Regular Update

Hey, I just thought I'd give you a small update to how work is going here in Cuenca now that my time is running short. I am still leading the small youth group here in Totoracocha but will begin training this week with a possible leader for them! That is a huge praise...a huge answer to prayer. My hope is to gradually hand over responsibility for the next three weeks and then that she can lead the last two meetings of May by herself while I am traveling around Ecuador. Then I can hopefully come back and observe my last three weeks in June and just offer guidance and further training. So please be in prayer for this future leader and that she will be open to the Spirit's leading in her life.

Also, the house church I have been working with for the whole time I've been here had a couple of rough months where the church was really struggling. But now it seems as if the church is back on track. We have discipleship meetings every Monday, I disciple the church leaders every Thursday, and they have their church meeting Friday nights and it seems like the momentum is back behind this church and that the members are eager and ready to hear God's word and grow. It is a great blessing to see this church start to take back off so please be in prayer that the leaders be encouraged by their church and by us, the other leaders.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. It has been a crazy time here in Ecuador and I can't believe that I only have 2 months left!

Health and Baños

Hey Everyone. To start out I want to let you all know that I am feeling a lot better health-wise so it sounds like the Doctor hit the nail on the head and we have the problem taken care of, thanks to God's provision. I guess living here and being where healthcare isn't what you are used to it makes me realize how we really are dependent on God, regardless of the medicine.

But moving along, I just got back a week ago from a great trip to Baños, Ecuador. Once again, I can tell that God was with me on this trip! So here goes story time...

I left here a week from this past Sunday to go to Pallatanga where BJ and Andi live. To go there requires I take two buses, one to a place called El Triunfo (not the best town in Ecuador) and catch a bus from there to Pallatanga. Well, the trip started out rough when the bus I was on had engine problem on the way. We stopped and they fiddled with the engine for about 30 minutes. Then we started off again, thinking all was well. Well, not far down the road we hit a landslide, so there goes about another hour waiting. And we sat there so long waiting for the landslide to be cleared that another bus from the Alianza group of buses pulled up behind us going to the same destination, and seeing that my bus had just over 10 passengers, they saw fit to make us sacrifice our seats and go stand on the other bus and them return home. Not sure if that decision was made for the engine or for the money, but either way I ended up standing for about an hour on the other bus.

Well with time, we finally got to El Triunfo, a very hot and humid town in the coastal plain, known for being one of the rougher cities. So I did as always and got off the bus, crossed the road, and started looking for buses headed to Ambato or Riobamba since they pass through Pallatanga. The first bus to pass was Full (and that is saying something in Ecuador) and the second bus stopped and I got seat (which is also saying something in Ecuador) and we took off. The trip seemed to be going as normal, we were making good time and got to Bucay (last city before Pallatanga) in what felt like a record time. It wasn't long after that that I felt the hand of the man sitting next to me on my leg. I think he saw me notice and tried to act as if he was just scratching his leg but it was too late...I checked my pocket and my wallet was gone! My first instict was to ask the guy, "Donde está mi billetera" aka "Where is my wallet" but I figured that wouldn't be the best course of action. But the man was acting VERY suspicious after he realized that I realized something was missing! But I decided to hope that he was indeed getting off the bus after me and praise be to God he was. We crossed the bridge into Pallatanga, the sign that the camp is close, and so I got my stuff and went to the drivers cabin and told one of the ayudantes that I thought I had been robbed but didn't want to accuse the man next to me by myself. One of them went back and requested that the man change seats and began to search the seat. Thankfully he found my wallet on the floor with everything in it. They said that it must have just fallen out but I don't think that is the case...it would have had to fallen out then squeezed through the 3 inch cushion to the floor, the cushion I had trouble getting my hand through when I was searching myself, So i think the guy abandoned ship when he saw me talking to the ayudantes (helpers, aka the guys who collect fares on buses). Then I started talking with one of the guys in the front while I was waiting to get to the camp and he asked if I was evangelical (since I was going to the evangelical camp) and I said yes and he said, "Parece que Dios está cuidándole" (Looks like God is taking care of you). I said sure does (in spanish of course), thanked them for all their help then got off with a huge sigh of relief.

Well, then we took off the next morning to Baños for our monthly debriefing/speak English trip. Baños is a popular tourist town, located in the shadow of the Tungurahua Volcano, yup, the most active volcano in Ecuador. On the way in you pass through an area where the road was utterly destroyed, I think in the 2006 eruption. You can look up the mountain and see the dried lava flow going all the way up to the peak (too bad it was cloudy and I couldn't see that high). Baños is also a gateway town to the Orient, aka the Jungle areas of Ecuador. So it was a very enjoyable and relaxing trip. Activities including biking down towards the jungle on the main road passing by at least 6 or 7 waterfalls on the way. We also drove down to Shell, Ecuador and saw the Nate Saint house and the airstrip that he used when trying to reach the Waodoni people of the Amazon. Of course Shell is a lot larger of a town then it was in those days. We also rented all terrain vehicles and went up stream on a dirt road just to try to see the river and the lava flows of Tungurahau. All in all a well needed rest and relaxation trip, but the fun is not over...

My returning home story is nowhere near as interesting as being pickpocketed but still interesting in it's own right. The bus ride was taking far longer than it should from Riobamba to Cuenca since the bus driver was of course trying to get enough passengers to fill up his bus for the trip, so I was already tired and hungry (sour gummies aren't very filling). But we were maybe an hour outside of Cuenca when a couple of guys started causing a fuss in the back with the ayudante on the bus. I could tell some people were trying to get away with cheaper fares and stuff with him since he was so young (appeared to be the bus drivers son). Well this guy was screaming a lot and I couldn't understand what he was saying and then the kid tried to get him of the bus. Then he mumbled something and went back to his seat so I thought it was all over. Well then we got stopped about 30 minutes outside of Cuenca by a police officer. He got on with his large intimidating gun and yelled, "Los cuatro en el fondo, ¡Vengan!", (The four in the back, COME!). So they did, and we left...So I have no idea what they did or why they were causing the fus, but it ended up in them being arrested...which I am assuming isn't a fun experience.

But after that we got to the terminal in Cuenca, a guy approached me saying it looked like I was in need of a hotel room and I thanks but I live here. I wondered briefly trying to decide if I wanted to eat in the terminal but decided against it, caught a cab, went home, ate some crackers and went to bed...all in all a VERY eventful and enjoyable trip. So thanks again for your prayers that got me there and back safely, even if you didn't know you were praying to keep me safe from pickpockets and volcanoes!

Now I'm back in Cuenca and not able to believe how little time I have left here. With one more trip when Karla comes to visit and with a week to move back to Quito before flying home I only have 8 weeks of work left, and in that time I am still trying to figure out how to leave so that what I have begun doesn't end and that all the work I was doing for Patricio doesn't just get dumped back on him. So please be praying that God will provide the people who are ready and willing to serve in these capacities. Thanks for all the support and prayer! Below are some links to new pictures!

Pictures from Camping in Cajas about a month ago

Pictures from the Baños trip

Photos

Hey everyone,
I've posted some new photos today. These are just some pics from around Cuenca, my home away from home, and from a retreat the church had on Good Friday.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010612&l=d1584&id=105600748

Thanks for all your prayers

Thanks for your blind prayer!

I realize that it has been a long time since I blogged so sorry but thanks for your prayers anyway, since they are being felt in my life here. For starters, I delivered my first ever real sermon in Spanish this last Sunday. I say real because when I preached to the churches I work with it always takes more the form of a small group Bible Study since they are house churches. But this past Sunday I was asked to preach at a local church that I had been attending since we don't have meetings Sunday mornings with the house churches. The sermon went really well. I think they were able to understand gringo boy's accent and all! But I spoke about our relationship to Christ being more like a marriage than a lawyer. So many times we think of things as if God is mad at us but Jesus steps and and takes the wrath for us. And that is part of it that there is a holy wrath directed against our sinfulness (not so much that God is mad at us but that God is just) and Jesus stepped in line of that wrath to save us. But if we think of it as a marriage it isn't what ought I do to avoid punishment but what can I do so that Jesus feels loved. Morality takes on a whole new light that way. And Jesus did talk about himself as a bridegroom and Paul did call the church the bride of Christ, so it isn't a new idea, but one that may be a little neglected. But anyway....that was the message.

Also the youth meetings are heading forward. From the time they started to now it's been rough. First meeting saw 4 people, then 2, then 1, then 0, then 2, and the last was up to 6 (but with two visitors who won't probably come back since they were too young and it was just that they were in the care of two of the other kids for the day). It's going well and I'm enjoying working with them but the pressure is on to begin training a leader to take over when I leave in late June. Ideally they will be able to take over in late May so that I can be there to help if things go wrong. So please be praying that God will raise up and prepare someone for this job.

Lastly I want to ask for prayer for my health. It feels like I've been sick ever since I first got here to Ecuador for the past few weeks (maybe almost two months now) I've had a lot of stomach problems. I was going to one doctor who just always gave me a new pill so I stopped going to him and have gone to another doctor. We discovered that according my test results I have no parasites but I had blood in my stool. So we're going with the lesser treatment now hoping it works which is a pill for amoebas. Even though they didn't show up they could be there (especially since I had them earlier). When I had them the first time they may have burroughed into the intestinal wall before I took that pill and therefore weren't entirely killed and are now causing the blood and general stomach junk! So I have to take this medication for a week and see if that clears up everything. If not, we'd probably be left with looking at a colonoscopy or Lower GI or something of that sort. I've never hoped I had amoebas in my life until now!!! But just be praying that either A.) the medication works and i get better or that B.) we can find out what is really going on here.

Thanks for all your prayer and support.