hour of solo time around El Refugio, and I went up the mountain again, a little past the zip line start point to catch up on my intern devo and journal. (insert Minnesota accent) That place is sooooooooo gooooooorgeous. (end accent)

The night ended with a hot dog/cuy/s’mores roast. Rachel, the Australlian intern at El Refugio gave us directions. Dario translated. (Both were in English. It was hillarious).

Overall, bombarded with information again. And tomorrow is Team-Leading training and a visit to Carmen Bajo, one of the ministry sites, and where Jenny and Tory will be site hosts all summer. I’ve learned a lot today, about myself, about the other interns, about working together, about trust and forgiveness, and about the very nature of God and letting him be “mi Refugio.” We’re going to be so ready by the time Block 1 and 2 roll around.

Safe arrival

Last week I stood in the RDU parking garage laughing that I had made it back to my car. I was actually in disbelief that I possessed the responsibility to make it from Elizabeth City to Raleigh to DC to Burlington to North Hero to Ottawa and back nearly the same way. And now here I sit in Quito, Ecuador. Wow.

So Cameron and Roberto Vivanco and Emily (another Intern who is a site host rather than hosting teams) picked us up at the airport last night. We ran by Adam and Sara’s house (another Youth World couple who are temporarily housing all the male interns and our male Maestro, Bryan). We picked up Matt Smith (another Quito Quest host) and had dinner at the Vivancos’. Delicious. Especially since it included “safe” lettuce. There’s not going to be much green stuff we can eat the rest of the summer. After that, hung out with the guys and Sara and hit the sack for an early morning today.

This morning was breakfast at Matt and Marlo Jensen’s and a lot of meeting people (the female interns/Maestro and the long-term QQ staff). We did a devotional, we sang, we talked about our purpose this summer, which was really great. Huge focus on the growing in Christ aspect, way more so than the job aspect or even leading teams. It was a really cool way to start the day and the summer.

We went to the park this afternoon and played football for a while and then did quiet/devotional time outside and just beat the rain when we headed off to the mall for dinner. (The nice mall where we went last year after our dump visit. On a side note, I managed to stay under budget this time.)

Now it’s just chill time back at “home”. Official training starts tomorrow and we’ll be here and at the Youth World office a lot. I’m really excited about working with everyone here this summer. The guys are awesome, the girls are awesome, Matt and Marlo are awesome, our Maestros, Bryan and Dana are awesome, Dario and the rest of the QQ staff are awesome. It’s such a Christ-centered environment and I’ve learned a lot despite not accomplishing too much today. Much like our first day last year.

Lacking a "Linebacker"

First off, this will make a lot more sense if you’ve seen the “Evangelism Linebacker” video. YouTube address (dispite my loathing of YouTube for a multitude of reasons all stemming from their liberal interpretation of handling copyrights) is below. For posterity (you know, if my dream ever comes true and there is a Constitutional Ammendment to ban YouTube) just search for “Evangelism Linebacker” and I’m sure you’ll find it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvYFvhx1dcY

Blog entry proper:

I’ve not been the most patient person lately. I want everything to fall into place for Ecuador this summer. I want my International Teams fund raising account to hurry up and catch up with the count in my head. I want to be done with work and exams already so I can go to the beach, or maybe Vermont. I can count twenty pleasant things I’m eagerly anticipating and fifty more unpleasant ones I’d like to be over with.

But as much as I want work to be done with, I’ll feel like there’s so much I would rather be doing myself than delegating when I drive by Albemarle Music. And I’ll miss everybody there. Well, not John. (Just kidding, John. I know you account for 80% of my readership by yourself). And much as I want to be in Ecuador, I’ll miss Adan, Bayron, Brittany, Damaris, Eddie, Eric, Jesus, Joe, Luis, Melany, Vanessa, Aaron, Bart, Ben, Carrie, Cynthia, Derrick, Jason, Kos, Susie, Tina, Wade and everyone else that make my “day off” a learning experience and a joy.

I think I forget until each Tuesday that I can still grow in Elizabeth City, despite feeling like I have accomplished what I set out to do when I came back here. I forget to take Qui-Gon Jinn’s advice and focus on the “here and now,” though (being a good Methodist) I’d call it Prevenient Grace rather than the Living Force.

The other six days of the week, I think I need a “Patience Linebacker.”

“Boo-ya, baby! Concrete tastes the same in both hemispheres! Don’t be so anxious, I’ll blow you up anywhere!”

Life Lessons for the day:

“What can we do to show God we love Him more?” -Toni
“Pray once a day and twice on Sundays!” -Cynthia

“[In God’s time] everything falls in place.” -Julie (incidentally, my fund raising is finally where it is supposed to be, thanks to Grace alone)

[unspoken implication that guys should not have long fingernails] -Wade

Avoiding the Whale

Have you ever been asked to do something on very short notice? That was me tonight. Toni called me at about 5:35, giving me roughly an hour to come up with what she requested: a devotion and music for the worship at Benjamin House at 7:00.

Benjamin House is an incredible place. It is a group home for adults with various mental disabilities (seriously, click that link and check it out). It is a very beautiful facility full of warm, welcoming people with the love of Christ in their hearts.

I’m really not sure what I was expecting. I mostly just put my expectations aside (while I stressed about my message) and took it all in as it came. And although I was expecting excitement (Kevin, Mason, Toni and everyone else who has ever done anything over there has always talked about the love and energy they pour into worship), I was still totally amazed at the absolute enthusiasm that everyone shared.

I talked about Jonah. I’m sure everyone could tell it was a hastily-constructed devotion. But I learned something today, both through and about the written Word, and through speaking about it. The last verse in Jonah chapter 1 says that God “…provided a great fish to swallow Jonah.” The whale didn’t eat Jonah because the dude was unlucky, or at all because of it’s own free will (I guess only we get that). God provided it for Jonah- Jonah, who was only out in the sea in the first place to avoid God.

I’d never caught that single word before. In fact, I looked in three different translations of the Bible for one that would highlight that very provision a little less (my original planned message was going to go in a bit different direction that what I ended up). But each one, despite other differences, used the same exact phrase: “God provided.”

So there I was at First Baptist Church and Toni asks my via phone from Fayetteville to lead worship on short notice. I didn’t know it, but I was learning from Jonah already. And then, there I was giving a message an hour and a half later pretty much out of my head, and thinking “no way” could I have come up with this alone.” Oh- and I even asked Adam his favorite Old Testament story, hoping he’d give me something easier to work with than what was already circling around in my brain (Jonah). But guess which stubborn, seafaring Hebrew and eponymous, 4-chapter, single-story book he said? (If that didn’t narrow it down enough, the book, story and man in question are Jonah).

Once I’d squeezed all I could from Big Daddy J (as he was known to his homies in Galilee), Adam and I broke out the guitars and Toni’s Beach Retreat/Benjamin House songbook. I would have played all night if they’d kept calling them out. Nobody cared when we screwed up the chords, or the words, or the melody, or the harmony, or any of the other ways one music major and another ex-music major managed to massacre the music. The eight or nine that live there, plus Sam and Billy truly made a joyful noise. This tiny chapel was louder and had more hands in the air than I’ve heard and seen at most hundreds-members sanctuaries packed to the rafters on a Sunday morning.

When we finally played/sang/worshiped with “Sanctuary” and no one immediately shouted another number, I closed is prayer. Something I mentioned and lifted up to God was our desire to show the world that we are Christians (like the song says) by our love. And the people and Benjamin House certainly showed us. with their love for each other and for 3 total strangers they welcomed with open arms and hearts, and the love for Christ shown through those same acts and through genuine enthusiasm for worship and for Christ.

After Benjamin himself dismissed us from Chapel, he, Bart, and a couple others showed us their rooms, and we got a general tour of the place. We talked about football and wrestling and cars like we were all old buddies. We even got a hip-hop dance lesson.

I’ve been thinking since going to Ecuador last summer about the marginalized people of society. The poor, the homeless. The handicapped of all shapes and sizes go on that list too. I wonder if everyone could see the love, life and energy at Benjamin House if they would think differently about those who are different than them. We tend to ignore people who don’t measure up to us in status or wealth or intelligence of ability. Hut I have been trying to look at peoples’ faith and friendship and simple existence as human being and children of God and not judge them at all.

Jonah was the scripture of the night, but if there were books of the Bible of Bart or Benjamin, they would be my favorite. Because the hero of all three is God.

Huevos de Pascua

We had an Easter Egg hunt today at La Casa. (For those of you who don’t know, La Casa is an after-school ministry for Spanish-speaking school kids, held at Christ Episcopal Church two days of the week). Miranda and I went out to the side yard/playground and hid (roughly) 130 eggs1 for the kids to find. I doubt we even knew where they all were by the time we went back inside and upstairs.2

Once all the kids were finished with homework, coloring, and snack, it was egg hunting time. They bunny-hopped from the parish house to the playground with makeshift Easter baskets (plastic Food Lion bags) swish-swishing around. I even noticed one particularly adorable second-grader actually skipping through the yard, bag in hand, waving in the air as the egg-collecting began.

You just really can’t hide 130+ brightly colored eggs very well in a maybe 20×50 meter fenced-in yard. But even with half the eggs scattered around the ground or along the brick wall or other painfully obvious places, the kids had a blast. I don’t even remember the last time I skipped around doing anything. I think the joy of watching them actually dwarfed the feeling of them actually (for once) listening to me give directions before we went outside. I love kids.

1We didn’t know until later that we were supposed to count the eggs. This resulted in guesstimating how many eggs we had to limit each kid to finding. (Although several went over the alloted six by bagfuls, which itself resulted in the re-hiding of some eggs).
2As I told Miranda, I thought you had to be a lot older before you could hide your own Easter Eggs. I was mistaken.

A Bushel of Pecks

This weekend we’ve been in Atlanta. I missed the last two family trips, so I was pretty stoked to get to go this time. And for Grandpa Bill’s 90th birthday at that. I’ve been pretty sick and just wiped out (and I haven’t eaten hardly anything) but it’s been an excellent time anyway.

I think my Grandpa was especially pleased because all 4 of his sons were home. So between them and their families and Grandpa and my two Great Aunts and my dad’s cousin, we had a pile of Pecks (and Joyces and Brocks) at dinner tonight. Pretty awesome to see everyone and to give Grandpa Bill all the attention that he would probably normally just as soon hide out from.

It’s always fun to see your family. The people who you know and who know you and remember all the embarrassing stuff you did when you were little, but also who you can drive around with for five hours unsuccessfully1 looking for an Atlanta Braves store and still have a fantastic time with.

1I think Miley Cyrus was in town. We couldn’t get to the one Braves store we actually located at the CNN center. Darn you, throngs of twelve-year-old girls.

Favorite People

Today was the Elizabeth City District United Methodist Lay Rally. Basically its the anual conference of all the non-clergy district leaders and anyone else, lay or clergy that wants to attend. The district youth praise band played before the service (most of it anyway, which only included two actual youth). So I got to jam with Toni and that was cool. After the service we went upstairs to the youth room and I got to play a little more music with Marlowe and Elanit. Also always a pleasure.

When I finally left and dragged myself to First Baptist (exhausted after having preached there this morning, played guitar all afternoon, and being sick) I just sat in the congregation. I did stand up and play bass so David could sing “That Where I Am There You,” but otherwise I was just a regular guy at the service, which was a nice change. No preaching, no praying out loud, no singing or playing, just a chance to be a part of the worship service, which I needed. And I just generally had some good conversations with Becca and later David and Steve and the Winslows and the Saunders.

Overall, the thing that stuck out to me all day was just getting to see a lot of random and very special people that I don’t usually have the opportunity to spend a lot of time with. And that’s a blessing in and of itself.