Ecuador Newsletter - October 2018
Federico, Ramon and Pedro (L-R) at the first ever graduation ceremony for Craft Aid Ecuador
When we last spoke in June our first training group was coming to an end and we were preparing to send the trainees home for final bits of practice working in their own home. I am very pleased to say, as you will no doubt have gathered from the above photo, Federico, Ramon and Pedro all successfully completed the training process and in July we held a small graduation ceremony for them and their families to officially welcomed them as partners with Craft Aid Ecuador.
This signifies they have finished their training and are now setup working in their own homes as self employed artisans working in partnership with Craft Aid. We commission a number of cards from them every fortnight and we then purchase all the cards they make that achieve our high quality-control standards. All three are now earning an income from the cards and I'm delighted to say the standard they are producing is even higher than we could have imagined.
The graduation itself was a wonderful time to celebrate the achievements of Federico, Ramon and Pedro and for them to get recognition in front of their families as the artisans they truly are. It was also great to celebrate the success of Craft Aid as, whilst this is only the beginning, it is so uplifting to see the project working and the real difference it can make to people's lives.
We just want to take this moment to say thank you to all of you who have supported us in word, finance and prayer and enabled us to carry out this work. This first milestone belongs just as much to yourselves and we pray that it will be the first of many graduation ceremonies, each one signifying lives being changed for the better.
This signifies they have finished their training and are now setup working in their own homes as self employed artisans working in partnership with Craft Aid. We commission a number of cards from them every fortnight and we then purchase all the cards they make that achieve our high quality-control standards. All three are now earning an income from the cards and I'm delighted to say the standard they are producing is even higher than we could have imagined.
The graduation itself was a wonderful time to celebrate the achievements of Federico, Ramon and Pedro and for them to get recognition in front of their families as the artisans they truly are. It was also great to celebrate the success of Craft Aid as, whilst this is only the beginning, it is so uplifting to see the project working and the real difference it can make to people's lives.
We just want to take this moment to say thank you to all of you who have supported us in word, finance and prayer and enabled us to carry out this work. This first milestone belongs just as much to yourselves and we pray that it will be the first of many graduation ceremonies, each one signifying lives being changed for the better.
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Following on from the graduation of our first three trainees, in August we started our second training group with five more trainees, Mauro, Luis, Steven, Alejandro and Douglos. They heard about the project through word of mouth which goes to show the good things they must have heard from the first group and bodes well for finding trainees in the future.
This second group has been going for nearly 2 months now and the progress has been great, they are on course to be fully trained up before the end of this year. Sadly Luis has been taken ill of late and has had to spend significant time in hospital where he remains today. We are not sure of his long term prognosis but months of rest will certainly be needed so please pray for his speedy and full recovery.
The training itself is following the same pattern we set out with the first group, the trainees are coming to the centre every morning to learn paper making techniques and how to make all the different card designs. Once they have mastered these skills we will set them up with equipment in their own homes and their training time will be split between coming to the centre and practising their skills at home. As said above we are very hopeful that they will all have completed their training by the end of this year and be producing cards by the start of 2019.
This is just a brief introduction to the new guys, if you want to find out more about them and keep up with us day to day then please follow us on Facebook and Instagram where we are able to put much more up to date information about all that's going on with Craft Aid Ecuador.
This second group has been going for nearly 2 months now and the progress has been great, they are on course to be fully trained up before the end of this year. Sadly Luis has been taken ill of late and has had to spend significant time in hospital where he remains today. We are not sure of his long term prognosis but months of rest will certainly be needed so please pray for his speedy and full recovery.
The training itself is following the same pattern we set out with the first group, the trainees are coming to the centre every morning to learn paper making techniques and how to make all the different card designs. Once they have mastered these skills we will set them up with equipment in their own homes and their training time will be split between coming to the centre and practising their skills at home. As said above we are very hopeful that they will all have completed their training by the end of this year and be producing cards by the start of 2019.
This is just a brief introduction to the new guys, if you want to find out more about them and keep up with us day to day then please follow us on Facebook and Instagram where we are able to put much more up to date information about all that's going on with Craft Aid Ecuador.
Meet our new group of trainees (L-R) Luis, Steven, Alejandro, Mauro and Douglos... Lydia obviously needs no introduction!
In June we spent a week with a mission team from the U.S.A who came to Santo Domingo to work with Montana de Luz, a mission run by a couple from the states who work here full time. It was a group of about 20 people, mainly from Florida but a real mix of ages and experiences, the youngest was 18 and the oldest 75+!
We had a really fantastic week with them, it was wonderful to be serving as part of a team like that and they were all so passionate about serving God and the community in Ecuador. We would go every day to a different area of Santo Domingo and do crafts, sports, dance, distribute food and generally "love on" the community. The aim was to bring the hope and joy of Christ to those who so badly need it.
Going around the city opened our eyes again to the incredible need of so many of the people living here, both materially and spiritually. After living here for over a year you can begin to normalise the things going on around you so to be with someone else seeing it for the first time helps you to re-see it and refocus your energies on what needs doing and what a difference you can make.
For us it was a massive blessing to be able to serve with this group, to be able to work as translators (all be it pretty bad ones) showed us how far our Spanish has come in this time and to be able to spend a week speaking English to lots of different people was also a huge blessing.
Straight after our mission week we spent a few days with the amazing Laura from Just Trade who was in Ecuador on her yearly trip visiting suppliers. We'd met up with her last year so it was great to be able to show her how much the project has grown in that time, she was really impressed with the cards and even bought some.
Just Trade work with artisans around the world to bring beautiful ethical jewellery and accessories to the U.K, check out their website with the link here. Along with Vilma, who works with Laura in Ecuador, we travelled to the coast to meet a women's project they partner with who produce clay products. They live in a beautiful nature reserve so while Laura was giving one of the workshops we went off for walk around, although Lydia was happiest getting stuck into the pottery!
The following day we went to visit some tagua producers who work in a different town, right on the coast. Laura had come armed with ideas for a new collection and to see the guys turn 2D drawings and ideas into 3D products was simply amazing. They use sanding disks to carve away at the nut and can make the figures in minutes. There was a lot of trial and error to get it right but once they had the techniques sorted they were away!
We had a really fantastic week with them, it was wonderful to be serving as part of a team like that and they were all so passionate about serving God and the community in Ecuador. We would go every day to a different area of Santo Domingo and do crafts, sports, dance, distribute food and generally "love on" the community. The aim was to bring the hope and joy of Christ to those who so badly need it.
Going around the city opened our eyes again to the incredible need of so many of the people living here, both materially and spiritually. After living here for over a year you can begin to normalise the things going on around you so to be with someone else seeing it for the first time helps you to re-see it and refocus your energies on what needs doing and what a difference you can make.
For us it was a massive blessing to be able to serve with this group, to be able to work as translators (all be it pretty bad ones) showed us how far our Spanish has come in this time and to be able to spend a week speaking English to lots of different people was also a huge blessing.
Straight after our mission week we spent a few days with the amazing Laura from Just Trade who was in Ecuador on her yearly trip visiting suppliers. We'd met up with her last year so it was great to be able to show her how much the project has grown in that time, she was really impressed with the cards and even bought some.
Just Trade work with artisans around the world to bring beautiful ethical jewellery and accessories to the U.K, check out their website with the link here. Along with Vilma, who works with Laura in Ecuador, we travelled to the coast to meet a women's project they partner with who produce clay products. They live in a beautiful nature reserve so while Laura was giving one of the workshops we went off for walk around, although Lydia was happiest getting stuck into the pottery!
The following day we went to visit some tagua producers who work in a different town, right on the coast. Laura had come armed with ideas for a new collection and to see the guys turn 2D drawings and ideas into 3D products was simply amazing. They use sanding disks to carve away at the nut and can make the figures in minutes. There was a lot of trial and error to get it right but once they had the techniques sorted they were away!
In August the church we are part of (Primera Iglesia Bautista) celebrated it's 50th anniversary. Events like that are taken very seriously in Ecuador so we had a week of celebrations with different events every night Monday to Friday. As mentioned in a previous newsletter we have become more involved with the worship team so this meant a busy week for us as we were playing at nearly every event and they don't exactly do short services in Ecuador!
On the Saturday we had a day together at one of the many riverside "resorts" which are dotted around Santo Domingo. There was a service in the morning which included music from a Christian Andean folk band which of course included the obligatory pan pipes. Then we had lunch and baptisms followed by an afternoon of different sports and activities, I nearly died after playing football for 30mins in 30 degree heat and 90% humidity It was a great time of fellowship as a church family of which we are feeling more and more included.
On the Sunday we gathered at an events centre to have one large Sunday morning service (we normally have 2 services on a Sunday morning). All the different groups in the church participated with dances, songs, readings and a drama. It was wonderful to be part of the church community celebrating it's history and looking back at all God has brought them through over the years. Everything was finished off with cake and cola because no Ecuadorean celebration is complete without cake and cola!
On the Saturday we had a day together at one of the many riverside "resorts" which are dotted around Santo Domingo. There was a service in the morning which included music from a Christian Andean folk band which of course included the obligatory pan pipes. Then we had lunch and baptisms followed by an afternoon of different sports and activities, I nearly died after playing football for 30mins in 30 degree heat and 90% humidity It was a great time of fellowship as a church family of which we are feeling more and more included.
On the Sunday we gathered at an events centre to have one large Sunday morning service (we normally have 2 services on a Sunday morning). All the different groups in the church participated with dances, songs, readings and a drama. It was wonderful to be part of the church community celebrating it's history and looking back at all God has brought them through over the years. Everything was finished off with cake and cola because no Ecuadorean celebration is complete without cake and cola!
We have now been in Ecuador for a year and a half and looking back things have gone better than we could ever have imagined. We have set up a home and workshop space, trained and equipped 3 people who are now very successfully working from home and making an income that will truly be life changing. We are now part way through training 4 more people so by December we will have 7 guys fully kitted out and working from home.
As mentioned above we're so thankful to all of you who have helped make this happen, with finances, support and prayers. We ask that you continue in all these things and, whilst looking back and seeing where we've come is great, we know that keeping our eyes forward is always the way to grow and achieve even bigger and better things.
In September we managed to send a parcel of cards back home and we will be doing so every month from now on. If you are interested in buying some cards please contact us either by email or Facebook messenger (details are at the bottom of this email). They are also for sale in the Harrogate Fairtrade Shop and Good Taste in Sheffield if you live locally to either of them. Also please do get in touch if you know of a shop near you that might want to stock these beautiful products.
That's about it for now, we'll be in touch very shortly but in the meantime don't forget to check out the Facebook page, Instagram and website to keep up with things going on here.
God Bless
Mark and Lydia
As mentioned above we're so thankful to all of you who have helped make this happen, with finances, support and prayers. We ask that you continue in all these things and, whilst looking back and seeing where we've come is great, we know that keeping our eyes forward is always the way to grow and achieve even bigger and better things.
In September we managed to send a parcel of cards back home and we will be doing so every month from now on. If you are interested in buying some cards please contact us either by email or Facebook messenger (details are at the bottom of this email). They are also for sale in the Harrogate Fairtrade Shop and Good Taste in Sheffield if you live locally to either of them. Also please do get in touch if you know of a shop near you that might want to stock these beautiful products.
That's about it for now, we'll be in touch very shortly but in the meantime don't forget to check out the Facebook page, Instagram and website to keep up with things going on here.
God Bless
Mark and Lydia
