the far

International Partnerships

We sent out our Associate Pastor and his wife, Weldon and Angelina Edwards, in January 2019 to Cuenca, Ecuador, to plant a Vineyard church that carried much of the same vision and DNA that we have here at Trinity in Cypress. At the time, it was hard to let go and send them out, but what God has done because of their Yes has been amazing.

Weldon reached out in May 2023 with a partnership proposal that is going to give us the opportunity to live into our mission of Engaging, Transforming and Serving the FAR!

Many times missions outreaches are one of two things:

Give money, and we are happy to give, but we don’t really see what happens.
It’s an in-and-out trip where again, we don’t always see what happens.

This partnership is going to be different. We will be working with the Cuenca Vineyard and Compassion International to focus on a specific community long-term and develop authentic relationships with the children and their families as we minister to and support them. This partnership will include trips to meet our sponsored children and opportunities to serve their community.

Our first trip is November 16-22, 2023. Our goal is to raise $7500, or enough to build and outfit 100 beds. We will also be teaching the women how to bake cookies North American-style so they can sell them and support their families.

Click on the button below if you would like to give toward purchasing beds or to help support those who are going. You can also scroll down to read the latest updates.

GIVE to cuenca trip

cuenca partnership updates

Videos, pictures and stories will be uploaded here

as a journal of our first trip to Ecuador!

November 16-23, 2023

November 16

Heading to Cuenca

The flights went well until our last one from Ft. Lauderdale to Guayaquil. We left three hours late and didn't arrive at our hotel in Ecuador until 4:00 AM on Friday morning. Yes, 4:00 AM! But we got a later start, ate breakfast, and started to drive to Cuenca! These first pictures will just be of our travel day.

November 17:

Driving to Cuenca & Day 1

After 4.5 or so hours of sleep, we met for breakfast and the van ride to Cuenca. It took a little over two hours. Ecuador is a beautiful country with beautiful people! The Andes mountains rose up so high, we could not see the top. As we drove, the weather would alternate between fog, rain, and sun. At one point, we saw the tops of the clouds! It was better to look at the scenery than the roads because we have discovered that the lines setting boundaries for the lanes are guidelines!

We stopped at a little restaurant for a restroom break, coffee and pictures (our first picture with the whole team!). In the two minutes it took for us to gather the team together, fog rolled in and the view was completely obscured!

A delicious lunch awaited us when we arrived at the Cuenca Vineyard. We had a training with Compassion International so that we could deliver the beds and interact with the children. This was followed by a worship service and a scripture reading by several of the children. One little girl who was 4-5 years old had memorized Psalm 23! They prayed for us,. then we headed to our host homes for the night.

The foothills of the Andes mountains. Our driver called them "baby mountains." Sugar cane is growing in the foreground. The third picture is the restaurant that we stopped at. The boulder rolled down during a landslide and crushed part of the restaurant, so they re-built around it and included the boulder in the new building.

After lunch the mattresses, pillows and bedding were delivered!

Here are the cookie recipes! Ruth translated them, typed them up and laminated them to give to the Ecuadorian women to use as they build their baking business. You can see the baking team hard at work planning how to teach each recipe!

Pictures of our first outreach on 11/18 coming soon!

A tour of trinity vineyard cuenca

November 18:

Canar, Outreach day 1

We divided into several groups for the first day of outreach: the baking group went shopping for ingredients and experimented making five different cookie recipes in the kitchen at the Cuenca Vineyard, the construction group went to a house that needed a foundation laid to create a bedroom, and the delivery group went to deliver beds to different houses.

After loading everything up into trucks, the delivery group and construction group headed out to the various locations.

November 19

Sunday morning at Trinity Cuenca

Today was a day of rest. We attended service, napped, and shopped for fun. Gianna and Jonathan joined the worship team and Amy lead the communion devotional. If you watch the video snippet below, notice how they switch back and forth between English and Spanish!

Ruth got a word for the church about being OK with causing trouble for Jesus. We've decided to call our team the Troublemakers!

november 20:

Outreach day 2, Baking class Day 1

Today was our first day of baking class! Ruth, Annie and Lilliam taught two groups of 15 Ecuadorians how to make several different kinds of North American cookies, including thumbprint, chocolate chip and snickerdoodle! The ladies (and one man!) were very excited to learn how to cream eggs and sugar, whether they could also make the cookies in a pan, and what the cookies should taste like. They decided the cookies were delicious and so unique for their area that they could probably sell them to more affluent areas of their own town. Fun fact: Ruth made her students say "snickerdoodle" before they could try one! :)

A few of us were also able to meet our Compassion-sponsored kids! They planned a celebration ceremony that included a brief message from the pastor of that church, gifts for us, and prayers for them. We got to see where they have Bible class and eat lunch.

We also delivered 6 beds to some very excited kids waaaayyy up in the mountains. When we deliver and set up the bed, we also deliver a box filled with goodies for the child. We also get to pray with the family. Today was a really special day!

November 21:

another day of outreach, baking class day 2

Today was similar to yesterday. We delivered more beds, we taught two more baking classes, and worked on the roof of a house.

Some of us also got to try cuy!!! We have videos to prove it!

The Ecuadorian people are very generous and kind. Several of the houses that we delivered beds to offered us bread, drinks or popsicles. They all joined with us in prayer, whether they were Christians or not. Our actions showed them God's love, and the continued outreach by Compassion in Ecuador will reach out and minister to them.

Can you say "blackberry thumbprint?"

Ruth had each woman pronounce the name of the cookie before they could try it. It was a lot of fun! Hopefully you can tell what a great time we had. These ladies were amazing and so eager to learn!

Cuy, anyone?

tour the compassion center

we had time to play, too...

THE JOURNEY HOME: NOVEMBER 22-23

Today is our last day in Ecuador. We will drive to Guayaquil this afternoon and fly out at 1:00 AM. We arrive in Houston around 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. We will probably be enjoying a Thanksgiving breakfast in Atlanta!

Please pray for safe travels home and a wonderful last day in Ecuador! Nos vemos pronto!

OCTOBER 10 -

Final numbers for Compassion Sunday are in!

Trinity Vineyard sponsored 24 children with an additional 23 children sponsored as correspondents. This gives us a total of 47 kids in the Canar area who will be receiving care, letters, prayers and discipleship! That's phenomenal! At this time, Compassion had 84 kids in the area who needed sponsorship, and we sponsored over half of them! God is so good!

If you sponsored a child with Compassion International, and you aren't sure if you received an additional child to correspond with, go to your account when you log in at https://www.compassion.com/. You can also download the app and do everything from there, including write letters and read what your child has written to you.

Weldon went with a team to Canar today that included a retired architect and the head of Compassion International in Ecuador to survey the houses and see what can be done when our first team travels there November 16-23. They identified three "construction" projects (quotes are from Weldon! :) in addition to building the beds. They have a plan for us to help 3 families.

What a wonderful opportunity God has given us to participate in bringing His Kingdom to others as we engage, transform and serve those here, near and far!

OCTOBER 6 - We have officially reached our goal of raising $10,000 to pay for the beds that need to be built and improve the housing situations for some families.

SEPTEMBER 12 - We had our first Compassion Sunday this week! Sixteen children from Canar got sponsored! Since we are within the window of being able to sponsor a child and receive one for free (this means they are covered financially, but have been waiting to have a sponsor to write to them), that means 32 children will now be officially sponsored! That's a good number of the 84 children in that area who have been waiting! If you sponsored a child on Sunday, you will receive information about your "free" child in 3-4 weeks. We will have the table open again this Sunday, September 17. Our Cookie Tasting & Bake sale will take place in conjunction with our annual Chili Cook-off on October 29. More details coming soon!

SEPTEMBER 1 - Only 8 beds remain! We are looking forward to our first Compassion Sunday on September 10. Child sponsorship is one way we are engaging with this area of Ecuador where some of the poorest live. This is the day you can choose a child to sponsor from Canar, Ecuador, with Compassion International! We will have a table in the auditorium with packets for 35 kids. We will have a date for our Cookie Tasting & Bake Sale soon!

AUGUST 19 - 81 out of 100 beds have been paid for in just three weeks! We will be having a Compassion Sunday on September 10 for those who would like to sponsor a child from Canar through Compassion International.

JULY 30 - We announced our new partnership with Cuenca Vineyard and Compassion International. You can view the announcement on Youtube starting at 32:54.