Thank you all for your encouraging words this week- it was great to hear from many of you!

We have had another crazy week at Montanita Verde! The beginning of the week started off rather quiet and uneventful- which Will and Amanda were grateful for. I started working on the mural with Will's sister who is visiting. Will went to visit Jacqueline who was still in the "observation" area of the hospital and seemed to be heavily sedated. Thursday we returned to the orphanage after running errands in Manta and came home to a mess- where Jose (one of the kids) acted in rage, broke some windows and held glass up to the other kids throats. Therefore, they pulled Jose out of the house and have been keeping him separate, while they are trying to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, the Eason's keep running into roadblocks in a country that offers little to no services to people with mental or behavioral issues. On top of the stress of dealing with Jose, the hospital where Jacqueline was staying (three hours away) called and told the Eason's they had to pick her up by the end of the day or they would put her on the street. When Will and crew arrived to pick her up, she was not better, but the hospital basically doesn't have the room or government funding to keep up with all of the patients. They ended up driving ten plus hours through the night to Quito to take her to a facility. However the cost are high ($1'000/month) and not something that can be a long term option.

Please pray for Jose, Jacqueline and the Eason's. Many tears have been shed this week and the Eason's are trying to stay hopeful but have been feeling like they are in the midst of a storm they are not sure they can bear. They have prayed and mentioned they are surrenderd to whatever God wants for this orphanage, even if it means shutting it down. I have been praying that God will give them wisdom, clarity, peace and the confidence to do the work he has set before them to do and the rest to trust that he will work it out for their good and his glory.

I'm heading into my last full week at Montanita Verde, as I have a friend (Angie) arriving from Austin next weekend and we will spend half a week here and then head to Quito for the final couple days.

If you would like to help with supporting Jacqueline with a one time donation, to help towards here month stay in Quito, here is a link where you can do so: http://incalink.org/ministries/montanita-verde/. Please shoot me an email if you do, so I can let the Eason's know and they can designated the funds toward her care.

Thank you all for your continued prayers! Keep them coming, as they are needed and felt:) Below are some random pictures from the orphanage, the next town over, San Lorenzo, and the beginning stages of the mural!

Much love!
Erin

Hola friends and family! Thank you for your patience in waiting for my first update. I arrived in Quito about two weeks ago and have been at the orphanage for a week and a half and this is the first day I have internet access! Hurray!

 While I was in Quito I was fortunate to visit a few of Inca Link's ministries including: a soccer ministry, an at-risk children's outreach and one of the women's prisons. The visit to the prison was the most memorable because I attended a bible study for English speakers where women from all over the world were present and shared from deep places of brokenness and honesty. I spoke in depth with two women, both of which asked for prayers for the lord's favor in their trial hearings and early releases. The prison was drastically different from our's in the states in the sense it was extremely overcrowded (800 + women in a 240 max facility), kids are present (about 100 currently), basic necessitates are not provided--so women have to have people bring them supplies or find ways for make money. However, it was encouraging to see God at work through the missionaries leading the studies and helping to supply the needs of the women, as well as the hope he is giving the women prisoners in midst of their captivity.

I traveled to the orphanage with a short term team and we thankfully survived the 10 hour loco (crazy) bus ride. The next morning we began working on construction/painting and settled into our schedule of manual labor in the mornings and putting on a VBS with the kids in the afternoons. The construction part of our time was much needed due to the quickly eroding buildings that have not been kept up over the years. The time with the eleven kiddos was my favorite each day, as we would share Bible stories, sing, play games and do crafts.

Now that the short term team as left, I am here with a college intern named Anna and the missionary family: Will, Amanda and their son Emory. It looks like our normal "schedule" will be cleaning/painting in the mornings and helping the kids with homework/playing in the afternoons. However, this past week was crazy and the saddest part of the trip so far has involved one of the kids, named Jacqueline. She turned eighteen this year and Will and Amanda (the Eason's) were working on placing her with her older sister because they cannot legally keep kids here past eighteen. The night we arrived, Jacqueline started acting strange and chanting things over and over and would not stop singing. The next day it continued and got worse, so Will drove her to the doctors and they said they thought she may have schizophrenia and gave her meds. Since then she has needed twenty-four hour care, which the Eason's are not staffed for. So Anna and I have helped on over night shifts, where we didn't sleep because she stayed up all night singing/yelling/gripping us, etc. it's been really sad to see, especially since the Eason's said she was relatively a calm and happy girl beforehand. We have prayed over her multiple times a day and have had lots of conversations regarding the spiritual and psychological battle we have witnessed. Everything came to a head Thursday night when Anna and I were staying with her. Even on her meds, she was getting worse and Thursday night, she seemed tormented most of the night. She got undressed and was climbing all over the room, and would not stop yelling/chanting again- and then she told Anna, "the voices are telling me to kill you, but don't worry, I won't- you're my friend." After we shared this with the Eason's the next morning they decided they had to take her somewhere for more care and treatment than we could provide. They found a hospital three hours away that treats mental illness and she was admitted yesterday and they diagnosed her with advanced schizophrenia.

On a more positive note, the rest of the kiddos are doing so good! Will and Amanda arrived in February with the intention of assisting in the running of the orphanage. However, they came into a mess that ended with them quickly discovering the director was involved in stealing money and therefore they became the new directors. They have done an incredible amount of work and improvements in the short time they have been here. They hired loving staff, a tutor for the kids and are setting up a continuation of groups to come and help finish the construction projects and love on the kids!

In summary, thank you again for your partnership with his orphanage and for joining me in praying for the needs here. We ourselves have needs and know of those that do in our own spheres of influence, so thank you for reaching out to another culture and bearing their burdens as well.

Please join with me in praying for:
The Lord 's continued provision and guidance for everyone involved at the orphanage.
The kids here to know the love of the Lord and be adopted by loving families.
Complete healing and wisdom for the doctors for Jacqueline.
Rest for Will and Amanda.

Much love!
Erin

 Jose and I:)

 Genesis!

 Annhalia

The Manta Mound!