Orphanos Foundation

Moving to Ecuador

posted by Richard and Ximena Roseland — February 5th, 2010

We just arrived back from our trip to the beautiful city of Memphis, Tennessee! We braved the winter weather to spend some time at the Orphanos Foundation office to discuss logistics of our next ministry assignment and attend a board meeting there. Our flight was cancelled two different times and we ended up having to stay in a hotel halfway to Memphis due to the road conditions, but we finally made it there. Ximena was really excited to see snow/ice for the first time and so was Santiago! They both had a fun time playing in it and Ximena even made a little snowman...hopefully someday soon we can go someplace where they can actually experience it snowing.

After our last update, we were able to celebrate New Years with Ximena's family. Gustavo (the boy that we took with us to Ecuador from the orphanage that we previously worked at) especially had a fun time with the fireworks as well as building and burning the Año Viejo. The Año Viejo is a tradition in Ecuador, where each family builds a paper mache doll to represent the past year and then it is burned to represent that the year is over. For this year's Año Viejo, we built Sid from Ice Age III with his dinosaur eggs. Also, Angie (my brother-in-law Johnny's fiancé) and I had the privilege to sing a Christmas special at the Iglesia Puertas Abiertas in Manta (Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBAk4tfYljc). It was a great time to spend with family and celebrate all of the amazing blessings that God gave us in the year 2009.

At the beginning of January, we started packing our bags to return to Quito to drop off Gustavo at the airport to return to Mexico and for us to stay at the ministry It's About Kids for a few more weeks. Due to the fact that Ximena had to have her wisdom teeth removed a few days before, she stayed in Manta with Santiago for another few days while she was healing. During that time, I traveled with Gustavo and Jonathan (my brother-in-law) to Quito to drop off Gustavo and then we headed down to It's About Jungle Kids in the town of Misahualli, Ecuador. We were able to spend time with the directors Roberto and Charmai and get to know the kids that they are taking care of. Since we were in the jungle, we were able to experience some fun adventures such as floating down the Rio Misahualli in tubes, head up the Rio Napo to a Quichua museum, and Jonathan was even able to hold a boa constrictor! It was an amazing time to see the beauty that God has created and get to know the hearts of the directors at the home.

After spending a few days in the jungle, Jonathan and I headed back to Quito to pick up Ximena and Santiago and head back to It's About Kids. We spent a few days there learning more about the ministry and getting to know the kids and then our boss Wayne Sneed with Orphanos Foundation joined us there for a few days. It was great getting to see him after 2 years and getting to share with him our hearts. It was great to receive such wise council from someone who has been involved in missions work for so long. After speaking with Wayne Sneed as well as with Ron Stiff (the director of It's About Kids), we have decided and feel a great peace about returning to work at It's About Kids.

So now we are off on a new adventure to a new place! We are going to be serving in a few different capacities in Quito. First, I will be working at the school on site called Montebello Academy, which is taught entirely in English. It is a large school of about 320 kids, ministering not only to the kids within the home, but also to 150 at-risk children in the community who are on scholarship and 150 children who help fund the school. It will be a place for me to grow as a teacher and learn more about my trade. Second, Ximena will be working exclusively with the older girls at It's About Kids. They are girls who are in their teens that we believe could really benefit from Ximena's discipleship as they go through a difficult time in their lives of finding who they are in Christ. Third, Ximena and I will also be serving as a back-up couple for Ron and Sharon as well as Roberto and Charmai at the two homes in Quito and Misahualli. We saw a need for a couple to be able to come in and stay with the kids for a few days while the directors get some needed rest. Fourth, we will be taking Gustavo into our home so that he can finish his high school. As many of you know, Gustavo has been on our hearts for years now and we really felt burdened to help him achieve his goals and dreams. So we have decided to become the home for Gustavo that he has always wanted and Ron has agreed to let him study at Montebello.

Please pray for us! We are in great need of your prayers right now. First, please pray for us as we still need monthly supporters before we can move. We currently need about $600 more of monthly support to be able to leave to the field. We are planning on leaving in April/May, so we just have a short time to raise those funds. Second, please pray for the move. We are in the process of deciding what to take and what to leave behind and it can be difficult. Third, we have agreed to take Gustavo into our home and along with that agreement, we have committed ourselves to being his family. Please pray for us as we will now be learning how to parent a teenager and a baby at the same time! Fourth, please pray for our family. Every time a major decision is made, we feel the attack of the enemy in our lives. Please pray that our marriage will be strengthened throughout this change.

Also, make sure to look at the pictures in the album on the right!

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