Please Excuse the Clutter!: July 2010

For those of you who have followed me for at least the past year, you should be able to recall a post that I put up in regards to our church's first ever mission trip to Ecuador. Our church was sending out a mission team to Lumbaqui/Synangue to minister to an unreached tribe in the Amazon region known as the Cofan People. One of the biggest risks was the possibility of our missionaries being kidnapped along the Columbian border. Although it was a risk, God's calling is so much more important.

After spending 5 days in Ecuador and returning back home, the church decided that Ecuador was a risk worth taking every year. Here we are, one year later, ready to send off yet another team. Within in our team, there are 10 members going on the trip.

1st Row: Rev. David L. Kim, Pastor Martin "Goose" Chang, Julee Chang

2nd Row: Mr. James Ye, Bill Lee, Isaac "Jak"(me) Lee

3rd Row: Joseph Kim, Andrew Im, John "Punchy" Kim

AND....

Mrs. Myong Lee. She is not included in the above picture because she was not able to be there on picture day so her picture had to be taken on a separate day.

We will be in Ecuador from July 25-31. Here is the tentative schedule of what we plan on doing.

Sunday, July 25: Leave after service, spend the night at Casa Sueca.

Monday, July 24

7:00AM - Breakfast

8:00AM - Leave for Lumbaqui

Lunch on Road (Merge*)

Arrive in Lumbaqui - Check into hotel

Opening Briefing

Culto Especial

7:00PM - Dinner (Hotel)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, July 27-29

7:00AM - Breakfast (Hotel)

8:00AM - Leave for Sinangue

9:00AM-12PM - Work project in Sinangue

12:00PM - Lunch (Merge*)

1:00PM - Prep for evangelism program

2:00PM-5PM - Evangelism program in different communities

5:00PM - Leave for Lumbaqui

7:00PM - Dinner (Hotel)

Friday, July 30

7:00AM - Breakfast (Hotel)

8:00AM - Leave for Quito

Stop at Papallacta/ Lunch (Merge)

Closing Spiel

Night at Casa Sueca

Saturday, July 31: Leave early in the morning

Merge*: The missions agency that we're partnering with on this trip.

On July 25, at 2.30 PM, we will leave Orlando via American Airlines, headed towards Miami. We will have a hour layover in Miami and then off to Quito, Ecuador! If you would and are able, I would really appreciate it if you came out and sent me off (I hope that doesn't sound conceded...) I will be at the airport by 12.45 AT THE LATEST and probably will be saying goodbye to others until 2-ish if not a little later. Please do not feel obligated to come out, only if you would like to. If you cannot make it to my departure but would like to be there when I arrive, my flight should be landing in Orlando (MCO) at 3.20PM on July 31. Please do not hesitate to come out if you want to.

I am so excited for this trip and I can't wait to get onto the missions field. I believe that this will be an amazing trip filled with both blessings we pour out to the people in Ecuador, but also blessings we receive. As you can see, from the previous post, there were prayer requests and as I looked over them, I do not see much change in the requests we ask for this time around.

~~~~Please pray for...~~~~~

1. SAFETY! (from crime, disease, dangers, and for good health)- lots of small crime in Quito – theft, pickpockets, etc.
- in Lumbaqui, we're staying at a HOSTEL. We are “targets” because we are American and we look different so please pray for safety here.
- the road from Lumbaqui to Sinangue is similar to the road from Jericho...kinda dangerous. The roads are secluded and go through the jungle where lots of guerillas from Colombia hide out. Shouldn’t be a huge deal, but please pray for safety.
- after traveling this road, we have to CROSS A RIVER to get to the Cofan people. We have to walk thru the river for 5 minutes, then take a canoe the rest of the way in prety deep water. We will have to wear boots because of SNAKES.
- at the construction site in Sinangue, there are lots of INSECTS! We got all our recommended shots and pills (yellow fever, typhoid, malaria, tetanus, hepatitus A & B) and will have to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants.

2. Lumbaqui and Cofan peopleplease pray for the church in Lumbaqui, to be encouraged, and for the salvations of the children and non-believers we envangelize to.

Please pray for the Cofan people group...that the church building will be a place of God's presence, discipleship, growth, to reach the Cofan with the gospel!

3. our team's ministrypray for unity, compassion, power, boldness, courage, miracles, strength, that our light will shine, to be led by the Holy Spirit, and other things you pray for missionaries about

I hope to come back with many stories, blessings, and photos that I can share with you. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by clicking here.

Growing up, I've always wondered what it was like to live in a big family. I've always wanted to know what it was like to have a bunch of uncles/aunts, NUMEROUS cousins, so on and so forth. As I grew up, I had only 2 uncles, 2 aunts, and 3 cousins. Looking beyond my immediate relatives, I noticed that my family is actually bigger than I thought.

One of my grandmothers grew up with 11 other siblings, and one of my grandfathers grew up with 7 other siblings; this means very distant uncles and aunts for me. From an Uncle Danny in Hawaii to an Uncle Steve in Arizona, today, I met up with my Uncle Tai-Chi and my Aunt Christine and their three kids Jessica, Isabel, and Matthew. I have met them before but I had a very vague memory of who they were and yet, here we are only a couple years later, catching up while they were in town. For me, it was a fun time and I forgot how cool uncles and aunts can be.