2013 Ecuador Mission Report #6: Fri, Jul 12, at 11:45 A.M. from the GreenField Hotel, Salinas Ecuador.
Dear Family and Friends:
It is rather quiet right now here at the Hotel. Most of our group went to the church building site after breakfast and worship. In addition to the work crew (including Jonathan) the Dental Clinic group is there and that includes Katie. They are in good hands with the adults there who appreciate them and involve them in the work.
Mary Alice felt she needed to be here doing the packing for the trip home. She is separating out things we plan to give here and working out details for delivery. I stayed to complete the sermon for tonight that required making many text slides in Spanish. I am done but she is still diligently packing. So, I may try for a nap in the quiet. I woke up at 4 and drank lots of water so it could be processed here with a conventional toilet nearby. I spent the time from then listening to great music and a long chapter from Mount Of Blessing, until 6:30 when Jonathan woke up and we got ready for breakfast at 7 and worship for the group following that. It is the last group worship together other than SS and Church tomorrow. I do not have to preach and so will just enjoy the relaxing time of listening to the Sabbath program.
There are plans for a group photo in our Quiet Hour T-shirts before boarding the bus right after lunch tomorrow. We have to check out of the hotel here by 2 and ride to Guayaquil where QH has reserved hotel rooms for those of us who do not fly on to Miami until near midnight Sunday. The reason for having to go to Guayaquil on Sabbath afternoon is that several have flights on Saturday night. It is so hard to coordinate a whole group with different plans and schedules. Jim Neergard has done a great job of it. His wife is in Egypt right now where they live. Jim has to divide his time between there and USA where he helps care for his 92 year old mother living in USA. The former caregiver was Jim’s brother who died recently leaving the full load with Jim.
In Guayaquil we may be able to see a few things while waiting to go to the airport for our flight to Miami near midnight on Sunday. Our translator (Davis) lives there and Sunday will be his 18th birthday. He wants to take us around “his town”. We’ll see if it works out ok. His “spirit is willing” but there may be other considerations.
Our group is planning something special to treat the nine hotel workers here today. We have given money ($300 in pooled tips) to be divided among them. Also some of our ladies will cook a special meal for them as a gesture of gratitude for their kindness and special treatment for us with vegetarian food etc. They also change the towels each day and would change the sheets if we let them, even though they have to do the washing by hand. They keep the swimming pool very clean and the deck as dry as possible. Also we are free to fill our water bottles from their large bottle of pure water in the hall. That saves us a lot of money and effort trying to find it in local stores, not so near to here.
Part of the attendance challenge at our meeting site is that only two of the people have cars. They do what they can to shuttle back and forth some interests plus family and us. The others have to walk or take a taxi that is costly. There are reasons for everything that we wish could be different.
We had anticipated deep blue skies here for photo purposes (as in Peru) but that is not the case. The sky has been overcast all the time we are here. That gives a little coolness too along with the night rains and some “spitting” from the sky during parts of the day. Mostly, the days have been dry after the night rains do their part to keep things green.
I’ll close for now since our translator just came to go over the sermon for tonight. (So much for that planned nap!) More later as time permits and things of interest suggest it.
SABBATH AT 7:50 A.M.
I woke up before 4 again this morning and drank a bottle of water to get ahead of the crowd that will likely be here for the church service. We had the usual breakfast of granola with our soy milk brought from home as powder. There was also the usual mix of fresh fruit (banana, sweet pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, and papaya). Several others are also enjoying the peanut butter we brought from home. In our room afterward we drank the rest of the mango juice we bought at the store a few days ago to supplement with a special treat. Then we took our malaria prevention meds that are not to be taken with any other pills. A few cashews well chewed help that to go down easily.
Last night at the meeting I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are ten from our meeting who plan to be baptized but must wait until they get married. So many here, as in Peru, live together without being married because of the costs and difficulties in getting the civil paperwork. In some cases the predominant church also charges a large fee for a wedding and they can’t afford it or choose not to spend scarce money in that way. When they learn the importance of a proper home and of baptism as part of God’s plan, they want it for themselves. We also heard that there were three from our site planning to be baptized today. We’ll see in a short while if that turns out to be true.
Our dentist, Ronnie Hold, who has led out in the clinics, has had a strong influence on the area. Katie has been with the clinic some and taken blood pressures etc. One family was reticent to let their kids come to the children’s program and the father and mother did not want to attend the adult meeting. But they came to the clinic for help. The man had to go before his turn, but Dr. Hold went to his house and performed the extraction long after closing time. This changed the whole attitude and the family came cheerfully to the meetings.
I do not know what caused the font color to change to red and have underlining. I have tried in vain to change it back so will close here and see if rebooting the computer helps.
Love, Glenn and Mary Alice (Grandpa and Grandma) and twins
PS I see that the red has not transferred to email. Computers!!!
We are in Guayaquil and waiting to fly out near midnight. Will send the next and last one from son David's house at Goodlettsville TN. I can't get on Internet at the hotel here except in the garage where I'm sending this now. We had surprises at the baptism that I'll share later.