Update – List has been updated! Please re-read the list and see what items you can help with.
Angela’s Note – This is my baby sister. My gorgeous baby sister that was the first blessing in our family after my parents chose to give God control of their fertility. Paula Joy is now 18 – can you believe it! – and has a tender heart for the Lord. She’ll be leaving on a trip next month with the nudging on her heart that this could turn into a long-term calling on her life. I’m so proud of what the Lord is doing in her life and touched by the compassion she has for these children. I asked her to tell her story here and hope that you will support her in any way you can. Read her story……
Ever since I was a little girl I felt God put a calling on my heart for missions. Little did I know that He’d be calling me out of the country and into the jungle of Ecuador for two weeks this summer. I will be leaving in May and arrive in Quito which is the capital of Ecuador. I won’t be getting back til June.
Jake, my friend, playing with some of the mission school children.
My team and I will be working with the organization Jungle Kids For Christ which is a school and orphanage. Many of the children live there full-time. In the mornings we will be building a 5 meter by 5 meter house for two volunteers to stay in while they are teaching. In the evenings, my team and I will be doing VBS for the surrounding area.
One of the nicest homes in the community. This is why we’re building more rooms for teachers.
We will finish up the week in Pusuno with a boat ride down the river to see the Waodani village. If you’ve ever seen The End of the Spear it is a movie based off of several Christian missionaries that were martyred for sharing their faith by this Waodani tribe. Among the five martyrs were the well-known missionaries Jim Elliot and Nate Saint.
A mud mermaid. The students have a joyful spirit and love to play.
Some of the school’s orphans are babies and toddlers.
The second week we will be doing a VBS for a couple days in Quito for all the children there. My team and I will also hopefully be working at the day care there in the city. We would play with the kids, build them book shelves, and do some painting. Throughout the two weeks we are in Ecuador we will be handing out bracelets with penny crosses on them that we are making ourselves.
I am collecting school supplies and toys for the orphanage and school. My team and I also need to raise $2,500 for the building costs. Please be in prayer for the safe travel of my team and God preparing hearts and if, for me personally, this is where God is calling me to go for a year to serve and teach about Him.
I am hoping these two weeks will help me better understand if God is calling me to long-term service in this region! If you’d like to help or find out more please check out the links below.
To help support my team and I you can donate via Kidworth.
To learn more about Jungle Kids For Christ.
Angela Again- Here are some of the items the school and orphanage need:
- Spanish/English Bibles (40) (These are pricey to buy but extra money donated beyond the cost of GETTING to Ecuador will go towards the purchase of these Bibles. If anyone has a contact that could potentially donate these, please let me know)
- Socks
- Nice shaving razor and refills (again, hard to find there)
- Blankets
- Floor Rugs/Bath Mats
- Rubber mats for bathroom areas
- Hand Cranked LED Flashlights (Batteries are too expensive)
Plates (for 25 people)Secured, Thanks!Utensils (for 25 people)Secured, Thanks!- Drawer pulls
- Furniture wheels
- 5 qt. pot
- Kitchen cooking utensil sets (for the school director’s new home for he and his wife and kids)
- Kids cooking utensils
- Organizational baskets for rooms (metal preferred)
- Step stools
- Bar stools (full size chairs take up a lot of space)
- Pens, pencils, and crayons
- Individual White Boards 8″ by 11″ (40)
- White Board Markers (Tons of them).
- Individual white boards (8″ x 11″ approx.)
- Notebooks (Mainly with graph paper for math class) Large and small (100pg or more). We need about 40.
- Erasers
- Thick pencils for Kindergarten
Construction Paper(Thanks Carolina Pad!)Writing paper for kids(Thank you Caroline Pad!)- Card Stock
- Staplers
- Hole punchers
- Paper cutter
- Lanyards (Nametag holders or Nametags)
- Lamination Machine
- Quality Copy Machine
- Kids play rugs
- Train set/accessories
- Play tunnels/Tents
- Puppets
- Any toys would be great! (batteries are rare and pricey so non-battery toys like puzzles, felt boards, etc)
- Also hard candies (that won’t melt in transit) are a huge treat to the kids and prohibitively expensive.
Paula would love to bring a suitcase full of school supplies and then another full of toys (maybe two full of toys). One for the orphanage and the other for the school and VBS kids. And another with home-good type supplies of items that aren’t easy to get like flashlights, floor coverings, and drawer knobs.
It’s easier to bring items into the country when they are brought in by a person traveling into the region because the post is unreliable and the mission school actually is too far out to get mail. The plan to send everything with Paula’s group on the flight. So this is our chance to shower much-needed blessings onto the community!
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions you can email me at angela@untrainedhousewife.com. Companies that can provide donated items will be promoted on Untrained Housewife channels free of charge, in gratitude.
Companies/Brands Committed to Donations:
MAMBaby USA – Pacifiers, Toothbrushes, and Oral Care Products
Hallmark – Spanish language recordable storybooks (Perfect for the school!)
Carolina Pad – Construction paper pads and kids writing paper.
Our church if very involved with missions trips but I have to tell you. Young adults who are called to do this just bring me chills, perhaps it’s because I know my limits and could never imagine doing it myself.
I applaud your sister and will pray for a safe trip filled with receptive communities of God’s love.
If you could see how hard she’s been working to raise her own money for this trip you would be blessed. “What do you want for Christmas?” “Well, I need a passport. Just a passport. And money for the kids.”
Get this – she’s 18 and she doesn’t even have a cellphone AT ALL because she would rather save her money for the kids. TRUE STORY. She’s been planning this for a year. I’m impressed and humbled. And willing to invest my money in her because she is able to go and I’m not as free right now in this season of life to be able to do something like this myself.
True story sequel: her birthday wishes were for suitcases with wheels (done), vacuumn sucky bags (not done) and money to apply yoward the building materials. (Those are purchased there, and each team member needs to raise so much toward their building project).
The director and his wife and 6 children (some adopted) have also sacrificed. They have lived in the school for many years. They just planned to move into their own seperate home (recently completed by other teams who visited from KS/TN) during Easter week.
How exciting for Paula to live out her heart’s desire in another month. My husband and I have been very involved in short term missions, and I’ve personally experienced being on teams since middle school. My husband is leading a team from our church this summer to do similar work in Peru. It’s an incredible privaledge to partner with the Lord in this and also an eye opener to how most of the world lives. Paula will never be the same! I will pray as she goes and serves that God will confirm His direction for her and that many lives will be touched with the love of Jesus and turn to Him.
Wow…thanks to MAM Baby and Hallmark for their donations. Paula will be honored to transport your kindness to the kids she will be meeting!
Thank you so much Hallmark!! I got your books today in the mail and I know the kids will love them!
Thank you everyone else for prayer and donations! Above all let us bring glory to Him in everything we do.
Thank you again,
-Paula Joy
We have the paper cutters – thanks to my mom’s Creative Memories.
New need: Any of you well connected people know of a resource for ceiling fans? The director and his family finally have their own house for the first time in all their years in the jungle and htey are wanting ceiling fans like these for their new house. Paula would love to take them one or more if possible: http://www.homedepot.com/buy/lighting-fans/ceiling-fans-accessories/hampton-bay/52-in-glendale-ceiling-fan-in-oil-rubbed-bronze-finish-35758.html#.T478x96X_LI.gmail
Donated! Thank you!
Thank you so much MAM!!! Just opened the box and loved all the toothbrushes and oral care stuff you sent!!
Thanks again,
-Paula Joy
Have you thought of Mother’s Day yet? If you believe in supporting those who are supporting a cause bigger then themselves…consider Hallmark and Creative Memories.
Here is a link to Hallmark’s Mother’s Day specials and an in-store coupon good on $5 off any order of $10 or more. http://www.hallmark.com/online/offers/in-store-offers/
Here is a link to Karis’ Creative Memories: (she is donating 30% of every on-line order today to May 15th, to the Mission trip above.) http://www.mycmsite.com/Karis
And next time you need a baby shower gift or toothbrushes for your baby or toddlers, please remember MAM as a show of support for their generosity.
My grandaughter is heading for Ecuador tis thhursday jan8th
She will working with Jungle kids for Christ. We plan on visiting this fall. God Bless you all Virginia & Foster Flint
Very cool! My sister had a wonderful experience.