Dear friends and family,

We concluded a busy summer, the girls are back in school, and we are back to our “normal” routine.

In the beginning of August, after the consecration of the new bishop, we had an excellent trip to Puyo with a short term group from the Seabury Deanery, Connecticut, their third time working and learning with the church, on the Diocesan farm which is being rehabilitated into a retreat center, and visiting Amazonian indigenous communities with whom the priest in Puyo has relationships. The retreat center is just about ready for the Diocese to use and to rent out as income, which is great news and a step towards sustainability.

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Dear friends and family,

In the beginning of May the refugee project that Trish coordinates had a visit from Bishop Suffragan Jim Curry of Connecticut.  The Diocese of Connecticut donated the money the project is using for the microloan program.  We were blessed to spend a Saturday with him, in which we had a Mother’s Day program, a time in which people who have received microloans and benefited from the business administration and finance workshops spoke about how the microloan program has enriched their lives and businesses, and an exhibition of products that the various refugees sell and produce.  We were then able to visit two small businesses who have received loans.  It was wonderful to have Bishop Curry with us, and it helps those who are being served through the program to know that there are people around the world remembering them, hearing them, and praying for them. 

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April 2009

Dear friends and family,

Three months has passed since our last update, and it’s been quite a busy time since the New Year.  In the beginning of February the Diocese had a visit from a delegation from the Diocese of New Jersey who sought to begin a companion relationship with the Diocese of Central Ecuador.  Chris traveled for four days with two members of the group to different communities around Ambato and Riobamba, and they were then joined by four others who visited churches and projects around Quito.  Then on the 13th and 14th of February, in the Diocesan Convention, the voting members of the convention voted to have the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church, in a meeting in March, vote for the next bishop of Central Ecuador.  Since the process of seeking a bishop here in Ecuador had to be annulled, this moved the vote to the House of Bishops.  In March when they met, they voted for one of three candidates, Rev. Luis Fernando Ruiz, who is presently a priest in Colombia.  Pending approval of the House of Deputies for the Episcopal Church, this new bishop will be consecrated on August 1.  We are looking forward to getting to know and work with when he arrives here in Ecuador. www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_105989_ENG_HTM.htm

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December 2008

Dear friends and family,

It has begun to rain in the afternoon or evening about every day and get a little colder here in Quito. The days are usually sunny and warm, about 70°, while the mornings and evenings get down to about 50°. In the towns and villages in the higher altitudes it gets a bit colder than that, though nothing like winter weather in much of the U.S. right now.

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November 2008 

Dear friends and family, 

We hope this letter finds you well as autumn wraps up.  We were fortunate that the timing of our trip to New England in October coincided with beautiful foliage and beautiful weather, not to mention the wonderful time we had with some of our friends and loved ones.  We spent a terrific Columbus Day weekend attending close friends' wedding, catching up with others, and seeing Trish's family and other dear friends in Rhode Island (including meeting a 14 month-old niece for the first time!) for 24 hours.  From there we headed to Connecticut to visit a group of churches that supports our work and the Diocese of Central Ecuador to give a presentation on our life and work in Ecuador.  And we spent the remainder of the time in the Boston area, working out paperwork for our Ecuadorian visas, meeting with our bishop in Boston, Chris having a final psychological exam for the ordination process, spending time with those at St. James's Episcopal Church and seeing many people we care about.   

With regards to Chris, his ordination process has been moved to the Diocese of Central Ecuador and it has been approved by the Commission on Ministry here in Quito.  He is now a member of Iglesia Cristo Libertador and is involved in youth counseling and ministry in the parish, as well as participating in Sunday services whenever he is in town to do so.  As a family it is good to be going to one congregation regularly, and the girls are enjoying becoming a part of Sunday School. 

In these past two months Chris spent ten days in Sao Paulo, Brazil, first in September for the board of directors' meeting for Agencia Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Comunicación, and again in November for CLAI's regional and program secretaries' meeting.  Here in Quito in September there was also a week-long meeting of the board of directors and in celebration of the 30 year anniversary of CLAI. 

The Diocesan library continues to be a main project for Trish, as she sorts through several boxes of donated books.  She also finds herself starting to seek funding for the refugee project for 2009, as well as attending to the daily, continual needs of people with scarce resources and the constant issues of how to pay for rent, food, and the routine needs for their families. 

The girls are well and enjoying school.  Both were extremely eager to return after our trip in Boston, so much so that when we arrived at our apartment from the airport at midnight the night we returned, Isabel asked for her bus to pick her up and take her to her preschool.  It is a good feeling as parents to know that they feel so well placed. 

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  They are a continual source of sustenance for us. 

Much peace,Trish, Chris, Claire and Isabel 

 …………….....
 
Our photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morck.
 
www.stjames-cambridge.org/morcks
 
Iglesia Episcopal del Ecuador
F. Sarmiento N39-54 y Portete
Quito
Ecuador

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August 2008

Dear friends and family,

It has been very long since our last update - summers are particularly busy here for us.  We organized and hosted groups from the Diocese of Atlanta who worked at Iglesia del Buen Pastor in south Quito, from Seabury Deanery in Connecticut who worked with Iglesia Ascensión in Puyo near the Amazon, and from the Diocese of Massachusetts who worked with Iglesia Resurrección in La Hondonada, an indigenous community a few hours south of Quito at 12,500 feet above sea level (Quito is about 9,200).  We also facilitated visits for two volunteers who spent two months here, each working with and learning from different parishes in Quito. These times have been very significant for both the visitors and Ecuadorian companions as we together are challenged, empowered and changed by the relationships of eating, working, living and sharing together.

We have also spent these past two months without Bishop Wilfrido’s presence.  He had a colostomy in June and recuperated in the United States and Puerto Rico from June 20 to August 21.  His brother, who was bishop of Costa Rica, thankfully was able to fill in for him in his absence.  We are very happy to have Bishop Wilfrido back.  He has recovered well and feels much better.

With CLAI we continue translating and editing for their English language newspaper as well as translating various other documents, the most recent being a grant for church-based workshops on the upcoming election for a new constitution here in Ecuador (the election will take place on September 28^th).  Chris has had the opportunity to write a few articles for the English and Spanish CLAI publications.  He also helped facilitate Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff’s visit to Quito in June.  See an article about that incredible visit here:  http://www.alcnoticias.org/interior.php?lang=688&codigo=11652.  Chris will also spend September 1-5 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for an Agencia Latinoamericana y Caribeña (ALC) conference, a Latin American ecumenical news service. 

Trish finally finished the major organization of the Diocesan library.  She now continues to catalogue books that are being donated to the library as well as coordinate purchases of new books for the library. Trish’s work with Colombian refugees continues to be busy and fulfilling.  Medical assistance continues to be a great need, with two women needing costly procedures in the past couple months.  On June 20 we held a service of reflection for World Refugee Day.  It was a good time for remembering the plight of the refugees here in Ecuador as well as those who live in worse circumstances in various countries all over the world.  The refugee project has begun funding through microloans and donations small businesses, so far a project to raise chickens and a shoemaker.  And we have said goodbye to a family who was resettled in Argentina and will say goodbye soon to a family who will be resettled in the United States.  But new families keep coming!  So the needs continue.  Therefore Trish’s focus in the next couple months will be looking for funding for the coming year. All lab tests for Trish’s kidney continue to be positive.  She will have an ultrasound on September 10 to make sure that it looks healthy and more blood work done to make sure it is functioning well. 

Both girls are doing very well.  Claire celebrated her graduation from kindergarten, which included a ceremony and a luncheon afterwards.  She will start first grade on September 2 at her new school, which she is extremely excited about.  She has enjoyed hanging out with the various groups from the United States that have come down and spent the week in La Hondonada with Chris and the group from Massachusetts while Trish and Isabel stayed home.  Isabel turned 2 on July 3 which we celebrated with Chris’s parents and nephew, Brennan, as well as a little party at her daycare, which she relished.  She is starting to sleep in a “big girl” bed and use the “potty.”  She’s very proud of herself.

We will be in the Boston area from October 9-20 for a wedding and visits.  We look forward to catching up with some of you in this very short time!

Thank you for all your prayers and support.  Please be in prayer for the Diocese of Central Ecuador as we continue in the search for a new bishop, and for CLAI as we continue the process of hiring a new general secretary and staff.  Please pray for good health and safe travels within and out of Ecuador.

Much peace,

Trish, Chris, Claire and Isabel Morck

p.s. There is currently a very significant trial going on in the Ecuadorian Amazon against Chevron by groups who have been affected by petroleum contamination. Vanity Fair has a lengthy article about it with excellent information (though not all will appreciate the way that the writer expresses it): http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/texaco200705

Regardless of how the trial ends, the fact remains that environmental contamination (such as babies with cancer and cesspools of oil runoff) and societal disintegration (especially within indigenous people groups) are true costs of our petroleum use, much greater than the price-per-gallon.

………………..

Pablo Fajardo, lawyer representing Ecuadorian Amazonian settlers and indigenous groups: "One of the problems with modern society is that it places more importance on things that have a price than on things that have a value. Breathing clean air, for instance, or having clean water in the rivers, or having legal rights—these are things that don't have a price but have a huge value. Oil does have a price, but its value is much less. And sometimes we make the mistake." 

Chevron lobbyist: "The ultimate issue here is Ecuador has mistreated a U.S. company. We can't let little countries screw around with big companies like this - companies that have made big investments around the world." http://www.newsweek.com/id/149090   

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May 2008

Dear friends and family,  

When we started a new letter about things here for us in Ecuador, it was April, but clearly now it will be a May 2008 update.   

At the end of February, on the last day of the Latin American Council of Churches (www.claiweb.org) board of directors meeting in Panama, the general secretary Israel Batista, along with several others, resigned. If you would like to know more about this, I am attaching here a draft copy of the latest Latin American Ecumenical News, which we just finished working on and also has a lot of other interesting information. The resignations were a big surprise and very unexpected. Our work continues in CLAI, though it has been an adjustment in the office here in Quito and within the organization throughout the continent.  

Also, in the last diocesan convention at the end of February, Bishop Wilfrido Ramos announced his retirement June 2009, inaugurating the process of a search for the next bishop of the Diocese of Central Ecuador. This will certainly be an interesting time for the diocese as it continues to rebuild while also looking at the needs of and vision for the diocese and who can best serve it as the next bishop in order to continue to build upon the incredible work that the bishop has accomplished. (As of this moment, please also keep Bishop Wilfrido in your thoughts and prayers as he is quite ill and will be having a surgery in the next week.)  

We were invited to work with CLAI through Israel Batista and with the Diocese of Central Ecuador through Bishop Ramos. It is unclear how our own work will be affected by these changes, if at all (though the change in CLAI has already happened and the change in the diocese is still over a year away). We will just wait and see. At this point, though, there is more than enough work to keep us busy.

After over two months in the shop for repairs, the truck (which flipped over in the beginning of February) is now fixed and back in our hands. This is very good timing and the truck is being well (heavily) used.   

January through April brought unusually severe and continual torrential rains and flooding to much of the Sierra and Coast. With over half the country severely affected, a State of Emergency was declared. The most serious effects of the rains have been overflowing rivers, submerged homes and crops, displacements and fatalities, and the death of livestock. Also, there is a high risk of dengue fever, malaria, respiratory infections, and skin diseases. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. On behalf of the diocese, Chris applied for emergency aid from Episcopal Relief and Development (www.er-d.org) for the subtropical area of La Maná. ERD gave the diocese generous emergency assistance to help with the primary needs of food, water, water purifiers, clothing, blankets, mattresses, mosquito nets, and medicines and medical care, as well as some help for boots, burials, and emergency housing repairs.   

Chris has made a couple of trips to La Maná as part of a team from the congregation Cristo Liberador in Quito and the congregation in La Maná. A team from La Maná has visited near and remote communities around the area to assess the needs and distribute the aid. A medical brigade from Cristo Liberador also spent a weekend there to address general medical needs. Even in the midst of their own difficult situation, people from the Episcopal congregation in La Maná say that they themselves have been changed by the experience of visiting and accompanying outlying communities that have been so severely affected by this crisis.   

In addition to another trip or two to La Maná, from June to October we will be doing a lot of travelling within the country as we accompany groups from Atlanta, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and ERD in New York as they build relationships with communities here.   

After her surgery in the beginning of March, Trish has continued to recuperate very well. She now feels great, and has continued to be heavily involved in work with Colombian refugees in Quito. Last month, the refugee program hosted a dinner for refugees where they were able to speak about their lives and future, information that will be used in thinking through how best to proceed with the program. Although there is still a serious need for more funding, gratefully from places like Minnesota, New Jersey and Ohio people and churches have visited, supported and collaborated with the refugee program. Apart from this, just last week Trish finished a three months-long work on the diocesan library  

One last note: The Diocese of Central Ecuador has two schools, one in Ambato (2 1/2 hours south of Quito) and one in Quito. The schools are open to all, regardless of religion. Both serve many children that come from families with very minimal resources for schooling and who desperately need scholarships in order to pursue their educations there. The cost of schooling is not high (less than $500 a year) but still unattainable for probably about 1/4 to 1/2 of the students. An additional need is resources to nutritionally supplement the lunches that the school provides. If anyone would like to know more about how to help support these students, or could recommend the schools to your church or organization, we would be very happy to talk with you more about it.   

Much peace,

Trish, Chris, Claire, and Isabel

We have photos, updated tomorrow, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/morck.

And our updates and things, including a sermon preached today at Advent St. Nicholas in Quito (www.asnquito.org), are at www.stjames-cambridge.org/morcks

Iglesia Episcopal del Ecuador

F. Sarmiento N39-54 y Portete

Quito

Ecuador

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March 6, 2008

Dear friends and family,   

Trish is going to have surgery on Monday morning at 9am to remove a kidney stone, widen the tube that runs from the kidney, and take out a section of the tube. Since she is having surgery anyway, she will also have her gall bladder removed because a polyp was found. Hopefully this will all be done laparoscopically.  

We just found out yesterday that all this would definitely need to be done and this morning about the date and time for the surgery. As many of you know, last July she had one of her kidneys removed, and so these things were found when she was having a now-routine checkup on her other kidney.   

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers,

Chris      

March 10, 2008

Dear friends and family,   

Trish's surgery was very successful. She went in at 8:30am and came out of surgery at 1:30pm. The doctor decided to not take the gall bladder out, and everything else went according to plan, including the laparascopy. She did need to go back under anaesthesia a few hours later because a tube running from the kidney to the bladder was not placed well and needed to be reinserted. She is currently in intensive care being closely monitored because there are questions about how well her kidney is functioning.  

Amid the questions, at this point things look okay.  Thank you for the outpouring of support, good wishes, thoughts, prayers, votive lightings, and the many ways that people have expressed care and solidarity with Trish (and the rest of the family). This has been so very gratefully received. If there are no significant changes, I will let you know how things progress in a few days.   

Much peace,

Chris      

March 12, 2008

Dear friends and family,   

Yesterday, Trish moved from intensive care to her hospital room. The doctors have said that Trish's kidney is functioning well, and they are planning to release her tomorrow (Thursday). She will need to go back on Monday to have the drainage tube taken out and then again in four weeks to remove the tube from her kidney to bladder. Both should be outpatient procedures with local anaesthesia.   

Unless there are significant changes, I will probably not write another mass email. But, I want to express again my, and our, gratitude for the outpouring of support, good wishes, thoughts, prayers. We are very grateful for the way that we have been accompanied in this.    

Especially during times like this we remember how blessed we are to have such wonderful companions, and how fortunate we are to have adequate medical care and the health insurance to obtain it. These two things place us in the extreme minority globally and in a privileged group in the U.S.  That we all might have what is necessary for our well-being both individually and communally.   

Much peace,

Chris    

March 31, 2008 

Hi all,  

I am now physically and emotionally ready to write you all and say THANK YOU, which really isn't enough, for all your thoughts, prayers, votives lit, and well wishes, individually and through being placed on church prayer lists, sent my way while I was in the hospital.  After I returned home it took me a few days to go through all the e-mails, which I read through many, many tears.  I was completely overwhelmed by all the love and concern that was shown me through this time.  The day of the surgery and that night were the hardest times I've ever gone through, because of complications and a night in ICU, but you all helped me through it, as God's love was shown and demonstrated through you.  

So after three weeks I continue on the road to recovery, still gathering strength and regaining the weight I lost, focusing on recovering especially now my breathing capacity.  An indepth appointment with a nutritionist last week will help me prevent any recurrence of a kidney stone and maintain good kidney health, hopefully making this one last for the rest of my life.  And in two weeks I'll have removed a catheter that leads from the kidney to the bladder, the last of my appointments for a while.  And I'm emotionally recovering well, knowing I just need to take things as they come, and getting past the deep fear that I felt that things might go wrong and what would happen if they did.  So please continue to pray for thorough, complete healing, physically and emotionally.  Thank you for everything and for who you are.  

Much peace,

Trish

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Some on our email list are asking about what is going on with the situation with Colombia and how we are doing in Quito right now. So, I want to write about it. I understand that many are not going to appreciate my viewpoint on this and the way I express it, and it is much more information than you might have wanted, if you wanted any.  Please know that the view is solely my own.

As many of you know by now, Colombian planes entered about 5 miles into Ecuador on Saturday and, 1 mile within Ecuador, killed at least 24 people associated with FARC, a rebel group that has been in a civil war with the Colombian government for the last 40 years. Colombia did this with U.S.-acquired technology while the group was sleeping, and then the army went in and carried 2 of the bodies out. Three women who were with FARC were injured in the attack and left for the Ecuadorian army to find later. This was done a week after FARC released 4 hostages and as they, with help from Ecuador and Venezuela, were nearing the end of negotiations to release more. In addition to the attack being an act of war, the timing is being interpreted as the Colombian government’s action to thwart a peace process.  There are many marches and actions planned, and occurring, in Ecuador to protest Colombia's invasion.

Yesterday night we received a warning from the U.S. embassy in Quito that this could have repercussions on U.S. citizens in Ecuador and we should keep a “low profile”. We don’t feel threatened in any way, but it is not difficult for people here to make the coherent connection between Colombia’s aggression and the United States. Colombia is the fifth-greatest recipient of U.S. aid. What is often called “humanitarian aid” (and is thus used as evidence that the U.S. is such a magnanimous and generous country) is sent in order to arm the Colombian government in the midst of the civil war and to further “Plan Colombia” which spreads poison on fields, villages, and water supplies in order to kill the coca plants.

There is direct connection between Colombia’s unilateral and brief invasion of Ecuador a few days ago and the United States’ aid and its own aggression. This is reinforced when the U.S. government immediately stepped in and took Colombia’s side in this. This is reinforced when, yesterday, George Bush states his “complete support” for Colombia’s President Uribe. And when, with typical but still incredible hypocrisy and deceit, he says that he is “opposed to any act of aggression that could destabilize the region;” which means anything that Ecuador or Venezuela do but certainly does not include Colombia which, apparently with the U.S.’s full support, went into Ecuadorian territory to assassinate the other side of the Colombian civil war in their pajamas.   

Colombia’s government now says that a seized laptop shows information linking the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela to FARC. At this point, this sounds (to me and to many here in Quito) like a much-needed fabrication and manipulation by Colombia, well-learned from the success that the U.S. had in manipulating opinion 5 years ago by falsely claiming that there were WMDs and Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Many people here understand far better than we do what is going on, and they make these astute connections. Fortunately, in general we have found that people here have an incredible capacity to separate their judgment of us from their knowledge of our government.

As Trish (who has no responsibility for this message) in her work with Colombian refugees can attest, there is no doubt that FARC has used deceit, aggression, kidnapping, and murder to achieve their ends. It cannot be emphasized enough, though, that the Colombian government and its paramilitary forces have repeatedly used the same tactics and committed equal atrocities. Both FARC and the government are involved in cocaine production and trafficking. FARC is not on the ‘right’ or official side of the conflict, and so when they use violence it is “terrorism”, while when Colombia and the U.S. use the same violence it is to combat “evil” and they are fighting for “freedom” and a “drug-free world”.

Just like the war on terror, the war on drugs has been a fear-inducing and hypnotic deception that helps us think, vote and favor in a certain way. It also allows many of us to continue to live the way that we want.

The Colombian government and its paramilitary are as adept at violence, kidnapping, and drug-smuggling as FARC. And, as was heard on the radio yesterday, everyone knows who buys the cocaine (our own president has been quite the connoisseur), and so people here, unlike so many of us in the U.S., know exactly who bears so much of the blame for the continual violence.

Pray for us and our safety, which I really don’t believe is any danger. Please pray for peace, with justice, here in the region. And, I think that while you do, you should pray for yourself and for our country (for those of us from the United States). We are not good peacemakers. In fact, we are quite the opposite. I believe that this not only has severe repercussions for us as a nation and for those who we influence and destroy, but  also for us as individuals and in our communities. We are psychologically and spiritually disfigured by our nation’s violence and there are myriad ways that we are nurtured and supported by it. We should humbly pray for ourselves and our conversion.

In peace,

Chris

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