Onto Cuenca

Our time here has been jam packed. After a day in Guayaquil, we made it here to Cuenca on Sunday evening. The Hotel Inca Real is absolutely marvelous! I have a suite with a living room area. The only downside is a bed as hard as a concrete floor - literally!

Monday was long and busy! We walked around town a bit and took a double decker bus tour in the morning. Then we went to Compassion for the afternoon. where the kids played hard. Dan Kerwin was exhausted and sweaty after 2 hours of soccer in the sun, and I was exhausted and going down fast.

On Tuesday we cut back a bit on our schedule and decided on just 2 hours outside at Compassion. Then we spent time inside at Verbo Christian School all morning. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel, (This team is the most adventurous regarding food. They order crepes, salmon, trout, portobella mushrooms, etc.) and then we sent the kids to crash briefly before going out to home groups, which were great!

Wednesday we had a lovely historic and cultural tour. We changed that from a 3 hour walking tour to a 3 hour bus tour with stops. The guide was a nice young man with excellent English.

Tonight the kids have gone to a big soccer game with several youth leaders from Verbo and Dan Kerwin and I beat it to the internet cafe. He’s on the phone with his wife and kids.

This is such a beautiful place and we are having lots of fun with the kids. We’ll see you all soon.

-Chris Urban

 

Hola! para Ecuador!

Hey Everyone! This is just a quick update on how things are going. Right now we are in Guayaquil at Howard Johnson´s. We made the flight yesterday and now are awaiting our connection to Cuenca which is at 6:30 this evening.

Wow, well what to say. Even though we didn´t make our original flight, God has really been with us the whole way through. We had a great time in serious prayer and assessing what our priorities are for this mission yesterday. One verse that really stood out for me is Prov. 16:9. We can plan all we want to in advance, but God is the decider of all that happens. I think this has been a good lesson at least for me in trusting God in every area of my life, especially in travel. He has an amazing way of showing us what we need to give over to Him.

Thank you everyone for your prayers! They are felt!

Blessings, Catey

Greetings from Guayaquil, Ecuador

Sunday February 24, 10:30am

The trip has been fun so far, and it is really beautiful here. I’ll try to get some pictures.

The flight from Manchester was pretty cool, and the hotel we stayed in at Atlanta was ok too. The flight to Quito was long, all six and a half hours of it. There were two movies on the flight, and I finished a book. I sat in the middle of a three-seat row. The person to my left was going to Ecuador for a business trip and the person to my right was native to Ecuador and flying home.

Out of the six Bible verses our group was to memorize, we have four of them down. Jamie has the first, Sam the second, and I have the fifth and sixth (it really was a long flight).

We arrive at Quito last night at about ten, then flew onto Guayaquil, and, after going through customs, (which wasn’t that bad), arrived at the hotel by about midnight. I knew it was going to be warm here, but the humidity surprised me.

I also just went through a harrowing trial of brushing my teeth without using the water from the tap, which wasn’t much fun until I discovered the 2 bottles of Howard Johnson´s water in the bathroom.

It is really nice here. Even the air is beautiful, and the palm trees don’t hurt any either.

Anyway, we are going to plan our day now, so I´ll write more later.

Adios!

CT Spaulding

Team All On Plane, Heading to Equador

Well it’s been a long day for everyone involved. The team was at the airport by 1:00 this afternoon but were still on standby for the 4:30 trip to Ecuador. A text message came in at 7pm noting that everyone made it, and they are headed to Ecuador.

You can track their progress at www.delta.com They just passed over Cuba. They should be arriving at 11:38 at Guayaquil, Ecuador tonight.

Leaving Manchester NH is Delayed

Flying Delta #4465 11am from Manchester to Atlanta, GA is delayed until 1:15 which will put the travelers into Atlanta at 4:19. They may spend the night in Atlanta and fly out Saturday to Ecuador.

Flying Delta #195 is on-time flying from Atlanta, GA at 4:30pm to Guayaquil, Ecuador arriving just after 11:30pm (1 hour time difference)

UPDATE: The teams luggage is on it’s way to Ecuador, the team is not. Stuck in Atlanta overnight they will be staying at a Ramada Inn. The flight was delayed for almost an hour as they de-iced the plane in Manchester. “It was really cool watching them spray the plane before we took off”. The flight to Ecuador was held for almost an hour but the team was about 10 minutes late arriving at the gate.

They are being picked up by a courtesy bus from the Ramanda Inn and after they are settled, are planning on having dinner there. The next flight to Ecuador is at 4:30 Saturday afternoon. They are on standby for that flight.

Mission to Cuenca, Ecuador

The first NCA missions trip of the 2007-2008 school year will leave from Manchester NH on Friday February 22, 2008 and return on Saturday March 1st. 12 students from NCA and 2 chaperones, Mr. Dan Kerwin and Mrs. Chris Urban will be traveling to Cuenca, Ecuador. The 12 students are:

• Meaghan Biggio
• Jamie Brienen
• Tiana Burelle
• David Cianci
• Eric Lizotte
• Matt Ezzo
• Catie Ham
• Dan MacDougall
• Sam Penkacik
• Anthony Smith
• CT Spaulding
• Chris Yoos

We are traveling first to Guayaquil Ecuador via Atlanta GA, staying overnight and then taking a short trip up to Cuenca, a city of 400,000 up at 9,000 feet in the Andes mountains. We will be working with Verbo Ministries in Cuenca and Compassion International. Part of what we will be doing will be working with underprivileged kids in an after-school program.

If you would like to pray for us we would appreciate it. We hope to be able to update this blog with our thoughts and some photos while we are on the trip.