It was a little over a year ago at the national meeting of the Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers (ECCC) that our organization decided to accept an invitation for a special mission trip. On Sunday, November 5, 2000 the Vice President of our VCCC Board, Diana White, and I, along with 14 others, journeyed to Ecuador to help Bishop Neptali Larrea make one of his many dreams a reality. We were to join with lay people from his diocese to work on the construction of Centro San Jose, a conference center for the people of Ecuador. Our group from the United States was a diverse one and included six Episcopal Conference Center Directors and board members, an architect, and seven relatives of the directors. We ranged in age from 14 to 60 years old.

We arrived in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, located in the Andes mountains at approximately 9,000 feet about 11:30 pm and after finding our luggage, some of which did not arrive for three days, were driven through the streets of Quito at breakneck speed to our hotel for the night. After receiving an introduction from our group leader, Peter Bergstrom from Camp Stevens in California, we all went to sleep.

We were up early the next day ready to transfer our bags to the Diocesan Center in Quito and then make the journey to the Conference Center site located an hour north of Quito. Upon arriving at the Center, we were met by the Bishop, his wife, and their son who gave us a tour of the property at Centro San Jose. Much of the land at the present time is leased to local farmers who are growing strawberries, beans, corn, and melons. Since land not being actively used in Ecuador can be claimed by squatters, the Bishop wants to have a presence at all times on this beautiful piece of land which overlooks an incredible gorge. After an introduction by the Bishop Larrea, we were all ready to go to work.

That first day we dug dirt and carried it by armload and wheelbarrow to fill in the ditch where the water line and septic lines were laid. This was not easy as we tried to get used to the tools or, more specifically, the lack of tools in Ecuador. All the members of our group had brought hammers, drills, extension cords, circular saws, gloves, and other assorted tools (which we donated to the Diocese there), but none of us had brought good shovels, pick axe, or any tool suitable for the concrete-hard dirt of this area of Ecuador.

We started the project with ten volunteers from an Episcopal church in Santo Domingo, located to the west of Quito. Some of us worked helping saw and hand up the very heavy roof beams to Julio the Ecuadorean foreman, working with Richard Young, from DuBose Conference Center in Tennessee and Jay Evarts the architect for the project, our project foremen. The Bishop’s wife, Alexandra, assisted by four other Ecuadoran volunteers, supervised the cooking of our lunch which consisted of soup, rice, vegetables, and bananas.

Volunteerism is almost unknown in South America; one of the Bishop’s dreams is to teach the lay people in his Diocese about volunteering their time and energy in this project. This was the first time in his memory that a group of Ecuadorians had volunteered their time to help a group of Americans also volunteering their time, to work together on a project in his country.

The first day seemed long as we tried to grow accustomed to the lack of oxygen at 10,000 feet, and to the hot Ecuadorian sun. Indeed, we were all very happy when we reached the end of the day. Three of us piled in the Bishop’s car with his wife driving and the remaining members of the group climbed in the back of the Bishop’s Chevy pickup truck. We all came to know his truck intimately during our stay as it was our chief transportation vehicle for the hour-long ride back into the city. It was quite a sight to see 15 of us crammed in the back of the truck as the Bishop drove us down the mountain to the Diocesan center for dinner and then sleep.

During our time there we worked and ate side by side with the volunteers from Santo Domingo and their priest Juan. We dug holes for the concrete fence posts (wooden ones would be eaten by the ants), grouted the beautiful tile work in the shower and bathroom areas, laid the roof on the dormitory, dug holes for the new gates to the center, mixed concrete (right on the ground!), and other smaller jobs needed to get the dormitories ready for occupancy.

But it was not all hard work. We took time for pick up soccer games (to the delight of Ecuadorians of all ages) organized by Van Beers from Camp Wright in Maryland; to talk with our new found Ecuadorian friends (Diana White’s excellent Spanish was a life-saver for us all); and to break bread together around a makeshift table of boards set up on pillars of bricks (which will be used in the construction).

Wednesday evening we shared an outdoor Eucharist, with Bishop Larrea celebrating, assisted by the two Ecuadoran priests, as well as two priests in our group, Paul McQueen from Florida and Marsha Hoecker from Vermont. This was a truly wonderful way to finish our first three days with our new found friends. The next morning found everyone in tears as we waved goodbye to the Ecuadoran group from Santo Domingo who were leaving for their six hour trip home, traveling in the back of an army truck. Yolanda Ricaurde, one of the wonderful women in the group, told us that many people in Ecuador believed that Americans are so wealthy that we never wash our clothes but just throw them away when they become dirty. She told us she could never come to America because she could not afford to throw away her clothes. Statements like that really made us realize not only how truly wealthy and blessed we are here in America (even if we don’t throw away our clothes after one wear), but also how important trips like this one are in coming to know people face to face and communicating with one another about our countries. Our shared love of God and our membership in the Episcopal church bind us together in marvelous ways beyond many barriers.

As the Santo Domingo group pulled away from the Center, we were soon joined by another group of men, mostly refugees from Colombia, and their priest. These men were displaced farmers who had lost their crops and livestock when the American government, as part of the drug war, had sprayed defoliants on their farms to eradicate the cocoa grown in their area. Unfortunately, the defoliants had killed all the crops except, ironically, the cocoa crop. Apparently the Episcopal Church is the only organization doing anything to help these displaced farmers and their families.

We finished our work at the Center with a trip to the Ecuadorian equator monument and a tour of the Old Town part of Quito. Our entire group learned a lot about ourselves and our faith during this time spent working with the Ecuadoran people and their visionary Bishop on this project. Hopefully, as more groups go to Ecuador to help the Bishop, their Diocesan Conference Center will become a completed reality. He dreams of a place where his people can learn about volunteerism as well as deepen their faith and understanding of the Gospel through work, study, prayer, fellowship, and fun.

I am grateful to Bishop Johnson, our Diocese and to the Board of the Valle Crucis Conference Center for their help in making this trip possible. I am also grateful to the Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers, Inc. and Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis for their help in the design of this project. It was a true gift to experience God at work in another part of the world. I look out over the southern Appalachian mountains here and feel connected in a special way to that faraway diocese in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. God’s presence and love surround and embrace us all. If you would like to contribute in anyway to this project or are interested in taking a group there, please contact me at the Conference Center. Let us all keep the Episcopal Church in Ecuador in our prayers.

Tom Eshelman, Executive Director
Valle Crucis Conference Center
7 December 2000