Friends,

I hope you are doing great! Things here in Ecuador are continuing to go well. Last week we met with the municipality of Quito at their request, and we emerged from the meeting with a plan to work on several fronts together:

1) In the coming weeks we will hold a conference on Creative Thinking with all of the municipal staff and police from one of the largest districts in Quito.

2) They want us to begin working in their schools with a focus on sharing the inherent value that each student possesses and encouraging them to dream.

3) They’ve asked that we begin to hold teachers conferences to teach them how to train their students to be creative thinkers, innovators, and problem solvers,

4) They would like to start working with us on a weekly basis in the party district of Quito. There are many bars and clubs in this district and this is where prostitution seems to be most rampant. When you go to this area you will find kids as young as 5 years old often unaccompanied by any adult. Some of these kids have parents who work late nights as street vendors or prostitutes, and others children are rented for the weekend by the mafia from families in rural villages. These children are then expected to peddle drugs and meet theft quotas. The city would like to begin reaching out to these kids but they don’t know how to do it. They’ve offered to shut down an entire street and provide security if our teams will come once a week to offer a childrens presentation with games and a “positive message”. The hope is that as we build trust with these kids we could find out more about their story’s and provide them with resources such as safe homes at night as an alternative to sleeping in the streets.

We welcome the invitation to work with local government because we believe there needs to be Godly voices and influence in this area.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support as we step through these new doors.

Journeying Together,

Greg