Sharing Our Story

Ecuador Mission Team shirts

 

During our planning meetings, we decided we wanted to share our story with the people we meet along the way as we travel to Quito and back home again. Wearing bright, matching shirts seemed to be a good conversation starter ... and a good way not to lose anyone in an airport. So we had these shirts designed and picked two colors, one for our trip there and one for our trip home.

We picked one more color -- for the people who will be supporting us from home so that they can share our story too.

Supporters' shirts

We reached out to our churches, asking for donations to purchase our shirts and taking orders for the additional shirts. The response was overwhelming. We received enough donations to not only buy 44 shirts for our mission team but also to pay for our gas to get to and from the Atlanta airport and cover any additional incidental expenses or medical emergencies. 

 

So thank you to our church families -- for your love and support, for helping us share our story, and for being an essential part of our story.

 

With love,

the Ecuador Mission Team 

Sorting 100+ shirts

P.S. We'd like to give a special shout-out to Travis Galloway for the beautiful design and to Extreme Tees in Simpsonville, SC, for doing such a great job with the printing.

Who We Are

Most of the mission team is pictured here. Front row from left: Kim, Amanda, Alex, Noelinda, Sharon, Savannah, Sam, Frances, Lillian, Grace. Back row: Eric, Mother Susan, John, Jared, Madison, Christina, Jill, Father Mike

Coming from four Episcopal churches in upper South Carolina, our 2014 mission team has 16 youth and five adults. We appreciate your prayers for our group and for those we meet along the way.

Youth
Alex
Amanda
Carly
Christina
Connor
Eric
Frances
Grace
Jackson
Jared
John
Kim
Lillian
Madison
Samantha
Savannah

Adults
Mother Susan
Father Mike
Noelinda
Sharon
Jill

Churches

Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Simpsonville, SC

Holy Cross in Simpsonville 
Grace Church in Anderson
St. Peter's in Greenville
St. Christopher's in Spartanburg

The Journey Begins

In the fall of 2013, four churches from the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina joined together to create a short-term mission team to travel to Quito, Ecuador from July 24 through July 31. Sixteen youth and five adults will be representing Holy Cross (Simpsonville), St. Peter's (Greenville), St. Christopher's (Spartanburg), and Grace Church (Anderson).

With the help of YouthWorld, we will be working with ministry sites associated with Education Equals Hope, an organization that works with children in desperate and difficult places. Their primary goal is to provide an education and spiritual mentoring to break the cycle of poverty.

Savannah and Madison

Our work will include construction projects at Cristo Libertado (Christ the Liberator), an inner city Episcopal mission church where we will be painting classrooms, creating a mural in a Sunday school room, remodeling a bathroom to make it wheelchair-accessible, adding an awning to the front of the building, visiting shut-ins, and co-leading worship services. We will also be presenting a children's festival at Emaus, a church in the southern part of Quito. 

For us, it is a journey of the heart.

We would appreciate your prayers for safe travels for our group and for each of us to be mindful of how we can use our talents to show God’s love to everyone we encounter. We look forward to all the plans God has for us, the people we will travel with, and those we meet along the way. Thank you for your prayers and your support.

Please stay tuned as our journey unfolds. We will keep this blog updated as we travel so you can come with us on el viaje del corazon.