Project Timothy Touches Lives at Ecuador Boarding School
Giving away a pair of used tennis shoes was the most touching moment of Project Timothy 2007 for Keith O'Connor. O'Connor, an 18-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, was one of seven teens who served at the Prince of Peace Children's Foundation in Guyaquil, Ecuador, for a week in July. He struck up a friendship with Segundo, the groundskeeper at Prince of Peace, who had lived at the home as a boy.
"I talked with him a lot and we were really close," O'Connor says. Segundo even showed the team how to prepare the rolls the children eat at almost every meal.
At one point, O'Connor says, Segundo started talking about his shoes. "I looked and all he had were flip-flops," he says. "He's walking around in the bushes and in the thorns and all that. I just had a pair of tennis shoes. My feet are longer than his, but his are wider, so I wasn't sure if it was going to work out.
When he gave Segundo the shoes, O'Connor says, "He was so happy--shouting 'Que bueno! Que bueno! [How good! How good!]' He put them on his feet and was just dancing around in the shoes.
"It kind of hit me because at the time I had enough money on me to go buy another pair of shoes. It put things into perspective. I was happy to help him out, but something so little to me was such a big deal to him.
"It was real good to end the week that way."
While at Prince of Peace, the group painted five classrooms and spent a lot of time playing with the children. Prince of Peace is a boarding school that works to protect children in Guyaquil who are disadvantaged or abused.
Bob Ihlenburg, the adult leader for the group, brought hundreds of balloons and kazoos to give to the children. The whole team learned how to make balloon animals, flowers, and hats to give away.
On the last day, the team also brought out a Polaroid camera and posed with each of the 60 children at the home. "We changed poses so each kid wouldn't have the same picture," explains assistant leader Serena Beckman.
Ecuador is a Spanish-speaking country, and only a few people in the group knew much Spanish. During the week, Beckman says, there were a lot of "no comprendos."
"But even with the language barrier, we had a lot of fun," says O'Connor. "It was awesome."
Project Timothy is a unique, hands-on mission experience for high school students who attend RCA churches. The program begins with a three-day group orientation, when teams get to know each other and learn about the areas where they'll be serving. The teams then head out for a week at the worksites (this year's sites were in Arizona, Alaska, Jamaica, Italy, and Ecuador), returning for two days of debriefing before heading home. This year, 31 students and 10 leaders from across the U.S. participated.
Sites for Project Timothy 2008 will be announced in the spring. Watch www.rca.org/projecttimothy for details.
Video Highlights
Watch a few scenes from Guyaquil in this video taken by the team:
Posted 07/31/07
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