8/12/2019 Olsen Newsletter July/August 2014

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Fe b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0

S E R V I N G I N E C U A D O R

M e n t o r i n g E l R e f u g i o s U S I n t e r n s

OlsensJ i m , S u z y, K a i a & E s p e nh e

has grown! On April 30th, Espen Adam Olsen was born at 8:05pm! Wehave really enjoyed getting to see his personality develop over the past

three months!

but as it goes with newborns, weve been running on lesssleep and it has certainly been an adjustment going from a family of 3 to afamily of 4.

In July we returned to the States to visit family for 10 days. Thiswas our first time being back since August of 2012. Though it was fast, wereally enjoyed seeing family. Were now in the stages of planning for our 3#month furlough this Fall. Were excited to be able to share some of thestories, like the ones below, with all of you in person!

Summer is in full swing! Different parts of the year take odifferent rhythms, but summer is always characterized b

being a busy time here at El Refugio. We continue to host Ecuadorian groups and we also have ainflux of short#term teams from the US. A part of the work that we do is coordinate with and plan fothese teams throughout the year!so it is exciting for us to finally meet the teams, host them, anwork alongside them.

We should mention that these last few months have also been busy for us because our famil

Every summer we have interns $18 years old and up%that raisefunds and join us for three months as part of the El Refugio team.The ways in which they help out are diverse, but it has been neat tosee how our intern program has continued to be refined andimproved. Our interns help with US short#term teams, they do workprojects, but they also take spiritual#formation classes, have spanishtutoring, and connect on a weekly basis to learn about discipleshipwith full#time team members.

Suzy and I were asked to consider taking on thesediscipleship/mentoring roles this summer. Gladly, both of us

accepted. I have been meeting with David and Suzy has met withKayla and Izzy on a weekly basis. It has been a joy for me to seegrowth in David throughout the summer. I asked him to list out asmany attributes of Christ as he could think of during our first timetogether. I then challenged him to choose two that he wanted tofocus on developing this summer and upon returning to college.Boldness and leadership were the two that he chose. Weve had agreat time reading scripture together, talking through whatdiscipleship looks like practically, and just living life together in ministry. When I hosted a team iJune, David was my right#hand man. Ive loved observing his humble, servant#like attitude and havinthe chance to encourage him and speak into his life while hes been here in Ecuador.

July #August 20

8/12/2019 Olsen Newsletter July/August 2014

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Y o u n g L i f e I n E c u a d o r !

M I N I S T R Y H I G H L I G H T S

P r a y e r

R e q u e s t

Pray for our family as wcontinue to adjust to beingfamily of 4: and for Espen.

Pray for our 3 US interns they return home, that thewould continue to impact thworld in the name of Christ

Pray for Ivan & the ministof Young Life in Shell & Puyo

Pray for the youth who wiattend our Soy Fniadventure camps from Augu11 #23

One of the huge blessings for us in the summer is taking ourshort#term teams off#site to connect with and serve alongside ourdifferent ministry partners locally and in the jungle. As a ministry andas a family we try to put a lot of time and planning into thesepartnerships. For that reason, its really fun to see our teams working

with and enjoying the time spent at these various locations.One of these ministry partners is Vida Joven $Young Life%. Ivanis an Ecuadorian who had a heart for the youth of Shell, Ecuador. Theway the story goes is that he began initiating relationships with youthand eventually started having weekly gatherings in addition todiscipleship times during the week and Bible study groups. He, alongwith other volunteers, decided they liked the name Vida Joven. Oneday they googled Vida Joven and found out there was aninternational ministry with the same name: Young Life. He contactedthe Latin American entity of Young Life, and after comparing notes,realized their philosophy and what they were doing were the same. So,

they joined forces and Ivans ministry became the first official YoungLife chapter in Ecuador.Weve developed a strong partnership with Ivan. He and a

number of the Young Life leaders have come up to El Refugio to gothrough our facilitator training to be equipped with the tools andtraining that we have to offer. Weve hosted their Young Life campshere at El Refugio in years past. This summer one of the teams Ihosted had the opportunity to take part in the club that they holdeach week. At this point their team has grown and their holding clubsboth in Shell and a neighboring town, Puyo. Our team membersshared testimonies at both locations and took part in all of the skits,

games, and activities of the night. It is such a joy for me to see thispartnership continue to grow and to witness Ecuadorian youth beingimpacted by the stories of US youth going through sometimes verydifferent, but at times very similar struggles and faith journeys.

soyfenix-

Every year we at El Refugio are focusing on whwe call a milestone. The idea is to highlight anstrive to embody one of our values as a ministrSoy Fnix means I am Phoenix, referring to thmythological bird that cyclically grows old

bursts into flames, is reduced to a pile of ashes, and then is reborn from the ashes tgrow and eventually soar once again. The story of the phoenix beautifully parallels thlife and death of Christ, the idea of the old life, salvation, and the new life in Christ, awell as the journey we are all on as believers when we experience the peaks and valleof life and faith. Our goal in this milestone is to look at our own lives and see howChrist is transforming us. Are we positioning ourselves well to be living the abundanlife in Christ? Were also focusing on being agents of change in others, increasing ouintentionality in facilitating spiritual growth in others. Our 2 weeks of youth camp thAugust have Soy Fnix as their theme as well, and were excited to see how God wuse this concept to impact youth.

To follow us or give online visit: www.olsensinecuador.com . jimandsuzyolsen@hotmail.com . Call us for FREE in Ecuador at 607.256.6894

mailto:jimandsuzyolsen@hotmail.comhttp://www.olsensinecuador.com/