2013 Ecuador Mission Report #5: Tue, July 9, at 3 P.M. at Salinas, Ecuador from the GreenField Hotel.
Dear Family and Friends:
It is past 3 and I am dressed ready to go visiting some interests from 3 to 5, but so far no one has appeared to follow through. So I’ll get off a few lines here.
We learned why there are so few coming to our site for meetings. There was no advertising. There is nothing on the building to show that we are having such a meeting and with particulars. No handbills were made and distributed. Apparently the pastor said that the Lord would send those interested. I know the Lord is able to do that but He does expect something from us to help make that happen. I’m glad the Lord does not hold us accountable for results. We are to go and share, but He is responsible for results. The pastor has 14 churches in his district and obviously can’t keep up with everything that needs to be done.
This morning I had the worship service for our group and talked about Zechariah 4 where it describes a vision about two olive trees emptying oil into a golden bowl that conveyed it through gold pipes to the lamps of the Sanctuary. Zerrubabel, the Governor, was discouraged with the slow progress of building the temple again in Jerusalem after the captive Israelites were allowed to return from Babylon. The lesson is that we are privileged to be channels of God’s light to our world. The message included that we should not despise the day of SMALL beginnings and stressed that God’s grace will move mountains of difficulties.
I illustrated the lesson by telling of some of our experiences in India where our small beginnings have now grown into a very strong work. Our group seemed to appreciate that lesson. It is an advantage that we have because of the many years of experience to draw from in using illustrations. They are not “canned” but out of our life.
Tomorrow we will go on an excursion looking for whales. There are 41 in our group including the camera crew and we will also take 8 of the resident translators and mission personnel. So it will take two boats of about 25 each to accommodate us. They are used to it since it is a regular business. They have life jackets etc. and assure us that we WILL see whales. Quiet Hour arranged for it as a special treat in thanks for the service of all who came. A Pathfinder group is helping subsidize the cost so no one needs miss out for lack of funds.
This Mission trip is very pleasant and memorable in spite of the small attendance at most of the sites. We will know in Eternity the full results of what is being done here. It is gratifying to see the faces of those in the audience as they hear Bible truth and relate to it in their own experience.
When I visit people in their own humble homes, it gives new understanding of the difficulties they face. Being punctual is not a high priority here so we just try to go with the flow and speak when the people are there and continue as long as they are awake and seem to be interested. Most tourists don’t get to see the side of things that we do on these trips. I don’t have photos of the families because I didn’t want to be intrusive and interfere with our real purpose in being there—to visit them and share the Word of God.
JULY 10, WEDNESDAY:
We had a little more attendance last night and they seem interested. Some were there that we had visited in their homes earlier in the day.
Today after breakfast and group worship we headed out on the bus to the beach where we divided into two groups to fill two excursion boats to head out to sea and look for whales. It was exciting and glee was in the air along with the noise of chattering conversations and exclamations. Yes, we did see several whales but from a distance since the boats are not supposed to go closer than 300 meters. Sometimes the whales do come closer, but good photography is hard. We saw their spouts of water as they breached the surface before appearing and then dived showing their wagging tails. The newborn are sixteen feet long. August is when tourists expect to see the birthing from last year’s pregnancies. The whales are normally in Arctic regions and feed there, but they come here each year to “thaw out”, give birth and order the next year’s crop.
Several of our group got seasick including Mary Alice and Jonathan. She fed the fish over the side of the boat while Jonathan filled a plastic bag that was designed just for that. Later we went to a park area and had lunch there (minus Mary Alice who stayed on the bus). Then we moved on to a shopping area for souvenirs. The word “shop” rather than “shot” was the recovery word for Mary Alice. Then there was a little time for Jonathan and Katie to splash around in the ocean with a couple of other kids. I got some video of it and Mary Alice got some still photos. We’ll share what we can get together when at home.
Right now showers are needed to clear out the sand from our feet and socks before going to supper and the evening meeting. Mary Alice was out too far trying to get a good photo of the kids swimming, and a wave came in strong and soaked her shoes. She is glad that she brought two pairs. I only brought one and am glad I wasn’t getting that particular photo. Telephoto is a shoe saver for that kind of picture.
We had to wade a bit to get into a smaller boat to take us out to the larger ones for whale watching. We had a “whale of a time” looking for the breaching whales.
THURSDAY at 3:30 p.m.
Last night we had more at the meetings—adult and children. In the adult meeting their computer was not working right and they used my Mac to pull up the songs and show the Jesus Video plus the sermon. The P.A. system was also giving trouble. Satan has his many ways of interfering with clear transmission of the Word. The result is that my sermon doesn’t begin until nearly time for the meeting to end (8:30) and so goes on until 9. But the people stay to hear whatever else is on the program after the sermon. Apparently, sleep is not high on their priority list. Right now my struggle is to get Spanish verses into computer slides to use in my closing sermon tomorrow night “Why I am SDA”. As it is, the texts I have on are in Mizo and English. The Share Him sermons do not permit copy and paste of the texts I have in Spanish from that source. They have protected those Bible verses out of usefulness for me.
This morning (Thursday) after breakfast and group worship, Jonathan and I went with the work crew to the church construction site since they were short of help there today. Some of their usual workers had other appointments. I got some photos and video of the site and the workers including Jonathan “helping” to put plaster over the blocks on the outside of the church. The workers were very generous in helping him to learn the trade. Some of the “mud” got on his face and clothes including shoes. My help was more along conventional lines of shoveling sand and helping with the plumbing in the bathroom area. They were holding the CVP over a paper burning fire to soften the end to be fitted into a joint. After that they did use glue to seal the joined parts. We got quite a bit done, but one group has the frustrating job of digging to find a pipe from another adjacent building to join for the church sewage.
They had been digging for three days in futility without finding that pipe. I’m wondering if it WILL really drain when it is installed. They have to live with a lot less than perfection.
Jonathan is very interested and wants to go again tomorrow to be with the construction crew. I may not have the time luxury of being with him then. We both came back just after 12:30 with the van that brought lunch to the crew. We arrived here in time to eat at the hotel.
It’s necessary to close this now and get working with the translator on tonight’s meeting to be sure he understands the subject before standing before the people to translate my sermon.
With love, Glenn and Mary Alice (Grandpa and Grandma) and twins