SIM Ecuador missionary kids grow in Christ virtually

By SIM Ecuador MK Care Team (Helen Azzopardi, Rebecka King, Patty Purtell and Rachel Wilson) | Ecuador in South America

SIM Ecuador missionary kids (2021)

The challenges of COVID-19 gave birth to a new support team for SIM Ecuador missionary kids (MKs). The team consists of an educational consultant for families, a current teacher, a past teacher, and a current teacher who is also a parent.

This was one of the creative solutions the team found after transitioning the SIM Ecuador’s Loja Missionary Kid Learning Center (LMKLC) to online learning for a full year during the pandemic. The MK Care Team formed to meet social, mental, and spiritual needs in addition to educational needs when children noticeably grappled with changes.

The centre has provided quality education for many years as a home school cooperative and operates in English. When the pandemic struck, the LMKLC’s staff of volunteers had to re-think how they offered care and consider out-of-the-box options for classes on the platform Zoom.

Both students and teachers were challenged with complications like bad internet connections or missing personal interaction. Elementary students perhaps struggled the most, being the youngest group, and their teachers worked diligently to keep them engaged.

From January to March of 2021, we were able to return to in-person classes with tight COVID protocols, only to end up in another lockdown and back to Zoom from April to June.

It is exciting to see how God has provided just the right people at an opportune time. Our goal is to visit and offer support to all our team’s MKs academically and spiritually.

We also hope to challenge our SIM Ecuador family to be actively part of our MKs lives by attending quarterly social functions, like a back-to-school pool party and adopt an MK to pray for and encourage over the year. This year’s pool party was well attended by team members and several non-SIM mission families. One of our MKs said, “It was awesome! When is the next one?”

Our prayer is that our MKs will be rooted in Christ and that we as a team will not just model, but walk alongside and disciple them in this journey, offering opportunities to socialise and enjoy the company of one another, both inside and outside the classroom setting.

Pray with us

• Pray for us as we create a culture of holistic care for our MKs and invite all team members to see their role in loving and caring for our MKs.

• Pray that the MKs will be encouraged, blessed, and grow in their faith.

• Pray for the provision of an MK Care Team lead and additional teachers. Pray specifically for an upper-level math and science teacher who start in August 2022.