I’m writing this a day late because I was so frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t post any pictures yesterday. I tried facebook, flickr, and blogspot, and they all messed up on me. Hopefully I can remember everything!
We got up and ate another awesome breakfast and headed out to do some shopping. We went to the malls which are very “Americanized” but we could not find anything worth our money (the stuff in the malls in Ecuador cost as much or more than the malls in the States). We walked through a park which I guess is like Quito’s Central Park. There was some cool graffiti and a few soccer games going on inside the park.
We had decided we were going to eat at T.G.I.Fridays (Adventurous, I know) but it started raining buckets. Instead we went to Tony Roma’s (his last name is Roma, that makes it slightly more adventurous) where our poor waiter could not understand us at all so he got the manager to wait on us. He was fluent in English and didn’t even have an accent. We ate well and prayed for the rain to stop.
It didn’t. We ran back home in the pouring rain. It was kind of like being at a water park where the big bucket fills up and then pours out on all the kids and they scream and laugh. The only problem was that it wasn’t 80 degrees and sunny; it was about 55 degrees. By the time we got home, we were completely soaked head to toe. We took some pictures on the porch which are pretty amazing.
For the next 3 hours or so, I tried to post pictures, but to no avail.
That night we were invited by Tommy Bowens, a missionary/substitute teacher, to visit Casa Gabrielle. Casa Gabrielle is a home for street kids where Tommy leads a devotional. That’s all we knew going into it.
When we got there, we were greeted by a ferocious (HA!) small dog who was super cute and inside where ten or twelve boys from 13-22 were eating dinner. They smiled and welcomed us and we went into the living room to wait while they finished eating. Tommy asked the eldest boy, Mike (my love, if only he didn’t have a fiancée in Amsterdam), to tell us a little about Casa Gabrielle.
Mike told us about the entire mission of Casa Gabrielle. They take boys in off the street to disciple (around 12 at the time, following the example of Jesus) who are interested in turning their lives around. They have three main rules: no pornography, no drugs, no alcohol. If they break one of these rules they are kicked out of the house. They then begin discipling the boys, teaching them the love that God has for them and how to be a servant. All of the boys are in school and they have a tutor that comes over to help and encourage them in both their academic and spiritual studies. Once the boys graduate high school they enter into an internship with the program where they begin discipling new generations. They have a program where they go to the park (the same one we went to earlier in the day) to talk to other street kids about how they turned their lives around and were saved by the grace of God.
After Mike told us all about the ministry, we were asked to give our testimonies. This was the first time that Kellye had ever given hers aloud. It was a really cool experience telling these boys a little about our lives and how, in Christ, we have so much in common.
As we left they thanked us for coming and one of the boys who was probably 15 or so came up and kissed us all on the cheek. He was so precious and he had chubby little cheeks!
We then came home, talked about our love for Disney movies, and went to bed.
If you have any questions about Casa Gabrielle, please ask me. I know I’ve left some things out.
We got up and ate another awesome breakfast and headed out to do some shopping. We went to the malls which are very “Americanized” but we could not find anything worth our money (the stuff in the malls in Ecuador cost as much or more than the malls in the States). We walked through a park which I guess is like Quito’s Central Park. There was some cool graffiti and a few soccer games going on inside the park.
We had decided we were going to eat at T.G.I.Fridays (Adventurous, I know) but it started raining buckets. Instead we went to Tony Roma’s (his last name is Roma, that makes it slightly more adventurous) where our poor waiter could not understand us at all so he got the manager to wait on us. He was fluent in English and didn’t even have an accent. We ate well and prayed for the rain to stop.
It didn’t. We ran back home in the pouring rain. It was kind of like being at a water park where the big bucket fills up and then pours out on all the kids and they scream and laugh. The only problem was that it wasn’t 80 degrees and sunny; it was about 55 degrees. By the time we got home, we were completely soaked head to toe. We took some pictures on the porch which are pretty amazing.
For the next 3 hours or so, I tried to post pictures, but to no avail.
That night we were invited by Tommy Bowens, a missionary/substitute teacher, to visit Casa Gabrielle. Casa Gabrielle is a home for street kids where Tommy leads a devotional. That’s all we knew going into it.
When we got there, we were greeted by a ferocious (HA!) small dog who was super cute and inside where ten or twelve boys from 13-22 were eating dinner. They smiled and welcomed us and we went into the living room to wait while they finished eating. Tommy asked the eldest boy, Mike (my love, if only he didn’t have a fiancée in Amsterdam), to tell us a little about Casa Gabrielle.
Mike told us about the entire mission of Casa Gabrielle. They take boys in off the street to disciple (around 12 at the time, following the example of Jesus) who are interested in turning their lives around. They have three main rules: no pornography, no drugs, no alcohol. If they break one of these rules they are kicked out of the house. They then begin discipling the boys, teaching them the love that God has for them and how to be a servant. All of the boys are in school and they have a tutor that comes over to help and encourage them in both their academic and spiritual studies. Once the boys graduate high school they enter into an internship with the program where they begin discipling new generations. They have a program where they go to the park (the same one we went to earlier in the day) to talk to other street kids about how they turned their lives around and were saved by the grace of God.
After Mike told us all about the ministry, we were asked to give our testimonies. This was the first time that Kellye had ever given hers aloud. It was a really cool experience telling these boys a little about our lives and how, in Christ, we have so much in common.
As we left they thanked us for coming and one of the boys who was probably 15 or so came up and kissed us all on the cheek. He was so precious and he had chubby little cheeks!
We then came home, talked about our love for Disney movies, and went to bed.
If you have any questions about Casa Gabrielle, please ask me. I know I’ve left some things out.
1 comment:
Oh Tori that sounds so amazing! What a really cool ministry. I hope that things continue going well and I will still be praying for you all! Let me know if there is anything specific you need prayer for.
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