Let the Medical Brigades Begin!

Hello dear people!

Things have been positively crazy around here and it has been SO much fun! As of today we have been here for almost 3 months! Time has flown. We have had so many visitors and have already completed 3 medical brigades! This is our first month with no visitors and it has been bittersweet. So hard to not have our close friends and family here, but so good to settle into ministry and form relationships here. We FINALLY moved into our home! It is so beautiful and such a blessing from the Lord. I have been having so much fun decorating on a budget, with plants and pottery and doing my best to create a cozy house for people to feel right at home in. Our neighborhood is SO special. It is right next to a lively park bubbling with kids and dogs, delicious cafes and bakeries, and our favorite ice cream. It's in walking distance to the markets and downtown and beautiful rivers and it is downright amazing. So thankful.

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Our first brigade was in Azogues, a cute neighboring town known for their indigenous jewelry and bright markets. The Lord had his hand SO heavily on this brigade.

Let me explain. For a few weeks here, there was a political crisis with protests and riots regarding gas prices and inflation and cost of living. People protested by blocking every major road to every city, meaning no gas for cooking or hot water, no groceries, and no coming or going. As I mentioned, Azogues is a neighboring town, around 40 minutes from Cuenca. Our brigade was smack in the middle of this protesting period. Every single morning, our group would board a bus with all of our supplies, knowing that crowds of people were waiting in Azogues for medical care. Every morning, all the roads were blocked. We were told to turn back, that we would never get there, and that we should cancel the brigade. EVERY DAY, somehow, God made a way. Backroads, driving on the wrong side of the highway, crossing rivers, driving through mountains. Every day, we got there. By the GRACE of God. He made a way when there was no way, when everyone we met told us to give up. And every day we made it home! By faith, we were able to treat hundreds of patients, providing internal medicine, simple procedures, OBGYN, dental, vision, cardiology, pediatrics, and dermatology. It was incredible to see the Lord work through the seemingly impossible. WOW. I'm still floored by it!

Our bus stuck in a river! We all had to bail out of the bus and cross the river by foot so the bus would be light enough to mob up that steep hill! Success!

One of our assessment and treatment rooms!

We hosted our clinic in a stadium, approved by the mayor. SO many people.

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Next up was our first highly anticipating medical brigade in the Amazon jungle. Again, I wish I could adequately explain how much the Lord provides. This specific tribe location was about 5 hours from Cuenca. And praise the Lord, we bought a car! Introducing Granny the Grand Vitara. She's a spicy lady, and she gets us all sorts of places.

So, naturally we took our new whip for a spin down to the jungle. She did amazing, bombing down the Andes mountains, taking the curves and turns with ease... Until she decided she didn't want to anymore. Poor Granny's breaks were shot within the 2nd hour of the drive. No mechanic (or anything) for hours. We prayed for safety and trusted the Lord and pushed on. Spoiler alert: Granny made it to the jungle AND back to Cuenca with no accidents or issues. Rory did an amazing job driving and boy, were we surrounded by angels!

We arrived to the jungle to meet with the Shuar tribe with about 12 people: 4 doctors, 1 nurse, and a few guides and

evangelists. We brought all our supplies and carried them across a large river, then got picked up by a truck to take us as far into the jungle as it could, then we walked about 45 minutes deeper in to get to our first location. Rubber boots worn to protect against mud and snakes. We saw 100 patients, provided assessments, medications, injections, eye exams and shared the love of Jesus with them. They made us lunch, and we ate our first armadillo soup and drank a cold Pilsner with the locals. It was fabulous. The next day we worked with another village in the same tribe and one of our guides later had us over for dinner! They cooked for us, danced and sang for us in Shuar and it was truly one of the most intimate, special moments of my life. What an honor to get to be a part of their sacred culture. Our guide friend had accepted Jesus years prior during one of these brigades. What a beautiful, full circle moment.

Armadillo soup.... yummy....

Butt Injection Station!

Girl Gang drinking Chicha! Chicha is fermented maize liquor, homemade by chewing up maize (corn), spitting it into a clay jug, then letting it ferment. Served in a bowl passed around to everyone in the room. Do try this at home.

Right after the Shuar brigade, we took a night bus to Manta, a coastal town in the north. We met up with a GHO team there and did another week of medical clinics! The sweetest, most welcoming people. We had a great time and are finally back in Cuenca, hoping to settle down for a few weeks. I (Claire) begin volunteering at the Health Foundation here this week! Rory has been helping plan a youth leader retreat and he will actually be headed back to Manta in 2 weeks to do ministry with a friend from Living Streams! They will be doing an outreach basketball tournament with teams from all over Ecuador and will be doing service projects and serving in schools as well! Pray for fruitful ministry, safety, and eyes to see people who are ready to recieve Jesus.

We love you all. We miss you tons. Don't hesitate to reach out, we LOVE catching up with family and friends and we are starting to feel some homesickness for our people! It is so beautiful to come alive like never before in Christ here, but we are also glad for the feeling of sadness, knowing it means our home in the States is so precious to us.

All our love,

Rory and Claire Angulo

We Made It!

Clearly I am not very good at this updating thing: SO much has happened between time with family, travel and getting settled. I am going to do my best to summarize! I am hoping this can be an intimate, casual space, as if we are sitting together drinking coffee. I love you all so dearly and wish I could have that time with you! But for now this will have to do.

First and foremost, thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has been praying and supporting us with encouragement, thoughtful gifts, finances, and so much more. We have been so humbled by the love we have recieved from the body of Christ and no words will ever be adequate to describe how grateful we are. This ministry would not be possible without you.

Last Dinner in Phoenix!

The last few days in Phoenix were a blur. Packing, saying goodbyes, parties, tears, and an incredible community around us sending us. We felt so loved. To the people who went above and beyond helping us and feeding us and loving on us (you know who you are!), thank you so so much. You made our parting so much sweeter!

Yard Sale!!! Best friends helping made me cry!

VISA DAY

Before we officially flew out, we got to spend some incredible time with family. We had to make a run back to Phoenix for our friends' wedding and say some last goodbyes there as well. We started off in Thousand Oaks with the Angulo family and had so much fun salsa dancing, Cinco de Mayo, seeing friends, hiking, the beach, and most importantly, time with our dear family. Then off to Clovis to go spelunking, on walks with happy doggies, dinner parties, family time, and a beautiful prayer and worship night to cap it all off. Guys, if you were at the prayer night, SO MANY of those prayers have been answered. It makes me tearful thinking about God's faithfulness. Safe, smooth travel, no sickness, clarity on ministry, hearts open to recieve Christ, and already so much fruit from the gospel of Jesus. God is so mighty and so kind to answer our prayers.

Backyard Worship Night

We said our final goodbyes and flew a very long journey across the world with all our belongings in 6 suitcases: what fun! Landed safely in Cuenca and began with our first task: keeping 3 children alive. Our sweet friends who live in Cuenca were doing ministry in Portugal and asked us to watch their kids! It worked out amazing, giving us time to settle and acclimate in a fully functioning house considering we don't have a fork or spoon to our name! The kids were a delight and together we explored the city, looked for furniture, attended a lot of church meetings, and I (Claire) begin Spanish classes! I already had a fair base of spanish, so adding in grammar and vocabulary and Ecuadorian terms and slang was so exciting. I will not lie, I go to bed every day with a headache from focusing so hard to understand everyone around me! Praying that I catch on quickly!

The youth leaders threw us a welcome party!

Claire's First Motorcycle Ride (and not her last!)

Pizza Night with the girls!

Mama we made it!

Mercado Non-Stop

Spanish Class with Kyle !

Friends trying to be taller than Rory

Gardens and Puppies

I'd like to share 2 stories of the Lord's faithfulness during our first weeks here.

Firstly, if you know Rory, you know he loves sports. Sports ministry and sharing the gospel through sports has always been a passion of his and something he is so good at. We prayed to find people who didn't know the Lord for Rory to play basketball with. By the grace of God, a group of Venezualen men who happen to be incredible at basketball and also non-believers dropped right into Rory's path. Now they are all in a league together and Rory is right in the thick of it. Praise the Lord. One of the men named Franklin has been very unsure about his spirituality and Rory was able to share the gospel with him. The next day, poor Frankling got in a horrible motorcycle accident and messaged Rory in the middle of the night to pray for him and come see him. Rory has been going to the hospital frequently to continue loving on Franklin, bringing him clothes, praying for him and reading him scripture. We are believing that Franklin is going to know Christ so soon. Pray for him please!!

Secondly, I was feeling a bit discouraged at a worship night for young adults that our team coordinated because a woman was sitting next to me weeping and I could not communicate in Spanish what I felt on my heart to share with her. I kneeled with her and wept, feeling the weight of the language barrier so heavily. I prayed over her in English, and felt the Lord speak to me, "Claire, I am using you even now. I will still speak to this woman what I have to say. Continue to pray to me." So I continued to beg God to cover this woman in peace and to speak to her. As I asked the Lord for this, my friend on the other side of her began to pray over her in Spanish exactly what I had needed to say. I cried and cried, thanking the Lord for his goodness. He uses us at our weakest moments, where we think we are helpless and useless. When I felt like a failure, God humbled me and just asked me to pray. Sometimes that is all we can do, and God makes miracluous, beautiful things from it.

We love it here. The weather, the joyful people, rich culture, delicious food, and so many people wanting to know Christ. We are so excited to get settled. We are currently waiting for the house we will be renting to be ready. We are very ready to not be vagabonds and to get to have a place of our own here. Our Cuencan family has been so beyond generous with their time and homes and have treated us way too well! My parents are here for 2 weeks and we have been so happy sharing the city and people with them. Our first medical brigade is next week and we begin many other ministries then as well. Full throttle is coming so soon! Enjoying the rest (ish) and ready to begin our life here. We love you. Hopefully my next update will be more timely. Thank you all for your love and support and patience!

One Month Away!

WOW! Time has flown by and we are going to be moving so soon! Our last 2 weeks in the US will be half in Thousand Oaks and half in Clovis! We fly out of LAX on May 16th with all of our belongings in hand! We are so excited and SO thankful for all the love, prayers and support we have received during this time.

Currently, our lives consist of finishing up our jobs (Rory at Living Streams and Claire at Mayo Clinic), doing projects on our home to make it renter-friendly, gathering documents and applying for our Ecuadorian visas, and sorting and selling our belongings. A touch stressful, but mostly fun with the eternal perspective of the Lord absolutely taking care of everything. He has been so faithful and has provided so much peace and has been generous with the tangible things as well! He provided sweet friends in Cuenca that have been so helpful in the moving process, a house to rent perfectly in our budget, seamless transfer of my nursing license, generous people supporting us financially, cheap flights to get us there, and SO much more. Even down to the location of our house: we will be able to walk to the market and to the center of town! We have also been wrestling with our car insurance because we were rear-ended by a drunk driver last month and our new car (we were planning on selling for funding) was totaled. The driver was uninsured, and we are praying for provision financially so we will be able to purchase a car in Cuenca for ministry even without the sale of our totaled car.

ALSO, we have the best friends and family. Our parents have already planned trips out and purchased tickets, along with some of our dearest friends coming out for a month this summer, and other friends for Thanksgiving! God is so kind. Thank you so much to all of you that have been praying and financially donating, we feel beyond grateful that we get to dedicate all of our time to serving the Lord and sharing the gospel because of our team of people back home. We could not do this without you. The Lord is on the move in Ecuador, with so many people hearing the gospel and getting to experience the physical and spiritual healing of the Holy Spirit. We are overwhelmed with joy to get to walk our faiths and share the hope of God and what he is doing with all of you as well. Many updates to come.

We love you!! Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions or just to say hi :)

P.S. In other fun news, Rory just got licensed as a pastor!!! So proud of that man. He is so GOOD.