Our summer ministry sites are carefully selected to provide our teams the opportunity to make a spiritual impact cross-culturally.  The trips are not vacations, nor are they simply an exposure to missions.  We send people where their gifts and energies can be used by the Lord to bring people to faith in Christ and to strengthen the local church. 

Most summer missionaries return stating they received more than they gave and found themselves changed forever by the experience.  Some who go out will later explore a longer term missions involvement.  Some will not.  All will have a greater sensitivity to what God is doing around the world.




Ashley writes:

Family and Friends at Grace,

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support.  Things are going amazing here and thought I would just give you a little update on how summer has been going!

My flight travel here was safe and was able to hop right into the swing of things.  I was a day late due to finishing finals at school.  All of the interns for the summer receive a week of training.  This includes visiting all of the ministry sites that short term teams could serve at and going over much information that includes what Youth World is all about, to the history and culture of Ecuador.  This week was extremely important and set the pace for the entire summer.  I enjoyed getting to know all of the staff and the other interns that I could be working with.  After that week I had a could of days off to prepare for a team that would be coming in from South Carolina.  This team was here for a total of ten days.  The first day we take time to acclimate them to the culture and the altitude (we are at about 9300 feet).  They receive an orientation at the Youth World office, and we tour Colonial Quito.  The second day we head to the ministry site.  With this team we traveled six hours to the jungle town of Capricho, which is located east of Quito.  After serving there for four days we headed back to Quito to serve in a couple of other ministries in town.  I had another couple of days before the next team came in.  The first team, I was able to shadow one of my maestros and see how she lead a team. 

For the second block of teams it was just me and my pareja, Dan.   Our second team was from Southern California.  It was great to have a little peace of home.  We have basically the same schedule but a different ministry site.  We took them to a poor town in Southwest Quito called Argelia Alta.  There we served by teaching english at the school, VBS, construction on the third level of the school/church, and help participate in the church service on Sunday.  After that team left Youth World planned a time for the Quito Quest summer staff to have a time of debrief and reflection at the coast.  So we traveled six hours traveling to the beach.  Here as a staff we spent six days with some sweet quite times, read Mere Christianity as a team, and was able to grow in relationships with the staff that I had not worked with all summer.  The Lord also gave me the opportunity to share my testimony with the group.  It was the first time I really had a chance to give my full testimony and let others know what grace and love Christ has given me in my life.  I grew tremendously through this experience!!!  We just got home to Quito last Friday.  I picked up my third team from the airport last night, Tuesday.  So here me and Dan go again leading our third team.  This team is also from California.  We got back two days ago from the jungle, and we visited the same town, Capricho, I was very exciting to see these people again and continue to build relationships!!! 

I know that this is a whole lot of information, but just wanted to communicate how great things are going here.  I love Quito and enjoy working with Youth World.  They stress discipleship on all levels.  There are so many people here who are ready to speak into my life and help me grow in my relationship with God!  I have been keeping an updated blog with pictures and would love for you to check it out!  www.hisdaughterandservant.blogspot.com.

I hope that this gives you a better picture of what God is doing in Quito.  I would love to hear how your summer is going.

I would greatly appreciate you joining me in prayer:
     -That God would continue to work in and through me
     -I had my purse stolen a couple of days ago.  Pray that  everything would work out and that the person who stole it would read that Bible that was in my purse
     -That God would lead me to understanding what He has put on my heart and how I should act on it.

Last but not least, I have been praying for the last month about coming back to Quito in September for a year.  I have really caught the vision of Youth World and would love to be a part of the ministry here.  I would greatly appreciate you input and prayer as I come before God for His plan for my life.  There is a great need here at the Alliance Academy, which is a part of the Expatriate Ministry of YW.  They need a middle school girls chaplain.  It seems like it would be a great fit! 

Thank you for taking the time to read this email! 
May God be blessing you at Grace as much as He is here in Quito!
In our Savior Christ Jesus,