Walking With the Poor - Notes From the Field

First National Encuentro in Ecuador

October 2006

Encuentro is a Spanish term meaning gathering or meeting. CFCA encuentros are gatherings of staff in regions where CFCA serves. Participants share stories, methods, ideas and hopes for the future of CFCA in the region.

CFCA now ‘official’ in Ecuador

Our itinerary today takes my wife, Cristina, and me from Kansas City to Houston and on to Quito, Ecuador.

About Ecuador

Ecuador is one of the smallest countries in South America, with a population of 13 million. Ecuador boasts the highest active volcano in the world known as Cotopaxi. The Galapagos Islands, known for their unusual plants and animals, also belong to Ecuador.

How CFCA is involved in Ecuador

CFCA began working in Ecuador in 1996, and now sponsors about 2,800 children and 360 aging women and men in the country. CFCA has three projects in Ecuador: Ballenita, Mira and Quito.

We’re incorporated—finally

Because of political instability, it has taken a lot of effort on behalf of CFCA’s itinerant team, Carolyn and Pedro Ferradas, to push through our legal incorporation in this country. The final documents were approved and signed today. We rejoice, and we congratulate Pedro, Carolyn and our colleagues in Ecuador for this significant move forward.

I feel truly honored this week to work with Carolyn and Pedro, Greta Ryan, Cristina and our Ecuadorian teams on the First National CFCA Encuentro. These are our frontline co-workers. It’s very exciting to be able to share with them these days of formation and prayer.

How to jump-start an encuentro

We begin the encuentro with prayer, dance and a “Carolyn Ferradas Mixer,” wherein participants pair off, learn what they can about each other in a five-minute interview and then introduce one another to the assembly.

For our CFCA community, morning prayers organized by subproject staffs are musical, rich and meaningful.

As a part of this morning’s journey, we learned about the daily realities in various corners of Ecuador…realities of poverty…crisis of water in some areas…challenges in education…health…violence….

At lunch time, we enjoyed the visit of about 30 sponsored elderly. In their sporty blue-and-white gym suits, they had us all up dancing.

Very busy or very holy?

I write as we are about to finish the three-day encuentro. The angels play with thunderbolts, as a rain storm brews in the mountains. We have felt so good here that none of us has felt the need to venture beyond these convent walls since we entered. I guess we’ve been either very busy or very “holy.”

We witnessed many expressions of gratitude and excitement about the CFCA program in this rural area of Mira.

We have to be back in Quito tonight, so as to fly out early tomorrow for Panama and Guatemala. We look forward to receiving a nice group of sponsors in Guatemala on Saturday, Oct. 28. Thank you for being with us in solidarity and prayer. God’s blessings.

Bob Hentzen

Mira, Ecuador

Oct.24, 2006