The Team arrived in the middle of the night on Thursday, and went to their home base here in Quito, the HCJB guesthouse. The next morning (Friday) we had our briefing at breakfast there, and went on a tour of Alliance Academy (where Deb teaches and the girls attend), then HCJB radio Mission (where Christian radio is sent all over the world in dozens of languages), then "Casa Gabriel" street boys ministry (where Deb teaches art).
We then went to "Middle of the World" park, which is on the Equator. We visited the cultural museum to gain insight into the various cultures here in Ecuador. Here is a shot of the team standing on the equator line. That Friday night, we went to San Jose Alto Baptist church and participated in a special service with them, including their music. What a treat! Here is the whole group together after the service. Saturday was packed with activity as well. First a cultural tour of Quito, to gain more insight into the culture. The Oldest church in Quito, San Francisco, is 500 years old. Inside is covered with Gold and statues of all kind of Christian figurines as one might expect to find in this era Catholic church. Then the main church of Ecuador, the Basilica. Huge stained glass windows, traditional Gothic architecture, and "Catacombs" below where many are buried. in the walls. We also visited the "Panecillo" or the giant statue of winged Mary "guarding" the city. This depicts her having chained Satan, and is our protector. This statue is in the center of Quito on a high hill (we are in a cigar shaped valley, 9500 ft above sea level, with a population of around 2 million).
Saturday night, we went to "El Salvador" church. The service was almost an hour late getting started, but we had a wonderful time. We put our wonderful interpreter, Efrain, to work as musician as well, for some impromptu songs. Becky Digby and Shelby Morrow shared their testimonies, and Kenny Digby preached. As with all of our churches in the Calderon area, they are Quichua Indians by culture. The church sang some of their music for us as well.
Sunday we went to service at the "mother" church, "Candelaria" Baptist. The Ladies and the youth shared their music with us, including the wind-pipes. Billy Taylor and Melissa Cook shared their testimonies, and Kenny preached. The Lord really used Kenny's message, and a group of convicted lost people came forward for salvation! Here is a group shot of everyone together afterwards. Both Ralph Kurtenbach, an HCJB radio announcer, and my ministry partner, Joselito Orellana, went along on the trip. Toachi is where Joselito grew up, and where some of his family still lives.
Sunday afternoon saw us on our way to Toachi. We had a bus for the team to get around in, and it took us about 3 hours to wind our way down through the magnificent Andes Mountains towards the coast. The scenery changed quickly from high mountain and arrid, to steep slopes, waterfalls, rivers, and jungle environment!
Toachi is a little village of 500 people, in the foothills of the Andes. It is poor, the people are mainly agricultural, and many still use horses to get around in the mountainous jungle. Here are a few shots of the village from when the team went door-to-door sharing tracts. The variety of plants, trees, and fruit that grows wild is astounding. Avocato, bananas, papaya, coffee, and a ton of stuff we don't know the names of, but tasted great! You could get a hundred bananas still on the stalk for a dollar! We also encountered a number of strange animals; giant beetles, giant moths, wierd chickens, and Llamas to name a few.
We stayed in a hotel about 10 minutes away from the worksight, Hotel de los Colorados along the Toachi river. Here is our dining hall, a part of the hotel and quite popular with the bus lines going to and from the coast. Here we are at one of the breakfasts. The hotel staff poses for us in this picture.
Kenny presents the pastor a donation for the building project.
Monday through Thursday during the days, was devoted to our construction project... putting the second floor on a church building to be used as a multi-purpose center. This is part of Toachi Baptist church.
It was wet and muggy, and the work was hard. Mixing cement the "Ecuadorian" way, cutting lots of steel rods to make the skeleton of our mainly cement structure, shoveling sand and rock, hauling it to the roof by hand; unloading cement blocks by hand, and later tossing them up to the roof one by one, and pouring cement to name a few things. We had interesting tools: here is the hacksaw made of rebar, a "perro" made of rebar, and shovels with cane handles. Billy got them a real shovel in town, and they loved it! I got to dig a ditch around the church as a side project as well. Everyone got dirty, and more tired than anyone can remember | Rod | Coach | Billy | Kenny |. Thursday night the men worked well into the night to finish the project. Here are a couple of shots of the construction near the end of the week, and a couple of shots of our rickety scaffolding. The wiring isn't so great in South America either!
We were treated to a variety of food during the construction time. We had packed lunches from the hotel, but the Ecuadorian ladies cooked some incredibly good food for us as well which we simply couldn't resist. In the evenings, they usually had coffee and bread with cheese for us.
During the days, there was a few breaks, and some of the guys took the opportunity to explore the jungle. Here Kenny is blessing the forest with his "Moses" staff. The ladies also took advantage of the local school kids' curiosity. They struck up a conversation, and before long, a rousing game or two was in full swing. Later in the week we took turns playing soccer, baseball, and kickball with them as well. There was also opportunities to share our faith with others, like Billy witnessing to a wandering vendor with Ralph Kurtenbach's help - and Kenny witnessing to a shop owner with Efrain's help.
One afternoon, we went to the nearby village of "Alluriquin", and passed out tracts. We called it "taffy town" because it seemed to be the main industry of this little town... everywhere you looked they were pulling taffy made from sugar cane.
In the evenings we did a variety of things. Monday night, we held a kid's outreach by showing the "Jesus Movie for Children" outside on the side of the bus. This is devoted to a little girl who stole our hearts, especially Melissa Cook's. She taught the little girl to blow bubbles after a little coaxing. Here she is eating watermellon.
Friday, before we went home, I treated the team to a visit to a "Colorado Indian" village. We got to see how this stone age tribe colored their hair red with berries, listened to their music, learned how they cooked, and watched a lady weaving, among other things. The highlight was when a pet monkey ran up and jumped on Shelby Morrow's leg, quite unexpectedly!
After a four hour ride back up the mountains to Quito, the team packed up and had a final "debriefing" and devotion at our house. We treated them to Domino's Pizza, for which they were incredibly grateful, after a week of Ecuadorian food. Here is a photo of the team together that evening. The next morning they left out for the airport at 4:30 am!
Favorite Photos: Here are a few interesting shots of the people, especially the kids that we fell in love with.
Lady vendor | Becky and Efrain | Kids 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
God Bless you all and keep you - please know that you are in our prayers!
Hasta Luego... Until next time!
