Join me in welcoming guest blogger the Reverend Abigail W. Moon, Associate Rector at St John’s Episcopal Church, Tallahassee. Abi is familiar to many from several years in youth ministry in various dioceses of Province IV and her work with the Episcopal Youth Event in 2011. It is always an honor to share Abi’s wisdom and reflections with my friends and colleagues across the church.
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Province IV Youth Short Term Mission Team in Quito, Ecuador
On July 9-19, a team of 25 (18 youth and 7 adults) gathered together for the first time to venture out as a Short Term Mission Team to partner with Youth World in Quito, Ecuador.
Like any mission team, this group listened to God’s call for them to take a step out of the comfort zone, to learn something new and to be transformed.
Working with Cameron Graham Vivanco, an Episcopal missionary through South American Mission Society, the team met their brothers and sisters at Buen Pastor. Together they gathered around the table for meals, for worship, for teaching and for laughter. Together, side by side, they taught Vacation Bible School, made concrete, plastered walls, and painted the walls of Buen Pastor.
Everything we did could have been done by anyone – we were not the only folks who could do the labor. In being present and working alongside the parishioners of Buen Pastor, we worked and learned not only how to make concrete the old fashioned way, we also learned how to grow in relationship – the old fashioned way – through time, presence and sharing.
In broken Spanglish, we loved, laughed, and lived with our new family and listened to what God was stirring in both us and the community of which we were a part.
God plants seeds in each of us, mission teams are one way to gather around the table with those who might not look like ourselves, sound like ourselves, and to discover the greatness of God’s Kingdom and the vastness of the church!
For more information regarding the Province IV Youth Short Term Mission Team, visit our blog: pyequito2013.blogspot.com
For more information about wonderful ministries in Quito and how you can support them click the links below:
The Vivanco Ministry in Ecuador
Filed under: Mission