S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y

Me thinks my little band from Amite Baptist (pronounced here "ah-mi-tay") is tired. Our last group took their jungle flight, and the rest worked at the new orphanage site on construction. Lots of hauling dirt and bags of cement and such. Got a lot of aching backs and feet. But aching backs and feet from serving the Lord are GOOD.

We came back to the guesthouse to begin washing clothes and packing. Tonight we're staying here: no going out to eat. We'll eat pizza and have our de-briefing.

So far only one of us has "Montezuma's revenge", and that would be Gracie. She woke up in the middle of the night sick and has stayed in bed most of the day. She's up and showered now and seems to be perked up. Her thirteenth birthday is tomorrow. We had a party planned for her back in Denham, but the delay with the trip has cancelled that. So her birthday will be spent on the road between Shell and Quito, and hopefully she'll feel well enough to enjoy it.

Yesterday's Vacation Bible School was great. The pastor was so appreciative of everything, saying it was the "biggest Bible school" they've ever had.

We'll be leaving tomorrow morning early, stopping to hike some waterfalls, walking around Old Towne in Quito (some of the buildings were built in the 1500's), going to a marketplace, and then crashing at the Quito guesthouse. We'll leave Monday morning from the guesthouse around 4:30 am.

I'll post more to this blog once we get home, but I don't think there will be any time to do anymore until then. Thanks again for reading and commenting and praying!

No Blog - Too Tired

Sorry - full, blessed day, but too tired to blog. More tomorrow night. Adios.

It's a Good Kind of Tired

Is anyone tired yet of me saying it's been yet another day of adventure and blessing? Today we continued to have an overflowing crowd in VBS. Overflowing. OVERFLOWING. Did I tell you it was overflowing? The pastor at this little church is ecstatic. Every day he and one of his members pour over the day's VBS attendance lists and discuss it excitedly (I don't know what they're saying, but whatever it is, they're excited!).

Work at the orphanage is still eye opening. Each child has such a unique story. One little boy named Jonathan is there because someone found his parents selling him on the street. Unbelievable and amazing that we have the blessing of loving on him.

Construction continues little by little. There are so many things to be accomplished. We built and brought with us some occupational therapy equipment for the new facility, and have been working on putting it together and testing it out on the children.

We began our "jungle flights" today. Two different flights...nine of our team members...got to fly into the Amazon rainforest and visit a jungle tribe. Every person that went today came back in total awe of this adventure. To try to explain it would take pages and that still wouldn't do it justice. It was amazing to pray and sing with some of these villagers, and realize that their love for God is as strong and real as ours. Here are a couple of pictures of Teresa and Linda after their visit. The rest of us will visit the village tomorrow and Saturday.

We held our concert tonight to a full house at the church. It was very emotional; to worship with believers on the other side of the world is such a privilege. This team sounded WONDERFUL. I was so proud of them.

Tomorrow will be a "basic" day of work at the orphanage and VBS. We're looking forward to supper at a nice Ecuadorian steak house and a visit to a balsa wood factory.

Keep praying for us. We are all very tired, but it's a good kind of tired. We love you and thank you so much for your support.

Wednesday's Blessings

Like yesterday, today has been such a full, adventurous, non-stop, blessing-filled day that I don't really know where to begin or what to say. We have been immersed completely in the culture of Ecuador and the work of the Lord today. I have been filled to tears several times.

Let me start with those that went to the new site for the orphanage (where I was this morning). Our work included machete-ing weeds and shrubs, carrying buckets full of sandy soil to the second floor, using a two-man sifter to sift out rocks and pebbles from the soil (they use this to mix in a cement-type plaster), painting, sanding, stucco/plaster work, and a few other things. As you stand on the second floor of the facility-in-progress, you can look through the windows and see rain forest hills with a cloudy mist floating in and out of the trees. This property looks as if it's plucked down right in the middle of National Geographic.

Our orphanage workers divided themselves up between different age groups. The are so many more children than adult workers that our group mostly spent time simply holding and playing with the children that the regular workers couldn't get to. Remember that most of these children have physical and/or mental handicaps or have been abused. Those that don't get held or played with at the orphanage are many times simply left on the floor to tend to themselves, regardless of age or handicap. That may sound unloving, but they are so blessed to be here sheltered and protected!

Before we left Louisiana, we talked about fitting into their culture instead of trying to make their culture fit into our American expectations. This was a great lesson to learn, especially when working at the orphanage. During the morning one of the Ecuadorian workers told the toddlers to "Come on, we're going to play in the street." Of course, this would be Susie and Pam's group... the school teacher and nurse...used to orderliness and cleanliness! I'm sure their eyes were wide as they planted themselves right in the middle of the street and shooed the kids out of the way when cars drove by.

Both construction and orphanage folks met back at the guesthouse for lunch, practiced several of our concert songs, got our VBS stuff ready, and walked to the church. We had even more kids today for VBS...I'm not sure how many more we can handle. We've depended on the Whitehead family to split up and be our translators for each group...along with Amber and Krisa. It's amazing how many words you can pick up when you're forced to communicate. (Today I learned how to say, "Get in line" and "Marla's crazy" in Spanish.)

After VBS we rehearsed for our concert, came home, went out to eat at an outdoor restaurant, came back to the guest house, rehearsed our music again, and then began the prep for a good night's sleep and VBS tomorrow.

Emma has recovered completely from her sickness (and her shots), and Norma and Teresa have recovered from their respective altitude and motion sickness. Thanks for your prayers.

These words I write seem so empty in comparison to everything we've experienced today, but I pray that God will use them to give you a little glimpse into what we're doing. I wish I could post more pictures but I'm limited to whose camera is available and what cords we have that fit. I thought I would be able to post some video, but this computer is restricted to what can be done.

Tomorrow will hold even more adventure and ministry, as five of us will get to fly deep into the rain forest and meet villagers from the Warauni (sp?) tribe, and then tomorrow night we hold our concert. Please continue to remember us in your prayers!

Late Nights and Busy Days

Sorry for the delay in writing another entry. It's simply not been possible. The final 14 arrived at the Quito guesthouse at about midnight Monday night. Made it through customs without a hitch. Our arrival at the guesthouse was rather chaotic, because as soon as we arrived we had to divvy up luggage and divide up between two guesthouses and then divide into rooms. The altitude is about two miles above sea level, and several us were huffing and puffing whenever we talked too much. Poor Norma had it the worst, but she's fine now.

After about four hours of sleep we met together for our first meal together in Ecuador, hopped on the bus, and began our adventurous drive to Shell. We stopped in Banos, which is close to the active volcano that erupted several weeks ago, and got to experience bits of ash falling. Everyone handled the curvy roads without too much motion sickness...except Teresa. I told her we were going to give her a big tranquilizer shot on the way back and just tie her to the roof of the bus!

We made it to the Shell guesthouse around 1:00, unloaded groceries, unpacked VBS stuff, crammed lunch down, and walked to the church to prepare for 2:30 Vacation Bible School (videos to be posted soon I hope). One of our daily adventures will be walking to the church over a long swinging bridge...lots of squeals and hollering!

Emma has not felt good on and off all week, and today once VBS started she felt rotten, so I took her to the local mission hospital and fumbled my way through Spanish talking to nurses and stuff. She got two big ol' penicillin shots, just in case, and is at this moment sleeping off the trauma of that event. Hopefully she'll be fine tomorrow.

We had about 100 kiddos at VBS, which was done "on the fly" because of our late arrival. It was adventurous, but great. Afterwards, we crammed in vehicles and toured the orphanage and got an idea of what we'll be doing tomorrow there. Quite an eye opener.

There is so much more I could say...it has been such a fast and furious and full 24 hours. I will try to add a couple of pictures later. Until then, hola!

First Four

As of 5:45 this afternoon, our first four are off and on the way to Ecuador! Ernest, Marla, Norma, and Seth caught their flight and are on the way. Once they get to Quito, they'll be taking care of some shopping for our lunches and for our VBS while they wait on the rest of us.

We had a sweet morning of worship with White Oak Baptist Church here in Houston with Michael & Sheri Luce and Casey & Melissa

Belgard, formally on staff at our church. It was great to see how God is using them in their church. They had a church-wide fried chicken luncheon afterward, so we got good food and good worship all in one! They provided transportation and everything for us...what a blessing.

The fourteen of us that are still in Houston are busy washing clothes, repacking suitcases and playing Uno. Because it's July 4th there aren't many food places open, and we don't have transportation, so we're making do with the Subway and convenience store nearby. We are READY TO GET GOING...but all in God's time. We'll be catching our flight tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks again for your continued prayers. More tomorrow!

A Plan

Finally...a plan.

This morning I was on the phone with Continental Airlines group reservations as soon as they opened. These dear people work hard to correct what weather has messed up! Seven hours later we finally have a flight plan to get from Houston to Ecuador. Four of us will fly out tomorrow, and the rest will leave Monday. Without exception, everyone in the group wanted to extend our stay in Ecuador to make up for missed days, so we are all now returning on Monday July 12, two days later than planned.

Dan has worked hard and graciously to rearrange our accomodations and travel in Ecuador, and it all seems to have worked out perfectly.

Pray that there are no more complications!

This morning we had a sweet worship service, all 18 of us smushed into a small hotel room. We sang, read scripture, shared. Tomorrow morning we will be attending a local church where a former minister (Michael Luce) from Amite Baptist as well as a former student intern (Casey Belgard) are now on staff together. They will be picking us up from our hotel for church, and then providing lunch for us. What a blessing!

Thanks for your continued prayers and comments!