Update 12/26/2022
Merry Christmas!
We’ve passed the original goal of $1100!
Thank you everyone for your generosity,
it’s very much appreciated by those who receive the benefits, including me! Just making these fundraisers and following up is a very time-consuming process in and of itself, so your generosity is a relief to me as well. And I have a lot of Good News to share:
Amazingly, the school in Magdalena Alto up in the mountains received the supplies for their Christmas program, purchased with $55 of fundraiser money. Come and see the story, pictures and videos here!
The $150 donation that was lost in bank transfer limbo has been found! It is being returned to my account, and, meanwhile, I have hand-delivered $150 in cash to a member of the community in Chontal, to give to Tania and the Child Care Center. Although we missed the Christmas program, this is still great news, as they’ll be able to use that money for much-needed resources.
While José has recovered from the vehicle accident, Jessica’s leg is still in the process of repair, with screws and rods.
My health problems [here and here] prohibited me from being in Chontal for the novena and Christmas, but the the church donated to me the $100 they raised in the novena. The church president, Inés, came and visited me here in Mindo. This all was moving to me, and I’m very grateful. It gave me a big lift.
The great news about my health is that tests on my heart show it to be perfectly normal! However, I’m keeping the fundraiser open and raising the goal to $1400, as I now have $460 in new medical costs after my ER and cardiologist visits. Any more gifts would still be gratefully received and helpful.
Thank you again for supporting this Way to Give Thanks, and may you find Good News wherever there may be dark places in your life during this Christmas Season.
UPDATE - 12/8/2022
A big thank you to everyone who has given so far. It’s so much appreciated. We’re at $740 of the $1100 goal, and we are all grateful. And I have some news to share.
Although we’re not at the goal, and so it’s a challenge for me to give $225 for the childcare center, I decided I’d still spend that this Christmas, dipping into whatever drips I have left in my own personal account to reach it. Tania at the childcare center told me they only needed $150 to get the Christmas bags of candies for the 35 children. So, I decided to use the remaining balance of the $225 by:
giving $20 to a fundraiser of the Capuchins in Quito, who have given me a free place to stay a few times in Quito on my journeys to take care of visa issues.
and, using about $60 for the Christmas celebration of the small school I had been visiting up in the mountain, in Magdalena Alto.
The school in Magdalena Alto is about a 20-minute ride up the mountain from Chontal, that we get on motorcycle. It has only 18 students, from 1st to 5th grade, and … they are all in the same classroom with one teacher! Who is also the principal, janitor, nurse, etc… She is completely overwhelmed.
Some really important backstory:
This school was closed for a few years some years back, because the older government regime was condensing rural schools into larger cluster schools. The kids in this small rural village up in the mountain often come down to the larger schools in Chontal or the next-door village, Magdalena Bajo. But that’s difficult - and expensive - for some, so the community rallied to re-open the school. But it’s a huge task for the teacher Ximena.
Ximena and her family live in Chontal, and were one of the families that we all assisted in the landslide tragedy of 2014. The landslide just somehow curved around her house and wiped out her husband Fernando’s workshop right next to it.
And Ximena used to work in the school in Chontal, where in 2015, if you remember, 5 children heartbreakingly died by suicide in October and November. But those children weren’t from Chontal. Where? All from the same family in Magdalena Alto. And the community still hurts from that. The spiritual / therapeutic activities that I did in the school in Chontal in January 2016 were in response to that (through which another girl who attempted to take her life had a change of heart). And the youth group in Chontal that budded out in 2016 was part that response. The leader of that youth group? Tania, who is the childcare worker in the daycare that is coordinating the donation with me!
So, back to the school: there are almost no supplies at all, and they currently have nothing for Christmas: no decorations, no nativity, nothing. Their Christmas program is Dec 22, and was going to be just some of the parents doing some dancing, and then some food. I worked out with the teacher, Ximena, that I’d get some supplies and come up to visit on Dec 19, and we’d get the kids in involved in preparing Christmas carols to sing at the program, and making some of their own decorations.
To support that, I’ve used about $55 so far for arts supplies, plus Christmas decorations: (1) a small manger scene that the kids can further decorate and add their own elements; (2) Some Christmas lights for either the manger or the small tree they might getting; (3) Christmas hats to wear during the program. I also will bring some candies, and I hope to get some blank styrofoam balls for them to make Christmas tree ornaments with. And, I have some fake-snow powder that I already brought from Boston - it makes about 10 gallons of snow!
But … THERE IS SOME BAD NEWS:
Wednesday, I tried to make a bank transfer of the $150 to a friend in Chontal, Oscar, to get the money to Tania and the childcare center, as their Christmas program is the 15th. (I had to leave Chontal Wednesday.) I had sent money various times before to Oscar, and all his information was stored in my Xoom account already. After I verified with him and moved forward with the process, the app somehow changed the account number and type at Oscar’s bank in the process of making this transfer (while keeping all his other personal info the same). I regret it: I was in a rush, and didn’t do my usual double-triple checking that usually keeps me safe from wonky, badly designed apps like this one. (I can explain more of what specifically happened in a separate post or communication if anyone is interested.) So, the process went forward, sending to some other account (ending in 3500). I didn’t realize until Oscar contacted me to say the money wasn’t showing in his account. We don’t know where the $150 is now.
I’ve been going as fast as I can to try to resolve this. I’ve contacted Xoom and am working with Oscar to get them what they need to supposedly try to contact the bank to resolve things. Oscar is also going to his bank tomorrow, Friday, which is a long ways from where I could reasonably reach tomorrow. So, I did a phone screen video recording that introduces myself with my passport, and goes through my bank account, the confirmation emails, and reproduces the weird process of the Xoom app that led to the problem. Hopefully it will help him at the bank. But we don’t know yet. It’s possible that the money is lost.
Which is heartbreaking to me, because it’s money that you all have given and entrusted to me, and also because the daycare needs the money tomorrow Friday to make purchases in time for their program on the 15th. They might be able to squeeze things in early next week. But, it was painful to have to tell Tania that I’d recommend not planning on the money, because it might come next week, but it might not come at all. I told her that if it comes too late, the daycare can use it for something else.
I will keep this page updated on what happens. Please keep us all in your prayers!
A Way to Give Thanks
As Thanksgiving approaches, thoughts bring me to the reason why I’ve been coming here to Ecuador for the last 12 years: gratitude. Gratitude to God and to other people who have given so much to me in so many life-changing ways. I think gratitude gives me more of the generosity of those who have given to me, and it always seems to move me to do things that I never regret doing.
Do you feel grateful sometimes? If you’re looking for a way to express your thanksgiving and generosity in these seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and want to join with me and others, here’s a way.
I'm looking to raise $1100 total between two areas of need here in Ecuador:
To cover 3 situations of local financial need: (1) medical treatment for two poor, young cousins; (2) Christmas gifts for children in a daycare in a poor, rural zone; and (3) assistance for the local church in the same zone.
To help me cover some of my unexpected extra visa and airfare costs, and so help me to be here with the local people and offer myself and what I do free of charge.
Your gift will be divided into these two areas by 60/40 percentages. Any funds beyond the goal will be saved for similar uses.
Please consider a gift at GoFundMe, and come check out all the details below:
Supporting local people in Ecuador in financial need ($650 / 60%)
1. Support for the Bazurtos
I’ve known the Bazurto family since 2012 through the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph, and I lived next door to them for a month in 2015. A large family living in very poor circumstances, several members live with severe physical disabilities that limit their ability to live a typical life and to generate income. They’ve benefitted from their relationship with the missionary Sisters, and recently I gave $225 to the Sisters to pass along to María and Mercedes, the mothers of José and Jessica, who were injured in a vehicle accident at the end of August. María and Mercedes are picture with me above, and in the other photos you can see José (orange shirt) and Jessica (green tank top) as kids.
José faired a little better, but Jessica suffered multiple fractures in her lower left leg, and has still been in the hospital recovering as of November 6.
As they continue to recover, the amount given has helped the families cover all the related costs. Please remember the Bazurtos in your prayers. I hope to visit them before I return to the US in January.
This a total payment of $225 that I’ve already made out of my own pocket out of expedience, and has been delivered to the families to help them get to where they are now. I’m looking for support to cover it.
Here is a link to the bank transfer receipts, the confirmation messages from the Sisters, and the appreciation notes from María and Mercedes.
2. Christmas gifts for daycare children
Two years ago, we raised $200 for the young children in the child development center in Magdalena, a village next to Chontal. One of the college-educated child development workers, Tania, who was a leader of our youth group in Chontal, has passed along another request from the parents committee for this Christmas. With several more children at 35, I’m looking for $225 to buy some simple Christmas gifts for children in the child development center who typically wouldn’t receive a gift in their homes.
Here is a link to the letter and list of names of the kids from the parents committee.
3. Local church support
At the annual church fundraising fiestas at the end of September here in Chontal, I donated $200 dedicated to updating resources in the church for children’s religious education. There is typically very little for creative resources and supplies for religious education teachers, and this should help. As this donation was also made out of expediency, I’m looking for support to cover it.
Supporting me in Ecuador as a volunteer missionary ($450 / 40%)
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Accompanying people in person is the root and foundation of what I do here, and it’s the root of sharing the love we receive from God and from other people in our lives. There is no price to being present in people’s lives, especially people who live outside of the ballpark of society. In other words, there is no greater gift than to give oneself.
As one example, you might notice Guillermo and some of his family with me in one of the pictures above. I’ve known them since I first came to Chontal in the early 2010’s. During Sundays, they would come down from their home up in the mountain to sell their plantain and banana products, and Guillermo and I would sit on a bench in the pueblo and have long, enjoyable talks about anything and everything. In true Ecuadorian campesino fashion, we resonated together with funny sayings and story telling.
In my return in August, I found he had become terminally sick months earlier with cancer in his head and eye socket, losing vision in both eyes, and with one eye gradually being expelled. The bulge on his head said it all about the constant pain he experienced, and he returned home from the hospital choosing to be with his family instead of live his last times on morphine in palliative care.
The first day I visited him while he was staying in the pueblo, he said it was the first time he had laughed in 6 months. I continued to visit every day for 2 months, and since he has moved up the mountain, I visit every 2 weeks.
Guillermo not only suffers from blindness and bodily pains, but the effect of the tumor on his nervous system leaves him intolerably sensitive to sensations, utterly fatigued in the day, and anxious at night. He is almost totally unable to sleep at night, and needs to pace around at all hours of the night on his delicate balance. Doctors say there isn’t more they can do besides morphine, and he has sought a variety of natural remedies to no avail. It is a long and painful journey, as he struggles with all you can imagine and more.
It has been a honor to visit my friend and lead prayer that brings the family together, to take him for short walks for exercise, to be alone listening to and accompanying and providing spiritual support to Guillermo in what seems to be his last months.
In remote areas like Chontal, these possibilities of accompaniment and other similar resources are almost impossible for the local people to come by. And it costs me a lot - in a variety of ways - to be here. But I give myself and my time here to be with some very important people, important to me and to God. And it adds a wrinkle into the reality that we live in, by saying that each and every person is a treasure worthy of our presence and friendship and love. Everything else comes out from that.
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Accompaniment organically generates new ways of giving and supporting that are meaningful, collaborative, effective, and sustained. That’s because it opens up giving and receiving from the “inside”, instead of the “outside”. Without all the foundational time of accompaniment, the other unique opportunities for supporting and funding people in need just wouldn't come to the surface. And neither would the important opportunities for receiving in unexpected ways from those to whom we give!
In various locations in Ecuador, I’ve initiated over 25 collaborative ministries and projects, including groups, classes, assemblies and services, retreats, workshops, and personal visits, for people in the most challenging situations, in the areas of spirituality, language and culture, community, and technological development. A workshop to bring together teen, single first-time mothers; healing activities for a poor, remote school affected by student suicides; linking students for language exchange across the globe; leading a community spiritually over a years-long process of recover from natural disaster; and many others, all in a collaborative effort that supports the blossoming of everyone involved.
I’ve carried out over 25 fundraisers collaboratively, for people, communities, and institutions in greatest need. Rebuilding homes after natural disasters; helping parents and communities support their children emotionally, medically, educationally; joining with communities to support members who are sick, dying, or lack important resources; and many others aimed at strengthening the life of individuals, families, and communities through material support and sharing.
And looking back at the last 12 years, it’s obvious: none of it would have happened if I weren’t simply present.
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Your gift joins you in the root of the effort, and helps to keep me planted and dedicated to the growth and fruits of accompaniment; I don’t have to leave as often to find work in the US. It also:
keeps volunteer activities and services free or affordable for local people. I pay for all my needs, I'm not a financial burden to local people, and can offer ways of support; and
allows my activities to remain within the values you see here, without critical compromises.
In your gift, you join with my own gift of myself, bringing us all together in giving and receiving.
With unexpected complications in my visa situation, I'm spending over $800 more than planned on the visa process and airfare. I'm looking for help with about half of that: $450. The rest - all the planned visa and travel expenses, plus all other living expenses - I hope to cover with my own funds.
Thank you for considering this way to give thanks!
What are you thankful for? Leave a comment below…