Civil Registry report November 11th 2023

Concerned about the situation of vulnerability that many of our children, young people, and families in our communities live because they do not have a birth certificate, or an identity card. The identity card that guarantees them access to justice and basic human rights in our homeland where they were born.

For this reason we continue with the arduous struggle by making several visits to the lawyers’ offices, and to the different points of attention of the Civil Registry at the provincial level, to present the documentation required for my people to be registered and subsequently receive their ID. That is why on this occasion we mobilize with six groups to the point of attention of the Civil Registry of Borbón, Rioverde and Esmeraldas city, on different dates made up of 63 people, to request reasons for late registration of nine minors, three visits to the Judicial Unit to appear at the respective hearings for late registration procedures by judicial means. Where it is possible to settle or enroll 6 children, it was also possible to transfer 13 children and 5 adolescents. Reaching a total of 209 registered people; 148 children and 61 adults from 2016 to date. In addition, the process of two late registrations through the courts is underway.

A painful education on crime.

When the hit men rolled into town on Thursday, no one understood what was happening, everyone was running because they were shooting with machine guns! I thought they would enter all the houses to kill everyone! We were all very scared.

They killed one man and injured three innocent people. A boy who was still in bed was hit in his arm with a bullet, another one of my cousins was shot in his leg and a son of my cousin was shot  in the back, the latter was agonizing pain. The three of them were taken in a truck to Lagarto and then an ambulance took them to the Ríoverde Health Center later they were taken to the hospital in Esmeraldas city. A very long painful journey.

There is a wake for deceased at his grandma’s house here in Las Delicias but only his closest family attended, almost no one wanted to accompany them, I feel very sorry for them! We are terrified! Tomorrow no one  wants to go to his burial because the grave yard and criminals are in San Francisco,  they might take him to be buried Lagarto! The hitmen said that they are going to return for the cousin of the deceased who escaped into the jungle and they did not get him. The one who escaped and the deceased were in bad way, they are supposedly part of a gang and who had been part of a crime in the past, and a relative of someone previous murdered  from Colombia has paid 10,000 to the hitmen of San Francisco to kill these two of the Delicias.

We pray that this situation will improve. The saddest thing is that the gang is from San Francisco! A hit man married a cousin I don’t know, they were living in San Francisco, they have even recruited some of my boys! Teaching my former students how to kill!!!  There is no respect for relatives, and friends! In the past, criminals only killed the person with whom they had their problem, now they arrive and shoot wherever they are, no matter where they are and with whom they are!

This is not even mentioning the situation in the city. In Esmeraldas they say that there are 17 killed per week!! There is no longer any respect for people’s lives! I never imagine something like this would happen in my communities!

Let’s pray for God to have mercy on us.

Some follow up

It is Very sad sad and unfortunate what is happening! But we trust God that this will end soon.

I’m not going to deny that I was very impressed by what we experienced on Thursday! I was shaking for two days in a row so very distressed, suffering insomnia. We all are traumatized from the screams, tears and shots and seeing the body.

I am already better, I am not afraid, God is in control of everything, and his word must reach all these people who need the Lord Jesus Christ so much, so that they are comforted and full of hope.

We pray for wisdom and that his grace and his love will be given to me and all of us.

November 16th 2023 Hitmen come calling

The situation here is very critical, we filled with uncertainty and are dismayed with the waves of crime! The situation here is out of control. It was inevitable, that it in a matter of time it would arrive way out here in Las Delicias! It’s a fearsome thing.

Today we lived through a moment of terror. Four heavily armed men arrived here in a pick up truck and shot at a group of young people in the pergola in Las Delicias, leaving one dead and three injured. What was lived today was a day of great sadness, the children were running, people were screaming, no one understood what was happening, a very scary thing! They were hit men who belong to a different gang sent to settle accounts with a cousin, they murdered one and injured three innocent people! This is not even mentioning the situation in the city of Esmeraldas. There is no respect for life anymore!

Yesterday we buried my mothers cousin in San Francisco, who was murdered in the city of Guayaquil!

Some good news!

A while back a girl fainted at school and said that she had not even eaten, I found that most kids were not eating before school. So I began to give them breakfast at my house, but in  truth it was very tiring. From time to time some mothers began to help, but then we had the idea that each mom prepares breakfast at home and we serve it in the communal house, we are doing well so far.

It's been two months since we started, thank God , 5 moms have committed to preparing food. Each mother prepares for only one day a week, we are doing very well, we have a good attendance . The children are happy.

Problems in paradise, September 7th

In front of the Panadería Mimi back in May with Sequoia and Brisa

Please, I ask you to support me in prayer for a number of situations and problems of my people in the different communities, many times in which I serve as a mediator to improve the situation.

Right now I have a very deep family situation, my youngest sister (27-year-old), who is married and works with me in the Mimi bakery, in the community of Las Delicias.

In the last month she has had many conflicts with her husband due to infidelity on his part with a relative and neighbor(15 years old), for this reason my sister decided to end the relationship with him, but this man (30 years old) he does not accept separation, there are many fights, violence, mistreatment of all kinds! He tried to kill her one night, he said that if she separates he will kill her because if she is not with him she won’t belong to anyone else, he’s crazy!

I have told my sister that she has to runaway, but she does not want to leave, she is very capricious, she says that she will not give him that pleasure and that she is going to stay, but she does not understand that her life is in danger!

On the other hand, the city of Esmeraldas is at war! Because of organized crime! They have achieved a widespread terror in all the inhabitants, people are terrified! There is no free mobility! There’s no way to get out!

We pray for hope, better days for our country and for all humanity.

Adventures at the civil registry in July

Today was a very long difficult day, requiring a lot of sacrifices. I’m tired but glad to be home after more 14 hours away. We left about 6am in the morning and I got home at 8:30pm. I suffered today, but by the end I was smiling. It was very satisfying to see the results in the end of the day.

Today I went with four families to the Civl Registry in Borbón. We took the bus there and a canoe back. It was a three hour canoe ride from Borbón to San Francisco de Onzole.  At the civil registry we were able to register four children.

Today the difficulty was registering David‘s daughter. Remember back in May we registered him and his son. As you remember that went well because his son already had a certification of live birth. The problem is that his wife doesn’t know how to sign her name (she doesn’t know how to read or write). Without her signature they could not register their daughter. She struggled attempting to make a satisfactory signature (the clerk was being extremely difficult), this humiliating and difficult process took nearly four hours until the clerk would accept it!  The other issue was that David‘s wife was going to be signing as a witness for some of the other children! Because she wasn’t able to sign her signature it was a source of embarrassment and frustration for the whole group. Fortunately at the end she was able to do a satisfactory signature. They now have their birth certificates and the next steps will be to get them there ID cards, but that should be pretty easy now. We left victorious and grateful to God for his help.

The painful experience with the signature and the difficult clerk.

We went back by canoe. I was really scared to be on the river because the Rio Santiago is very big and dangerous. But God smiled on me with a beautiful rainbow that filled my heart with peace, comfort, and joy. I took a picture but it didn’t come out very good.

A beautiful evening on a scary river.

First we go up Rio Santiago then Rio Cayapas to the town of San Francisco. When I got to San Francisco I was concerned because there was no public transportation at that late hour. But God sent my help via a cattle farmer that was heading my way in his truck (it’s about 1/2 hour by truck) He left me off right near my home! I was glad to be home because I was leaving early the next morning to go to the city of Esmeraldas to register a group of 19 children. It was good to get home and prepared for the next day.

When I got home I was very overjoyed to find that there were three children waiting for me to get home, they wanted to visit with me. A lot of the kids have been working on their farms this month with their parents and siblings. So I haven’t seen many of my kids.  During the rainy season a lot of people will cut trees, mill it into lumber and float it down the river,  of course their children are the main source for manual labor.  During this period of time children will miss school so they can help their parents with their work.

The kids were sad that I had been absent so much and when they had time I wasn’t here. It’s been a very busy week for me. Even though it was sad, I was encouraged that I was able to help attend to these children. I was able to make a meal and eat together. It seems like in these little details that God is able to restore my strength, it helps me continue to be able to love and help these children and families. I actually wanted to send them home but as I spent time with him I felt like my strength was restored. God lifted me up as I gave more.  It was beautiful!

Dinner at home with my young friends!

It was a long day full of a variety of emotions.  I just wanted to tell you about my day because a lot of people don’t understand the reality of what it is like here.  People that aren’t from here don’t understand, and people here don’t have the same values or sentiment. Sorry for such a long message but I really needed to share the difficulty and the joy that I experienced today.

Victory!After a long frustrating day!

About how we met Chio

photo by Zac Steimle Chio on the bus with Brisa and Sequoia in 4/2023 while working on a documentary.

This blog is about our friend Chio Castillo and the work she is doing in a remote area in the Province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. To tell you about Chio we have to go back further and tell you a little about our story.
When we moved to Cuenca Ecuador in 2001, Melody and I embarked on an adventure that changed our lives.

While we lived in South America we had two children (Sequoia and Brisa), we went from our 20’s to our 30’s. We thought we were going to impact Ecuadorians with the love of Jesus, help with healthcare, etc. etc. Instead our lives became helplessly intertwined with many people who have impacted who we are today. We found the people of Ecuador to be stronger and more resilient than we ever imagined. In a way, I feel like Ecuador chewed us up and spat us out, but forgot to floss. It still has a hold on us all these years later (we left in 2009). We met so many people and have maintained many dear relationships now all across the globe.

We met Chio in 2002 when our daughter Sequoia was 3 months old. Chio did not immediately earn the place that she holds today. She is one of those gentle people who does not barge into your life but seems to slowly emerge as a major character and influence. Early on we would cross paths with Chio regularly and we knew her as a hard working diligent young lady. She was working full time as a maid and studying full time at the university. Over time we began to piece together the incredible story of her tragic past and escape from an extremely dysfunctional family and tightknit rural community. We also observed the difficulties she suffered as a young black woman in a very racist society. She navigated all of these difficulties with a level of grace and dignity that is rarely found in one individual. She would be the first to tell you how she did not always handled her trials in this manner. Initially, like anyone, she was angry and bitter at her offenders, but when Jesus Christ came into her life and she began to learned to walk in obedience to his ways, she learned how to forgive and love even those who caused her the most pain.

During our last year in Ecuador, Chio lived with us while she was finishing her degree in early child education at the university. It was during this time that we really got to know her well. She told us how her prayers had changed from asking God to bring down fire from heaven on her community, to asking God to send somebody to share the good news with them. Then she told us how she was contemplating returning to work there full-time. We advised her against it. We had seen her return from visits there physically and emotionally exhausted and listened to many sordid stories that emphasized the levels of depravity of her family and community. We carefully explained that she had escaped and now had the opportunity to make a good life for herself and affect change where people wanted it. Thankfully she did not take our advice. That very year she began what turned into her full-time work with the children and adults of her community.

She named her organization Sequoias Grupo Misioneros. She said that she saw Sequoia as a well-loved young child living with a level of boldness and freedom and she wanted that for the kids of her community.

You can imagine the difficulty Chio experienced when working with the very people who had hurt her and caused her so much physical and emotional pain. I have been amazed watching her walk out the teachings of Jesus Christ in her personal life as she has returned to the place of her trauma and pain. I’ve also been amazed to watch her cobble together funds and resources from all sorts of different people and organizations. She has broken through so many barriers and united many people as she endeavors to help the children and adults of Las Delicias and its surrounding villages.

This blog is my translation of her communications and reports that she sends us in Spanish. We have been communicating with her regularly for many years. I have decided to start with her most recent updates. As a blog I will bring you up to speed on some of the history of her work. I am open to your questions and comments. If there is a particular piece of history you’d like to know about please ask and I will do my best to fill you in. Enjoy!

About Rivers

The area surrounding Las Delicias is a land of rivers. Heavy rains on the coastal plains and in the high Andes Mountains pour down the rivers and flow into the Pacific Ocean. By the time these rivers swell past Las Delicias they can be broad and swollen. For centuries these rivers have been the best modes of transportation. Small rivers can be navigated with canoe and poles. In the bigger rivers they use larger canoes and outboard motors.

These days a “road” has been punched into the jungled and swamps. The road is more a dirt track that is prone to washouts. But even so, buses now have regular schedules into the swampy jungle communities. Depending on where you are going, the bus might be a better way to go. But there are also regular canoe services up and down some of the bigger rivers.

photo by Zac Steimle Chio and her uncle making their way down a smaller tributary.

Photo by Zac Steimle The river that passes through Las Delicias

Photo by Zac Steimle The city of Borbon the County Seat

A little about Ecuador

Ecuador is a relatively small country in South America, about the size of Colorado. It has 4 regions: the Sierra, Costa, Amazonia, and the Galápagos Islands. Each region has its own unique climate, flora and fauna, but more important to our story, culture. In addition to this, each region has its sub regions and cultures.

There is a lot of rivalry between the different regions. You will find regionalisms can be very bitter. Esmeraldas is a province on the Coast in the northwest of the country bordering with Colombia and the Pacific Ocean. The population of the mountain regions figuratively looked down on people from the coast, especially those from Esmeraldas! It is the most disparaged province in Ecuador.

On top of the regionalism in Ecuador, racism is a big factor. Spanish descent is still the top dog, mestizo comes next, then indigenous, and by far the lowest ethnic group in Ecuador is Afro-Ecuadorian. Esmeraldas is the center of the Afro Ecuadorian population.

In addition to ethnicity, in many rural communities being a woman or a child is even more undervalued. Traditionally there has been low value placed on education. In many subsistence farming communities, children are generally seen as manual labor .

Now at this point I have to say that Esmeraldas and its people are beautiful, with deep cultural heritage, fantastic food and music. The Esmeraldeños, despite their many hardships, are warm and welcoming with good teeth and beautiful smiles!

For more info on Esmeraldas here is a link:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esmeraldas_Province

Photography by Zac Steimle Dancers from the Afro-Ecuadorian folklore group: Raises De Manglar

Photography by Zac Steimle Indigenous Chachi children

Photography by Zac Steimle Mestizo Manabo