Jordan in Quito Ecuador

June 9. On the day that Brenda, Rod and Chris returned from Spain, Jeff and Elyse were with Jordan at the airport as she prepared to take off for Quito, Ecuador for her mission work for the summer.

Jordan was to stay at the Alliance School, so this view from the Alliance rooftop was very familiar to me because we had our group meetings there in 2015.

Jackson, Jordan and Joann at Piccoli, the church they went to during the first week. It is part of Quito, but a little off the mountain according to Jordan.

The got to see a rainbow over the city there.

Some of the children they worked with at Piccoli. This was Jordan's second day in Quito.

Jordan met Cassie on her first trip to church for this trip to Quito. They were dressed alike and took a picture - and then they became fast friends for the summer. Jordan also made friends quickly with this little girl at the church. This church at Piccoli was the first church at which she worked. She enjoyed working with the children there.

This is a view from the road near the Piccoli church. Their main strategy there was to witness to the neighborhood, and that involved interacting with the children there.

They returned to the Piccoli church area to interact with the children and with the people in the neighborhood.

Below, Joann, Jackson and Jordan interact with the kids.

Jordan and the others had been out in the neighborhood witnessing when it started a downpour of rain. Jordan ran on the street in the pouring rain with this boy on her shoulders, jumping over things on the street.

Jordan gets to know a couple of the girls.

This sculpture was in La Carolina park, but I didn't see it when I was there. Jordan, Kayleigh Baugh, ?, Cassie occupy parts of the sculpture.

Then the foursome occupied themselves with being monkeys.

They were on their way to Bella Vista for the children's ministry and had to ride in the back of the truck.

These are the entries in the cake or cupcake war. There were three teams of two girls each. The cake was the entry of the team of Jordan and Cassie. The war was made more challenging by the fact that they had no standard containers or muffin tins available. The boys judged.

This was their first time to hike in the Teleferico area on the slopes of Pichincha. They were trying to go up the mountain, but got on a trail that took them down instead.

Even there, they had dramatic views of the city of Quito.

They went to the Indian market for shopping and Jordan and Cassie posed with this armored character.

This location was called Otovalo and was associated with the Imbabura volcano. This was about three hours away from Quito, and they went on a tour there including this lake voyage.

Cassie and Jordan in the center of this foursome. Maybe that's part of the volcano Imbabura behind them. There was an island in the lake. They were taken on a tour and told all about the volcano. Then they went to the market.

It was very cold there. The water was cold and clear, and at places it was bubbling because of the volcano.

A trio in the cold air. Jordan said that there was a race each year where they start at the dock and swim all the way around the island in the cold water.

This was the place they had decorated so nicely for the wedding ceremonies, but in between times they had to catch chickens! Lots of different kinds of experiences are encountered in these mission trips! In the background are some of the surfaces they had painted and cleaned nicely for the weddings. Maybe that's why they didn't want chickens running around there.

Jordan practices in the little bungalow on the roof of the Academy. She and Cassie actually slept there, Jordan on a bunk and Cassie on the couch below.

At least sleeping on the roof made it convenient for seeing the sunrise.

On this day the team worked at a church in the old town of Quito close to the Basilica. They had a clear view of El Panecillo, the hill with the large statue of Mary. Panecillo means small bread - the hill is shaped like a small bread roll.

It was a one room church with windows all around so they could see in all directions. They were helping this church to get started.

Jordan is fourth from left, and I recognized the girls on each side of her from our 2015 trip. Kayleigh Baughn, third from left was on our team in 2015 and Jessica, fifth from left was also there. Second from left is Cassie, Brian's little sister, who at 16 was the youngest of the interns. The missionary interns helped with the teams that came in for one-week mission trips.

Another view of the dense development of this part of Quito. The clothes hanging to dry are indicative of living quarters, but there are many kinds of buildings in the same area.

The density of the housing sprawled over the peaks of this 9300ft altitude area is amazing. Toward La Panecilla you can see several church structures in this ancient area of Catholic practice.

Their stay at this church gave them a dramatic night view of the city of Quito and the Basilica.

This was an Intern Bible study. Brian at left, and I recognized T J Crutchfield next to him who was on our team in 2015. Jordan at extreme right.

The Bible study was at a fancy coffee shop close to the Academy.

With a time of Bible study and prayer, they were strengthened and encouraged to do the variety of tasks they were there to do.

After the study they were off to La Carolina park again.

Jordan playing her guitar on the wing of the airplane in Parque de Carolina.

Jordan playing her guitar on the wing of the airplane in Parque de Carolina. Below she is joined on the wing by Cassie, who played the ukelele with her a lot during their stay.

On this day they went back to an area where Jordan had served last summer and she is holding Sarai with whom she became close friends last summer. The boy is Sarai's little brother.

Jordan describes this as being in Old Town, near the Basilica.

Posing like statues.

Jordan posing with the police.

They found a huge empanada!


and made short work of it.


Now you see it, now you don't! Giant empanada.


Hopefully they shared some of it with the others.

Jordan and Cassie praying with Joy, one of the interns on her day of departure from the Intern group. The interns had a variety of arrival and departure times through the summer.

July 19. Jordan and a friend hike across a wooden-plank swinging bridge over a stream. The stream is pretty strong, so may be quite a bit down the mountain from Quito.

My understanding is that this is in Mindo, which Ashleigh visited last year, but in a different location.

Jordan in a pool below a waterfall. Looks like a jungle setting.

Jordan helped with a music camp that they held at the Alliance Academy. Young people came in from all over, and they did an orchestra. Jordan had worked with these four boys the previous week in a sports camp and then worked with them again in this music camp. As students in the Academy they were supposed to know English, but didn't always.

The boy second from left was the oldest and spoke both languages very well, so when Jordan told them something in English, he would repeat it to the others in Spanish. He did that without being directed to, so Jordan complimented him "You'll be a translator one day."

They also spent some time in La Carolina park this day. This cross was beside the 800 meter track in the park. I didn't see it when I was there because I never went to that part of the park.

Jordan, Cassie and ? had the opportunity to go to an ice skating rink in Quito. The ice skating rink was in the big mall close to La Carolina.

View of Quito from Panecillo. The Basilica of the National Vow is in the center of the view in the distance. One of the stories you hear is that Mary's statue has a view in the front window of the Basilica, and it was designed so that this line of sight goes through a rear window that is lower, and that the Pope said mass in 2015 in a plaza that is on that direct line of sight.

They proceeded from El Panecillo to the Equator. Jordan holds up five fingers to signify that this was her fifth time to stand on the equator at this location.

We talked about that being a great privilege at her age to have been to the Equator five times!

The above view zooms in a little to show the density of housing in south Quito.

Jordan said that when she saw this sign, she thought about the fact that we always took pictures by the signs at Bent Tree. They were at cloud level, hiking up on the side of Pinchincha at near 14,000 feet.

A message to Mom from over two and a half miles in altitude up in the Andes Mountains. 14,000 ft is about the height of Pikes Peak in the U.S.

They were intent on making the patio at Patricio's house beautiful for the wedding to come, so Patricio, Jordan and Cassie were going around digging up grass where they could to transplant to the wedding location.

Jordan and Kayleigh were helping to set up for a wedding. Along with the one wedding, there were eight persons who renewed their vows. Part of the decoration was to transplant grass to the yard! They had been working on it for weeks. They painted the whole area white, laid down bricks

Jordan and Cassie practice their instruments on the roof of Patricio and Nestor's house with a view of the city of Quito. They had a church at their house. Jordan hadn't told anyone that she played guitar, but Ron found out and got her a guitar. Jordan and Cassie played in the wedding.

On August 6, Jordan and Cassie made another hike up Pinchincha. This time they dressed more warmly! The mountain that you can see on the left above is one of those with the forest of antennas on top that we could see from the Alliance Academy.

This time they had better weather. They got up about 7am and had breakfast and headed out early for a whole day on the mountain. It was cold, but sunny and they had a great time.

On August 8 they got to make another trip to the volcano Pululahua which we had visited in 2015. Jordan's location, shown below, is overlooking the fertile valley left by the volcano at its last major eruption in 467BC.

Jordan and Cassie got to do part of their exploration on horseback.

Jordan and Cassie did one Vacation Bible School all by themselves, which she said was very hard. They had to come up with their own crafts and do everything with the children. This is their display, which translates roughly to "Welcome to Bible Shop".