It's time to look back and reflect on my first month of the world race. In about 4 hours I will be leaving Ecuador. We are headed to Porviner, Peru. We have a 30 hour bus ride ahead of us! Whipee!! This next month is going to be a change up in pace! We will have more then enough ministry everyday! I'm so excited for that! We will be doing VBS, evangelism, and making bricks to build with! 
 

A couple weeks ago I would never have thought that at this moment I could actually miss the kiddo's in Iluman! Last night they were so cute, like way too cute. They lined up a row of seven chairs and had all of us sit down. They huddled in the corner, giggling and whispering, then they started to make their way over to us with presents hidden under their shirts. It was so precious, they had a few handmade presents for each of us. It felt like Christmas! I got a adorable monkey bucket, photos of Jesus, hand made cards that said I love you Alysa and I'll miss you so much, and a hat that was made for a 5 year old. Absolutely adorable. The same kids we had tried to hide from at first had ended up stealing our hearts.
When they realized this was our last night together they started sobbing! Poor Stephanie was buried under a pile of snotty, sobbing, adorable kids. Goodbyes are not fun!
 

I gave endless hugs. I felt like a human jungle gym and somehow ended up with diarrhea on my shirt :) lol 

It was really encouraging to see how much these kids loved us, we truly made an impact on their lives. We were able to show these children unconditional love. We were displaying the love of Jesus as we did crafts together, made play-dough, played their crazy ball games, read bible stories together, taught them English, and just smiled and laughed together. 

I'm going to be honest and say that this month will probably not stick out as my favorite month of the race. But God certainly was at work in me personally, in us as a team drawling us together as a family, and teaching us dependence on Him. 

And just for fun, a few days ago we went with Gustavo up a crazy mountain road where my friend Lauren and I were literally getting air in the back seat of the bus. But the bumpy ride was so worth the view. We could see for miles: city on one side and Amazon jungle on the other! We went on a 2 hour hike to a waterfall. Of course I went in and got brain freeze under the pounding water fall :) 
 

Last night I played in an official Ecuadorian Soccer Tournament! It was so fun but SOOO hard! ALTITUDE! I felt like such a looser gasping in air for dear life trying to catch my breath. lol. I've never had such a hard time breathing in my LIFE! 

Talk to you later in Peru!! :)