Life On The Beach With Ray and Kelly: September 2007

A Map of Coastal Ecuador. You can just make out Playas on the coast, southwest of Guayaquil.

I thought that maybe it was time to fill everyone in a little more about this expediton to Ecuador that we are undertaking. As many of you may know by now we have been invited to take on the role of camp administrators at “El Faro De Esperanza.” The name simply means "Lighthouse of Hope" and is particularly approprite given its location on the beach. The camp is located on the Pacific Ocean just outside the small town of Playas (Beaches), or to give it its proper name, General Villamil and it sits on about two acres of property.

Playas is about one hour’s drive from the big city of Guayaquil. Some of you may remember that we served there in that city as a family between the years of 1995 and 1997. The camp was recently constructed by a number of North American teams in conjunction with local Ecuadorians and is the result of the vision of our good friends Tim and Lil Horne.

Tim and Lil began asking us to consider becoming involved in this new ministry about 2 years ago but at that point we felt that we were not quite ready to return to missions. Although we have oftened talked about it as a family we had made a commitment to Holly and Jessica that we would not take that step until they had left home. So at that time we turned the Hornes down. They lined up another couple to come down and they intended to be there last Fall, but sadly the husband developed brain cancer and they had to pull out. Once again we were invited and this time we agreed provided that the Hornes could find someone to oversee the construction project and watch over the property until we could get there this Fall.

Holly and Jessica are now both at university; Holly at Queens and Jessica at Redeemer so we are empty nesters and a little more free to take a big step like this. They are both behind us going and are looking forward to coming down and visiting with us. In fact they still have friends there with whom they are occasionally in contact.

We anticipate that we our main goals there will be threefold. Firstly, to run the facility and help develop awareness of it so that it can be used to its fullest potential Secondly, to begin to develop a board of Ecuadorians who can take over ownership and responsibility of the camp at some point. Finally we hope to see the camp being used as a springboard into the surrounding community with a goal towards seeing a ministry begun amongst the local people. We know however, that it will be the Lord's will what gets done in Playas, these are simply the goals that we believe He is placing in our hearts.

I am including some photos of the camp whilst it was under construction