Religious Icons

No matter where we have gone in Ecuador, we have come across religious icons.  Most of them are of Mary or Jesus, but there are others of popular saints or bishops, popes or cardinals.  I love how much religion and faith is intertwined in the daily lives of the people of Ecuador.  I have often seen kids and adults, men and women stop at a shrine and say a prayer or leave an offering.  The other day I saw two little girls who were no older than 8 stop and pray in front of a statue of Mary for a while and then go on their way eating ice cream.  No parent was around forcing them to do it and they both just stopped and prayed.  It really made me think about the fact that we are supposed to be praying all the time.  I have started saying a prayer now as I pass the shrines and then often end up talking to God the whole way to wherever I am going.  The shrines are also a great reminder that we are being looked after constantly.  We have also seen religious icons all over the place.  The daycare has figures of Jesus in each classroom, people bring statues to be blessed every week at church, and every bus we have been on has stickers and statues and prayers on it somewhere.  They are such a comforting sight.  I hope that when we return to the states I will be able to maintain the level of prayer I have started and fell the presence of God around me.  Today I pray that everyone will be able to feel his presence especially those that are in a crisis situation right now, and I pray for their recovery.  I have some family members who recently lost a son tragically who could have used to feel God's presence.  I ask everyone reading this to pray for them and for all those people that need God's presence the most right now.  I also ask God that we can be the reminder to others of God's presence through our actions.  Below I posted two shrine I walk past and then pictures on the clinic I meant to post yesterday.  Enjoy!

A shrine to Mary on my way to work

A shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the way to my work

This is the outside of my part of the clinic for PT

One of my sweet kids

A few more kids

Two of my favorites

Cool dude

A sweet little guy I worked with today

PT space

PT space

A high tech cage system

The hot tub for pool therapy

A makeshift walker we use.  It used to be a laundry basket

The outside of the clinic

My favorite boy of all times

Our sweet family

One of the pretty water run off areas on the way to work