Vocaliscious!



Me and the interesting statue are happy on my day off!




The amazing eucalyptus forrest just
outside the city.  It smells AWESOME!

 


Enjoying the view from our roof

 


Friends who came over for our Thanksgiving Pie Party

 


             A monument in a Quito park features awesome Bible verses--this one was especially inspiring to me.

  I can't believe it's already December and I'll be coming home for Christmas in just 2 short weeks! I guess life has been pretty crazy lately! I am so incredibly thankful that I get to spend Christmas this year with my family and loved ones. The past couple of months have been full of challenges, but also full of incredible blessings.

  The biggest blessings for me have been in making music! On Sunday, my EFC church choir performed for the second time and it was awesome! "Vocaliscious" is a word that our pastor made up that he says describes what's been happening at church lately!  In October, we sang with the worship band and we sang Down in the River to Pray for a baptism. Yesterday was the first time that we sang some of the harder pieces that we practice every week and everyone loved it! One person said she got chills listening to us and some people stayed for both services just to hear us sing again. This choir is such a cool combination of different people. My favorite part of our performance was that I was able to give solos to many different choir members and it is so cool to be able to hear people's individual voices. For one, it is always a surprise to everyone because it sounds way different than when they speak. Also, it is something so personal to share your voice with other people. I was especially proud of our youngest choir member (10 years old) who did an amazing job on her solo. This week we are having a church-wide caroling event!

  I have also been leading worship several times lately and God has been helping me grow in knowledge about how to do this, and in courage as I trust Him to help me! It is so fun to do worship at my church because the worship team is different almost every week, so we get to do a ton of different styles. We've done lots of classic hymns, old vineyard songs, modern songs from Matt Redman and others, and we've even been able to do some celtic and folk-style songs! God continues to completely blow me away with His presence as I step out to do this. He gives me new notes and melodies in the moment that totally amaze me and I believe the people are more able to enter into worship as He has been anointing it.

  I am still working hard on my a cappella choir. I decided to move rehearsals to the Allegro Institute (where I teach music classes), so it's great to have some more time at Allegro again and I'm really happy it's doing something I love to do. Right now, we are working on an arrangement of “I Wonder as I Wander” as a medley with “Wonder Wall”. I transcribed this song from a recording of an a cappella group, called 'Sonos'. It was a lot of work, but it's paying off because the song is really beautiful and the choir is loving it. Also, God has been providing for our beat-boxing needs in uncanny ways! This last Saturday, a friend of a friend, who is a great beat-boxer, was able to get together with our beat-boxer to teach him a lot of the basics he needed to learn. It's kind of a more in-depth story of everything God did to help me find this guy, who's number I forgot to save, so I ran into his other friend randomly, and he was able to help me find him while he was in the middle of doing graffiti as a commissioned artist!

  Thoughts about what I should do for next year have also been on my mind and God has really been renewing and defining my vision. It has been a truly joyful and wonderful experience teaching our first-graders this year and I love working with kids as much as ever. But, I have been noticing that when I speak and teach in Spanish, I come alive. I so respect my co-workers at Alliance Academy, but something in me rebels against so much America, when what God is putting in my heart is a love for Ecuador. On Saturday, I went to a Christmas party at the city dump for kids who are from poor families (many of their families make a living among other people's garbage). The ministry that puts the event on has done a lot to make their lives better and it was so cool to see the kids just playing and having fun. Also, the event brought together Christians from all over Quito—more than 500 volunteers! I found that I knew many of the Ecuadorian Christians there and I just felt a peace with them because I feel like we've formed meaningful relationships. I also went to a choir concert produced by the local Christian radio station Sunday and I had the same experience. I found so many Ecuadorians that I knew and the contrast I feel between relating with them and with other Americans is huge. I still love my American friends here, but I think God is showing me that He really is calling me to be a missionary to Ecuador, in a way that is truly immersed in Ecuadorian culture. I'm not quite sure what that looks like for next year, but I know that my calling is to teach music to at-risk children and youth. It seems like God is already making this happen, so I feel a joyful expectancy in looking for His hand to show me what to do!

  I've also been noticing that living out my faith in another country is just as hard as it's cracked up to be! But, I feel like God's been using it all to stretch and grow me. It's making me let go of a lot of things and realize that I have to give up looking for happiness for myself on this earth, and my eyes are more fixed on Him and more patiently looking toward a heavenly home. Also, there are always financial needs and it's a stretching experience to trust they will be provided for somehow. In the near future, I'm hoping to raise money for a computer program that allows me to transcribe music (I've been doing it using one-month trials) and a guitar for when I teach kids worship and folk songs. So, I want to thank you all so very much for your support and if God leads you to continue to do so, it will be much appreciated! I hope that I will get to see many of you over the Christmas holidays and I pray that God will bless your families with His peace and joy and greater knowledge of what He has done for us during this season.  Merry Christmas!!