The Mission Leadership Program group, comprised of  Richard, Karen, Becky, Barbara, Matt and our leader, Ted, left for a very full ten days in Ecuador on August 15^th.  We were a diverse group in age and experience – and Spanish speaking skills! – yet after ten days, a very caring and close knit team.

Our purpose, in addition to being trained in the Diocesan’s MLP to lead future trips, was to visit with the fragile Diocese of Central Ecuador, worship at many churches, meet with the Indigenous Council and spend 5 days physically working on a church in an Indigenous community high in the Andes. 

What we all learned during this time, was that while we achieved our itinerary items, the ministry that was not on the paper is God’s hand that carried us through our trip, touched us and those we met in Ecuador, and continues to support our bond through prayer and memories of our shared time.

Our trip to Central Ecuador was as diverse as the country.  We had the opportunity to visit museums and Indigenous craft markets.  We worshipped at the Cathedral in Quito and a tiny shrine outside Ambato.  We met with Mestizo parishes and Indigenous parishes.  We learned about the journey of the Diocese of Central Ecuador while meeting with the wonderful Bishop Wilfrido Ramos and his brother Bishop Tony Ramos.  We learned about the Columbian Refuge mission that Trish Morck works on so tirelessly and we were given a presentation on FEINE, a group representing Indigenous people, who have no representation in their own government.  We met two of the only four female Episcopal priests in the diocese and visited an Episcopal school.  We ate beautifully prepared Ecuadoran fish with a lemon sauce in an Ambato restaurant and we shared grilled guinea pig in a room in the Indigenous village of La Hondonada. And we were welcomed through all this by Chris Morck, along with his whole family (wife Trish, daughters Claire and Isabel), as they have been Episcopal missioners for over two years in Ecuador. 

For all the activities that helped to frame our trip, the four days of hard work with the village of La Hondonada on their church Iglesias Resurrecion will probably be what will remain our most enduring memories.  The sharing of work, meals, church services and the community that formed around us was cherished.  To get to know our Brothers and Sisters in Christ, to be welcomed so hospitably, was overwhelming to us all and so hard to leave.  We saw the love of Christ in each of the village members as they cared for each other and us.  They asked us so many questions, wanting to learn about our churches, culture, and government, yet it was in this, that we learned so much about them.  For all their hardships, inequities and struggles, they are a proud and strong community, with a beautiful Episcopal church in the center of their village.  It has a strong new cement floor and fresh, colorful blue and yellow paint on the walls, but we all know that it is the sounds of the people in and around the church, and hopefully their memories too, of the time we were together, supported by our shared God, that is the strong foundation for this church and its community.